“A man just rode a horse through the park and his head fell off, but the man’s identity is the interesting part?” I asked.
“Well, yes,” Ida Belle said. “You see, Gilbert Forrest was killed four days ago in a carjacking in New Orleans.”
“That explains the lack of blood,” I said. “I was going to go whimsical and say it was a vampire thing or maybe a chupacabra, but embalming is probably the logical explanation.”
I flipped to a picture of the horse and pointed. “Look. See how the body is tied to two-by-fours that are strapped to the saddle?”
“So that’s how he was upright and didn’t fall out,” Ida Belle said.
“Doesn’t explain the head,” Gertie said. “It didn’t fall off by itself.”
“Or why a dead man, who should be at the funeral home, is riding a horse through the festival,” Ida Belle said.
Gertie grabbed our arms and pulled us forward. “We need to get moving. Carter is giving us the stink eye.”
I nodded. “My house for debriefing and snacks?”
Ida Belle grinned. “I thought you’d never ask.”
I got us all a cold beer while Gertie grabbed a container of cookies that Ally had left and Ida Belle snagged crackers and peered into my refrigerator for something to dip them in. She looked over at me, her expression almost reverent.
“Is that a container of Molly’s cream cheese candied jalapeño dip?” she asked.
I grinned. “She dropped it off this afternoon.”
“You’ve been holding out on us,” Gertie said.
“Only for a couple hours,” I said. “I haven’t even had any myself, so it’s not like you missed out.”
Molly was a local caterer and her dip was legendary. I liked it almost as much as funnel cake. Ida Belle removed the medium-size container, opened the lid, and smelled the spicy and sweet goodness.
“This isn’t a lot,” she said, rather wistfully.
“There’s four more containers in the freezer,” I said. “Molly said to defrost them in the refrigerator a day before I want to eat them.”
“Then you might want to put another in now,” Ida Belle said. “Because I don’t think this one is going to make it past tonight.”
We all sat and munched on crackers and dip for a bit, then I grabbed my laptop to make some notes.
“Okay,” I said. “Give me the details.”
“Lord, where to start,” Gertie said. “Gilbert was a bit of a personality.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Ida Belle said. “Think Ronald but pushier and less fashion-forward.”
“So I take it you both knew him well?” I asked.
They both nodded.
“Gilbert was born and raised here,” Ida Belle said. “His mother, Josephine, was one of those salt-of-the-earth sorts and loved her Jesus. She passed about eight years ago or so. His father was a geologist and got killed on a rig back some twenty years ago. Between insurance and a settlement from the oil company, Josephine was pretty well set. She never had to take a job, which suited her introverted personality.”
Gertie nodded. “On the other hand, Gilbert—or Gil as he insisted he be called—was the exact opposite of both his introverted parents. He took extrovert to the extreme level.”
“Was he a car salesman?” I asked.
“Worse,” Ida Belle said. “He was an actor.”
“An actor living in Sinful?” I asked. “Is there really a lot of call for that?”
“Sinful has a small acting troupe,” Gertie said. “But they lost a lot of members over the years and haven’t put on a production in ages.”
“So Gil was a member of this acting troupe?” I asked.
“For a bit,” Ida Belle said. “Until he found a bigger troupe in New Orleans back maybe three years ago. They traveled to perform and he got bigger roles and audiences, so he was thrilled to be in the spotlight again.”
“Again?” I asked. Surely Sinful wasn’t considered the spotlight.
“When Gil graduated from high school, he hightailed it to Hollywood,” Gertie said. “His parents couldn’t have been less impressed. His father was a highly educated man and held a respectable position in a tough field. He wanted his son to follow in his footsteps.”
“And Josephine thought everyone in Hollywood was the devil,” Ida Belle said. “She called it Gomorrah.”
“I take it he never got his big break?” I asked.
“He had a few small roles,” Gertie said. “But nothing of merit. The biggest career move he made was getting Harper James to marry him.”
“Who is that?” I asked.
“I forget you weren’t much of a movie watcher until I got hold of you,” Gertie said. “Harper James was an actress and a fairly famous one. I think she could have gone on to be an A-lister.”
“But…?” I asked.
“Drug overdose,” Gertie said. “Her relationship and marriage to Gil was a whirlwind sort of thing and since their son, Liam, was born eight months after the wedding, we all had an idea why it happened so quickly.”
“That’s rather an old sentiment, isn’t it?” I asked. “Especially for Hollywood. I thought they were more progressive about such things. I mean, it’s not like it was the ’50s.”
“Who knows?” Gertie said. “I mean, the press photos showed two people who were clearly into each other. Maybe it was infatuation and it burned off as quickly as it started. Maybe the harsh reality of parenting tempered all their relationship joy.”
“Or maybe he couldn’t handle her success when he could barely book a commercial,” Ida Belle said.
Gertie nodded. “Probably a combination of a lot of things. But regardless of the why, the reality is they hung in there for a couple years, although Harper spent most of it filming in other countries. That’s probably the only reason it lasted a couple years. Anyway, they split and Gil got primary custody. Based on what I heard back then from Josephine, Harper wasn’t all that interested in being a mother.”
“And Gil needed the child support money since his acting career hadn’t taken off,” Ida Belle said drily. “LA isn’t the cheapest place to live.”
“So when did Harper die?” I asked.
“When Liam was five,” Gertie said. “She was on location somewhere…Africa maybe. There had already been press about her partying habit and apparently it caught up with her.”
“So what happened with Gil and Liam?” I asked.
“There was an insurance policy that Gil was still the beneficiary on, but she didn’t have much else except furniture and personal items,” Gertie said. “Apparently, her lifestyle was running about par with income. And since Gil didn’t have a career to speak of there and was going to have to find a way to make money now that the big child support checks were gone, he came home to Sinful so that his mother could help him with Liam.”
“And became Sinful’s famous resident actor?” I asked.
“And an insurance salesman,” Gertie said.