Page 22 of Secret Stalker

The chief put his hand on his hips. “Which one is Chucky? One of the ones over at county lockup?”

“No. He’s the other guy I shot, the one who asked for a lawyer.”

“Figures.” Thornton motioned with his thumb over his shoulder. “If this Lenny guy told us the truth, the other three gunmen won’t be able to help us any more than he did, even if they weren’t already asking for lawyers.”

“That about sums it up,” Max said.

The sound of footsteps coming down the polished tiled hallway had Max turning around, surprised to see Dillon striding toward them.

When Dillon reached them, Max asked, “What are you still doing here? Didn’t you get Marcia’s statement yesterday? Or did something else happen?”

“No, nothing else, thank goodness. But there was a delay with her statement. The doctors around here are a little too careful, if you ask me. They wouldn’t let me talk to her yesterday at all, even though she called us. I had to wait for them to clear her.”

“They’re terrified of lawsuits these days,” the chief grumbled. “Is she ready to talk now?”

“I just finished interviewing her. She answered every question I asked and then some. She’s terrified of going to jail. But nothing she said ties into the grocery store holdup. Her going after Miss Kane with that rifle was apparently a spur-of-the-moment decision. Marcia fancies herself Bobby Caldwell’s girlfriend and blames Miss Kane for his death. She said when she saw her with you, Max, that all those old feelings of anger came back. She was furious that Max and Bex were back together and she could never be with Bobby again.”

“We’re not back together,” Max gritted out.

Dillon shrugged. “Just relaying what the witness—”

“You mean suspect.”

“Fair enough. I’m just telling you what she said. She was jealous and angry and grabbed the rifle out of the trunk of her car. She claims she was only trying to scare Miss Kane.”

“Right. And she just happened to have a loaded rifle in her car when she came over.”

The chief cleared his throat, drawing their attention. “Not that I want to give Miss Knolls an alibi or reasonable doubt, but she has won the shooting challenges at the county fair three years running. The fair is coming up soon. It’s likely she keeps her gun in the car to take back and forth to target practice these days.”

Dillon grimaced. “You hit it on the head, Chief. That’s exactly what she told me, that she was going to do some target practice after bringing over a casserole her mom made her deliver to Miss Kane. She also insisted that if she’d really wanted to shoot anyone, she wouldn’t have missed.”

The chief nodded.

“Please don’t tell me you agree with that statement,” Max said.

“Okay. I’ll just keep quiet, then.” The chief rolled his eyes.

Max swore. “So we have her on, what, a misdemeanor? Assuming we believe her story?”

“Well.” The chief scrubbed the stubble on his chin. “We could charge her with attempted murder if we wanted to go that route. But a jury of her peers would set her free so fast your head would spin. Trying to pin the grocery store thing on her won’t stick, either.”

“Then you’re just going to let her go? I don’t care how proficient she is with a rifle. No one’s perfect. She could have hurt or killed Bex when she pulled that trigger.”

“I ain’t gonna argue with you on that,” the chief agreed. “We’ll charge her with something, maybe reckless endangerment. Let her spend a few nights in jail to teach her a lesson. But unless Miss Kane wants to press more serious charges against her, she’ll be out in a few days.”

Max whirled around and headed down the hallway.

“Where are you going?” the chief called out.

“To get Bex to press charges against Marcia Knolls.”

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