by Cindy Bell
“No. But you’re not a police officer.” He continued to study him.
“I came here to investigate a car theft ring.” Marlin shrugged as a faint smile played across his lips. “I suppose if I was a police officer that might be my job, huh?”
“Jason mentioned that.” Suzie narrowed her eyes. “There’s been quite a bit of trouble around here involving car thefts.”
“Yes, and in Parish, too.” Wes frowned. “Are you saying all of these thefts are connected?”
“That would be my theory.” Marlin tilted his head from side to side. “But then again, I’m not a police officer. I followed some evidence to Graham’s Garage. Several of the people who had cars stolen were currently customers, or had been in the past, of his garage. It seemed too big of a number to be a coincidence.”
“Yes, I noticed that, too. But if you were a local you wouldn’t find it so strange. Graham’s is the most highly recommended garage in Parish, and many people in Garber as well as other neighboring towns use it.” Wes shook his head. “It’s easy to see a clue where there isn’t one. With such a wide assortment of customers, he was bound to have a few who had their vehicles stolen.”
“Maybe.” Marlin straightened up. “But the number was still too high for me. I came here to discuss the situation with him, but he was killed before I had the chance to do that.”
“And Carlene was hurt as well.” Mary spoke up, her voice stronger than she expected. “Let’s not forget that.”
“Right.” Marlin rubbed his hand along the back of his neck. “When I stopped in there the day before, I bought the oil and tried to scope the place out, I spoke to Carlene. I noticed that she had a tattoo on the underside of her wrist. Did any of you notice that?”
“No.” Suzie frowned. “I don’t remember seeing it.”
“Me either.” Mary’s eyes widened.
“It was documented.” Wes nodded. “It’s a circle of thorns and roses. She said it was a tattoo she shared with a friend of hers.”
“A few friends, maybe.” Marlin eyed Wes for a moment. “It’s a gang tattoo. It’s the symbol of South Cannon’s Boys. I’m not surprised you didn’t recognize it, they’re from a few cities over, and they’re not a well-known gang.”
“But you know of them?” Suzie stepped forward. “Why is that?”
“I’ve dealt with them before on another matter. They target the wealthy. They don’t stick to a particular neighborhood. They roam, and target vulnerable, high income communities. They steal anything they can get their hands on and are often violent in the process.”
“Well, that certainly isn’t Parish.” Wes narrowed his eyes.
“Or Garber.” Suzie raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t it possible that she just has a similar tattoo? Just because it’s a gang symbol, doesn’t mean that she knew that when she got it.”
“No, I don’t think it’s possible. The colors, the placement, they are the same. Mark my words, she’s involved in the gang, and she’s protecting whoever killed Graham. Parish and Garber might not be wealthy communities, but there are a few well-off customers that use Graham’s Garage. If I’m right, and this gang has something to do with the car thefts in the area, then they likely targeted Graham.” He held up his hands. “I don’t have the evidence to get Carlene arrested for anything, and honestly that’s not why I’m here. I’m here because I need to recover a few vehicles for my employer. I’ve been trying to track down Brody, to find out what he knows. But I haven’t been able to get hold of him. I believe he might be the one that Carlene is protecting, because she is scared of him or she cares about him. Once I have that information and get the cars back my job will be done. What happens to Carlene, is not really my concern.”
“Nice.” Mary frowned. “I suppose that’s why you didn’t hesitate to point your gun at her?”
“I didn’t hesitate to point my gun at her because she’s involved with a criminal gang that is known to be violent, ruthlessly violent. I’m not stupid enough to believe that she wouldn’t come after me if she had the chance.”
“You have an interesting theory, Marlin, but it falls apart when you take into account Brody’s alibi. Carlene claimed he was at a class all day, and I confirmed with the teacher of that class that he was there.” Wes frowned, then shook his head. “I haven’t caught up with him yet, but I think you’ve got yourself pointed in the wrong direction.”
“Alibis can be faked, with the influence of this gang, it’s definitely possible. Now, you know what I know. You need to be cautious of these people.” He glanced back at Wes. “I am allowed to own the gun.”
“I confirmed you legally own a gun. But if I ever hear of you wielding that gun, or any other weapon, anywhere near either of these two women, I will make sure that you never know freedom again. Do you understand me?” His eyes locked to Marlin’s.
“I understand.” Marlin stared back, his voice even as he continued. “To be fair, they were the ones that walked in on the situation. Perhaps you, a seasoned detective, should warn them about involving themselves in things they have no business being involved in.”
“You might be right about that.” Wes shot a brief look in Mary’s direction. “Now, who is your employer?” He looked back at Marlin.
“Sorry, that’s confidential.” Marlin shook his head.
“I need to know his name to verify your reason for being here.” Wes took a step towards him. “You can tell me here, or down at the station.”
“I’ll tell you what, Detective.” Marlin tipped his chin upward with pride as he studied Wes. “When you have enough evidence to put some handcuffs on me, then we’ll talk about it.”
“Shouldn’t take long.” Wes narrowed his eyes.
“We’ll see about that, Detective.”
“You can’t stay here, anymore.” Wes pointed up the stairs. “I’ll take you up to get your stuff.”
