Every Deadly Suspicion

Chapter 51

CHAPTER 51

H ANNA WORKED TO CONTROL her shock, anger, and fear. Before she could say anything, Jared stepped around her and faced off with Marcus.

“You killed Edda?”

“Back off, Water Boy. I’ll shoot you where you stand.” Marcus made a menacing gesture with the gun, and Hanna grasped Jared’s arm, stepping even with him.

“What are you doing here?” Marcus demanded. “Your father finally start talking?”

“The evidence has. Chase killed Blake and Sophia, not my dad.”

Marcus chuckled. “Joe must be clearing his conscience.”

“He’s dead.”

Marcus gave a rakish tilt of his head. “Oh, too bad. He’ll always be remembered as a killer anyway.”

“You already knew it wasn’t him. You still published a book of lies.”

Marcus’s face reddened. “I hated your dad. I had a chance to mess him up so I took it. He got what he deserved.”

“You were the unnamed witness.” For Hanna it all fell into place. Why hadn’t she seen it sooner?

Marcus nodded and chuckled. “Big Al’s idea. I was at the right place at the right time. I wasn’t able to save Blake and Sophia, but I saved Chase, most of him anyway. The acid had burned into his face and eaten away half his calf. My dragging him out of the mess was something Big Al never forgot.”

He waved the gun toward the garage. “That way. Into the garage, both of you.”

Hanna saw where he pointed, the side door to the garage now open. She started walking that way, Jared’s and her arms touching. Her mind churned with scenarios about Marcus.

“Chase killed everyone: Blake, Sophia, and Gilly, I’m guessing. You just stood and watched?”

“Keep guessing.”

She and Jared stopped at the door, and Marcus shoved her shoulder. “Go on, through the door.”

Hanna stepped over the threshold and into the semidarkness of the garage. The concrete floor was old, cracked, and uneven. Rather than housing a car, the garage had boxes piled in the center of the space, and there was a lot of dust and cobwebs. One naked light bulb shone in the far corner.

Marcus prodded them to move farther into the back. After he came through the door behind her, she heard him close it and two locks engage. Hanna wanted to keep him talking. If he was talking, he wouldn’t be shooting. She stopped moving forward and faced him.

“Okay, I’ll keep guessing. Chase told me you were soft. You didn’t kill Edda; you don’t have it in you. Chase killed her. That’s what he is: a killer. You’re not.”

His eyes narrowed to slits, his voice clipped with anger. “Shows how much you know. Soft? I took care of Gilly, a big bad DEA agent. He was snooping around the cabin that night. I hit him over the head. I didn’t mean to kill him, but Big Al was grateful to his dying day for everything I did. I got rid of Gilly, helped clean up Chase’s mess. No one has any idea what I’m capable of. No one ever has. Edda included.”

“She was a sweet old woman who never hurt anyone.” Jared’s voice vibrated with anger.

“That was just a game. Like the other women, I toyed with her for the fun of it. I guess she was smarter than I gave her credit for. She figured me out, demanded to know why I was pretending to be someone else.”

Marcus spit off to the side. “She had the nerve to threaten me. ‘I’ll tell Hanna,’ she said. The biddy got what she deserved. She underestimated me. Everyone underestimates me. You’ll see my abilities firsthand. Keep walking toward the light.”

The dark garage smelled musty and old. To the left a short stairway led up to a door, she guessed to the main house. Marcus directed them to the right. A dim, naked light bulb hung from the rafters. Hanna’s eyes adjusted to the semidarkness and saw what looked like a work area, with a vintage bench and a tool cabinet that looked antique. But what was lying between the bench and the cabinet stopped her in her tracks, with Jared running into her heels.

There lay a woman—bound, with duct tape across her mouth, her eyes filled with fear—staring up at them.

“Meet Rita. She drove all the way from Jamestown to meet me. She was as surprised as Edda.” Marcus let out a maniacal laugh.

The irritating laughter threw Hanna back over the years when she used to be taunted by bullies while walking to and from school. Sometimes if she jerked around quickly and unexpectedly, catching them by surprise, it would scare them off.

True, Marcus had a gun and he wasn’t a boy, but if she didn’t do something now, she and Jared would end up like the woman on the floor.

