by Cindy Bell
“Was he running from you?” Wes’ expression tensed.
“No, he wasn’t. He was following Carlene.” Mary glanced over at Suzie, who nodded. “When we started to follow him, we realized that he was following Carlene. Or at least a car that we’ve seen in Carlene’s driveway. We couldn’t see who was driving it. When his car went off the road, her car just kept going.”
“Who else would be driving her car?” Jason raised an eyebrow. “Maybe they didn’t see the crash?” He frowned, and Wes briefly met his eyes. The road was on the border of Parish and Garber. Was Marlin’s accident a part of Wes’ investigation, or a new investigation for Jason? The two would have to figure it out.
“Can we go, Jason?” Suzie asked. “We’re both exhausted.”
“Yes, you should.” Jason nodded.
“I’ll be by the house later to take your statements. Do you want me to have someone drive you? You’ve had quite a shock,” Wes said.
“It’s all right, I can drive.” Suzie glanced around at the flashing lights once more. It was hard to believe that the mountain road was ever dim.
Wes gave Mary a quick hug, he tended to remain professional, but his strong arms around her were an elixir for the anxiety that she felt. Once they were back in the car, Suzie carefully turned the car around and headed back down the mountain.
“This isn’t the way to Dune House.” Mary frowned as Suzie made a left turn at the base of the mountain.
“We’re going to find Carlene.” Suzie shot a brief look in her direction. “The officers are too occupied to find her right now. She will have some time to either run, or cover up what she did.”
“You think she did something to Marlin’s car?” Mary’s eyes widened at the thought.
“Yes, I do. I think she knew he was following her and that she led him up that mountain on purpose. But I want to find out for sure.”
“But how are we going to find her?” Mary settled back in the passenger seat.
“My guess is she’ll be heading back to her house, likely to attempt to create an alibi for herself. She probably had no idea that we were following after Marlin.” Suzie turned down another road. “We’re almost there. If we don’t catch her there, then I’m not sure where she might have gone.”
“And what are we going to do when we do catch her?” Mary peered through the fading light at Suzie. “Are we going to accuse her of sabotaging Marlin’s car?”
“I’m not sure, yet.” Suzie frowned.
“If she did try to kill Marlin, then she could have killed Graham, too.” Mary glanced at her phone as it buzzed. “It’s a text from Wes. He said it looks like the brake lines in Marlin’s car were cut. Apparently, he’s only had that rental a day or two, but he would have known right away if the brake lines were damaged when he picked it up.”
“Someone must have done it before Marlin started following Carlene. Which means she probably knew that she had a tail.” Suzie turned down Carlene’s street. “Do you think she did it to stop him from sharing whatever information he had about her? He was blackmailing her in a sense.”
“Maybe. Or maybe she thought he knew more than he did. We need to be careful.”
Suzie parked the car across the street from Carlene’s small house. Right away she noticed two cars in the driveway. One was Carlene’s, the other was an unfamiliar car. Before she could even point it out, a man stepped out through the front door. He wore thick boots, jeans, and an old, white t-shirt.
“Who is that?” Suzie narrowed her eyes. As he approached his car, the outside light turned on, and revealed the tattoo on his forearm. The same as Carlene’s.
Mary concentrated on his face and noticed his familiar features. Her mind flashed back to that day at the garage, as Graham tossed him the keys.
“It’s Brody!” She gasped at the sight of him. “Marlin might have been right. What if he was the one that was driving Carlene’s car? What if Carlene was protecting him?”
“If he was ruthless enough to try to kill Marlin, then he might have killed Graham, too.” Suzie started the car as he pulled out of the driveway. “Let’s see where he’s going.”
Mary slouched down in her seat. She wasn’t sure about following another car, but the draw of finding Graham’s killer was too much to resist.