“Okay.” Marlin nodded as he followed Wes up the stairs and Suzie and Mary stood together listening for any sign of an argument or scuffle between them.
Marlin came down a few minutes later with Wes close behind him.
“Suzie, Mary.” Marlin nodded to each of them as he walked towards the door. “Thanks for your hospitality. You run a nice place.”
He didn’t turn back before stepping outside and closing the door behind him. In the silence that followed, Wes drummed his fingertips on the dining room table.
“He’s not wrong, you know?”
“I should take Pilot out for a walk.” Suzie started towards the dog.
“Wait just a minute, Suzie.” Wes called out to her, while keeping his eyes on Mary. “This isn’t just about Mary. You were there, too.”
“Yes, I was.” Suzie turned back to face him. “And?”
“And, you both know this is my investigation.” Wes looked between them. “Didn’t that even cross your minds.” He growled as his cell phone buzzed. Once he checked it, he looked back at them. “This discussion isn’t over, I mean it. You two need to be more careful. I have to go.” He brushed a light kiss along Mary’s cheek, then hurried out to the parking lot.
“Have a good day, Wes.” Mary watched as he disappeared, then turned to face Suzie. “Well, that was uncomfortable.”
“What a crazy day.” Suzie pressed her palm against her forehead and let out a long, slow breath. “I don’t think I’ve had such an adventure in a long time.”
“Adventure, that’s one way to put it.” Mary smiled. “I’m not sure that I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”
“It was scary, wasn’t it?” Suzie frowned as she lowered her hand. “It’s funny, there was a time when I was in dangerous situations pretty often, but I guess I’m getting older.”
“Oh please, you’ll never get older.” Mary laughed as she rolled her eyes, then walked into the kitchen to prepare them both some tea. “I think it was just unexpected. I mean, we did let Marlin stay under our roof, with no idea that he had a gun, no idea that he wasn’t who he claimed to be, that’s scary
enough. Then to see him threatening Carlene like that, it was upsetting.”
“Yes, it was. But now that we know what we know, I can’t help but wonder if Brody was involved somehow.” Suzie raised an eyebrow then smiled as she accepted a cup of tea. “Maybe Marlin really was on to something.”
“Even if he was on to something, he had no right to draw his gun on Carlene. If it weren’t for her refusing to press charges he would be in jail right now. As for Brody, maybe he did come up with a way to fake his alibi, maybe Carlene had no idea that it was a lie. She didn’t see the person who hit her. Unfortunately, as long as Brody’s alibi holds up, he’ll never be considered a suspect. Marlin claims to be a private investigator, but that doesn’t mean he can be trusted. Wes did the right thing by asking him to leave.” Mary frowned, then set her cup down as she sat forward. “I think we need to be more careful. It was unnerving to go through that today. I know you and I can handle just about anything, but Wes has a point about us both being more cautious.”
“Are you saying you want to step back and not look into Graham’s murder?” Suzie looked over at her with surprise. She knew that Mary wanted this murder solved.
“Not at all.” Mary met her friend’s eyes with intense determination. “I just think we need to be smarter about it. We didn’t know what we were getting into when we tried to find out more information from Carlene. So, we need to promise each other that neither of us will go into any situation without taking a breath and checking with the other. How does that sound?”
“That sounds more like you.” Suzie smiled and nodded. “You’re right. I promise.” She squeezed Mary’s hand. “Finding the truth is very important, but keeping each other safe should be our first priority.”
“Yes, it should. Do you think Carlene really was involved?” Mary finished her tea.
“I think that we definitely need to find out more. Marlin could just be trying to throw us off his scent.” Suzie finished her tea as well. “I don’t trust that man one bit.”
“Me either. I think we need to start again in the morning. We both need a break after this crazy day. Let’s take Pilot for a walk and then have a nice meal and get some rest.” Mary stretched her arms above her head.
“Good idea.” Suzie nodded.
“Come on, Pilot.” Pilot wagged his tail as he followed after them.
After dinner Suzie and Mary were tired and decided to have an early night. They had spoken about everything except for the events of the afternoon and the murder, but it was on both their minds.
Within minutes of sprawling out on her bed Suzie fell into a fitful sleep.
Chapter 11
Hours later, a sharp jolt of her muscles woke Suzie. Clearly, the recent events were playing on her mind. She pressed her hand against her chest until she felt her heartbeat settle. She pulled herself out of bed, got dressed and headed for the kitchen. She found Mary already at the coffee pot.
“Wow, I thought for once that I was up earlier than you.” Suzie laughed some as she stepped up beside her friend. “I guess I was wrong.”
“I had a hard time sleeping.” Mary nodded as she turned to face her. “It looks like you did, too. Are you okay, Suzie?” She frowned.
“I am.” Suzie shook her head. “I had a horrible sleep. I think all of this is just getting to me.” She pushed her hair back behind her ears. “So, I’m going to dig into Graham a bit more. I know that we’ve already looked into him, but I feel like we’re missing something. We know he had plenty of satisfied customers, and a few who weren’t so happy, but what about his own extended family?”
