CHAPTER FOURTEEN
By half past six, the sheriff’s department had settled into an uneasy quiet.
Selena stood alone in the back room with the evidence board in front of her and a cooling cup of water untouched on the table. The blinds were half closed against the evening sun. Outside, phones rang now and then, followed by low voices and the scrape of paperwork.
Connor should have called. He should have checked in.
Selena checked her watch.
6:30 pm.
Still nothing.
The door opened behind her. Arnold stepped in with a file tucked under one arm, his face carrying the answer before he spoke.
“Still no word,” he said.
Selena looked back at the board. “Where the hell is he?”
“I tried him twice. Went to voicemail both times.”
“Did he tell anyone where he was going after Carl Higgins?”
“No.”
Selena turned fully toward him. “Arnold, if he does something that’s going to jeopardize the case, then…”
“Then what?”
Cheryl’s voice came from the doorway behind Arnold.
Selena had not heard her approach. Cheryl stood with her arms crossed and her chin raised, wearing the expression of a woman who had walked in on the last line of a conversation and already disliked the rest of it.
Arnold shifted aside, suddenly interested in the file under his arm.
Selena said, “Cheryl, I’m only looking out for him.”
“Of course you are.” Cheryl came into the room. “Like you looked out for him when you cut him loose and ran out of Harlan County fifteen years ago?”
The words struck with enough force to leave Selena searching for a response she could use in a sheriff’s office, in front of a deputy, during a murder investigation.
“That’s not…”
Cheryl lifted her eyebrows. “Not what?”
“Not relevant.”
“Oh, I’d say it’s relevant if you’re standing here talking about whether Connor can be trusted.”
Arnold cleared his throat. “Cheryl.”
“No, it’s fine.” Cheryl did not look at him. “Sheriff Chase has told us. We know, don’t we, Arnold?”
Arnold’s ears reddened. “Well, I don’t know all the details. Just the hits.” He glanced at Selena. “Connor was very respectful about it.”
Selena gave a short laugh without humor. “Yeah. I bet he was.”
Cheryl’s expression faltered by half an inch, but she recovered fast. “He’s a good man.”
“I know he is.”
“Do you?”
The room seemed to shrink around that question. Selena rested her hand on the table and made herself keep her voice level.
“This doesn’t matter. Not our personal life.
You guys care about him. I care about him.
” The next words had to be chosen with care.
“As a colleague. He’s very upset about what happened to Victor and Warren.
I’m saying that if we can anticipate him making a wrong move, we should try to persuade him out of it. That’s all.”
Cheryl studied her for a few seconds, arms still folded.
“All right,” she said.
Arnold exhaled softly.
Cheryl looked past Selena to Victor’s photograph on the murder board. The hard line of her mouth changed. “I still can’t believe what happened to Vic.”
Selena turned a fraction. “You knew him?”
Arnold gave her a look. “Everyone knew Vic.”
Cheryl moved closer to the board. "My big sister was great friends with his wife, Marlene, when they were growing up.
Marlene used to do my hair when I was a little girl.
French braids, ribbons, the whole thing.
She'd sit me on the kitchen stool and make me feel like I was going somewhere grand, even if it was only church. "
Selena absorbed that and felt a familiar professional shame creep in.
She had almost forgotten the depth of Elmsview’s connections.
Nobody here was only a witness, only a victim, only a suspect.
They had cut one another’s hair, coached one another’s children, shared tables at fundraisers, borrowed tools, held grudges, kept secrets, and remembered every public embarrassment across three generations.
“Is your sister still in touch with Marlene?” Selena asked.
“Sure.”
“Would she come in for a chat?”
Cheryl blinked. “My sister?”
“It might help to get an outside perspective on Victor’s life. Someone close enough to know the marriage, but not inside the house.”
A laugh escaped Cheryl before she could stop it. “My sis? She’d pay you to gossip.”
Arnold nodded. “That’s true.”
Cheryl thumped him on the arm. “Hey. I can say that because she’s my sister. You can’t.”
Arnold lifted both hands. “Withdrawn.”
Selena said, “Does she live locally?”
“Walking distance. She’s not far from here.”
“Can you call her?”
Cheryl’s annoyance had cooled now, replaced by the need to be useful. “Yeah. I’ll call her.”
“Please do.”
Cheryl left with Arnold behind her. The door swung halfway shut, then drifted open again.
Selena turned back to the board.
Marlene Schmidt’s name sat under Victor’s photograph as wife, next of kin, out of town with children.
