Chapter 29. Moovie
MOOVIE
WHITNEY
I logged off my computer and returned to bed. Collin was snoring softly as I settled back in. Sawdust snuggled closer next to me. Tired as I was, I was too excited to sleep.
I slid out of bed a few minutes after five, started the coffee brewing for Collin, and fed the cats an early meal.
I took a quick shower, dressed in my coveralls and boots, and packed my laptop into a bag.
Collin was still happily snoozing. Rather than wake him, I jotted a quick note and left it on my pillow: Couldn’t sleep.
Headed off to work early. The note might not be as forthcoming as it should be, but I could fill him in later.
After giving Sawdust a goodbye kiss on top of his head, I headed out into the still-dark morning, aiming my SUV for Leipers Fork.
Traffic was light this early in the morning, and I made it to the Victory Garden by a quarter to seven.
While I could see dim lights on inside the restaurant and the three sisters moving about, the sign in the front window was still turned to CLOSED.
As anxious as I was to see what information they might be able to provide, it would be rude to interrupt their opening routine.
I sat and watched the sun rise over the barn in the distance, ruminating on long-ago sunrises and the scared yet hopeful people who might have witnessed them through the hayloft door as they made their way along the Underground Railroad to freedom.
The windows in the restaurant brightened as one of the sisters turned on the overheads.
I climbed out of my car and approached the front door at the same moment Deborah stepped up on the other side.
She turned the sign to the side that read OPEN and gave me a smile through the glass that was as bright as the sunrise.
She pulled the door open. “Good morning, Whitney. You’re up early today.”
“There’s a reason for that.”
“Besides wanting a good breakfast?”
I nodded. “Got a minute?”
She eyed me tentatively, her gaze searching my face and seeming to realize the purpose of my visit was serious. “Let’s take a table in the back.”
“Perfect.” We’d be less likely to be overheard back there.
She grabbed a menu from the hostess stand before leading me to the table in the rear right corner. I took a seat on the far side, while she slid into a chair opposite me. “What’s up?”
“The day Tyler Yee was killed, I came in around half past nine and ordered a cookie and a smoothie to go. Before I left, a large group of women came in. They were all wearing exercise gear. Do you remember them?”
“Sure,” she said. “They’re regulars. They come in every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after their barre class at Gym Femme across the street.
” She gestured to a side window through which the shopping center was visible on the other side of the drive to the Pittman property.
“I take the gym’s Curl Power class. Check out these biceps.
” She tugged her sleeve up and curled her fist back toward her shoulder, flexing her arm.
Her bicep was indeed impressive. “Wow. The class is really working for you.”
She pulled her sleeve back down. “Why do you ask?”
“I had a thought.” I told her how I’d realized that, even though there was no recording of the live feed from Ruby’s collar, that maybe, just maybe, a patron might have caught images in the background while they snapped photos.
The most likely patrons were the women from the birthday celebration.
“I’ve searched their social media posts.
I could see partial views of the screens in some of them. ”
She frowned and issued a sigh. “Ruby wasn’t outside that morning. She hates water. She heads for her doghouse at the first raindrop.”
“What if she needs to pee?”
“She sticks her back end out of her doghouse and tinkles on the grass just outside the door.”
I sighed. “I realize this isn’t likely to go anywhere, but I won’t be able to rest until I see this through. I owe it to Tyler Yee. Do you recall where you seated the women?”
“I do. Since they’re regulars, we always make sure to have a table ready for their group.
There’s usually four to six of them, but there were eight or nine that day, plus they had gift bags, so I wanted to give them plenty of space.
I pushed two large tables together. Those two.
” She pointed to two rectangular tables with six chairs each positioned side by side.
The tables sat directly in front of the screen showing the feed from the Moo View.
The Collie Cam fed to a screen all the way on the other side of the restaurant.
Even if Ruby’s camera had broadcast an image to the screen in the back of a photo one of the ladies had taken, the likelihood of the feed being clear at that distance was extremely low.
“Do you mind if I approach them here later?”
“I don’t mind at all,” Deborah said. “The murder is public knowledge around here. It shouldn’t upset them.” She laid her hands palms down on the table. “Now, back to business. What would you like for breakfast?”
I placed an order for a blueberry muffin and strawberry smoothie.
When I finished my breakfast, I drove to the barn.
I rounded up an extension ladder, leaned it against the front of the barn, and climbed up to touch the horseshoe Virgil had made so long ago.
It had brought luck to the people who’d passed through the barn on their way to freedom, and I hoped it would bring me some luck later today.
While Buck, Owen, and I continued to install the plumbing that morning, I kept a close eye on my watch. Once the exercise class let out, I begged off. “I’m going over to the Victory Garden now.”
Buck said, “Bring us back some lunch. Maybe some of that stew.”
“Will do.” If my quest for an incriminating pic didn’t pan out, at least my trip to the restaurant wouldn’t be in vain.
