Page 14 of Say Now
"Tell me what I need to know, Dale.Where were you going?"Alison asked.
"I want to know about the case."
"I’ll keep you informed as much as I can, but I’m not releasing information to you that I don't have to.You’re only hindering in finding your sister’s killer."
Dale was quiet again.She wouldn’t like to run into him in a bar or a back alley.
"Marcus Webb," Dale finally said."If you pay him a visit, then I won't have to.He’s definitely a person I’d want to talk to from what I’ve heard."
***
Alison and Claire walked into the bar and looked around.The three men sitting in the bar and the male bartender all looked their way.It wasn’t the sort of place that women usually ventured into, and it was as if two aliens had walked into the establishment.
Before any of the four men could say something that would make Alison annoyed, Claire pulled out her badge.
"Special Agent Martinez.We’re looking for Alan White."
The barman stood polishing a glass for a second before gesturing to the man at the end of the bar.
Alison and Claire approached him as he continued to sip his beer and looked straight ahead at the wall behind the bar.
"Mr.White, we’d like to talk with you about Marcus Webb.Do you think we can move to a table?"Claire asked.
"How about you buy me a beer, and I’ll tell you anything you want?"he replied.
"How about you tell us what we need to know so I don’t have to haul you down to the station?"
Alan downed the rest of his beer and gestured for the barman to bring him another.Then, he got up from his barstool and ambled his way over to a table and sat down.The two ladies joined him.
"What do you want to know about Marcus?"Alan asked."What trouble is he in now?"
"Why would you think he’s in any trouble?"Claire asked.
"You wouldn’t be asking about him if you didn't want to talk with him, and he’s the kind of guy that trouble follows.Where did you go first?You talked to someone and they said I might know where he is, right?"
"Something like that," Claire said."We went to the prison where you both worked together until a few years ago, and we discovered he was fired not only from there but from multiple facilities over the past decade for inappropriate conduct and violating confidentiality and security protocols."
Alan scowled."Yeah, that sounds about right.He didn't last all that long in prison.Around here, a job like that is for life.We always joked that you went to prison for life; it just depended on which side of the bars you were on."
"The warden told us that he had his fair share of run-ins with the forensic psychologists whose evaluations he disagreed with," Alison said.
"Yeah, did he ever.I like that guy, and we went fishing together, but he wouldn’t stop talking about it.He said that when someone was locked up for life, they should be in prison for the rest of their life.And he had a whole diatribe about prison sentences being too short for most things.It wasn’t just the psychologists; it was just about everyone in the prison system that he rubbed the wrong way.Let’s just say that he didn’t have a lot of friends."
"But you were his friend," Alison pointed out.
The barman placed the beer on the table, spilling a little.
"Yeah, I got on with him, but it was mainly because of the fishing.He was different out there, you know?When we were in the city, he could get tiring in his tirades, but out in nature…It calmed him.We didn’t have a lot of time at work to chat; it was out on the rivers that I really got to know him."
"Right before he was fired from the prison, he was found accessing institutional systems that he shouldn’t have been in, and he was caught downloading sensitive case material.Did he ever speak about that?"
"No."The answer was short and far too quick.
"Do you want to think about that for a little longer?"Alison asked."You don't need to cover for him."
"We’re investigating a double homicide," Claire said."If you do cover for your friend and we find out he was involved, then that involves you, too."
"Homicide?"Alan swallowed before taking a large drink of his beer."I don't know anything about that.Marcus wouldn’t…I’m sure he wouldn’t do anything like that."
