Mommy's Little Girl (18 page)

On Monday, June 30, Casey, driving Tony's Jeep, dropped him off at the airport for his flight to visit family and friends in New York. At 9:45
A.M.
, Amy's phone rang, waking her up. “This is Casey. Come open the door.”

“Are you outside of it?” Amy asked.

“Yes.”

“I'm asleep.”

“Open the door and go back to bed,” Casey insisted.

She came into the apartment chattering away. Amy knew it was senseless to try to stop Casey when she was on a roll. She knew she couldn't sleep through Casey's non-stop monologue. She abandoned her plans to get more rest.

Casey asked again about Amy's gas can. Amy said, “Well, why don't we go to Target? I'll buy a can and you can use it and give it back to me. I can always use another one.”

They hopped into Tony's Jeep and went shopping. Casey complained about not being able to see Caylee. “But it's better for her. She's just playing and having fun. They're going everywhere. They were at Busch Gardens for a while. At least, she's in a good place and not involved in all this other stuff.” She launched into a repeat performance of one of her stories about her parents' constant fights.

The two hung out together until Amy had to go to work that evening, and Casey spent the night there. She woke up Jesse Grund the next morning at 10:15. “Please, I need a favor,” she said.

“What is it?”

“Well, I need to take a shower before I go to work. I've been staying at Tony's, but I don't have a key to get back into his place, and he's out of town. I can't go to my parents' place.”

“Okay, fine. You can come over.”

Jesse was surprised when she arrived. She didn't look
like a woman in desperate need of a shower—she looked neat and clean already. And, to Jesse's disappointment, Caylee was not with her. After she cleaned up, they sat around watching television and talking for a couple of hours until Casey left for “work.”

She got her nails done that day and arrived at Rico and Amy's place after 11
P.M.
and spent the night. When Rico woke up, he thought that Casey had left—but then she emerged from the garage, where she had been doing laundry.

That night, she and Tony talked on the phone until they fell asleep. “Did you ever get that car taken care of?”

“Yes,” she said. “My dad took it to a dealership.” That was another lie. The car had been towed to an impound lot on the same day Tony flew to New York. Her father thought the car was with Casey in Jacksonville.

Another night, Tony teased her again about staying in New York. “I'm going to have to probably get a job. I have to work to get money, to save it up for school, before I come back down.”

Once again, emotion flooded out of Casey. She was overwrought. Tony was surprised that her reaction was, again, so over the top. The intensity of her commitment made him nervous.

 

On July 2, Amy said that Casey ripped off her stash of vacation cash. Amy, in a panic, asked Casey if she knew what had happened to her money. Casey made up a story that Amy had been sleepwalking and hidden the money in a safe place somewhere in the apartment.

While Amy searched high and low, Casey visited Cast Iron Tattoos on South Orange Avenue, where she was a regular customer. Her usual artist, Bobby, put a new tat on her shoulder blade. The design proclaimed “Bella Vita,” Italian for “A Beautiful Life”—not exactly the sentiment you'd expect from a woman whose child was nowhere to be found.

That night, Casey posted a poem on her MySpace page:

 

On the worst of days

Remember the words spoken.

 

Trust no one,

Only yourself.

 

With great power,

Comes great consequences.

 

What is given,

Can be taken away.

 

Everyone lies.

 

Everyone Dies.

 

Life will never be easy.

On July 3, Cindy posted a sad message on MySpace titled “My Caylee is Missing.”

She came into my life unexpectedly, just as she has left me. This precious little angel from above gave me strength and unconditional love. Now, she is gone and I don't know why. All I am guilty of is loving her and providing her a safe home. Jealousy has taken her away. Jealousy from the one person that should be thankful for all of the love and support given to her. A mother's love is deep, however, there are limits when one is betrayed by the one she loved and trusted the most.

A daughter comes to her mother for her support when she is pregnant; the mother says without hesitation, it will be okay. And it was. But then the lies and betrayal began.

