Imperfect Justice_ Prosecuting Casey Anthony - Jeff Ashton [40]
Any con man will tell you that the true skill in crafting a great lie is finding what the mark wants to believe and giving it to him. Her fabrications centered on promoting herself as a responsible working mother, dedicated to both her job and Caylee. Whether the lie involved adding another day of work to her job, or making Zanny the Mary Poppins of Orlando, one lie seemed to flow effortlessly into the next. Casey could explain a discrepancy in a series of lies with a small, convincing tweak that would satisfy the most doubtful audience.
Since her mother had been falling for the Zanny lie for over a year, Casey knew that Cindy would follow along in this instance, too, so she made Zanny a crucial part of the story. Zanny seemed like such a too-good-to-be-true, warm, generous babysitter that anyone who would complain about her had to be nasty, no good, jealous, and selfish. At the same time, what mother wouldn’t want to see her daughter advancing at work? At Cindy’s removed distance, her daughter appeared so vital to the company that her employer was paying to send her out of town to a conference. It was enough to make a mother proud or, in this case, keep her from getting suspicious.
While Cindy believed that Casey was in Tampa, phone records indicated that Casey spent the next day, Thursday, June 19, in Tony’s neighborhood, where the two of them hunted for an apartment. At the time, Tony had been sharing an apartment with a bunch of roommates, and he wanted to get his own place. By 9:20 P.M., they were back at Tony’s. Throughout this time, whenever Tony asked about Caylee, Casey lied to him. As far as Tony knew, Caylee was either home with Cindy and George or with the babysitter.
In their discussions with the police, the friends in Casey’s gang said that she was enjoying her stay at Tony’s. She was the model housemother to Tony and his roommates, cooking all the meals, cleaning, doing laundry, and sleeping with Tony, while telling different people different stories about where Caylee was if the question arose. When Casey called her mother that night, she continued her lie, telling Cindy that she and Caylee were still at the conference at Busch Gardens. Even though Casey was lying constantly to her mom, she was also checking in with Cindy every day like clockwork so as not to arouse suspicion.
The night of Friday, June 20, was originally the night when Casey had told her mother she would return home with Caylee, but instead, Casey was partying with many of her friends at Fusian, the club where Tony worked. Fridays at the club were geared toward college kids, and Tony was trying to do business as a club promoter, getting people in the door through social media and using “shot girls” to sell booze. That Friday night, Fusian hosted a “hot body” contest, and Casey spent the evening showing off her body and managing the shot girls. Photos of the event show Casey in pure delight, wearing a short blue dress and high black boots, grinding and dancing with others on the dance floor.
Needless to say, this was not the story she’d given Cindy. In Casey’s nightly phone call to Cindy, Casey was all work, explaining that she was still in Tampa because her conference had gone an extra day, but it would be over on Saturday. That same night, however, Casey told a friend, Maria Kissh, that Caylee and the nanny were at the beach. And all the while she continued to shack up with Tony.
By Sunday, June 22, her story for Cindy changed again. This time Casey said they were staying another night at Busch Gardens because she had been so busy with work that none of them had even gone to the amusement park to enjoy the rides. Of course, as Casey told Cindy, that hadn’t stopped Caylee and Annabelle from having a great time.
The next day, Casey was at Tony’s until 1:41 P.M., when she left in the Pontiac. She soon called him to say that she had run out of gas and asked him