Out of town did not mean out of reach.
The thought came and went before Selena could fully test it.
The interview room was small, clean, and too warm. A square table sat at the center, with three chairs arranged around it. The wall clock made a faint clicking sound with every second. Selena sat facing the door, opened her notebook, and wrote Marlene Schmidt at the top of a blank page.
She should call her father on the way home.
The thought had been circling all day. Another lead. Another statement. Another trip. Still, Roy Tanner asking about him had made avoidance feel childish. Her father would find out. Better to hear it from her than from someone in line at the pharmacy.
The door opened.
Cheryl stepped in first. Behind her came a woman several years older, with shoulder-length brown hair, brown eyes, and a flowery blue dress under a denim jacket.
She carried herself with the easy confidence of someone who had entered rooms talking her whole life and had rarely found a reason to stop.
“Agent Raven,” Cheryl said, “this is Amanda Lee.”
Selena stood. “Good to meet you.”
Amanda smiled brightly and took her hand. “You, too. Sorry for being dressed like this. I was just about to go out.”
“No need to apologize. I’m sorry if I ruined your plans.”
“Oh, hell, no. It weren’t nothin’. I just wanted to help.”
Cheryl shut the door but stayed near it.
Amanda glanced at her sister. “Can I have a coffee, Cheryl?”
Cheryl stared at her.
Amanda winked at her sister. “What?”
“This is the only time I’ll run after you, Mandy.”
“I could get used to this.”
Cheryl took one step toward the door.
Amanda laughed. “I’m joking. I don’t want anything. I just wanted to see if you would.”
Cheryl looked at Selena. “Now you’ll see what you’re dealing with.”
“I already have a sense,” Selena said.
“Good luck.” Cheryl pointed at Amanda. “Don’t embellish.”
Amanda sat without waiting to be asked and crossed one leg over the other. “She loves me really.”
“I’m sure.”
“Not all the time, but enough.”
Selena sat opposite her and clicked her pen. “Amanda, Cheryl said you know Marlene Schmidt.”
Amanda leaned in slightly. “Aren’t you the sheriff’s ex?”
Selena paused. “I am.”
“Must be difficult working with that stud, knowing you let him get away.”
“I left him, actually.” Selena kept the pen still. “In any case, about Marlene.”
Amanda’s eyes shone with delight. “Wouldn’t that be a story if you two lovebirds got back together?”
“We won’t.”
“I tell you who’d hate it if you did. My sister.”
Selena looked up from the notebook.
Amanda gave a knowing smile. “She’s got designs on the sheriff. You watch out. Cheryl’s sweet, but she’s determined. She’d kill to get what she wants.”
Selena let the silence sharpen.
Amanda’s smile faded a little. “Poor choice of words.”
“Yes.”
“Sorry.”
“I don’t want to take up too much of your time,” Selena said. “I need any insight you have into Victor and Marlene Schmidt.”
Amanda settled back. “Two lovely people. Me and Marlene go way back.”
“How far back?”
“To school. We always hung out. Had sleepovers. That sort of thing.”
“And Victor?”
“Close enough. Victor moved here about ten years ago. Not best friends or anything, but this county isn’t Chicago. You can’t avoid people even when you try.”
“Did they seem happy?”
Amanda’s expression changed.
Not much. Just enough for Selena to notice.
Amanda glanced at the door, then lowered her voice. “That’s the thing. It wasn’t all rosy. Not the way they made it out to be.”
Selena wrote one line. Marriage problems.
“How so?”
Amanda looked uncomfortable for the first time since she had entered. The performance slipped, leaving someone more cautious underneath.
“Victor was having an affair.”
Selena kept still, but that revelation got her blood pumping. “Really?”
“You betcha.”
“Was that well known?”
“No. Not all over town. Marlene told me she was sure, though.”
“Sure based on what?”
“Coming home late. Being weird with his truck, always claiming he had errands after meetings. You know the signs.”
“Did she have proof?”
“Depends what you call proof. She was embarrassed, so she didn’t tell me everything. But she didn’t know the woman’s identity. That was what drove her crazy.”
“Did she ask Victor?”
Amanda gave a small, sad laugh. “Of course. He denied it.”
“How did she take that response?”
“Bad. Then better. Then bad again. That’s how those things go. They eat away at you.”
Selena watched Amanda’s hands. They had stopped moving.
“When did Marlene tell you this?”
“A couple of weeks ago. Maybe a bit more,” she answered.
