Page 17 of Absent Reason

Simon took out his phone, calling for backup to come and take Marcus into custody. They would have to wait until he was sober to question him, but at least now they had him.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Is there any sign of a lawyer for him?" Amber asked as she watched Marcus through the one-way glass that looked through into the interrogation room, watching him with an increasing sense of worry.

"He says he doesn't want one," Simon said. "He doesn't trust them any more than he trusts us."

That didn’t make Amber any less concerned.

"Do you think we can head in there?" Amber said. Marcus was currently pacing the interrogation room, occasionally gesticulating to something only he could see in a way that implied disagreement, even violence.

"I'm not sure if this is the drink or just his normal mental state," Simon said, taking a second or two to consider Marcus’ behavior. "I think this is the best we're going to get."

That still worried Amber a little, but she and Simon needed to question Marcus at some point, and it was already getting late. They needed to end this. They needed to either try to establish that Marcus was the killer or find somewhere else to look. If they waited too long and they were wrong about him being the killer, then they gave whoever was still out there all the time in the world to strike again.

"Let's go in," she said.

Simon nodded and signaled to the guard to open the door. They stepped inside the room, closing the door behind them. Marcus stopped pacing and turned to glare at them, his eyes bloodshot and wild. He obviously didn’t like them being in there.

"What do you want?" he snapped. “Want to jump on me again? Beat me up?”

"We want to ask you a few questions," Simon said calmly, taking a seat across from Marcus.

"I told you already; I don't talk to cops."

"We're not cops," Amber said. "We're FBI."

Marcus snorted. "Same difference."

"The difference is how serious this could get for you if you don’t cooperate. Sit down, please, Marcus," Simon said in a firm tone. Marcus looked as if he might argue or even fight, but after a few seconds, he took a seat, glaring at the two of them from one side of a table there. Amber and Simon went to sit down opposite him.

"What do you want?" he demanded.

"Do the names Mia Wilson or Kelly Wasner mean anything to you?" Amber asked.

"Never heard of them." That had the feeling of an automatic reaction rather than a real answer. It was obvious that Marcus wasn’t in a mood to cooperate.

"Are you sure?" Amber asked. She pulled up pictures of the two victims on her phone, showing the photographs to Marcus one after the other.

Marcus didn't even look at them before he answered. "Never seen them."

It was obvious that Simon was as frustrated by that as Amber was.

"Marcus, we have you for trying to assault a federal agent," he snapped. "You swung a beer bottle at my partner, and you hit me several times. If you don't start cooperating, we'll hold you for that, even if we can't hold you for the murders."

Amber saw Marcus' eyes widen at the last word.

"Murders? I don't know anything about that," Marcus said, crossing his arms over his chest. "You're not pinning something like that on me. I didn’t do that!"

"Mia Wilson and Kelly Wasner were both killed on bridges in the town," Amber said, determined to take advantage of him finally reacting to her and Simon. "You like to hang out around bridges, don't you, Marcus?"

"Lots of people do," Marcus insisted.

"And at the university?" Simon asked. "Did you know that both of the victims were students there?"

"I don’t know anything about them! I didn't do this!" Marcus said, raising his voice. “I told you, I never even saw those people.”

"But you didn’t even look at the pictures, so how would you know?” Simon demanded.

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