Free Mommy's Little Girl by Diane Fanning Page B

you do. And I don’t think you’re a monster or anything likethat. I think you might have some pressures in your life. Who . . . exerts the most pressure on you . . . ?”
    â€œMy mom does, absolutely.”
    â€œ. . . You’ll never live up to your mother’s expectations, right?”
    â€œAt least not right now,” Casey admitted. She went on to talk about taking advantage of her mother, leaving the car in the Amscot lot when it ran out of gas and sending emails to Zenaida that bounced back, undelivered.
    Appie proposed a scenario involving the safe return of Caylee, and then asked what Casey would do if her daughter ever disappeared again.
    â€œI wouldn’t hesitate to talk to my parents this time if something happened . . . I learned the biggest lesson from all this. I made the greatest mistake that I ever could’ve made as a parent.”
    In defiance of logic, Casey, once again, raised her right hand and swore that everything she said was true.

CHAPTER 11
    After more than an hour of interrogation and still no answers, the investigators filed out of the conference room with Casey. Back out in the parking lot, Sergeant John Allen pulled up photos of all the women in the appropriate age bracket named Zenaida Gonzalez from Florida’s Driver and Vehicle Information Database (DAVID) system. Casey could not identify any of those drivers as her nanny.
    When Allen focused her attention on the Zenaida Gonzalez whom Yuri Melich had called that morning, Casey said, “She’s too old.”
    John Allen and Appie Wells drove Casey back to the central operations building of the sheriff’s department. Detective Yuri Melich drove back to the office alone, frustrated at his inability to crack Casey. Her friends were right—Casey was well practiced in the art of deception. They all told him she was a habitual liar.
    Jesse Grund said that he’d received a call from Casey on June 25. She wanted to get together, saying she was alone because Caylee had gone to the beach with the nanny for the weekend. He called Melich, he said, because it was contrary to what Casey had been telling police.
    Another friend, Kristina Chester, had another contradiction to offer. She said that Casey and Caylee had come to her house sometime between June 12 and June 14. She insisted that she was certain of the date range. The three ofthem had taken a walk together. Kristine was concerned when she heard that the toddler had been reported missing since June 9.
    Melich arrived at the operations center and prepared a charging affidavit. While working on that, he called George Anthony and got his approval to pick up the Pontiac, laptop computer and a few other items. He sent Detective Charity Beasley to the home on Hopespring Drive.
    The arrest document contained three charges: neglecting a child, providing false official statements and obstructing a criminal investigation. With the affidavit in hand, he sat down with Casey one more time.
    He gave her yet another opportunity to change her statement—one last chance to provide the information they needed to find her child. Casey persisted in repeating her story, again as if the repetition would somehow outweigh all the contradictory evidence.
    Melich must have been weary of her games. Perhaps he regretted being unable to charge her with murder, right now. But the evidence was not there. Not yet. By her own admission, Casey had neglected her daughter. By the testimony of others, he knew she’d lied and blocked law enforcement’s efforts to find Caylee. Those charges would have to do for now.
    He placed Casey under arrest at 4:33 that afternoon and escorted her to the jail. He vowed never to give up until he found the proof to charge Casey Anthony with murder—and to never stop until little Caylee was found. He hoped he was wrong about Casey. He wanted to see that precious toddler brought home safe and sound.
    It