Page 78 of Forgotten Path
He chuckled. Then asked, “If Fred followed Joel’s car back to Sugarloaf Key, do we know who drove the Jeep?”
“I have a theory. How tall is Chad Hornbill?”
“Not tall,” Judith said. “About my height.”
Felicia wasn’t about to ask a woman suffering from a literal broken heart to stand up, so she scanned the room, hoping someone else could fill in the details.
“About five six,” Steffi estimated.
“If that,” Brianna added. “He has lifts in his dress shoes.”
Felicia met Bodhi’s gaze over Judith’s head and nodded. Chad was the right height to have racked the Jeep’s driver’s seat way forward.
“That tracks,” Bodhi told her. “Brianna saw Chad going into the clinic on Friday morning. Early.”
“He was the guy who offered the donation?”
“We think so.”
“I know so. Joel got a call around seven o’clock from a number registered to Mitzy Hornbill, Chad’s wife. Mitzy herself was at an event at her child’s school. I had someone confirm that.”
“That had to be the call Doc got about the donation,” Steffi said excitedly. “That’s what time he was in my shop.”
Felicia continued, “And shortly before nine-thirty, a call went out from Joel’s phone.”
Bodhi shook his head. “Joel would have been dead by then. He couldn’t have called anyone.”
“I know. But someone used his phone to call Fred Glazier. The call connected through a cell phone tower right by the construction site. So, hypothetically, Chad talks to Joel. It doesn’t go well, and Chad pushes him from the loft. Maybe it’s an accident, maybe it’s not. Either way. Joel’s dead. Chad panics, grabs Joel’s keys and phone, and runs out of the houseboat. He’s not thinking clearly, so he gets in the Jeep and starts to drive. When he gets close to the construction site, he uses Joel’s phone to call Glazier so the call can’t be traced back to him.” Felicia laid out the story she’d pieced together.
Bodhi bobbed his head and picked up the thread. “He tells Glazier that he’s in trouble and needs help. Glazier agrees to follow Chad to the Keys and drive him back after they leave the Jeep—”
“And they dump Joel’s phone en route,” she added.
He rubbed his forehead. “They went through no small amount of effort to conceal what happened. How did they overlook the small matter of the decomposing corpse in the clinic?”
Brianna snapped her fingers. “I’ll bet they didn’t. They were waiting. The workers are supposed to pour the foundation for the clubhouse at the development on Monday. I heard Chad and Sharon talking about it a few days ago. Fred probably intended to go back and get Doc’s body, then dump it in the footing or whatever it’s called before they brought in the cement truck.”
Felicia grimaced. Bodhi and Mirabelle Owens did the same.
“What’s that look for?” Brianna asked.
Steffi gagged. “Oh, I know. The smell … I can’t even describe it, Bri. It was so bad. After four or five days closed up in the clinic, it would be stomach-turning.” She shuddered.
“But that doesn’t mean that wasn’t the plan,” Felicia hurried to say. “Unless these two are serial killers, they wouldn’t necessarily have banked on the stench.” She eyed Judith. “They aren’t serial killers, are they? Have a lot of people disappeared from this town?”
“No. Apparently, the only thing killing us is our food.”
Felicia cocked her head.
“I’ll explain later,” Bodhi told her. “So, what’s the plan? Wait and see if the local PD finds forensic evidence in the truck?”
“I don’t know what else we can do. It’s not a great plan, though. What could they possibly find? If it went down the way we think it did, Fred probably didn’t even set foot in the clinic. There won’t be any transfer evidence in his truck.”
“There could be. If he drove Chad back here and Chad had any of Joel’s DNA on him.”
She turned her lips down in a mouth shrug. “That’s a big if. And Oyster Point can’t process any forensic evidence. It’ll have to go to Panama City with the FDLE team.”
“So Fred and Chad just get away with it?” The words exploded from the small, frail-looking woman in the chair.
