Page 13 of Remember When We
I was selfish to hope for something to excuse my guilt. Sometimes I just felt so bad for the whole thing and I wanted that pain to go away. Bad enough to lose my best friend, even worse to blame myself.
The door opened and Gibbs came in carrying one of Rory’s rucksacks he used to take fishing.
“Hey guys,” he said, walking into the living room. He smiled running a hand over his salt and pepper beard.
“Hey.” Dante and I said in unison.
Gibbs was a P.I. Claudius had hired to investigate Christina’s murder.
He hired him and damn the guy helped in a massive way by turning our attention to things we would never have seen. It was what he did in my case. There was no way in hell we would have gotten our hands on the shit he dug up—no way.
He was an ex-navy man who’d taken on the job of P.I. when he was framed for his wife’s murder.
Claudius brought him in at a time when it felt like he was needed. My decision, or rather mission back to Philly started out when his contact with the feds found the original coroner’s report archived in the evidence locker.
It showed that Marshall died from poisoning a day before he was supposedly shot dead.
Our analysis was this: whoever killed him had poisoned him then moved his body to the parking lot and then shot him up to make it look like he’d been in a gang shoot out. They even went as far as to shoot up the place to make it look legit.
Police reports stated that he died from multiple gunshot wounds and so did the coroner’s report I’d seen eight years ago.
It was all however a fucking bald-faced lie. Along with the files Gibson also found a note. The note was on Marshall’s body when he was brought in.
The note said:
Call me as soon as you see this. I saw something that I think you should know about. Only you have the power to sort this out.
Marshall
“I’m making headway.” Gibson declared setting the rucksack down near the coffee table. He came over and sat next to me.
“What did you find?” I brightened up, maybe he had found something that would be amazing. We’d gotten here last night and he was already making headway.
“I’m still theorizing, but I’m on to something. That note’s been on my mind. I’ve been trying to brainstorm and think about who it would have been meant for. I think that’s the angle we need to work.”
“Really?” I was more geared toward the fact that the coroner’s report was found in the Fed’s archives. I wanted to know how the shit it got there and who the fuck had put it there.
It was shady as shit.
“Yes, trust me on this.”
“Gibbs, don’t you think we should be looking into why someone would want to hide the original coroner’s report. That part feels like the more obvious thing to do.” Dante chimed in.
“I am, believe me I am. I think the person who arranged that is linked to the person the note was for. I’m not sure that the person who made the arrangements knew about the note.”
I saw what he meant. “I got that impression too,” I agreed. “Like if they knew about it, they would have destroyed it.”
“Exactly. I won’t waste time thinking about the ins and outs of it, but I think that’s the angle I should work. I got a meeting set up with one of the guys Marshall worked with. He’s finishing up, in a few hours I’m gonna meet with him and see what happens.”
“Do you want us to come?”
“No, I was hoping you’d go over that list of people Marshall knew. Write down what jobs they had. and anything in relation to what capacity he knew them. I’ve been thinking about the note in terms of what he meant by power.”
I’d made a long list of people.
Plan A was to start looking at people he knew and going from there.
Someone had wanted him dead, because he saw something. Now we had to work backwards to get the answer.
