“She never told any of us Gilbert Fry was her brother,” June said. “When we asked about her family, she gave us their story but conveniently left out names.”
“Would you? I mean, would you tell anyone who your brother was if it was Gilbert Fry?” Harvey asked quietly. “I wouldn’t exactly announce that. He’s a villain in this town. Four firefighters died because of him.” His gaze shifted to Margo with genuine compassion. “Including Lieutenant Travis Markham.”
The name hit Margo squarely in the chest.
“And Captain Shaun Parker.” Then Harvey looked toward June. “You work at the vet’s office too, alongside the aunt of one of the men her brother was accused of murdering.”
“No. I suppose she wouldn’t.” June’s face softened with old pain.
“Still,” Margo said, her mind trying to make everything fit, “she could’ve told Aunt Lacey.”
“That aside,” Holt said, cutting back through the emotion with practical purpose, “this is an elaborate amount of trouble to go to if the plan was only to frame Judy and then kill her.”
“That’s the other thing I was getting to. You know, the thing that’s going to blow your mind.” Harvey moved toward the front bumper, and the three of them edged closer as he pointed to it. “See these scrape marks here?”
“Yes,” Holt said.
“What about it?” Margo asked, wringing her hands.
“The paint from this impact matches Dr. Vernon’s rental car.” Harvey pointed.
Shock moved through Margo so cleanly she almost didn’t feel it at first. “Excuse me?” she spluttered.
“Can you prove this?” Holt asked, giving Margo a curious look.
“That’s Dr. Vernon’s rental. I had it brought here just like you asked me.” Harvey looked at Holt and nodded. “And yes, I’ve already checked.”
“So you think Judy’s car was pushed down the embankment at Hollow Pond by this truck?” Margo looked dumbfounded. “My mother’s look-alike truck.”
Harvey nodded in confirmation.
“There were no obvious signs of a second vehicle at the scene,” June said.
“No.” Harvey shook his head. “But I don’t think that would be too hard to cover up.” He patted the hood of the truck. “Especially given the professional level of work it took to strip this truck of any defining marks, I’m sure whoever did it knew how to cover their tracks.”
“You think it was taken to a chop shop to strip it before they used it to hit both of Dr. Vernon’s cars?” Margo looked at Harvey.
“Maybe.” Harvey shrugged. “Or it was just someone who knows how to do it. It’s not that hard.”
“So they stole Lucy’s accident-damaged truck,” Holt went over the details. “They took the bumpers from Lucy’s truck and put them on a chop-shopped look-alike, then backed into Judy’s car. Then they kidnapped Judy, knocked her out, put her in her car, drove to Hollow Pond, and then rammed the car down the embankment.” Holt frowned. “Then why ditch the truck in a field?”
“Because the truck blew a gasket and stopped working, so all they could do was ditch it,” Harvey told them. “The tow guys told me it had been covered by a tarp, so I’m thinking whoever did this was coming back to fix it and then get it back here.”
“But there’s no rollover damage on the truck,” June pointed out.
“That would be easy to fix,” Harvey told her. “When you’ve already gone to this level of deceit, I’m sure they would’ve fixed that.” He looked down as guilt and pain flashed in his eyes. “My father would do stuff like that for insurance fraud all the time.”
“That’s another thing,” June pointed out. “You’d already done the insurance assessment for Lucy.”
“Surely when the assessor came to check, they’d notice the front damage?” Holt asked.
“I thought about that too,” Harvey said and glanced at Margo. “Sorry, Margo.”
Her eyes narrowed, and her heart thudded. “Harvey…”
“What is it?” Holt asked.
“Margo uses the truck for her bakery and jam deliveries, and she scraped the front bumper a week ago,” Harvey admitted.
