Page 107 of Three Girls Gone

“Did she look down on you?” Trent asked.

“Every female looks down on me.”

It seemed Amanda was spot on with her earlier thinking. “How do you figure that?”

“You get kicks out of dominating men, using your sexuality to keep us loyal and in line. If it’s not for that, it’s just because you can. All females are bossy and loud-mouthed. Arrogant.” He leveled his gaze at her.

“You’re sayingI’marrogant?”

“All of you are. I’m finished being made to feel like shit.”

Amanda was piecing together all he’d said and recalled what Katherine had told them about Wilcox’s former boss. “Did Leslie Gallagher mistreat you?”

“She thought she was better than me, just like my mother.”

And there it is…How little it took to get there. She pointed at the scar on his lip. “Did your mother do that to you?”

“If we could stick to the point, Detective,” the lawyer chimed in. “What evidence do you have against my client?”

“I’ll circle back to your mother. You took Eloise Maynard from her bed. Why not Hailey Tanner?” She hadn’t heard if Marshall’s shoes were a match to the scuff marks found on the trellis outside of Hailey Tanner’s window, but it seemed likely. That’s why she ran with it as fact.

“Whatever you say.”

The lawyer shook his head. “Evidence against my client, Detective?”

“All right. How about this…” Amanda laid out everything pertaining to Eloise, including the incriminating video that showed Marshall walking down the Maynards’ street with the girl in his arms. She summed up with, “Not to mention he was found with Eloise Maynard.”

“Any evidence against my client pertaining to Hailey Tanner?”

She mentioned the marks on the trellis now and the fact Eloise was dressed in Hailey’s clothes. Then added, “The reason I asked why you didn’t take Hailey from her bed is because I know you were in her bedroom.” She paused there, but neither Marshall nor his lawyer said anything. She continued. “You might have planned to take her but were interrupted. You ended up taking one of her tutus and a pair of ballet slippers from her closet, though, didn’t you? The ones you dressed her in to dispose of her.” Amanda set out a photo of the crime scene, and the lawyer turned away.

Marshall looked at the picture, and a smile tugged at his lips.

She resisted the urge to reach across the table and throttle the bastard. Instead, she’d hit his ego. “But you didn’t carry off the abduction that night. You chickened out, got spooked.”

He met her eye with a defiant gaze. “I wasn’t scared. I was biding my time, waiting for a bigger impact.”

“Not buying it.” Amanda sat back, and his eyes set ablaze. “Go ahead. Tell us what happened when you were in Hailey’s room.”

“Someone was in the hallway and peeked into her room. I ducked into the closet to hide. That’s when I got the idea to take her clothes. It would make for a beautiful scene.”

Amanda recalled thinking that with the way Hailey was posed, the person responsible felt remorse or affection for the girl. But it was only about making a perfect scene. “Is that why you chose Heroes Memorial Park? Because it is beautiful?”

“I knew about the carousel and how perfect she’d look there.”

Or the big impact it would make…“So you planned to kill her all along?”

He shrugged. “I returned for her. On my schedule.”

“How long did it take you to build up the courage?” She was trying to rile him. Let him build the case against himself.

“Two days.”

“When did you first lay eyes on Hailey?”

“AtThe Nutcrackerin December. I knew right away that she was the one.”

“Then why wait so long to take her?” Amanda leaned forward, clasping her hands on the table, showing her interest. Such indulgent body language would feed into Marshall’s need to feel powerful and important.