“Did she ever say anything about Carl Higgins coming to see Victor?”
Amanda’s brow furrowed. “Oh, yeah, she mentioned Carl threatening Victor or something. But I don’t know anything more than that.”
Selena made another note. “When you heard Victor had been killed, what did you think?”
Amanda’s eyes lifted to hers.
“I was worried for Marlene.”
“Why?”
“Because I knew her little plan, you see.” Amanda looked down, then back up. “And I’m sure you fancy FBI agents have already worked it out.”
Selena did not blink. She had to go along with it to see what she could uncover. “That’s right. That’s what I wanted to ask you. Whether you knew she followed through.”
“I know she did.”
Selena kept her face still. Amanda thought she was confirming something. Good.
“Tell me exactly what happened.” Selena waited, trying not to seem too eager.
Amanda shifted in the chair. “She took the kids to her mother’s in Lexington, like she said. Dropped them off. Then drove back.”
“To Elmsview?”
“Yeah.”
"That's a six-hour round trip. What time did she come back at?"
“She left her mom’s after dinner. It’s about three hours, maybe a little less if you push it.”
This is it, Selena thought.
Selena calculated quickly. “Why did she come back?”
“To catch Victor in the act with his piece on the side.”
“Did she say that?”
“Yes. She said she couldn’t live not knowing. She wanted to walk in and see it for herself, or maybe scare the woman off, or maybe make Victor admit it. She was angry. Hurt. Mostly hurt.”
“Did Marlene call you after she got back into town?”
“No.”
“Text?”
Amanda hesitated.
Selena let the silence work.
“Around eleven-thirty,” Amanda said. “She texted that his car was home.”
“We’ll need to check your phone for that… Anything after that text?”
“No.”
“Did she say she was going inside?”
“No.”
“Did she say she saw anyone else there?”
“No.”
“Where was Victor found?” Amanda asked.
Selena held her gaze. “At home.”
It was as if the penny finally dropped. Amanda’s face had lost much of its color. “Oh God.”
“What?”
“I mean, what would look worse than that after he was found dead? Her lying about being gone. Coming back secretly. Thinking he was with another woman.” Amanda leaned forward, urgent now. “I hope I’m not getting her into trouble. Marlene could never have done it. She couldn’t. How was Vic killed?”
Selena closed her notebook.
Amanda stared at it. “That’s it? You’re not going to tell me anything?”
“You’ve helped a lot, Amanda.”
“That sounds bad,” she said. “Marlene loved him.”
“I believe you.”
“No, I don’t think you do.” Amanda’s voice rose, then she checked herself. “She was angry, sure. She was humiliated. But love doesn’t just go away because a man’s stupid.”
Selena stood. “Sometimes it doesn’t.”
Amanda rose more slowly. “Are you going to arrest her?”
“I’m going to verify what you told me.”
“And then?”
“And then I’ll follow the evidence. Should you inform her that we’ve spoken, I’ll take that as obstruction. So not a word.”
Amanda looked toward the door as if Cheryl might come back and undo all of it. “I should’ve kept my mouth shut.”
“Thank you. Please hand your phone over to Arnold so we can verify that Marlene messaged you about Victor’s car.”
Selena opened the door and found Cheryl waiting in the hall with one shoulder against the wall. Her expression changed when she saw Amanda’s face.
“What did you say?” Cheryl asked.
Amanda’s mouth tightened. “The truth.”
Cheryl looked to Selena.
Selena did not answer the question in her eyes. Not yet.
Back in the interview room, the clock kept marking off seconds. Outside, evening pressed against the building. Somewhere in the department, a phone rang and rang before someone picked up.
Marlene Schmidt had cried on the phone like a woman destroyed by grief.
Marlene Schmidt had also possibly lied.
Perhaps she had driven three hours back into Harlan County to catch her husband with another woman. Perhaps she had arrived before he died. Perhaps she had left after he was killed. But proof was needed.
Selena felt the case shift under her feet.
Warren Holt had enemies. Victor Schmidt had enemies. But now Selena knew both men had been accused of having an affair, and Victor also had a wife with motive, opportunity, and a secret journey she had chosen not to mention. That connection had to mean something. Selena could feel it.
Connor was not going to like it.
That did not matter.
She needed Marlene’s phone records. Traffic cameras. Gas receipts. Anything that could place her on the road and put a time against the lie.
Selena looked down at Marlene’s name on the page and drew a slow line beneath it.
By the end of the interview, she had a new suspect.