Page 64 of No Cap
Dinner went well after that.
My girl talked a lot.
My brothers included her in the conversation as much as they could.
Even Keene was there, inviting her to his next show tomorrow night.
“All of my sisters are going to be there, so it’s going to be a good show,” he was saying. “Not saying that they’re not usually good without them, because they are. But my sisters have just been doing it for so long, and we all work really well together. Theatrically, it’s just more seamless. More fun and exciting because they’re a little more free with their stunts than the others are allowed due to insurance reasons.”
I’d seen plenty of shows in the five or so years that Keene and Ande had been married. They were way more exciting when the sisters were all in attendance.
“I’ll take you,” I said around a mouthful of bread. “As long as I don’t catch a murder.”
“Hey, speaking of murder,” Dad said.
Dad was the assistant chief.
He knew all that went on at DPD.
Meaning, he probably knew that I caught a lead on an unsolved case as of three days ago.
Though I hadn’t seen him in that time.
“You had a breakthrough in the unsolvable case.” Dad grinned. “Great job.”
“I think the crime scene techs were…” I searched for the correct word.
“Complete bullshit?” Auden offered up.
“Fucking around when they should be doing their job?” Gable offered.
“Thinking about lunch when they should be combing a crime scene to help solve a murder?” Quaid offered up.
“Boys,” Mom interjected.
“What case is this?” Hollis asked curiously.
Normally, I wouldn’t be able to talk about a case that was ongoing. But since this case was so high profile, and the media got wind of it yesterday, there was no hiding it now.
“The biggest case of Quincy’s career,” Atlas answered. “He’s close, I can feel it.”
“A few years back,” Dad said as he reached for another slice of lasagna. “There was this case with a girl that committed suicide. Parents said that she had a fight with her friends. They accused her of stealing—using her credit card without permission. So, the girl storms off in a pair of shorts and flip flops. Walks down their quarter-mile-long driveway. The parents were down the driveway—the family have a sort of compound where the parents live at the top of the property, and the kids live at the back. All in their own houses. So, like seven houses total.”
“Uh, huh.” Hollis was listening raptly, her fork still loaded down with a bite of lasagna.
I placed my arm over the back of her chair and waited.
My dad knew the case. Hell, all of my brothers and my mom knew the case. My sister had heard her fair share of it, but she didn’t get into the sessions with me as we brainstormed.
“So, this girl starts walking and walking. She’s caught on a deer cam about halfway through their property,” Dad continues. “The parents get a call from the friend, telling her that they fought, and that Tessa stormed off. The family all starts looking for her. A few of the uncles search the property with the parents. And then one uncle starts driving down the road looking for her. Well, about seven miles away, an hour later, the uncle spots a ton of cop cars and lights. So, he drives up and asks the cop blocking the road what’s going on. Apparently, a girl had committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. The uncle was asked to come down to the tracks and identify the body, and sure enough, it was her.”
Hollis gasped. “She did?”
“She didn’t,” Dad says, then jerks his chin at me.
“There were a lot of inconsistencies,” I admitted. “For instance, the young conductor who was on the train said she ‘jumped onto the tracks’ and killed herself. Only, where he went around the track has this huge tunnel. It’s barely wide enough to fit the train, let alone wide enough for her to ‘jump’ onto the tracks. And he says that he saw her from a mile or so away. Yet, again, there was this huge curve in the tracks, so there’s no way he saw her from a mile away.” I paused. “Then there was the fact that no shoes were found with the body parts.”
“Body parts,” Hollis whispered.