“Wife. A uni is taking her statement inside.” Rory glanced at her. “Apparently, she came home from work and found him like this.”
Luke frowned. “Alone?”
“That’s what she said.”
Sorcha averted her gaze as they struggled to remove the spike so that they could get the body down. “You believe her?”
Rory shrugged as he glanced up at the heavy-set man hanging from what appeared to be a piece of the garage door track that had somehow broken off and pierced him straight through his heart. “I don’t think a four foot ten, ninety-pound woman could do that to him. She couldn’t even reach that high, standing on a chair.”
That made sense. Unless she was Helly…
Sorcha went over to pick up a piece of crumpled paper from underneath the red SUV that was parked in the other bay. Straightening it out, she glanced over it.
Luke came over. “What’d you find?”
“Credit card statement. Looks like he’s been spending a lot of time at the Emerald Princess Casino.” It was the only casino in Georgia. A riverboat that sailed out of Brunswick about an hour and a half south of Savannah.
“Yeah.” Luke leaned over her shoulder. “Look at the amount.”
Sorcha saw Rory’s boss heading toward the door. “What’s he doing?” she asked Rory.
He shrugged. “There’s no need in keeping everyone on scene. It’s an easy open-and-shut accident. The cap’s going to make a statement to the press.”
As they began pulling the man down from the door, she and Luke went inside to find the man’s widow sitting on the couch.
Visibly shaken, the tiny woman sat with swollen eyes as she blew her nose into a Kleenex. “I just can’t believe this happened while I was away. Oh my goodness, what a terrible, awful day!”
“Mrs. Gary? Were you aware of your husband’s gambling?” Sorcha wasn’t sure why she felt the need to ask.
She nodded. “Tony couldn’t help himself. In fact, it was in a casino in New Orleans where he first met me.” She looked up with a wistful smile. “He really liked to play the odds.”
The doorbell rang.
“If you’ll excuse me now, I must go. I’m sure that’s my sister come to comfort me in my time of woe.” She got up and walked off.
The moment she left, Luke let out a peculiar snort.
“What’s wrong?”
He glanced toward the door, then reached down for something that was partially buried in the woman’s pocketbook and pulled it out. “Met in New Orleans, right?”
“That’s what she said. Why?”
Luke showed her a poppet that was dressed identically to the victim. A poppet with a large spike through its chest that held a note that read—I-O-U. “Apparently, the casino wasn’t the only one Tony Gary owed a debt to.”
She sucked her breath in sharply between her teeth as she realized the woman must be one of the Witchbreeds Luke had talked about. “What are the odds Rory would believe us?”
“About as likely as winning the lottery.” He tucked the doll back into her purse. “It’s IA, but as you always say, how do we write this one up?”
Bernadette joined them. “Did y’all find something?”
“An inexplicable truth.”
She winced at Luke’s words. “Well, we’ll just let Savannah’s finest handle it, then.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Sorcha didn’t say anything. It wasn’t her place.
