Page 47 of Lawman’s Witness

She’d known he was lying. He’d seen in it her face. Yet she’d lied to Tate for him. At the time, he knew it was going to cost him. Fortunately, he’d already decided to change. Did this rather frantic-sounding call have something to do with the lie?

It wasn’t until he pulled in the drive that he saw the two cars parked in front of his house. He recognized them both. Amy Sue Brand’s SUV and Liz Baker’s older-model car that had seen better days.

He glanced toward the house feeling his temper rise. What were those two women doing here? It didn’t take a genius to figure it out, he thought as he parked his car in the garage and got out. They’d come to tell his wife.

Jack swore, thinking of the fifty thousand dollars he’d paid Liz to keep her mouth shut. She would pay for this. Hell, so would the alleged eyewitness to his bad deed. He told himself that if he survived this, he and Christine would go on a long cruise. She could invite all the friends she wanted. He just planned to drink and stare out at the ocean.

After what was going on in the house would Christine be going anywhere with him? Doubtful.

He started to push open the door into the house when he heard a noise behind him as the garage door was lifted just enough for someone to sneak under it.

Russ had heard enough of the conversation among Amy Sue, Liz and Christine long before the connection had ended. He wasn’t sure what the women had hoped to get from Jack Marshall’s wife. What they’d gotten was confirmation that she knew of her husband’s crimes and was too afraid of him to go to the police.

When he saw Jack drive by on his way home this early, Russ knew it was time to end this before someone got killed. He drove his pickup on up to the house, parking next to Amy Sue’s SUV. He felt naked without a gun and badge, but told himself with luck he wouldn’t need them.

Jack, he realized, must have parked in one of the garage stalls because his big dark ride wasn’t parked out front. At the entrance, Russ rang the bell. Nothing happened. He knocked, again no answer, nothing. He could hear no sound inside the house. He tried the door and realized quickly that getting inside would be next to impossible. The place was like a fortress. He pulled out his phone and tried calling Amy Sue back. It went straight to voicemail.

He was questioning calling the cops when he decided to try the garage doors. Only three of the garage doors had vehicles in them, and all the doors were locked except the one Jack had just entered.

Russ lifted it just enough to slip into the cool darkness inside. He could hear the tick, tick, tick of the engine inside the car Jack had driven here as he moved toward the door into the house.

He hadn’t gone but a few feet when he heard the sound of a shoe sole scrape on the concrete floor. He started to turn, the hair at his neck prickling an instant before something hard slammed into his head. As he fell against one of the cars, he heard Jack Marshall let out an oath that ended with “damned cowboy detective” just before Marshall blindsided him with another blow. This one sent him to the concrete floor and the darkness waiting for him.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Jack stood for a moment looking down at the lawman lying on his garage floor. He looked dead. Staggering back, he was already coming up with the story he would tell the cops. The man had broken into his house.

But as he did, he realized that wasn’t what really had him worried. He had no idea what was going on upstairs inside the house with his wife and the two women he knew were in there with her. Somehow, that felt more dangerous.

Bracing himself, he entered the house and took the expensive but wonderfully silent elevator to the main floor. He’d loved this house from the first moment he saw it. The view was incredible. From his bedroom window on the fourth floor, he could see his city, Billings, the largest city in Montana and where he’d made his mark.

Christine had argued the house was too large, too ostentatious, too expensive for where they were in life. He hadn’t made his fortune yet when he’d purchased the house with all its bedrooms and baths. He’d planned to fill it with his sons who would take over the business and daughters he would one day walk down the aisle with. He had plans that his sons would take over what he’d built and make the family even more prominent and wealthy.

But he’d soon learned that he was unable to have children. It had been a heartbreaking blow to his ego. That was when he really started running around with other women. From the outside it might have looked as if he had something to prove; he didn’t care. Christine had mentioned adopting, but he only wanted children from his own seed.

The elevator door opened on the living room and kitchen level. He peered out, surprised to see no one, not even his wife.

“Christine?” Stepping out of the elevator, he called again a little louder.

“Jack.”

The sound of her voice directly behind him made him jump. He spun around to see her come out of the kitchen, which in itself was odd. Christine didn’t cook. Jack wondered why they even had a kitchen except for the wine fridge.

Standing backlit in a shaft of sunlight shooting through all those magnificent windows he loved, her face was in shadow. But while he couldn’t see her expression, the light did catch on her slim wrist and the beautiful, very expensive tennis bracelet he’d bought her. One of many “guilt” presents he’d given her. Only the best for his wife.

“Christine?” His voice cracked as he raised his gaze to watch her stop just inches from him. Her expression was one of calm concern. He cleared his throat. “What’s going on?”

“There’s something you need to take care of, Jack.” Her tone was as calm as her expression. “In the safe room.”

He glanced over at the closed steel door of the room Christine had insisted they needed to add during this latest remodel. “What’s in there?” His voice came out a whisper. What he meant to ask, he realized, was the question that he’d had since her call. “Who’s in there?”

She didn’t answer, but then she didn’t have to. He knew.

“You can fix this, Jack.”

He shook his head. He couldn’t imagine how. He wouldn’t even know where to begin, because he’d lost control of the entire situation. And now there were two women locked in the safe room to deal with, not to mention that body out in the garage.

“It’s over,” but as he said it, he fought the idea of giving up like a man determined to get out of the desert alive against all odds. There had to be a way out of this. He just hadn’t thought of it yet.