Chapter Nine
Jack had desperately wanted to leave the office after the detective’s surprise visit earlier, but after closing his blinds, he’d made himself stay.
Taking off right away would make him look guilty, and the last thing he wanted to do was be followed.
The gall of that detective coming to his business to question him.
He couldn’t believe that this hadn’t blown over by now.
More concerning was Amy Sue Brand. He’d really thought that after his visit to the Brand ranch, his so-called eyewitness would have been scared off.
She knew who she was dealing with and what he was capable of, so why wasn’t she backing off?
The woman definitely had to be deranged.
She was certainly irrational to go to the police with that ridiculous story.
He’d silently cursed himself for going out to the ranch. But he couldn’t help being curious. Also, he needed to know who and what he was dealing with. He’d thought he could scare her into changing her accusation.
Instead, that had been yet another mistake and now he had a police detective questioning him yet again. Foolish, foolish, he admonished. He’d tried to calm down and think. He’d been so sure nothing would come of this. It never should have gotten this out of control.
Amy Sue Brand had changed everything. The moment he saw her standing in that halo of light behind that adjacent building that night, he knew that she’d seen everything.
He’d thought he was still safe, that he just needed to not overreact.
He’d told himself he could fix this, he would fix this.
And he thought he had, but that one detective wasn’t letting it go.
He picked up his phone and called his good friend, Milt. “Chief,” he said. “Hope your day is going better than mine.”
“What’s wrong, Jack?” Milt said. “Car sales down?” The chief laughed.
“Actually, they are, but I can still afford those cigars that you like,” he joked back. “No, it’s this ridiculous woman’s story about me.”
“Don’t worry about that. We aren’t taking it seriously, Jack.”
“Maybe you aren’t, but your detective was here just a few minutes ago giving me a hard time.”
“My detective?”
“Tate.”
“Oh, him. He’s new and trying to make a name for himself. I’ll take care of it.”
“Thanks, Milt. It just looks bad to have cops coming and going here at work over some nonsense.” The chief agreed. “We’re going to have to go fishing up at Fort Peck again soon. You heard about the new boat I have coming? Bring that other detective. Hanson? I like him.”
As Jack disconnected, his smile disappeared. Maybe he’d taken care of the problem. But as he walked over to one of his office windows and peered out from behind the blinds, he feared it was only temporary.
From the window, he’d expected to see the detective hanging around. But to his shock he saw something even more upsetting. There was that damned ranch woman as if he’d conjured her up. She had been standing in his showroom pretending to look at the shiny new car sitting there.
She’d looked up as if sensing him watching her.
His first impulse had been to storm out of his office and demand to know what she thought she was doing.
Fortunately, he’d come to his senses and reminded himself that according to what he’d told the cops, he’d had no contact with the woman, had never laid eyes on her.
Dragging his gaze away, he’d paced, afraid she would come to his office to confront him. What would she do if she did? Make a scene? Start yelling that he was a murderer? Maybe that would be good. It would prove just how delusional she was as she was being dragged away by the cops.
He’d been trying to decide the best way to handle her, when he’d looked out through the corner of the blinds and was surprised to find her gone.
He’d glanced around thinking she might be behind one of the cars, but then he’d spotted her walking to her SUV parked out front—with Detective Russell Tate.
His pulse had thundered in his ears, his hands clammy and perspiration dampening his shirt beneath his suit jacket.
What kind of game was this woman and the detective playing?
He’d felt his ire rise quickly. Like most women, she had no idea who she was dealing with coming here to…
what? Scare him? Warn him? He hated that she’d done both.
He rued the night he’d first laid eyes on her.
Even then he hadn’t realized what a nightmare the woman was going to be—let alone the detective.
At least him, Marshall could get rid of without any bloodshed.
He felt even more vulnerable. He’d thought nothing more would come of this, but now he knew different. He couldn’t chance anything else coming to light that might put him on the detective’s radar.
