Page 33 of Lawman’s Witness

All she could think about was getting to her room and locking herself inside. Earlier with the detective she’d felt so safe. It was her own feelings that had felt dangerous. After her first and only experience falling in love had ended so disastrously, she’d thought she’d never feel that way again.

But soft-spoken Russell with his warm brown eyes and his smile had gotten past the walls she’d built around her heart. He’d made her realize that she could love again, although the timing couldn’t have been worse.

When she’d started this, she’d known it would be dangerous. She hadn’t cared. She’d felt like a shell of a person. But now, she was afraid because she didn’t want to die. She wanted to live, and she didn’t want to miss a minute of it.

A horn honked behind her. Her gaze shot to her rearview mirror again. The driver of a large truck honked again, and she realized the light had changed. Hurriedly, she got her SUV going, promising herself she would pay more attention to the road.

She checked her mirror again. A large black SUV was now behind her, the driver in shadow as the glare of the streetlights swept past. When she looked again, the SUV was gone. A pickup had taken its place behind her.

As she neared the hotel, she tried to relax. She couldn’t let her feelings for Russ make her forget what she was doing here. The two of them were going to see that justice was done.

The parking lot was full. The only spot was some distance from the entrance. As she pulled in, a vehicle passed behind her, someone also looking for a parking spot? Turning off the engine, she sat for a moment. The night seemed darker, the tall lights illuminating the lot dim and distant.

Grabbing her purse, she opened her door and stepped out, hesitating for a moment to listen. She could hear traffic on the nearby street but little else. Her cell rang. It was her sister.

“Josie,” she said as she locked the car and headed through the parked cars toward the hotel entrance. It was such a relief to hear her sister’s voice. Just the sound of it made her feel safer. “How’s the trial going?”

“I’d rather talk about how you’re doing.”

“I got the name of the woman I saw murdered.”

“Amy Sue, how in the world did you do that?”

“It’s a long story, and I can’t get into it right now.”

“Where are you?”

“I just got to the hotel. I’m in the parking lot.” Before Josie spoke, she heard footfalls behind her and turned to see a man headed in her direction. He was large and bundled up even though the night wasn’t that cold. She began to walk faster as she listened to her sister warn her about parking lots.

“There’s someone following me,” she said into the phone. “I might have to run.”

“Don’t hang up. Run!”

She took off running hard toward the lights of the hotel lobby glowing in the distance. She didn’t dare look behind her for fear he would soon be breathing down her neck or worse. A car pulled into the lot, the headlights blinding her, forcing her to slow and move to the side as it passed.

She looked back. There was no sign of the man. Her pulse thundered in her ears. Had he cut through the cars? She couldn’t see him, but that didn’t mean that he wasn’t there waiting to grab her and haul her back into the nest of large SUVs in the lot.

“What’s happening?” Josie demanded.

Unable to speak, she ran the rest of the way to the hotel entrance, slowing as she mounted the steps before turning to look back. At first, she didn’t see him. Then he moved out of the edge of the darkness before he turned and disappeared into the parked vehicles.

“Was it Marshall?” her sister asked.

“He was wearing a hoodie and jeans and stayed in the shadows, and it was too dark to see his face, but who else?”

“Hang up and call Detective Tate. Then call me back.”

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The next morning, the moment Russ saw Amy Sue coming out of the hotel elevator, he could see the change in her. It made him think of the near-hysterical woman who’d come to the police station to report the murder she’d witnessed. Nothing like the woman he’d taken to a fast-food lunch. The woman he saw now had been scared last night when she’d called but was now in control. It was if he’d watched her growing stronger right before his eyes.

He saw it at once. She was tired of being a victim, and now she was coming out fighting. He’d seen the look before as a street cop. That moment when an abusive woman had had enough. There was fear, too, but a defiance that was good to see. It always filled him with hope that the woman would triumph.

Seeing the look on Amy Sue’s face, though, didn’t give him hope. It scared the hell out of him. This woman was going up against Goliath, and he knew it wouldn’t be a fair fight. She was determined before, but now she was out for blood.

But it was the way her look softened when she saw him, the smile that curled at her lips, the shine in those blue eyes that stilled his heart. She was dressed much as she had been last night in boots, jeans and a jean jacket. Her long hair was pulled back in a ponytail. This morning, she looked young and alive, and he desperately wanted to keep her that way.

Last night, he’d searched the parking lot but of course Marshall was long gone. He didn’t doubt for a moment that the man had tried to scare her again. It was the escalating of the threats that worried him. Amy Sue had wanted to “rattle the man’s cage”—well, she had. But now what would Marshall do? How far would he go?