Chapter Two
Amy Sue couldn’t remember the last time she’d ugly-cried. But just the sight of her sister coming through the door of the police station made her burst into tears.
Josie rushed to her and quickly wrapped her in her arms, patting her back with one hand and pulling a tissue from her purse with the other. Her sister, the lawyer, was always prepared for tears, though not normally from Amy Sue.
Josie was always prepared for most things because she was like their grandmother.
She had some version of second sight that meant she sensed things before they happened.
But after a recent fall and head injury she’d said the “knowing” was gone.
Which might be true since Josie certainly hadn’t seen this coming any more than Amy Sue had.
“Glad you’re here,” the nicer of the two detectives, Russell Tate, said to Josie once the four of them were seated in the interrogation room, a cup of bad coffee in front of each of them.
Amy Sue had noticed how differently he dressed from the other detective.
Detective Tate wore a Western shirt, jeans and freshly polished boots.
She’d seen the Stetson hanging by his desk when she’d come in half out of her mind trying to get someone to help her.
She’d liked Detective Tate better than the other detective right away.
An attractive man with a full head of curly brown hair and warm brown eyes, he was closer to her own age.
When he looked at her it was with kindness rather than suspicion.
She didn’t have her sister’s second sight, but studying him and his sun-browned hands, she knew he would be good with horses.
That her mind had gone that route made her even more sure that she’d lost her mind tonight.
“She claims she witnessed a murder,” the other detective, Curtis Hanson, said to her lawyer sister, leaning heavily on the word claims. Short and stocky with what appeared to be a permanent frown, Curtis Hanson was older than his partner by at least ten years.
He was dressed in a suit, the tie loose, the jacket wrinkled and smelling like the spearmint breath mint he’d popped in his mouth.
He made Amy Sue nervous as she watched him weave his pen through his fingers restlessly as he studied her from across the table.
With her adrenaline waning, Amy Sue felt wrung out. She’d been here all night, she’d told her story repeatedly and, to her exasperation, hadn’t been believed.
“I know what I saw,” she said for the hundredth time.
“He killed her right in front of me.” From the moment she’d walked into the station, the police had been skeptical after she’d told them that she’d recognized the killer.
“I saw Jack Marshall stab the woman, then grab the plastic sheeting hanging from the doorway to wrap it around her body as he lowered her to the floor. When he stood up, his shirt was soaked with blood. That’s when he looked out the window.
I recognized him and stumbled back, bumping into the wall behind me.
An outside light came on and he looked right at me. ”
“Jack Marshall? The man from the car ads?” her sister asked, sounding as astonished as the cops had been.
“I know what I saw,” Amy Sue snapped.
From the chair next to her, Josie reached over to take her hand, squeezing it gently. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t questioning what you saw. I was just surprised like the police are that it was him.”
“One of our most prominent citizens,” Hanson said. “He owns the largest car dealership in the state. He and his wife are very active, donating thousands of dollars a year to local charities. They’re also active in politics, host the governor when he’s in town.”
“Thank you, Detective,” Josie said. “We get the picture.”
“It was him,” Amy Sue cried. “I recognized him right away. I’ve seen his inane ads on TV enough over the years. It was Jack Marshall. He looked right at me.”
“You say he definitely saw you?” her sister asked, concern edging her voice.
“He saw me. He saw my car and since he owns a car dealership, he’d know the make and model even if he didn’t get my license plate number when he watched me leaving.”
Hanson made a disbelieving sound. “Leaving the scene of what you thought was a murder. Dropping your suitcase and running? Why not just call the police?”
“I’d witnessed a murder,” she said, unable to hide her exasperation.
“I wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. I was afraid to take the time to dig my phone from my purse to call the police until I’d gotten away.
” She saw Hanson exchange a look with her sister before he spoke directly to Josie.
“When we arrived at the house, we found no sign of an altercation, no sign of a murder and no body.” Hanson shook his head, still twirling the pen.
