Page 60 of Child In Jeopardy
“I didn’t know Buck was going to kill Stephanie,” Marsh yelled just as the deputies got him out of the belts and cuffed his hands. They pulled him to his feet so he was now eye level with Slater. “If I’d known, I would have stopped him. I would have killed him.”
“You knew Stephanie was pregnant with his baby?” Lana asked.
“He told me, but I didn’t believe him. I thought the baby was mine.” Marsh shook his head. “But then I realized if it had been, Stephanie wouldn’t be in hiding. She was scared of Buck, and Buck was a monster.”
“He was your partner,” Slater reminded him. “You were his accomplice.”
“Not because I wanted to be.” Marsh groaned. “It all got so messed up. He killed Stephanie and then said if I didn’t help him cover it up, he’d give the cops a recording he made of the night Alicia died. Buck blackmailed me while I was sick with grief over losing Stephanie. This is all his fault.”
The wimp was trying to deflect the blame, but Slater knew there was enough blame for both Buck and Marsh. “It wasn’t Buck’s fault that you killed Taylor. Buck was already dead by then. Why did you kill her? Because she was getting too close to the truth?”
“She got to the truth,” Marsh clarified. “Taylor had worked it all out. She didn’t have proof yet, but she would have kept digging until she found it. She wanted to hurt me for telling her to get lost.” He paused. “In hindsight, I should have led her on and let her think she stood a chance of being with me, but I couldn’t stand the sight of her. Not after all those things she said about Stephanie.”
Yeah, hindsight might have saved Taylor long enough for them to figure out Marsh was the accomplice, but Taylor might not have been willing to play along with that.
“You were willing to kill Sheriff Holder, Lana and me to get back at Leonard,” Slater stated. “Why didn’t you just kill Leonard when you drugged him and brought him here?”
More anger fired through Marsh. “Because I wanted you all to pay for Stephanie dying. You should have figured everything out sooner, and then you would have come gunning for me. You were all supposed to get trapped in the first explosion, and the second one should have killed you all.”
“How did you even know how to build explosives?” That question came from Duncan, who was motioning for the EMTs to move in to examine Leonard.
“Buck did them. All of this was his backup plan to cover his own butt if the cops pinned Stephanie’s murder on him. He thought he was going to get away with that since he’d jammed the security cameras.”
It sickened Slater to think Buck might have indeed gotten away with it if Lana hadn’t seen him. Then again, if she hadn’t, then Buck might not have come after her.
Marsh likely would have, though.
The rage was too strong for Marsh just to have dropped this. He wanted revenge for all those who’d kept Stephanie from him. And it didn’t matter that Stephanie had been the one who’d initiated the hiding.
“I must have messed up the timing of the explosives,” Marsh snarled. “Buck didn’t leave good enough instructions. The first wasn’t supposed to do much damage but give me time to get away once I had all of you in the arena. Then, the second one was supposed to go off within seconds so you’d all be punished for what you did.”
Marsh stopped his tirade to launch into another one. All aimed at Leonard when the EMTs started taking the man toward the ambulance. Pamela was trailing along right behind them, and while she might never forgive her husband for hisaffairs, she certainly didn’t appear to be ready to leave him, either.
“Who dug up Alicia’s body?” Slater asked, trying to get Marsh back on track so he could get as much information from him as possible.
Especially since Slater had a huge question he needed answering.
“Buck did,” Marsh muttered as if weren’t important. “That was part of his backup plan, too. To use Alicia’s body to blackmail Leonard so he’d help him. I figured I’d piggyback on that and use it to lure Pamela and Lana here. And you,” he added, and now there was the tone of importance.
Marsh smiled at him. A sickening smile that slammed Slater with anger. Because Slater knew what was coming next.
“I shot your father because he wouldn’t butt his nose out of the investigation into Alicia’s death.” Marsh said the words slowly, punctuating them with that smile that was straight from hell.
There it was. The answer Slater had needed. And it cut him to the bone. His father had been gunned down for doing his job.
Slater felt a hand on his arm and realized it was Lana. He hadn’t even noticed her moving closer to him. Hadn’t noticed anything. Except the smiling monster standing in front of him. He’d always heard the expression “seeing red,” but Slater hadn’t known it was real. But the red came. Wave after wave of rage that was closing in on him.
“Kill me, Deputy McCullough,” Marsh taunted. “You know you want to. That way, you get your so-called justice, and I don’t have to spend the rest of my life in a cage.”
Slater wanted that justice. Wanted it more than his next breath.
Or so he thought.
Then he felt Lana’s grip tighten on his arm, and she gently turned Slater to face her. “Marsh will be punished every day he’s in jail,” she said. “No trust fund. No pampered lifestyle. He’ll be with other killers who’ll make him sorry he was ever born. He’ll have to spend every moment looking over his shoulder, waiting to be attacked by monsters worse than he can ever imagine. Every moment will be his own personal hell that he can’t escape.”
The cockiness and taunting drained from Marsh’s face. Slater could thank Lana for painting that vivid picture of what the man’s future would be. Yes, Slater would get plenty satisfaction from killing Marsh right here, right now. But this way, Marsh would pay for the rest of his miserable life.
Slater gave Marsh one last look, and while the grief didn’t vanish, some of the tightness did in his chest. Tightness he’d been carrying for a year since his father’s murder.