Page 53 of Three Girls Gone (Detective Amanda Steele #14)

FORTY-SIX

Amanda checked out of the hospital Friday morning and went right to Central.

Her family had come in to visit yesterday after she had gotten some rest. She insisted that Zoe be brought to her.

She was still feeling horrible despite being medicated for pain, but there was no way she was missing out on facing the asshole who had killed two girls, almost a third, and tried to drown her.

Her spirits had been further lifted yesterday when Eloise had insisted her parents wheel her to Amanda’s room. The little girl had wanted to thank Amanda for saving her in person. Her parents thanked her too, but Amanda couldn’t claim all the credit. Either way, the wins made this job sustainable.

Malone was in when she reached the station, and he summoned her into his office from the doorway.

Trent was in there seated in one of the visitor chairs.

He looked at her over his shoulder and smiled.

She felt her cheeks heat at the thought of him giving her mouth to mouth. He’d saved her life, and she owed him.

“How are you feeling?” Malone asked her .

She dropped into the chair next to Trent. “Ready to send this guy away for life.”

Malone smiled and looked at Trent. “I’d say she’s fine.”

Trent was grinning.

“You have a knack for facing off with killers,” Malone said.

“What can I say? It’s a talent.” It hurt to talk, and she’d prefer to preserve her voice for questioning Wilcox.

But if she confessed this weakness to Malone, he’d send her back home.

At least she hadn’t given him any need to reprimand her.

She hadn’t gone against orders. Backup was all around her, even if they were too far away to save her from swallowing mouthfuls of the Potomac River.

“All right. Well, if you feel you’re up for it…” Malone gestured at the door. “He’s already waiting in Interview Two.”

She didn’t waste time hiking down the hall in that direction.

Upon opening the door, she was face to face with Marshall and his lawyer.

Marshall had a gash on his cheek that had required stitches, and she took satisfaction in the thought she’d caused him some pain.

He also had a line of stitches at his hairline.

From Trent… It was the least of what he deserved.

He stared at her with defiance, and she pinned him back with her gaze. Somewhere in the last twenty-four hours, he’d lost his timidity.

She set down a folder she’d grabbed from her desk on the way here and pulled out some photographs. They were of Julie Gilbert, Hailey Tanner, and Eloise Maynard, and she set them down one by one in front of Marshall, rattling off their names as she went.

He looked at each photograph as it came to rest on the table.

“We can link you to all three crimes. The assault and murder of Julie Gilbert and Hailey Tanner and the kidnapping and attempted murder of Eloise Maynard. Let’s start with Julie. Why?”

Marshall glanced at his lawyer, who nodded .

“She was a spoiled brat. She had everything handed to her and looked down on everyone else.”

“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 saying I’m arrogant?”

“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?”

“At The Nutcracker in 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.

The lawyer turned to his client and back to Amanda. “My client refuses to answer.”

“I enjoy watching for a while,” Marshall admitted.

The lawyer sat back and flailed an arm.

Marshall went on. “I learned her routine, and when taking her from her own bed didn’t work out, I thought snatching her from the studio would be the next best thing.

It turned out that it was.” He smiled, and Amanda assumed he must have received tremendous pleasure from witnessing the chaos he’d caused.

“And how did you get her to go with you?”

“Easy. I exploited her trust. I met her on the day of the show when she was with Mara. All I had to do was tell the girl her nanny was running behind and sent me, her friend, to pick her up.”

It was along the lines Amanda had figured.

“You love watching so much, was that how you became obsessed with Julie Gilbert? You watched her from a distance, and then when you saw her at the family home you couldn’t help yourself?

” Amanda recalled that photo of Dickson.

Only it was never about him. The focus of the shot was Julie.

The lawyer faced Marshall. “I recommend you don’t respond to that.”

“He doesn’t need to. We have these.” Amanda pulled out photocopies of the notes he wrote taunting Katherine.

“Forensics have confirmed they match the printer in your rental house. One has Marshall’s fingerprint.

But why leave a note in the hem of Hailey Tanner’s dress calling out Katherine Graves?

You had to know this would connect Hailey’s murder to Julie Gilbert’s.

And you had to know Hailey’s murder would be investigated.

By doing this, you implicated yourself in two murders. ”

“Katherine had to know I was calling the shots. She should have minded her own business,” Marshall seethed. “She’s not even a cop anymore.”

“This isn’t on her,” Amanda hissed. “ You molested and killed those girls. You traumatized another one and her family.”

“Whatever.”

“Help me understand. Was it your ego that tripped you up? Your need to feel powerful and in control for a change?”

He met her eye but didn’t say a word.

I hit a bull’s-eye… She decided to continue beating on the matter.

“It makes no sense at all. And to come forward and identify Hank Dickson through Katherine’s website when you could have just stayed silent…

There’s no logic in it. But it’s a good thing you did.

Not for you, but for us.” Briggs could never tie the email to Marshall, but he didn’t have to know that.

Marshall grimaced. “You don’t know everything.”

“Please, enlighten me.”

“I just wanted to take her focus off me.”

Amanda scoffed laughter. “Katherine never knew you existed.”

“You’re lying.”

“Nope.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“It doesn’t matter to me if you do. You killed Hailey Tanner for the same reason you killed Julie Gilbert. You wanted to. It had nothing to do with Katherine Graves. If anything, this is about your mother, isn’t it? ”

Marshall balled his fists, nostrils flaring. “Shut the hell up right now.”

Amanda turned to Trent. “I touched a nerve.”

“I’d say,” Trent agreed.