“No blood, no nothing. No sign that anyone had even been there. Also, there were no sheets of plastic like your sister described.” He raised his hand without looking at Amy Sue as he quickly added, “We called the general contractor. He said he’d ordered the plastic on the floors and doorways removed yesterday morning because the Sheetrock guys are coming Monday. ”
Amy shook her head. “That can’t be right,” she said, trying not to raise her voice.
“I saw him grab the plastic sheeting from the doorway before he put down her body. There must have still been plastic on the floor as well. It explains why he didn’t seem in a hurry to cover up his crime.
He must have known that he had plenty of time to get away before I could report it and you could get out to the house.
With all the plastic around, of course there wasn’t any blood or evidence of the murder. ”
“Sounds like you have it all figured out,” Detective Hanson said. “So, who was the woman he allegedly killed?”
Amy Sue started to speak, but her sister squeezed her hand to stop her.
“I believe that’s your job,” Josie said.
“My sister has already told you she didn’t recognize the young blonde woman.
She’s explained what she witnessed, and you’ve taken her statement.
Have you been able to reach Jack Marshall? ”
“He’s out of town,” Detective Hanson said, sounding pleased at the news. “He’s been gone all weekend,” he added, as if daring Amy Sue to argue the point.
“According to whom?” her sister inquired.
“His wife,” Detective Tate, the cowboy cop, said.
Josie sat back and let go of Amy Sue’s hand. “Yes, the wife is always the last to know, isn’t she.”
The detective dropped the pen. “I don’t know what you’re insinuating.”
“Of course you do,” Josie said. “My sister has told you in her statement sitting in front of you exactly what she saw. They appeared to be a couple. He was showing her the house, which would explain her excitement—until he killed her. It is perfectly clear that my sister witnessed a murder and got a good look at the killer. Now do your job.”
“What was your sister even doing there in the first place?” Hanson demanded. “That apartment she said she’d rented wasn’t finished, let alone available to rent. We talked to the owner of the property. He didn’t rent it to her.”
“It doesn’t matter what she was doing there.
She rented the place online and was clearly scammed since as you say, the apartment isn’t finished.
Her accidentally being there has nothing to do with what she witnessed.
I’m sure the killer picked that spot because he thought no one would be there,” Josie said in her calm lawyer voice.
“Clearly someone took advantage of her online. Unless you’re interested in tracking down the person to get her money back…
I didn’t think so. My sister saw Jack Marshall kill a woman.
I don’t know how he did it, but you can bet he did. ”
Hanson sighed. “Look, I don’t know what your sister thought she saw, but she didn’t see Jack Marshall.
Jack has an airtight alibi. He was at a conference in Great Falls all weekend and isn’t expected back until tomorrow.
” The detective glanced at his phone screen.
“Make that today, since it is now Sunday. Business associates at the convention will verify that he was there.”
“But you haven’t talked to all of them, have you?
” Josie shook her head. “How convenient he was out of town, yet you have an eyewitness who says he was not in Great Falls at a conference but here in Billings stabbing a woman to death. You also have a time of death because my sister saw the whole thing.”
“Right,” the detective said. “But what we don’t have is a murder victim.”
“Yet,” Josie said, and rose from her chair. “We’re finished here.”
Rising as well, Amy Sue looked at the two detectives, Hanson with his suspicions and Tate with his sympathy, which was almost worse.
She felt sick to her stomach after what she’d witnessed.
But the real horror was that they didn’t believe her, making her wonder if she could have been wrong.
If Jack Marshall was in Great Falls all weekend, then how could she have seen him?
Exhaustion, confusion and her waning adrenaline had her fighting tears as she followed her sister out of the interrogation room.
“What if I’m wrong?” she said to Josie as they left the police station. “What if I only thought it was him?”
Her sister stopped walking to look at her. “I know you. If you said you saw Jack Marshall kill that woman, then that’s who you saw. It’s up to the detectives to find out how he did it.”
“They won’t, though!” she cried. “They don’t believe me.”
“But I do,” Josie said.
Amy Sue felt overwhelmed to have her sister on her side. “What would I do without you?”
“You’re never going to have to find out,” Josie said, and took her arm as they walked toward their vehicles in the lot. The sun broke free of the horizon to the east, promising a new beautiful Montana cloudless day. “Let’s take your SUV. I want to see where this happened.”
