“Yeah, I did say that. I guess I didn’t know how hard it is to run your own business.” He grimaced. “I’m not complaining, mind you. I’m excited to get experience running the business. I just wished I had Archie there to train me. He did it all so effortlessly. He made it look easy.”
“So, what brings you to me today?”
“I was washing the cars today, and this woman approached me.” He frowned. “She was acting kind of odd. Like super nervous. She told me she was Archie’s business partner and that she was going to take over the business.”
I perked up. “Did Archie have a business partner?”
“Not that I was aware of. I only ever interacted with Archie.”
“Had you ever seen this woman around before?”
He shook his head. “No. She wore a hoodie, and I kind of got the feeling she didn’t want me to see her face.”
That caught my attention. “What color was her hair?”
“Black.”
“Okay. Did you get her name? Did she give you any idea of who she was?” My heart rate picked up at the idea I might actually have a trail to follow.
“She wouldn’t give me her name. She just seemed to think I was going to hand over the limousine business to her.” He looked incredulous. “She seemed kind of mad when I wouldn’t just do it. I told her I was just managing things and that she’d have to discuss this with Archie’s wife, Janelle. That seemed to make her even madder.”
“Do you think you’d recognize her if you saw her again?”
He nodded. “I think so. Even though she didn’t want me to see her face, I could still kind of see her.”
“Wait here. I’ll go get the photos.” I hurried to my office, where I had the folder with some snapshots of the person trying to get into the ATM with Archie’s card. When I returned to the interview room, I showed the pictures to Thomas. “Is this the woman?”
He squinted at the grainy photos. “It kind of looked like her. It looks like the right body type. She’s not very big. Yeah, I think that might be her.”
“Did she touch anything?”
He nodded. “She touched the car. The hood of the car. She put both hands on it, and she leaned.”
My excitement was dampened by the fact that he’d said he was washing the cars. “Did you wash that car?”
“I had already washed and dried it.” He gave a sly smile. “So the only prints on that hood are hers.”
“That’sgreat.”
He nodded. “I just thought she was so weird, I should come by here and see if you were interested in taking the prints off the car.”
“That’s fantastic thinking, Thomas.”
He sighed. “I hope it helps.”
I stood. “I’m gonna go grab my fingerprint kit. Maybe you can show me exactly where she touched the car?”
“It’ll be my pleasure, Sheriff.”
****
Usually, it would take about three days to get a report back on fingerprints. This time, I pulled in every favor I could to get the results sooner. I was thrilled when early the next morning, the fingerprint report was waiting for me in my email.
Because of the fingerprint found on the high heel, it wasn’t a complete surprise to me when the print from the car came back as Geraldine Grayson’s. I was still mystified by how this dead woman was leaving her fingerprints everywhere.
One fingerprint from a dead person was perplexing enough, but two was ridiculous. Something sinister was going on, and Geraldine seemed to be a part of it. I decided to dig deeper into Geraldine’s background. The first time I’d looked over her file, it had been fairly superficial. I’d mostly been confused by how her fingerprint could’ve ended up in Rainy Dale. Now I needed to know everything I could about Geraldine.
The most perplexing part for me was how Geraldine’s prints were appearing around town. As I read over the coroner’s report, it became clear that a scam had taken place. Geraldine’s body had apparently been horribly burned in the car accident, making fingerprints impossible to use for identification. She’d had no dental work done during her eighteen years of life, so dental records hadn’t been useful in identifying the body. Identification had been made because the vehicle was hers, and her ID and bank card had been found at the scene. Reading over that, my suspicions grew.