I walked down the drive and went inside. Sure enough, most of the women I’d seen before were gathered at the table in front of the Moo View camera. On the screen behind them, Maisy’s camera showed only clover and the movement of her chin as she pulled the clover from the earth to eat.
I walked over and introduced myself. “Mind if I sit?”
The women exchanged glances but one of them hesitantly said, “I guess that’s okay.”
I told them that I’d been the one to find Tyler Yee’s body at the barn. They gasped and murmured in return.
“I’ve been doing everything I can to help the sheriff’s department solve the case.
” I told them how I’d woken in the middle of the night with the thought that a customer might have unwittingly snapped a photo with Ruby’s camera footage in the background as the killer approached or made off in their car.
“I’ve looked at the restaurant’s social media.
Several of you tagged the Victory Garden in your posts.
I didn’t see any pics online that were helpful, but I hoped that maybe y’all had other photos from that day that I could take a look at. ”
I got lucky. Rather than being creeped out that I’d cyberstalked them, they were all excited to help.
The first to whip out her phone said, “I’m a total true crime addict. Can you imagine if a pic I took solved a murder? I’d be famous!”
Another said, “I bet you’d get on TV!”
One by one, they handed me their phones and allowed me to scroll through their pics. I recognized some of the pics from the social media posts but, as I suspected, there were additional pics they hadn’t posted.
The woman next to me leaned over as I scrolled to a photo of the birthday girl, who was decidedly tipsy. “Amber wouldn’t let me post that one. She’s the PTA president. Can you believe it?”
The group laughed, even Amber, who’d been afraid a drunken photo might have repercussions with her role at the school.
I was on the fifth phone and losing faith when I came to a short video clip.
The thumbnail image showed the woman holding a smoothie in front of her, a straw sticking up from the top.
The Moo View screen was clearly visible behind her.
The image showed the bottom of Maisy’s chin and, beyond that, the back fence of the pasture and the edge of the barn in the distance.
Raindrops blurred parts of the image, but most of it was clear.
Maisy had been undaunted by the wind and rain.
It hadn’t seemed important at the time, but I remembered that now.
I’d seen her as I arrived at the barn that day, heard the clang of her bell as I settled down for a nap in the hayloft.
I tapped the screen to play the clip. A laugh track provided by the woman’s tablemates played as she mugged unabashedly for the camera and took a sip from her smoothie straw in a suggestive manner.
She’d definitely had one too many mimosas, too.
During the seventeen-second clip, the feed from the Moo View shifted side to side as Maisy scratched her hindquarters back and forth on the tree trunk.
Even so, a dark car was clearly visible for a split second as it approached from the direction of the barn.
Oh, my gosh!
The car disappeared from view as Maisy scratched in the other direction, but then it reappeared up close on the other side of the fence just after it had driven past the cow on the gravel easement. The car was midnight blue.
I paused the video and enlarged the screen to get a close-up view.
Though only half of the carmaker’s logo was visible as the vehicle continued out of sight, it was clearly the right half of the Infiniti logo.
What’s more, most of the license plate was in view.
Though the initial three characters didn’t show, the last four did: NTRY.
Thad Gentry’s complete license plate read TGENTRY. There was no doubt. The car was his.
Just to be certain, I checked the video’s date and time information. The date indicated the video had been recorded on the date of Tyler Yee’s death, just one minute before I’d placed my call to 9-1-1.
I reflexively rose from my seat. This video will nail him. Gentry lied about never meeting Yee face-to-face. He lied about not leaving the sales trailer that morning. He lied about the pin. He lied about the blood on his suit.
I forced myself to sit back down, texted the video to my phone, and then forwarded it to Detective Alonzo.
Less than a minute later, she called me. “Where did you get this video?”
“From a woman at the Victory Garden,” I said. “We’re there now.”
“Keep her there. I’m on my way.”
When I told the woman that the detective was coming to speak with her in person, the group erupted in excitement.
Alonzo arrived fifteen minutes later. After she watched the video again, this time on the woman’s phone, she obtained her name, address, and an alternative phone number where she could be reached. “I hate to tell you this, but I’m going to have to take your phone into evidence.”
The woman had no problem surrendering her phone. “My cheapskate husband will have to let me get an upgrade now.”
“Will she be on TV?” another asked.
“I don’t know,” Alonzo said, “but she could very well be called to testify in court.”
The women chattered excitedly again, sounding remarkably like Deborah’s hens out back.
From across the room, where she was setting plates on a table, Deborah heard the noise and turned our way. Her brows rose when she spotted Alonzo. As soon as she’d delivered the order, she scurried over to find out what was going on.
Alonzo said, “Your itchy cow might have just solved a murder.”
“She did?”
Alonzo stood and showed her the clip. “Her camera caught the killer leaving the scene.”
Deborah grinned. “Good thing Maisy was never made into hamburger.”
Alonzo turned to me and jerked her head to indicate the door. “Come on, Shadow. We’ve got a killer to take into custody.”