“He’s going so fast.” Suzie frowned as she tried to keep up with the way the man wove through the neighborhood, sticking to smaller streets, and avoiding the main roads. When he finally did pull out on the highway that ran between Garber and Parish, he blended into thick traffic. Suzie tried to keep her eye on him, but the sun had set, and the darkness combined with the glare of multiple sets of headlights made it impossible. “Oh no, I’ve lost him.” She sighed as she stopped at a red light, and the cars ahead of them continued to move forward.
“It’s all right, Suzie. Now we know that Carlene was under the thumb of a very dangerous man. It’s likely that Brody killed Graham, and then Carlene was too scared to tell the truth.” Mary glanced at the time on the clock on the radio. “We’re supposed to be meeting her at the garage soon. Maybe she’ll be headed there soon. Why don’t we go check on Pilot then head there?”
“Good idea.” Suzie nodded. “But, Mary you need to keep in mind that Carlene was probably involved in all of this. Maybe she’s protecting Brody because she’s scared of him. She might have even protected him because she’s in love with him. Remember those boots you tripped over on our first visit?”
“Oh my.” Mary’s eyes widened. “He might have been there the whole time.”
“And she never said a word.” Suzie narrowed her eyes.
“I’m going to text Wes the license plate of that car, maybe he will be able to find him.” Mary added in all the details she could think of in the text, then set her phone down. Hopefully, he would be able to catch Brody before he had a chance to disappear.
Chapter 16
After stopping at Dune House to make sure that Pilot was fed, and everything was okay they went to the garage to hopefully meet Carlene.
When Suzie and Mary pulled up to Graham’s Garage the parking lot was empty, but for the cars parked along the side of the property, one of which was the SUV. Mary’s eyes lingered on it for a moment. It seemed like ages ago that she’d bought it and dropped it off with Graham, but it had really only been a few days.
“Do you think Carlene is there?” Mary peered out through the windshield. “It looks completely dark.”
“I don’t see her car, but it could be behind the garage, I guess.” Suzie glanced around the parking lot. “I could send her a text and see if she responds. It might give us an idea if she’s intending to come.”
“No, don’t.” Mary looked back at the garage. “If we want a chance to snoop around, this is it. Maybe we can find some evidence that will prove that Brody is linked to all of this.” She shook her head slowly. “Honestly, it’s still hard for me to believe that Carlene was involved in Graham’s murder. I don’t know why, after we witnessed Marlin going off the road. If that was her driving I know she’s capable of anything. But still, I can’t quite wrap my head around it.” She sighed.
“She did come off as quite nice. It’s difficult to believe she’d let someone hurt her like that if she was in on it. I still think it’s possible that Brody killed Graham without Carlene’s knowledge. She might not even know that Brody’s the one who knocked her out. But one thing has been bothering me, why was her bruise so dark? It was apparently fresh, but it looked so dark. I still don’t understand why she would implicate Brennan. To try to keep the focus off her maybe? Maybe we’re off base and she knows Brennan did it. But you’re right, we should take a look around.” Suzie turned the car off and tucked her keys into her pocket.
“But how are we going to get in? It’s not like we have a key.”
“Maybe there’s something open, a window, or the back door. I say we take a look, it can’t hurt, right?” Suzie popped open the car door before Mary could answer her. She was going to hav
e a look, no matter what. As she approached the garage, she heard Mary fall into step behind her.
“It does look empty.” Mary peered through one of the dark windows.
“I don’t think she’s here, yet.”
“If she’s planning to come at all.” Mary frowned as she walked the perimeter of the garage. “After what happened today she might have taken off.”
“Do you really think she had something to do with Marlin’s accident?” Suzie followed after her.
“I think it’s possible. She’s worked in the garage long enough to know how to sabotage a car, and obviously Brody would know how. Someone cut his brakes, there’s no question about that. Who else would do something like that? Here.” She pushed on a long window and felt it ease up along the frame. “Can you fit through there?” She looked over at Suzie.
“Me?” She frowned, then looked down at the nice outfit she still wore. “Well, it’s worth a shot.” As she wriggled through the window, she wondered what they might find inside. The police had already combed through the place, she doubted they left much behind to discover, but it didn’t hurt to take a look. Once inside she unlocked the back door of the garage so that Mary could join her.