With dread, he realized that he needed to make sure that the cops couldn’t connect him to a woman named Whitney Clark. There was only one way to make sure that didn’t happen.
Whitney could never become a missing person.
Amy Sue’s impromptu lunch with Detective Tate had left her unsettled.
She’d been so certain that first night at the police station that no one was going to investigate Jack Marshall.
Detective Tate had been kind to her, much kinder than the other detective.
Tate hadn’t disregarded her story and treated her as if she were delusional, but had listened as if willing to accept that she’d seen something that night and wasn’t just making it all up.
But as he’d pointed out at lunch, all of the evidence made Jack Marshall look innocent. The police couldn’t prove that the car dealer was anywhere near Billings the night of the murder.
That the police didn’t have any more evidence than Amy Sue had gathered was upsetting.
But now she felt as if she had an ally in Detective Tate.
He had to know how much that meant to her.
She’d been glad when they’d talked as she drove him back to where he’d left his patrol SUV.
She thought of the look in the detective’s warm brown eyes when he told her about growing up outside of Roundup on a ranch. “You’re a cowboy?”
“Through and through.”
She liked that about him, but wondered why he’d become a cop.
The question had felt too personal, just like the way she had caught him studying her had felt personal.
The cowboy in him wasn’t the only thing about him that she liked.
Her reaction to Russell Tate was enough to scare her.
She’d been here before, feeling something for a man she really didn’t know.
Maybe the detective was on her side, maybe not.
Either way, she had to be careful around him.
Right now she desperately needed an ally and didn’t want to read anything more into his attention.
Pushing away thoughts of the cowboy cop, Amy Sue focused on what she had to do to prove Jack Marshall had killed a woman the night in question.
She had to find evidence that destroyed his alibi.
Online, she found the conference Marshall said he’d attended in Great Falls.
All she needed was to locate someone who’d seen him leave the hotel.
Then she’d have the evidence she needed.
As for how he’d gotten to Billings and back to Great Falls without anyone being the wiser, she and Detective Tate both agreed it was by plane. She liked her theory of a friend with a jet plane and was determined to dig deeper into that.
Driving would have taken him seven hours round trip and that didn’t include committing murder and getting rid of the body. She’d also checked commercial flights. None of them would have worked, plus there would be a record to show he’d left the conference.
But he could have taken a small private jet and made the trip in less than an hour. The return flight would be about the same. Even if it had taken him an hour to get the woman to the house, he would have only been gone a little over three hours. He wouldn’t have been missed at a large conference.
Amy Sue knew that she needed more information about Jack Marshall. What she couldn’t find online, she’d have to get at his car dealership. She called to make an appointment with the service department.
When told that they couldn’t get her in for a couple of weeks, she explained that she was from out of town. Couldn’t they just take a quick look at it?
She agreed to bring it in the next morning first thing and they’d see what they could find.
Russ felt more worried about Amy Sue’s safety after their lunch.
The woman had put together a lot of the same theories he had about how Marshall could have been in two places at one time and committed what the man must have thought would be the perfect murder.
That Amy Sue had figured out at least part of how it had been done made her more dangerous than even Jack Marshall knew.
Nor had Russ been able to talk her into going back home and giving up this plan of hers.
True, she might not be safe anywhere, but when she didn’t back off this crusade of hers, Jack Marshall was going to start throwing his weight around.
He had the clout and the friendships even in the police department to have her arrested for harassing him.
Worse, he might decide it was time to get rid of her for good.
If so, it wouldn’t be a stabbing, but an accident that wouldn’t make him look more guilty than he already did.
Russ wouldn’t put anything past the man.
That he’d made up his mind about Marshall had him second-guessing becoming a detective.
There was no evidence against the man. In fact, he found himself wishing that he could believe Amy Sue was wrong about who she’d seen murder that woman.
Maybe Jack Marshall was innocent and therefore not dangerous.