Page 39 of Lawman’s Witness

“What’s happened?” she asked, since it was clear her husband wasn’t going to for obvious reasons.

“There was a murder last night.” The detective was looking at her again now. “Do you know a man by the name of Robert Baker?” She thought for a moment before she shook her head. “He was killed in the early morning after leaving a downtown bar. Stabbed and robbed.”

Her shocked expression was real. Stabbed and robbed? “Why would you think my husband would know anything about that?” she demanded.

“Because I have reason to believe your husband was being blackmailed by the victim.”

Jack was on his feet so quickly that he knocked over the breakfast bar stool. “Detective, my wife has told you that I was home last night when this man was murdered. I don’t want to have to call the chief of police to get this cleared up, but I know nothing about blackmail or this man who was killed.”

Christine knew that her husband’s angry denial was more for her than the detective. Yet she was stunned. For a moment she thought the detective might arrest her husband. He certainly looked as if he wanted to badly enough.

But he didn’t move. He stood waiting, for what, she didn’t know. Then he turned to her, “Sorry to have bothered you.” He tipped his Western hat and saw his way out.

After he left, Jack moved slowly over to the downed stool and picked it up. “That detective has it out for me.”

She wanted to ask why the cop thought Jack was being blackmailed—and for what, but she weighed her options and opted not to ask. Stabbed and robbed? Obviously, the detective had it wrong. Jack was guilty of something, but he couldn’t be involved in a murder. She thought about last night, hearing the guest room shower running past three in the morning. It had to be a woman who’d kept her husband out so late.

It is best not to know, her mother had told her. People like us live separate lives in a marriage. The husband takes care of his business, the wife takes care of hers and keeps the family together. If you ask, he might tell you, and you don’t want that especially if the law ever gets involved.

She shuddered to think what kind of marriage her mother had endured and told herself she wouldn’t allow that to happen to her own no matter what she had to do.

Amy Sue was shocked when she recived Liz’s phone call about Robert. “I’m so sorry.” Liz told her about the voicemails she’d received from her ex the night before.

Amy Sue couldn’t believe it. “He was planning to blackmail Jack Marshall?”

“The last time I heard from him, he said he’d already sent the blackmail demand and was going to meet up with him. You know Marshall killed him.”

“Oh, Liz, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry Robert was such a loser? I know I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead, but I knew the kind of man he was. It’s why I divorced him. He was always out for a fast buck. I know I must sound heartless, but he was never going to change. He lost all of our savings time and time again on get-rich-quick schemes that turned into scams. He just never learned. I tried to stop him last night, but…”

“Is Detective Tate investigating the murder?” Amy Sue asked.

“He said it looked like a robbery that went wrong, but I don’t believe it.” Amy Sue didn’t either. “You know Marshall will have an alibi.”

“I’m just worried about you,” she said. If Marshall killed Robert like they suspected, then it felt as if he was out of control and even more dangerous.

“I’m going to the police station this morning to file a missing person’s report on Whitney,” Liz said. “Detective Tate says that’s all we can do for now. He said it might be possible to get the voicemails from Robert off my phone, but that it wouldn’t prove that Jack Marshall killed Robert.”

After warning Liz to be careful, she called Russ’s cell number. “Is it true? Do you think Jack Marshall killed Liz’s ex?”

“I know it looks like that might have been the case given what we know about the blackmail,” he said. “But Robert had been drinking heavily at the bar. He’d won quite a lot at the pool table and was flashing it around as he left and bragging about how he was going to be rich. It’s possible someone at the bar followed him planning to rob him and things got violent.”

“It’s just such a coincidence, isn’t it, if someone else killed him,” she said. “Are you going to bring Marshall in for questioning?”

“I already talked to him. His wife gave him an alibi for last night. If I push it any further it could be the last straw with my boss. It might already be too late if Marshall calls the chief about this. All I can do is lay out what I have to the chief, but I don’t think it is going to be enough to convince him to open an investigation against the man even if we had the voicemails Robert sent Liz. All the evidence is circumstantial.”

“Except that now you think the wife has lied for him.”

“Only if he wasn’t with her last night,” Russ pointed out.

“I had thought about paying her a visit. She should know what’s been going on. I really doubt her husband has told her.”

“She might already know. She could be part of it,” he said. “Things are often not what they seem. I’d steer clear of her if I were you.”

Amy Sue knew the wife might know or at least suspect, but she couldn’t imagine her being involved other than keeping quiet. “I’ve met her. She had a fit over breaking a nail at the salon. I can’t see her lugging her husband’s dead lover from a house to the trunk of his car out of the goodness of her heart.”

“No one knows what goes on in a marriage,” he said, sounding as if he had firsthand knowledge. They’d never talked about their personal lives, at least not about former relationships. Had he been married? Was he still married? The thought surprised her. He might have a wife back at the ranch. She recalled looking at his left hand. No wedding band. But that didn’t mean anything. A lot of ranchers didn’t wear a ring because it was dangerous working around equipment.