Page 19 of Lawman’s Witness

She hadn’t recognized him, and he found that quaint. In hindsight he now knew that she’d only pretended she didn’t know who he was. He hadn’t offered his name even when he asked if she could use a ride. She’d eyed the suit he was wearing and the luxury car he was driving and hopped right in. He should have seen the dollar signs gleaming in her eyes, but he was breathing in her sweet scent and trying hard not to look at the gap in the tight buttoned-up shirt barely covering her full breasts.

He’d driven her to a small house outside of Laurel and offered to have her car towed. She’d asked him in and inquired about a good cheap mechanic. He’d called one for her on her phone. When he finished, she said, “Thank you,” and held out her hand. “Whitney Clark.”

“Jack Marshall,” he’d said, and she’d pretended the name hadn’t registered. Within minutes, they were in her bed. He’d planned to drive away and not look back. But as he was leaving, she came to the door in only her bra and panties and, smiling, waved goodbye. She’d known he would be back, and she’d been right.

He glanced at his watch now. He’d waited as long as he dared to do this. Checking his rearview mirror to make sure he hadn’t been followed, he took the Laurel exit. He couldn’t help being paranoid after the cops had made him give them a statement. Were they watching him? He didn’t think so, but he didn’t trust Detective Tate, a new detective on the force. Tate didn’t know how things worked in this city, the largest in Montana, Jack told himself. But the cop would learn if he crossed Jack Marshall, he thought.

CHAPTER TEN

Amy Sue spent the afternoon and evening tracking down more people who had attended the same conference as Jack Marshall. She’d fibbed and said she was doing a story on the conference. She found people opened up better if they thought she was writing an article for a business magazine.

Jack had done a presentation earlier in the day during the conference, but few people recalled seeing him later that afternoon. One man remembered him in the bar after lunch talking with another man. Unfortunately, he didn’t know the other man’s name and suggested she ask Jack since it had appeared to be animated conversation about flying.

Could that be the man Jack had gotten to fly him back and forth to Billings that afternoon? Probably not, she decided. He would have planned everything long before the conference, right?

Learning little except that the conference had been large and while many of the people remembered seeing Jack, they weren’t sure when it was. No one could definitely say they saw him the evening of the murder. Again, she had produced no real evidence.

Discouraged, she got off the phone and went to the airport, hoping to learn something more. The news there was worse. She couldn’t get anyone to talk about the private planes or their owners, let alone tell her anything about Jack Marshall on the night of the murder.

Wondering if she should just give up and go home, she called her sister, who was finally out of court. “I think you might be right about me not being a detective,” she said when Josie answered.

Her sister laughed. “You knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

“I’ve found out a few things, figured out some others, but we need evidence. We need that woman’s name. Better yet, Russ says, we need her body.”

“That sounds so morbid.”

“It is.”

“We? I’m assuming that’s you and Detective Tate? Am I sensing that the two of you are getting close?”

Josie had never asked about her love life because it had never been worth asking about. But after Amy Sue had chosen wrong and almost paid the ultimate price for it, her sister worried.

“You don’t have to worry about the cowboy detective. It’s not like that.”

“I’m not. I’m worried about you,” Josie said.

“You don’t have to do that either. It’s been strictly professional. His department frowns on him fraternizing with the eyewitness, even the one they don’t believe. Tell me about the trial,” she said hoping that was the end of that particular conversation.

“It’s going well. I should be home next week. What about you?”

Amy Sue looked out at the day turning to dusk. “I might be home by then, too.” She hated the thought. It felt like giving up. But what more could she do?

“Just be careful, please.”

“You know me.”

“That’s just it, I do,” Josie said solemnly. “If you quit, it isn’t because you gave up. This time it’s because the odds were just too much against you.”

The small house was outside of town on a dirt lane and not near any others. Jack was glad not to see anyone around as he pulled into the empty parking spot next to the house Whitney Clark had rented. One of the first things he had done after their last night together was report her car as abandoned and have it towed to the junkyard. If her one and only friend in the area came out here worried about her, he’d hoped she would think Whitney had left town.

It had been another example of Whitney not doing what he’d told her to. Instead of driving her car to the construction site, she’d taken an Uber. He’d already planned how he was going to get rid of her car that night. She’d complicated things for him, not to mention, she hadn’t done what he’d specifically told her to do. An Uber driver had Whitney’s information, but the only way that would become a problem was if her body was found or her photo made the news.

In retrospect, though, it had worked out better since Amy Sue Brand had surprised him by showing up unexpectedly. Still, too many things had gone wrong that night. Now he found himself questioning what else he might have missed. He’d been confident that no one knew about the two of them.

But he was beginning to realize that she might not have kept her promise to keep them secret given the things he’d learned after he killed her. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be sitting in the nondescript, older trade-in he’d borrowed after-hours from the back car lot, dreading going into her rental.

He could no longer trust Whitney Clark. Or his luck. Had the universe been trying to warn him to abort his plans that night when an Uber pulled up and let her out? He’d been even angrier with her, even more determined to end it permanently. Was that why he hadn’t seen the car parked in the dark on the other side of the apartment building?