Concentrating, Hanna tensed. She’d only get one shot. And she didn’t want Jared or the terrified woman on the floor hurt. She and her police force practiced gun takeaway methods in their routine training sessions. She needed her move to be spot-on.

Remembering that Marcus held the gun in his right hand, when Jared knelt to help the woman, Hanna jerked to the right, grabbing the gun’s slide with one hand and Marcus’s wrist with the other.

“Umph.” A grunt escaped his lips, and his eyes widened.

Hanna twisted his wrist to the right with all the force she could muster, then pulled.

“Ow!” He let go, and the ease of the release startled Hanna. She stumbled back with the gun in her hands, running into Jared and tripping over the woman on the floor.

Marcus cursed and backpedaled, while Hanna settled on her butt, then aimed the gun at Marcus. She tried to fire, but the safety was still engaged. Rookie move. She clicked it off and balanced herself. “Stay where you’re at, Marcus, it’s over.”

“No, it’s not.” He reached for some empty cans and hurled them at Hanna, some of which Jared deflected. Marcus turned and sprinted up the steps and through the door. She trained her gun on his retreating back, but Jared jumped in front of her line of sight when he leapt after Marcus.

Hanna scrambled to her feet and stumbled after Jared. Marcus opened a door at the top of the stairs, slipped out, and then slammed it shut behind him. Hanna reached the door as Jared rammed his shoulder into it. It held and he stepped back.

“It’s solid wood,” he said. “They made them to last back in the day.”

“Try the other.” She pointed to the door they’d come through. “I’ll check on Rita.”

She retreated to the woman on the floor while Jared checked the other door.

“It’s dead-bolted.” Jared rammed his shoulder into it. “No give at all.”

Hanna carefully pulled the tape from Rita’s mouth.

“Is he gone? Please tell me he’s gone.”

“I think so. Let’s get you untied.”

Hanna heard Jared push on the large garage door. He kicked at the bottom.

“Don’t hurt yourself, Jared. There must be implements down here we can use.”

“It will have to be heavy. The wood here is old and solid, with strong locks.” He rubbed his shoulder and joined Hanna and Rita. “This place was well built.”

Hanna turned to face the door, listening for any sound that would indicate Marcus was coming back. She set the gun down and took the small folding knife she always carried in her pocket and cut Rita’s bindings.

Jared knelt to help. He tapped Hanna’s shoulder.

“What?” She turned her head and saw him smiling at her.

“I’m glad to see you still have the knife.”

Hanna smiled back. “A really good friend gave this to me years ago.” She held his gaze until Rita reminded her that they were in quite a bit of danger at the moment.

“Oh, thank you so much.” Rita rubbed her wrists and tears fell. “I thought I was dead. Did you meet him on Mix and Match too?”

“That’s where you met Marcus?”

“He told me his name was Perry.”

“Can you stand? We have to get out of here.”

“I think so.”

Hanna helped her up, noting that she’d dressed for a date and was wearing high-heeled shoes.

Jared went to the cabinet and opened it. “We’re in luck. Crowbar and sledgehammer. One of them should work.”

“Great.” Hanna picked the gun back up. It was a 9mm, same caliber that killed the three Lonely Heart victims. Hitting the magazine release, she saw that the mag was full, and there was a round in the chamber. She jammed it back into place. Marcus had not disengaged the safety earlier. It made her wonder how familiar he was with guns.

“We need to get out of here before Marcus gets far. Come on, Rita, get ready.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Rita rubbed her wrists and followed Hanna as she followed Jared to the side garage door.

He held the sledgehammer in both hands and turned to Hanna. “The way we came in or up through the house?”

“I don’t want to go through the house. Marcus could be waiting to ambush us.”

“He might be outside as well,” Jared pointed out.

Hanna thought for a minute. “There are no windows in this garage, are there?”

Jared shook his head. “No garage door opener either.” He pushed the old, heavy wooden door with his hip and it budged not an inch. It was sunk into the ground, probably hadn’t been opened in years.

“It’s the side door or nothing,” he said.

“I wish I’d thought to put my phone in my pocket,” Hanna lamented.

“My phone is in my purse,” Rita said.

“Is it down here?”

“I don’t know.”

“Jared, try to open the door, and I’ll try to find her phone.”