First it seemed harmless, ah, love is blind. A mother will look for the good in her child and give them a chance to change. This mother gave chance after chance for her daughter to change, but instead more lies, or betrayal.

What does the mother get for giving her daughter all of these chances? A broken heart. The daughter stole money, lots of money, leaves without warning and does not let her mother now speak to the baby that her mother raised, fed, clothed, sheltered, paid
her medical bills, etc. Instead tells her friends that her mother is controlling her life and she needs her space. No money, no future. Where did she go? Who is now watching out for the little angel?

That day, Troy Brown dropped off his visiting out-of-town girlfriend, Melissa England, to spend time with Casey while he went to work. Melissa didn't know Casey, but Troy gave her some background, including the fact that Casey was a single mother. Melissa thought it was odd that Casey only made a single reference to her child and that was in an overheard cell phone conversation. They were in Target when Cindy called. Casey's tone of voice made her irritation toward her mother obvious. In response to a question, Casey snapped, “The kid is with the nanny.”

That night, Troy, Melissa and Casey went to the Dragon Room off of Orange Avenue. Casey was there partying when she answered a cell phone call from her brother Lee. With panic and distress in her voice, Casey told her friends that she had to leave the club right away. “My brother is coming here to get me.”

Troy agreed to leave, but thought that the whole week had been a strange roller coaster ride with Casey. Most of the time, she seemed more carefree and happier than he'd ever seen her; but as soon as she was contacted by a family member, she went into instant distress. He couldn't figure it out.

Jesse Grund received a text message from Casey that sounded like a reaction to Cindy's post. “There's something going on in my family right now. If my mom or dad try to call you, don't answer, but for right now, just stay out of it. I'll take care of it.”

The next day Casey contacted him asking what he was doing for the Fourth of July. He said that he was spending the day with his family and asked for an explanation of her text message. Casey didn't offer one, she just said, “It's a long story, and I will probably call you when I get drunk to tell you.”

Amy provided something for Casey to do on the holiday when she invited her to go to Will Waters' house for a party. They had to leave early because Amy had promised to put up the decorations. Casey didn't know Will, but volunteered to help anyway.

They finished dressing up the back deck and went with Will to pick up beer and food. They purchased a keg, made multiple stops in search of a place that still had ice in stock on this holiday weekend and then went to Target, where they picked up a kickball and a football.

While most of the partygoers celebrated outside, Casey was in the house, sweeping, cleaning, straightening up the place and taking care of any problems. Will came inside when he got a cut on his face and Casey was there with a cold towel and sympathy. Will was fascinated. Her energy amazed him. Her personality intrigued him. His friends noted her generosity on Will's behalf, and kidded him. A couple of them cocked their heads in her direction, and expressed their awareness of his good fortune for latching onto a good-looking woman who cleaned, bandaged and performed other domestic chores, with one word: “Dude!”

After taking care of Will's minor injury, the two of them stood on the back porch watching a game of kickball. Casey said, “You know I have a daughter?”

“Yeah,” Will said. “Amy told me.” It wasn't a big deal to Will. It seemed to him that every girl his age had a kid around.

The party packed up at 8:30 and headed over to Lake Eola to watch the fireworks. At 9:10, Tony called Casey. He said that his dad wanted him to stay in New York.

“Well, why would you bring this up now?” Casey asked.

He told her that his dad said that he could send for his car and stuff so that he wouldn't have to go back to Florida at all.

“Well, I don't want to talk about this now. It's not a good time to be talking about negative things while I'm watching fireworks,” Casey retorted.

Casey told Will that she didn't know what was going to happen. Her boyfriend was supposed to return the next day, but right now that looked like a 50/50 proposition. The party returned to Will's place when the fireworks ended. Amy and Casey left that night at 1:30
A.M.

The next morning, Casey got up early and jumped right to her laptop. She was clicking away at the keys when Amy arose. Revved up and giddy with excitement because she now knew Tony was returning that day, she got on Amy's nerves.