“What if Carlene shows up and finds us inside?” Mary began to look around the garage.
“We’ll just tell her the back door was open, and we thought she was inside. Honestly, I’ll be surprised if she even decides to show up. We have to find something to either link Brody or her to Graham’s death, or Marlin’s accident. If we can’t, then she’s going to take off and we might never find out what really happened to Graham.”
After a few minutes of searching the nearly empty garage, Suzie paused and looked over at Mary.
“I think we’re looking in the wrong place. Maybe we should look in the office. There might be some kind of evidence there. There’s a door that leads to it over there.” She began to walk towards it.
“Right behind you.” Mary turned on the flashlight on her phone to give them both better lighting as they entered the office. It was just as cramped as she recalled, but most of the papers and storage boxes had been removed. The large, wooden desk remained, along with a filing cabinet, and a few shelves.
“It’s been cleared out.” Suzie frowned. “Let’s take a good look around, hopefully we’ll find something. Maybe under the shelves, or hidden behind a drawer.” She began to look through the filing cabinet.
Mary ran her hands along the frame of the desk in search of any hidden compartments. When her fingertips bumped something smoother than the rippled wood, she froze.
“Look, there’s something hidden back here.” She did her best to edge the desk away from the wall. “I can’t quite reach it.” She shoved her hand in the space created as far as she could, but her fingertips only grazed the edge of the thin device taped to the back of the desk.
“Here, let’s pull it out further.” Suzie grabbed one side of the desk, then waited for Mary to grab the other. Slowly, they eased the desk away from the wall far enough for Mary to reach behind it and pull the device free.
“It looks like a small laptop.” She frowned as she set it on the desk. “Whoever it belongs to definitely didn’t want it found.”
“Three guesses who it belongs to.” Suzie raised an eyebrow as she opened the computer. “This is Carlene’s desk.”
“How could the police miss this?” Mary narrowed her eyes. “Wes is always so thorough, but I guess it was the crime scene techs that did the search, but they usually do a great job as well.”
“They probably didn’t move the desk away from the wall.” Suzie tapped the keyboard. “It has a password.” She sighed. “I doubt we’ll be able to get into it.”
“Wait, what was the name of that gang that she’s supposed to be in? The one that Brody also belongs to.” Mary eyed the computer screen. “Maybe she would use that.”
“Let’s give it a shot.” Suzie tried a few different combinations of the name of the gang. On the fourth try, ‘southcannon1’ went through. “Got it! We’re in.”
“Fantastic.” Mary glanced over her shoulder. “Did you hear something?”
“Hmm? No.” Suzie began to navigate through the programs and files on the computer.
“It was probably nothing.” Mary shrugged as she turned back to the computer. “What did you find?”
“There’s some kind of program on here. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a frequency reader? Frequency? Didn’t Kline mention that the keys might have been cloned from reading the frequencies?” Suzie’s eyes widened.
“He did.” Mary nodded.
“Oh Mary, we’ve really found something here. If this program can copy the frequencies of the key fobs for the cars, I bet that’s how all of the cars are being stolen—”
“Congratulations, you finally caught up.” The voice drifted from the door of the office.
The hairs on the back of Suzie’s neck stood up as she realized who it was. She turned to see Carlene in the doorway of the office.
“Mary.” Suzie grabbed her hand. “I think we have a problem.”
“Oh yes, you do. A big one.” Carlene stepped the rest of the way into the office, then pushed the door shut behind her. It was a small space to begin with, and with the desk pushed out of place, it was even smaller. “I knew I should have waited a while longer before I brought the laptop back.”
“Carlene, we were looking for you.” Mary cleared her throat.
“No, you weren’t. You were looking to cause me trouble.” Carlene looked between both of them. “Every step of the way you’ve been too involved in this situation.”
“We’ll just be on our way.” Suzie grabbed Mary’s hand and started towards the door that led back into the garage.
