Page 48 of Lawman’s Witness

“You have to fix this.” Christine’s voice held none of the panic now hammering away in his chest making it hard to breathe. “You made this mess.” She made it sound as if he’d tracked in mud—not this catastrophe he’d brought home.

He met her gaze, his beautiful perfect wife, the symbol of the perfect life he’d built with her help. His ice princess. He wasn’t even that shocked that she’d always known what kind of man he really was and had looked the other way.

Even with two women locked in their safe room, she was calmer than what he thought was normal. He’d worked so hard for so long to prove that he was worthy of a woman like Christine and the life that came with her.

Yet she wasn’t what he’d wanted or needed when he wasn’t being the Jack Marshall everyone thought he was. Like this house, she’d been for show, he realized with a flash of insight.

And now here they were. He couldn’t imagine how things could get worse until she moved to him and pressed something into his hand before stepping back.

He looked down to find the knife handle in his palm and felt a shock. It looked exactly like the knife he’d taken from the kitchen to kill Whitney. He liked to believe he was only going to threaten her with the knife, but he’d known the only way to be rid of her was to kill her. He’d planned to replace the knife before Christine knew it had gone missing, but when things had gone south, he’d forgotten. Apparently, she paid more attention to the kitchen than he thought, because this was identical to the one he’d thrown away—except for the lack of blood.

Jack shook his head slowly, thinking of what could be waiting for him behind the steel door. He already had the detective lying dead in the garage. He hadn’t meant to kill him, but the cop had been a pain in his backside for weeks and then to see him breaking into his house…

“I can’t,” he whispered. He was so tired. He just wanted to go back to that day on the interstate when he spotted the young woman hitching a ride. He would sell his soul to change it all.

But when he looked into his wife’s eyes, he knew he’d sold his soul a long time ago, and the day of reckoning had arrived.

“This is your mess, Jack,” she said, and turned to walk back toward the kitchen.

His fingers closed around the handle of the knife against his will.

Amy Sue looked over at Liz sitting on the floor of the small unfinished room. There’d been that moment of panic for both of them when they’d realized there were no air vents yet in the room.

She’d had to talk Liz into sitting and calming down. “If there isn’t enough air, then we need to conserve it. Panicking isn’t going to help. Just the opposite.”

“I can’t believe this was my stupid idea,” Liz said now. She’d been quiet, no doubt ruminating as Amy Sue had been doing. Both of them regretted that they’d put themselves in this position as they waited, afraid of what was going to happen next. As if being locked in this airless room wasn’t enough. “I was so sure that if his wife knew, she’d call the cops and this would be over.”

Amy Sue nodded, but said nothing. Would’ves and should’ves, her Gram would have said. Thinkin’ to change the past is a fool’s errand. Only thing you can change is yourself in the future.

“What do you think they’re going to do with us?” Liz asked quietly.

Wasn’t like anyone outside this room could hear them. The walls were thick with soundproof material. It made Amy Sue wonder what the real purpose of this room was. Maybe exactly what it was being used for now. It scared her to think that other women had shown up here to confront Christine hoping she would do something about her husband.

“If Christine wanted to kill us, she would have already.” It was the only positive answer Amy Sue had.

“But now Jack Marshall is out there,” Liz pointed out.

Amy Sue realized that neither of them had actually seen him or even really heard him come into the house before Christine had ushered them into this room. Maybe he wasn’t out there. Maybe he had no idea how far his wife would go—

Before she could finish her thought, she heard the steel door lock click. The door swung open. Jack Marshall filled the doorway.

Seeing Jack standing there, his expression dark and unreadable, was terrifying, but nothing like the knife he had clutched in his hand.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Russ woke on the hard concrete floor. His head throbbed and blood ran down in one eye. He wiped at it as he struggled to get to his feet. On the floor next to him lay the tire iron with more of his blood on it. He picked it up, feeling a little dizzy but more focused than when he’d first regained consciousness.

Jack Marshall had left him for dead. The man just kept making mistakes, he told himself as he headed for the door that he knew must lead into the house. He wished he had his gun, but the tire iron would have to do, he thought as he considered taking the elevator, then chose the stairs.

He didn’t know how long he’d been out. Not long from what he could tell. He had no way of knowing what floor of the four-story house he’d find Jack on—let alone Amy Sue and Liz. From what he’d heard on the phone before they’d been disconnected, both women were in serious danger.

Climbing the stairs quickly, he tried not to think the worst, but it was hard knowing what Jack Marshall would do. Then again, he knew firsthand what the man was capable of, Russ thought, as he put his hand to his throbbing head. Fortunately, the bleeding hadn’t been extensive and had now mostly quit.

Quickly stopping at each floor along the stairs to listen, he moved upward until he heard voices on the third floor and eased open the door to step out. He sucked in a lungful of relief at the sound of Amy Sue’s voice even though he couldn’t make out her words.

Moving toward the voices, he stayed out of sight. As he slipped behind a large cabinet, he peered around it into the massive living room. From what he could see, it appeared that the Marshalls were in the process of remodeling. They had changed one of the walls to make what looked like a small room between the living area and the also massive kitchen.

His heart began to pound harder as he realized that’s where Amy Sue’s voice was coming from.