Chapter Twenty-Four
Josie felt the ominous darkness approaching as if it were sneaking in on the breeze.
She rubbed her temples. It had been so long since she could sense trouble that she didn’t trust it at first. All her life she’d sensed when something dangerous was coming.
It usually came as a darkness on the horizon growing ever closer, ever darker.
She never knew what it was exactly, just that it involved someone she knew, someone she cared about.
Her grandmother had second sight or the “knowing” as she often referred to it. She thought it a gift. Josie didn’t have it as strongly as her gram. Also, for her, she’d always thought of it more as a curse rather than a gift. She’d told herself that she didn’t want to see something awful coming.
But after her accident last year, she’d lost her ability to sense anything in the future.
At first she’d been thankful. Now that it seemed to be returning and she feared it had to do with her sister, she did as her grandmother used to encourage her to do.
She embraced it, closing her eyes and willing herself to really see for the first time.
All she knew was that Amy Sue was in trouble, just as she’d feared would happen when her sister had been determined to see a killer brought to justice.
Josie opened her eyes. The darkness she’d seen earlier creeping in from the horizon was now black. As it moved toward her she stared inwardly, reaching into that menacing mist, afraid yet knowing she had to see what she’d feared most.
Her sister was in trouble.
Jack didn’t know what to expect after getting his wife’s cryptic phone call.
“I need you home right now.” That’s all she’d said before she disconnected.
He told himself that if she was in real trouble she would have called 911—not him.
But he kept thinking about this morning when Detective Tate had come to the house and Christine had repeated what he told her about the night before.
She’d known he was lying. He’d seen in it her face. Yet she’d lied to Tate for him. At the time, he knew it was going to cost him. Fortunately, he’d already decided to change. Did this rather frantic-sounding call have something to do with the lie?
It wasn’t until he pulled in the drive that he saw the two cars parked in front of his house. He recognized them both. Amy Sue Brand’s SUV and Liz Baker’s older-model car that had seen better days.
He glanced toward the house feeling his temper rise. What were those two women doing here? It didn’t take a genius to figure it out, he thought as he parked his car in the garage and got out. They’d come to tell his wife.
Jack swore, thinking of the fifty thousand dollars he’d paid Liz to keep her mouth shut.
She would pay for this. Hell, so would the alleged eyewitness to his bad deed.
He told himself that if he survived this, he and Christine would go on a long cruise.
She could invite all the friends she wanted.
He just planned to drink and stare out at the ocean.
After what was going on in the house would Christine be going anywhere with him? Doubtful.
He started to push open the door into the house when he heard a noise behind him as the garage door was lifted just enough for someone to sneak under it.
Russ had heard enough of the conversation among Amy Sue, Liz and Christine long before the connection had ended.
He wasn’t sure what the women had hoped to get from Jack Marshall’s wife.
What they’d gotten was confirmation that she knew of her husband’s crimes and was too afraid of him to go to the police.
When he saw Jack drive by on his way home this early, Russ knew it was time to end this before someone got killed. He drove his pickup on up to the house, parking next to Amy Sue’s SUV. He felt naked without a gun and badge, but told himself with luck he wouldn’t need them.
Jack, he realized, must have parked in one of the garage stalls because his big dark ride wasn’t parked out front.
At the entrance, Russ rang the bell. Nothing happened.
He knocked, again no answer, nothing. He could hear no sound inside the house.
He tried the door and realized quickly that getting inside would be next to impossible.
The place was like a fortress. He pulled out his phone and tried calling Amy Sue back. It went straight to voicemail.
He was questioning calling the cops when he decided to try the garage doors. Only three of the garage doors had vehicles in them, and all the doors were locked except the one Jack had just entered.
Russ lifted it just enough to slip into the cool darkness inside. He could hear the tick, tick, tick of the engine inside the car Jack had driven here as he moved toward the door into the house.
He hadn’t gone but a few feet when he heard the sound of a shoe sole scrape on the concrete floor.
He started to turn, the hair at his neck prickling an instant before something hard slammed into his head.
As he fell against one of the cars, he heard Jack Marshall let out an oath that ended with “damned cowboy detective” just before Marshall blindsided him with another blow.
This one sent him to the concrete floor and the darkness waiting for him.