“No, you don’t.” Carlene casually pulled a gun from her waistband. “It was so cute when you were so scared of Marlin and his gun. He wouldn’t harm anyone. I tried to convince him to actually, but he wouldn’t go for it.”
“You tried to kill him.” Mary stared at her. “You cut the brake lines on his car.”
“Sure, I did.” Carlene shrugged. “He was a problem, and I had to solve it. You see, he figured out that I killed Graham, and he was going to turn me in. I tried to talk some sense into him, but he refused to listen. So, he had to go. It’s a pity he didn’t die though, now I have to finish him off as well.” She pointed the gun first at Mary, then at Suzie. “Too bad you two won’t get the same offer of a chat first, I know better now than to waste my time.”
“Listen, Carlene whatever happened here, there’s always a way out. You can make a deal with the police if you turn yourself in. Tell them what the gang made you do.” Suzie tried to meet her eyes, to see if there was any trace of humanity left in her.
“What they made me do? You still don’t get it. I’m the one that calls the shots, no one else. You see, I had a pretty good thing going. I copied the frequency of the key fobs for certain cars that the gang wanted, and then they were able to use that information to make a fake fob. They didn’t even have to break in, just walk up, press the button and unlock the door. Pretty sweet, right?” Carlene shook her head. “Then Graham started to get suspicious. He thought it was Brody at first, then he became suspicious of me. He was always preaching to me about being a good person, and good things will come to you, blah blah. Nothing good ever came to him. He was alone when I met him, and he was alone when I killed him.” She smiled a little as she looked between them. “But you two, you’re not alone, are you? You have friends. Mary, that detective is your boyfriend, isn’t he? And, Suzie your cousin wears a badge, too?” She pursed her lips. “There’s not a chance I could let the two of you live. I can’t believe you even showed up here tonight. Another stroke of good luck I suppose.” She glanced at the clock on the wall. “We’ll just wait until the next train rolls through, and then take care of things. As much noise as that thing makes, no one will even hear the gunshots.”
“Carlene, this is a bad idea.
” Suzie took a step towards her. “We’re not going to tell anyone.”
“Keep quiet!” Carlene sighed, then rolled her eyes. “I really don’t know why you had to ruin everything. Graham did the same thing. We could have both been rich, but he had to be so stuck on his morals that he wouldn’t take the cash I offered him. Now, I’ve got quite a mess to clean up. It’s such a pain.” She pointed the gun straight at Suzie. “I’d love to kill you right now, don’t tempt me.”
“Suzie, watch out.” Mary tugged her back, until they were both behind the large wooden desk. She grabbed one end of it, then looked over at Suzie, who nodded and grabbed the other end. After an unspoken countdown, both women used all of their strength to flip the large desk upward. As the wood collided with Carlene, she was too startled to shoot, and since the office was so small, it was impossible for her to get around it.
Suzie and Mary ran through the door that led into the garage, then headed for the door that led out to the parking lot.
“We won’t have long, we have to get out of here!” Mary gritted her teeth and ignored the pain that shot through her body as she ran for the car.
“Oh no, the tires!” Suzie gasped as she saw that the two front tires of the car had been slashed. “Mary, we have to find somewhere to hide.” Suzie grabbed her hand.
“No, there’s no time.” Mary looked over her shoulder as Carlene jogged out of the garage with the gun in her hand. “The SUV!” Mary gasped and dug through her purse. “I have a spare key, hurry!” She tugged her towards the SUV. She had just managed to get in the driver’s side and close the door when a shot rung out. Suzie dove into the passenger side, and pulled the door shut as Mary started the engine. It sputtered at first as if it might not start, then roared to life. The sound caused Mary so much relief that she actually smiled, despite Carlene firing off another shot. Mary threw the SUV into reverse and drove towards the back of the parking lot. As she switched to drive, Carlene continued to run after them. Mary’s stomach churned as she realized she might have to run the woman over in order for them to get away.