Page 105 of Every Deadly Suspicion

“Maybe I don’t want to get out of this. Maybe I want to leave a mark, something people will still talk about thirty-five years from now.”

“You’ll get your wish, I think. If you really want to be remembered as a monster.”

“Not a monster, a genius. Sit down.” Marshall pointed at a chair with the barrel of the gun.

Jared hesitated.

“I don’t want to shoot you yet. Don’t test me. I will if you force my hand.”

Jared sat and watched Marshall closely. Could he take him without getting shot?

“Where’s your phone?”

Jared patted his pockets. “I don’t know. I hate lugging it around. It’s probably still in my truck.”

“Are you lying?”

Jared held his hands up. “Search me if you want. I’m always leaving my phone somewhere. If I’d had it with me this afternoon, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Marshall pulled a phone out of his pocket. “I didn’t want to use mine because I know once I turn it on, it will be easy to track. It doesn’t really matter now, does it? This is the endgame.”

He set the phone on the table and turned it on. When it powered up, he pressed a button. The phone rang twice and then Jared heard Hanna’s voice.

“Marcus.”

“That’s right. Here at your boyfriend’s house. Listen quick and fast. I’ve got him. You have five minutes to get here, or I blow his head off. Anyone else shows up, I blow his head off.” Marshall ended the call and shut off the phone. He grinned at Jared. “Now we see how much she really cares about you.”

Anger poked at Jared and every muscle tensed. He wanted to jump Marshall and smash his face in. “I’d like to kill you for what you did to Edda. How does killing a sweet old lady make a mark?”

Marshall jammed the shotgun in Jared’s face. “You wouldn’t understand. No one ever treated you like dirt.”

Jared leaned back with the shotgun barrel pressed into his cheek, Marshall’s stale breath in his nostrils. The man raged.

“The people who never took me seriously have paid and will pay. Joe paid, Scott paid, and that old biddy paid. You and Hanna are next.”

Jared held his tongue in the face of the other man’s rage. He could now see Marshall as a killer.

After a minute, Marcus blinked and backed up, the pressure on Jared’s cheek eased as he pulled the shotgun back. Marcus looked surprised at his own outburst and calmed somewhat.

“The women were Chase’s idea; he called it big-game hunting. Stringing them along for money was mine. Scott caught on and tried to keep me away from Chase. I took care of him. Now you’re in the way. I don’t want to be distracted when your girlfriend gets here.”

Marshall raised the shotgun again and Jared stiffened.

Hanna froze for a moment, then heat enveloped her. It was as if every nerve in her body was on fire.

The face of her phone simply showed the time. Marcus had ended the call. In the time it took her mind to register what had just happened, one minute gave way to another.

Fear pushed her to sprint into her home office and grab her duty belt and vest. After she put the vest on and hitched on herbelt, she picked up her car keys and sprinted for her car, speed-dialing dispatch on the way. When the night dispatcher answered, Hanna stopped dead at her car.

What could she tell them? That Marcus had Jared? Every cop in the county would come in blazing with lights and sirens, and Hanna believed Marcus would shoot Jared. “Sorry, accidental dial.”

“Okay, Chief, you have a good night.”

“You too.”

The call ended and Hanna hopped in her car. She started the engine. Put the car in gear and then stopped again.

I have to think.But there was no time to think. She pounded her fist on the wheel, then backed out of her driveway, knowing she’d have to figure something out on the way.

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