“Carlene said he didn’t have any.” Mary poured them both a mug of coffee. “We’re going to need this today.”
“Yes, we are.” Suzie smiled and leaned back against the counter. “Yes, Carlene said he had no family, but that can’t really be true, can it? Everyone has some kind of family. I had Jason and didn’t even realize it. Maybe someone from his past came back to pay him a visit and things went sour? We can’t exactly trust what Carlene has to say, can we? I mean she might not know about his family?”
“No, you’re right. We can’t.” Mary carried her coffee into the dining room. “Kyle and Jess aren’t joining us for breakfast, so we have some free time.”
“Okay.” Suzie retrieved her computer, then set it up on the table. “We didn’t dig far enough, I don’t think. We went on the assumption that there would be no one from Graham’s background that would have a motive.”
“How are we going to dig, though? We don’t have much to go on.”
“Well, we know he’s always lived in Parish. There’s only one high school in Parish. So, we should be able to find some information there.” Suzie began to type. A few minutes later she sighed and sat back in her chair. “Well, it looks like he didn’t graduate, there were no other family members in the school, and I can’t find any information on any family.”
“He really didn’t have a family.” Mary stared down into the remains of her coffee. “He lived his whole life with no one to call family besides his wife.”
“Even worse, it looks like Brennan hasn’t held back on his rantings, even though Graham is dead. He’s still posting some terrible things about him, even accusing him of attempting to kill him.” She drew back from the screen and scrunched up her nose. “How distasteful for him to behave that way.”
“He’s angry.” Mary peered at the screen. “Angry enough to cause some great harm, I’m sure. We don’t know for sure that this had anything to do with a car theft ring. I haven’t seen any evidence that Graham was involved in anything like that.”
“No, me either.” Suzie tapped her fingertips on the side of the computer. “I think we’ve reached our limit for what we can find out now. We should take a break.”
“I hope this is put to rest soon.” Mary looked out towards the water. “I’m ready for things to get peaceful around here, again.”
“Yes, me too. I’m going to take Pilot for a walk.” Suzie called Pilot to her side. As they started off across the beach she felt some of the tension ease from her muscles.
She gazed out over the calm water. The peace was soothing after the upheaval of the past few days. She was startled as her phone rang. She looked to see it was Jason.
“Hi Suzie.”
“Hi Jason.” She watched as Pilot took off after a seagull.
“Wes told me what happened with Marlin.”
“He did?” Suzie quickened her pace to keep up with Pilot. “I’m surprised by that.”
“I was surprised, too, that you hadn’t told me about it. We both think that you and Mary put yourselves in a very dangerous—”
“All right, yes, I’ve heard this already.” Suzie sighed. “Is that why you were calling? To lecture me?”
“No. I know better. You’re going to do as you please. I’m calling you because as soon as Wes told me about Marlin, I started digging into him. It turns out he’s a retired police officer.”
“Retired? But he’s so young.” Suzie kept a close eye on Pilot, but stopped beside the water.
“Yes, well there aren’t too many details about why, but I do know where he was employed and who his captain was, so I’m going to see if I can get some more information about him. Until then, I want you to be extra cautious. He has training, and a law enforcement background.”
“I see. Thanks for telling me, Jason. I will be careful.” Suzie patted her leg to call Pilot back to her. As soon as he reached her she bent down to pat him. “Did Wes tell you about Carlene?”
“Yes, he did. That’s interesting information. I’m staying out of it though as it’s Wes’ investigation. I just wanted to look into Marlin since the first background check I did on James came back clean. Just remember to be careful.”
“I will. Thanks, Jason.” Suzie hung up the phone then led Pilot back towards Dune House. As she walked along her heartbeat quickened. What else was Marlin hiding from them? Knowing that he had training as a police officer meant he knew
exactly how to use his gun. If he wanted to, he could come after any of them.
When Suzie returned to the house, she found Mary on the front porch with Wes.
“Hi there, Wes.” She paused at the bottom of the steps and looked up at them.
“Hi Suzie. I guess you spoke to Jason?” Wes met her eyes.
“He just told me that Marlin used to be a police officer. Did you know that?” She ascended the steps.
“No, not until he told me. We have some new options for the investigation. I’ve ruled out any alibi for Brennan. I’m going to speak to him again as soon as I’ve gathered enough information.” He reached down to pet Pilot.
“I’m going to head in and make some breakfast.” Suzie winked briefly at Mary as she stepped past her. As she stepped inside her cell phone rang. She picked it up when she saw that it was Paul.
“Hi hon, what are you up to?”
“I’m checking on you. I haven’t heard from you. What’s going on?”
“Nothing much.” Suzie shrugged.
“So, I heard about the gun situation.” He cleared his throat.
“Heard about it? From who? Wes?”
“It should have been from you, don’t you think?”
“Maybe.” Suzie put some bread in the toaster and began to cook some eggs. “It’s just been so crazy I haven’t had a chance, and you’ve been busy, too.”
“Never too busy for you. Are you sure you’re okay? You sound a little tired.”
“I didn’t sleep much. But I’m fine.” Suzie took a deep breath. “Can we have dinner, tomorrow?”