Page 23 of Lawman’s Witness

“Look, what I did was stupid, okay?” he said. “My truck was broke down. I was desperate because I gotta have the truck to get to work.”

“Are you trying to tell me this was the only time you did this?”

“It was, I swear. When my boss found out, I almost got fired. Now if I have to go to jail…”

Russ pulled into a vacant business’s parking lot. “Maybe you can help me with another case I’m working on. Do you know a man named Jack Marshall?”

“The car guy from TV?”

“Have you ever seen him at your jobsite?” Russ asked.

“A few times.”

“He friends with the property owner?”

“He’s friends with everybody, going around glad-handing everyone like he owns the town,” Emery said.

“Did he talk to someone about buying one of the houses?”

“I saw the boss take him into one.”

“The one next to the apartment you rented online?”

Emery frowned. “Yeah, that one.”

“What is your boss’s name?” He took down the name Frank Johnstone and his phone number. “I’ll tell you what, Emery, I’m going to let you go. But I expect you to pay back the woman you duped. Fair enough? That’s what I thought you’d say. I’ll see that you get an address to send the money, even if you have to send partial payments for a while. Agreed?”

Emery had quickly agreed, so he’d taken him back to the jobsite and dropped him off.

“The crew is going to be curious. I’d appreciate it if the story you tell them doesn’t involve Jack Marshall.”

Liz felt sick with worry and shaking with the shock of what she now knew as she sat in her car in front of Whitney’s house. In her rearview mirror, she watched the older car she had passed disappear back up the road. That was him. She knew it based on all the hints Whitney had given her, and now she’d just seen Jack Marshall coming from Whitney’s rental house. Add to that he was driving an old beater car wearing a baseball cap and a hoodie sweatshirt hoping no one would recognize him.

She groaned. Hadn’t she known that her friend was in trouble? Jack Marshall was just the kind of man her friend would have set her sights on. Money, high profile and handsome. But why were they always married? According to Whitney he was getting a divorce, but Liz hadn’t heard anything about that and figured Jack Marshall had lied. Whitney had wanted it to be real, all of it, so she had believed whatever the man told her.

But Liz suspected none of it had been true. Had Whitney found out? Is that why Liz hadn’t heard from her?

She glanced at the empty space where Whitney usually parked, then at the house. No lights on inside. No sign of life. Her friend always left the light over the front door on where she never had to come home to the dark. Was it possible she’d moved into this new house her lover was supposedly building for her?

Doubtful, she thought, given what she’d just seen. Just as doubtful was that Whitney was somewhere waiting for “the man of her dreams” to return. Since she’d driven out here, Liz told herself that she might as well check the house. Getting out, she looked back up the road, glad to see no vehicle headed her way. She would make this quick and get home before dark. Like her friend, she didn’t like coming home to an empty house with no lights on.

Now that she suspected Jack Marshall was the man Whitney had been in love with, Liz was even more terrified that something bad had happened to her friend.

She still had the spare key Whitney had given her, but as it turned out, she didn’t need it. The door was partially open. Her heart pounded as she pushed it in, terrified of what she was about to find.

Russ found Frank Johnstone at the construction site where the alleged murder had taken place. He had to assume that anything he said to anyone about Jack Marshall was going to get back to Jack—and then his boss. Yet he’d become a detective to catch criminals, and that was exactly what he was trying to do.

“Mr. Johnstone,” he said as he entered the small temporary office. “I’m Detective Tate investigating a possible homicide. I’m hoping you can help me.”

The sixty-something stocky man behind a large desk motioned him in. “A homicide?”

“I need to know if Jack Marshall talked to you about buying one of your houses here.”

Johnstone raised an eyebrow. “Not sure what that might have to do with a homicide, but yes, Jack did show some interest in a house.”

“The one next to the apartments?” Russ asked, pointing out a window across the street. “Did he set up a time to look at it? Ask for a key?”

“Not really. He said it would be after work. I told him I’d leave the back door open.”