Chapter Eighteen
Amy Sue didn’t return her sister’s call until after Russ walked her back to the hotel.
“I’m worried about you,” Josie said without preamble when she answered.
It was the lawyer in her, Amy Sue told herself.
Or maybe the second sight she had on occasion.
Josie hadn’t been worried about her going to Billings alone for a week and look how that had turned out.
But if she’d seen anything bad happening beforehand, she hadn’t said anything.
“Has your second sight come back?” she asked between bites of cold fries. She was joking, kind of. When Josie didn’t answer right away, she was alarmed and said, “It has, hasn’t it?”
“Maybe, a little. I don’t know for sure,” her sister said. “Of course, I’m worried about you given the kind of man Jack Marshall is. I have a really bad feeling.”
Amy Sue had known that anything she did to get justice for the murdered woman was putting her in danger.
But her sister telling her about her so-called bad feeling felt more real and terrifying than she wanted to admit.
Like their grandmother, Josie had seen things before they happened.
She said she sensed them, a darkness she saw coming.
When Amy Sue came to Billings to prove Jack Marshall was a killer, she’d been angry because she hadn’t been believed.
But she’d also wanted justice, and not just for what Marshall had done.
She wanted justice for what had happened to her last year.
A man had tried to kill her, but the real pain was that he’d made her trust him only to break her heart.
Getting justice for that then-unknown woman Marshall had tricked and murdered had made her fearless.
She no longer felt fearless. Detective Russell Tate had made her want to believe in love again and a future she could only dream possible.
The only thing she was willing to risk now was her heart with him.
But she’d made a promise not just to herself but to Liz and even Whitney.
She couldn’t go back on that any more than Russ could stop trying to get justice as part of this job—even if he lost that job.
Last night after Russ had arrived so quickly following her call, she had let her sister know that she was safe and that the detective was with her.
Now she filled Josie in on what she’d discovered yesterday. “The dead woman’s name is Whitney Clark. Russ is following up on it, but we still need to find someone to verify our suspicions as to how Jack Marshall pulled it off given his alibi.”
“We?” Josie asked.
Amy Sue heard the caution in her sister’s voice all in that one word. “I’m not getting in over my head with Russ if that’s what you’re worried about.” Even as she said the words, she thought of the look she’d seen in his eyes and recalled her own reaction to it—and the kiss.
“Russ? Oh Amy Sue.”
“You need to stop worrying about me.”
“I wish I could, but you’re my sister and I love you and you’re in Billings rattling the cage, as you put it, of a murderer and now I have this bad feeling.”
“When you put it that way,” she joked. “Actually, I’ve run out of ideas.
I’ve done as much as I can, and so has Russ.
” What she didn’t say was what she was thinking.
Whatever happened next was in Jack Marshall’s court, and truthfully, that did have her worried.
Not just for herself. The last time she talked to Liz Baker she’d gotten the impression the woman might do something desperate.
“Russ plans to call Marshall in to the police department after he talks to Liz, so I guess we’ll see what happens. How is your trial going?”
“Fine. Call me when you hear something and, in the meantime, please stay away from Jack Marshall and be really careful.”
Amy Sue smiled ruefully as she disconnected, having heard what her sister hadn’t needed to say. Be careful with that cowboy detective, too.
Liz turned her phone back on first thing that morning to see that she had three calls from her ex. She was about to delete them without listening to her ex-husband’s drunken ramblings when Detective Tate called.
“Can we meet and talk?” he asked after introducing himself and telling her he’d talked to Amy Sue Brand. They agreed to meet at the bar where Liz worked in Laurel rather than her making the drive into Billings to the police department.
“I have the early shift today, but it shouldn’t be busy. We can talk there, if that’s all right,” she told him.
After she disconnected, she remembered what her ex had said the night before about blackmailing Jack Marshall. She thought it was all talk, but it was just like him to get into trouble. Against her better judgment, she listened to his first voicemail.
I’m going to do this thing I told you about because I want you back, Liz, and I don’t want to fight about money anymore. Imagine what we could do with a whole lot of money. Just think about it.
She shook her head and listened to the next one. Robert sounded a lot less sober. I’ll do anything to get you back. Anything. I just wanted you to know how much I love you.
Liz almost didn’t listen to the last voicemail, expecting it would just be more of the same.
She’d heard it all before, how much her ex loved her, but this time she wasn’t going back to him no matter what he did.
If he actually did what he was suggesting, blackmailing Jack Marshall, he’d be going to prison.
Liz. Something in Robert’s voice scared her. I did it. There’s no going back now. I set up a meeting tonight. Once I get the money— The rest of the voicemail was lost in the sound of the bar noise.
“Oh, Robert, what have you done?” She deleted the voicemails thinking she was protecting her ex. She owed him at least that much, she thought as she left for work.
Liz Baker was right. The place was empty when Russ arrived to find her stocking beer behind the bar. “You must be Detective Tate,” she said, wiping her hands on a towel before coming around the bar to motion to a seat at one of the tables.
Russ found himself assessing the woman as she told him about her friend Whitney, how she hadn’t heard from her for over two weeks, not since the night her friend’s lover was taking her to their new house that was under construction.
“That was the last time I heard from her,” Liz said. “I expected her to call either that night late or the next day. She didn’t call, and I started getting worried. I knew she’d be excited about the house and want to tell me everything.”
“Amy Sue Brand said she recognized a photo you had of Whitney on a table in your entry.” She nodded. “You have other photos of your friend?”
Liz pulled out her phone, called up something and handed him the cell.
“Mind if I send these to my phone?” She didn’t. He handed her cell back and listened as she told him about her visit to the car dealer.
“He lied right to my face, but it was him. What gave him away was when he first saw me, he was startled because he recognized me, I know he did. Whitney had a photo of the two of us at her house.”
“But before then, he didn’t know who you were?”
She nodded. “But he does now.” She shuddered and looked toward the bar’s front door. “I saw a car follow Amy Sue last night. I was worried it was him.”
“Someone did follow her to her hotel. She’s since changed hotels. You might consider staying with someone for a while.”
Liz shook her head. “He’s not going to put me out of my house.”
He wanted to argue the point, but saved his breath. “Do you own a firearm?”
“Of course. I’m a Montanan born and bred.” She narrowed her eyes. “You seem to think I’m going to need it.”
“Would you pull the trigger if Jack Marshall broke into your house?” he asked.
“In less than a heartbeat.”
Russ thanked her and rose. “I’m going to take this information to the chief, but if I were you, I wouldn’t expect much to happen.”
“Marshall’s alibi, right? Amy Sue told me. There has to be some way to discredit it, right?”
“I’m working on it. But in the meantime, I would suggest you never leave work without someone following you out to your car to make sure you’re safe. You might also want to reconsider staying with a friend for a while and not going back to your house.”
“Thanks for the advice, but I can take care of myself.”
A couple of what looked like regulars came into the bar arguing about fossil fuel versus those damned electric cars as Russ left, but not before he gave Liz his cell phone number. He hoped he didn’t have to tell her again to be careful of the man who’d murdered her friend.