Read Online Dead Winter by William G. Tapply - Free Book Online

home. See—never mind. Anyhow, Marc said he could come over. I said no. I couldn’t—didn’t want to do that anymore. He said I shouldn’t worry. He said he needed me. He just wanted to see me for an hour. He’s real sweet. Marc, I mean. Not Al. Anyway, I said, well, okay. It’s—Marc makes me feel good, see. Makes me kinda feel all melty when he talks to me. So different from Al. Oh, I shouldn’t be telling you any of this. I don’t even know you.”
    I reached across the table to touch her wrist. “There was a murder last night,” I said gently.
    “Yeah. I know.” She frowned at me. “You don’t think Marc did it, do you?”
    “He says he didn’t.”
    “Well, he didn’t. At least not when he was with me.”
    “Which was—?”
    “Like I said, maybe nine thirty, quarter to ten—”
    “You said he called you at nine thirty.”
    She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. “Yeah, right. I was watching something on TV and he called during the commercial. Okay. I met him, I guess it was nearer to ten. I checked the kids, made sure they were okay. Told the oldest one, my little girl—she’s nine, real responsible—I told her I had to go out for a little while. I locked up and drove down by the beach. It’s where we usually meet. I mean, not that I do this a whole lot. But Marc can’t exactly come to the house. Anyway, it’s maybe ten, fifteen minutes from my house. I had to wait maybe five minutes before he got there.”
    She stopped and dropped her eyes.
    “Go on, Andy.”
    “What do you want me to tell you?”
    “I don’t want details of your personal life. Were you with Marc for the rest of the evening?”
    She nodded. “Yes. We can’t go anyplace. Not like a restaurant or the movies or anything. I just can’t take the chance that somebody’ll see us. We got out and walked on the beach for a while. Took off our shoes and squished our toes in the sand. Then—”
    “You went to his boat?”
    She nodded. “He said no one would see us. We could take it out, be alone.”
    “Did you go anywhere before you went to the boat?”
    “No. We drove straight to it. Left my car on the side of the road by the beach.”
    “What was Marc wearing?”
    She cocked her head at me. “What difference is it?”
    “Can you remember?”
    “Slacks. Sport coat.” She shrugged.
    “You’re sure of that?”
    “Sure I’m sure. It wasn’t that long ago, you know.”
    “So you went to the boat.”
    She widened her eyes. “Oh, wow. He didn’t want me to see her, but I did. I was right behind him, and when he saw her lying there he sort of jumped back and like gasped and I could see her over his shoulder. I’ve never seen anything…” She hunched her shoulders and pressed her forearms together in front of her.
    “Do you have any idea what time you arrived at the boat?”
    She hugged herself. “Midnight, maybe. I don’t know. Maybe a little later. It was maybe one o’clock when I finally got home. Marc drove me back to my car. Told me not to say anything, he’d take care of it. I mean, he knows if Al ever found out. Oh, jeez, he’d kill me. Or worse. Luckily Al wasn’t there. I went to bed. Hardly slept at all. I pretended to be asleep when Al came pounding in. Drunk. So what else is new, huh?”
    “What time did Al get home?”
    She shrugged elaborately. “What time does he ever get in? When he feels like it. It must’ve been after two. Him and his buddies.” She snorted through her nose. “I had to wake him up before I left to come here. Told him to take care of the kids so I could go make a few bucks to feed them.”
    “Did Marc mention a name when he saw Maggie? Her body, I mean?”
    “I don’t getcha.”
    “As if he had an idea of who might’ve hurt her.”
    She shook her head. “No. I mean, I don’t think so. It was so scary and weird I’m not sure I’d remember.”
    “Can you think of anything you didn’t tell me, Andy?”
    “Like what?”
    “I don’t know. Anything Marc