He nodded. Rita stumbled back to the workbench where she’d been restrained.

Jared raised the sledgehammer. Just then the acrid odor of gasoline permeated the air. Hanna heard liquid splashing all along the garage door. Then Marcus snickered. With a whoosh, fire ignited, the sound of the flames moving along the door, up toward the roofline to the edge of the house.

“Whoa.” Jared stepped back. “I’d rather try another way. The walls might be brick, but the door, roof, and roof joists are dry wood. So dry, this house will go up like a Roman candle.”

As if to prove his point, fire flashed through the crack between the top of the door and the frame, across the ceiling.

“Enjoy the barbecue, ladies.” A car door slammed, and an engine started.

Jared hopped back to where Hanna stood.

Smoke began to flood the area, along with heat.

Marcus meant to burn them to death.

Jared was right. As dry as everything was and with smoke quickly growing thicker, Marcus might just be successful.

“We got to get out of here. Where do you think the purse is?” Jared asked.

Hanna turned to Rita, who searched the ground around where she had lain. “Did he bring it in here with you?”

“I’m not sure. He dropped me on the floor and then I think he walked over here.” She indicated the back wall. “But he was behind me.”

Jared joined them in searching the area. “Hurry, fire burns up, but smoke and heat will soon be a serious threat to us in here.”

Hanna stood next to Rita and considered the back of the garage.

“This is an old house,” she said, half to herself. “It looks like a solid wall, but is it?” Another whoosh flared behind them as the fire ramped up. The smoke got thicker, and Hanna coughed. So did Rita and Jared.

“What are you thinking?” Jared asked Hanna.

“Back when this house was built, they often had cellars. But the garage is newer. Maybe the new construction blocked off the old cellar.”

“Maybe. After all, Everett’s panic room was built in an old cellar.”

Hanna saw that Jared still had the sledgehammer. She was about to ask him to smash the back wall when she saw a scrape on the cracked concrete floor.

“Jared, look, I think this is a door.”

He followed her gaze. “I think so too.” He dropped the sledgehammer and grabbed the crowbar. He picked a crack in the wood, slid the end of the crowbar in it, then leaned in. The wall slid open along the scrapes in the floor. Hanna could see the hinges and was able to push it open wider. Once opened, she saw the shelves. This was a canning cupboard, a cool part of the house where the food stores could be kept.

“There’s my purse.” Rita pushed past Hanna and grabbed a colorful flowered bag.

The purse was not all that was there. There were three more bags. Even in the dim light, Hanna recognized one of them as Edda’s. And there was a dented and bent travel coffee mug. Hanna picked it up and saw the engraving. It was Scott’s.

Rita found her phone. “He turned it off.” She hit the power button, and it began to power on. “Should I call 911?”

“Let me.” Hanna took the phone and hit the three numbers.

“911, what is your emergency?”

“Charlie, it’s Hanna. 999.” She gave him the code for officer needs immediate assistance . “I’m in Marcus Marshall’s garage with Jared and another woman, and the house is on fire. I need Fire, and I need everyone on duty here now. And put a BOLO out on Marcus Marshall. He assaulted me; consider him armed and dangerous.”

Thankfully, Charlie didn’t hesitate. “10-4, Chief, I’ll get Fire rolling. And all units to your 20—do you have his address?”

“I don’t know the exact—it’s at the end of Granite.”

Just then part of the garage door exploded as the growing fire destroyed a support. Rita jumped and coughed; Hanna coughed as well. Jared was probing the back wall of the cupboard with the tip of the crowbar.

“Are you okay, Chief?” Charlie asked, for the first time the timbre of his voice changing to concern.

“For now. We need Fire ASAP.” She ended the call.

“What are you looking for?” Hanna asked Jared.

“A way out. The side wall is brick. The porch is raised and wooden.” He coughed and pulled his shirt up over his mouth and nose. “If we can get through this wall and out to the porch, we can get out.”

Rita and Hanna both coughed again. The smoke and heat were getting more intense by the moment.

“We need to get down,” Jared said as Hanna took Rita’s hand. “Fire, smoke, and heat rise.” They knelt as Jared continued probing the wall. It did sound hollow.

They’d found the phone and help was coming. Would it get here in time?