Will wrote Casey a text—“Are we going to hang out again?”—and then went into the bathroom and took a shower. He checked his cell when he got out of the shower at 9:30, but there was no response. For a moment, he was deflated, but looking outside, he spotted Casey coming up his steps.

He greeted her with a grin. “So, what are we going to do?”

They decided to go to Ikea. Will had already planned a shopping trip there and Casey said she was getting a new place soon and she needed some things, too. They had lunch at Zaxby's chicken, where Casey told Will her daughter was with the nanny. She shared her plans to get an apartment with a friend who also had a child. They'd both hire the nanny as a live-in. They stopped at Target for some bubble gum and coffee before spending three hours in Ikea. Will picked up what he needed for his redecoration, and Casey window-shopped for the new place she claimed she was getting near Valencia Community College.

After leaving Will's, Casey headed out to pick up Tony. She stopped at a car wash near the airport to clean off the road dirt on Tony's Jeep. She called Will from there and kept him on the phone as she drove away, parked in the lot and ascended on the escalator. Finally, Will said, “Alright, bye. I've got things to do. I got my motorcycle to work on.”

Five minutes later, Casey called again. “Well, Tony's
not here yet.” At the time, Will didn't mind talking to her. Some people got annoyed because she talked so much, but not Will. On reflection, he realized that her need for constant connection was probably not a good sign—an indication that Casey needed more attention than was healthy.

Tony noticed nothing amiss when Casey met him at the airport. She pointed out the car wash where she'd taken his Jeep as they drove past it. Then they stopped at Winn-Dixie to pick up groceries before going to Tony's apartment.

The two of them went to Buffalo Wild Wings at Waterford Lakes for a late dinner. They sat at a long table with a bunch of Casey's friends whom Tony met for the first time. Casey saw old beau Christopher Stutz, across the room with a woman she didn't know. She sent a text: “Hey, I hope you're enjoying your date.”

He looked around, didn't see her and typed back, “What do you mean?”

By the time he hit “send,” Casey was standing beside him. “Hello,” she said. They chatted for a few minutes and then she excused herself to go back to her friends.

 

Even though Tony was back in town, Casey maintained contact with Will, accepting him as a MySpace friend and exchanging messages nearly every day. Will appreciated one in particular. It arrived on his cell on July 7. In it, she said he was the sweetest guy she'd ever met.

She called or texted him often, during the day while Tony was at school. She asked him a couple of times to meet her for lunch at Houlihan's, but he said that he was at work and couldn't get there. “Don't you ever go to work?” he asked.

“They email it to me and I work with the photography on the computer,” she explained.

 

On July 7, Casey ran into Matthew Crisp, her high school acquaintance, at Subway. They sat together, ate lunch and chatted about what they did for the Fourth of July.

Matthew asked, “How's the little munchkin?”

“She's good. She's actually at a play date out in Sanford.”

They talked through Matthew's lunch hour and ended only when he had to get back to work. Matthew thought she seemed a little bit needy or lonely. He attributed it to Tony being out of town, as Casey told him—though he'd actually been back in Orlando for two days.

 

At 6
A.M.
on July 8, Amy's cell phone rang. It was Casey, but this time, she didn't wake her friend. Amy was across the street from Tony's Sutton Place apartment at a 7-Eleven pumping gas into her car. Casey was going to drive Amy to the airport for her flight to Puerto Rico. In exchange, Casey got the use of Amy's car while she was gone. Amy wanted to leave Casey with a full tank of gas.

 

That morning, Cindy's mother Shirley sent an email message to her sister Mary Lou expressing her concerns about Casey's extended visit to Jacksonville. Mary Lou wrote back:

I am with you thinking something might be amiss with Caylee. I can't believe she would be that upset to speak to and hear her grandmother on the phone??? I just hope that little girl is OK. I wonder how much of Caylee's clothes and toys Casey took when she left??? How much of her own things did she take??? Seems to me, they would be running out of things to wear, etc. Of course, I guess Casey could be buying things as time goes along?