Glad for the warmth of the sun, it was still blinding as Amy Sue handed her sister the keys. “You drive. I can’t right now. The route is still in the navigation system.”
Josie looked over at her in concern. “If you’d rather not go back there—”
“I’m okay, just still upset. They don’t even believe that I was scammed when I rented the apartment next door. Doesn’t it bother you that these things always happen to me?”
“You’re kind and trusting. Better than being like me who questions everything and doesn’t trust most people,” her sister said.
Amy Sue scoffed at that. Just once she wanted to be the one who solved the problem rather than made it.
“He isn’t going to get away with this, is he?
” she asked as she climbed into the passenger side of her SUV and Josie slid behind the wheel.
When she didn’t reply, she glanced over and saw the answer on her sister’s face.
“He’s going to lie and they’re going to believe him rather than me because he’s Jack Marshall, an upstanding member of society who has a lot of money and influence. ”
Josie didn’t respond right away. “It will depend on his alibi and how airtight it is. He must have found a way to be in both places. I want to see this neighborhood,” she said as she drove away from the police department.
Amy Sue felt chilled even on the sunny warm day at the thought of going back to the scene.
Why hadn’t she listened to her intuition last night?
She’d been spooked in that unfinished neighborhood.
It had felt all wrong. She had actually thought about not getting out of the car last night.
“I should have just gone to a hotel, but you know me. I paid for a cute little apartment and was determined to stay there even though the area gave me the creeps.”
“Things often happen for a reason,” Josie said. “If you hadn’t been scammed and gone to that address, you wouldn’t have witnessed the murder, and Jack Marshall would have gotten away with it.”
She couldn’t help scoffing. “It looks like he’ll get away with it anyway.”
“Give the detectives a chance,” Josie said. “In your statement, you said the neighborhood is under construction. I’m curious as to who is involved in the project.”
“You think Jack Marshall might be one of the investors?”
“Probably not. But I’m betting some friend of his is.
He had a key or at least knew the door would be open to the house you described.
He planned this. He would have checked out the place beforehand.
He’d know about the plastic sheeting. To pull this off, he’d been prepared—right down to disposing of the body and nailing down his alibi. ”
She couldn’t help the shudder at the thought of how well-planned this murder had to have been as they drove south of Billings proper. No wonder the police hadn’t believed her. She could hardly believe it herself.
Now in the daylight she could see that she’d been right. All of the structures in this cul-de-sac appeared to be under construction. A large sign read Johnstone Construction in front of one of the houses. Would the police look for a connection between Jack Marshall and this project?
There was no crime scene tape stretched across the entrance to the cul-de-sac.
Nor was there any sign of police cars. Amy Sue felt her stomach churn.
Of course not, since the cops didn’t believe anyone had been murdered here by one of the leading businessmen in the city.
By the time they’d arrived, Jack Marshall had already covered his tracks and was long gone.
“That’s the house and apartment building next to it,” she told her sister as Josie slowly drove around the loop to stop next to the larger of the two buildings.
Around the cul-de-sac, other structures were in varying degrees of construction.
She parked and turned off the engine before looking over at her.
“You don’t have to go, but I’d like to look around,” Josie said.
For a moment, Amy Sue hesitated, but reminded herself that she was a lot stronger than she thought she was. Isn’t that what her grandmother used to tell her? After what she’d been through, maybe it was true.
She opened her door and climbed out, blinking in surprise at how different the area looked in the daylight.
Beyond the new subdivision, there were open fields.
In the distance was downtown Billings. Last night with the low clouds, she hadn’t seen any lights.
Nor was there anyone around this early in the morning.
The construction crews wouldn’t be arriving for a few hours yet—if they worked on a Sunday.
Unless you knew what had happened here, a person wouldn’t think there was anything scary about this place.
“Around back,” she told her sister, and couldn’t help glancing up at the second-story balcony where Jack Marshall had stood watching her drive off last night. She hugged herself against the chilly June morning as she hurried after her sister.