"What will you be doing?"
"My job." He grinned.
I propped my hands on my hips and shook my head. He just wanted us out of his way, but I didn't care. There could be a glimpse of something on one of the tapes closest to the tree that could lead us to Marvin's killer.
"Look, I don't know about you," Kelly said, "but we were just about at a dead end. I say we grab some lunch and watch the tapes. We might find something helpful."
I looked between Kelly and Smith then sighed and held up my hand. "Fine. Fine. You win this time, but don't get used to it."
"Don't worry about lunch. I already picked something up for you." Smith pointed to two white Styrofoam takeout boxes and two steaming cups of coffee sitting on a small table situated in the corner of the room. "I hope you like Chinese."
"It is my favorite."
Smith showed us how to use two of the spare screens to view the surveillance tapes.
"I have some things to take care of. Let me know if you see anything that might be of use. My cell is on." He jotted his number down on a napkin.
"I'll let you know if we find anything."
He nodded curtly then left us to our own devices.
Kelly and I sat down at the table and sorted through the boxes of food.
"So, let's go over what we know." I reached behind me and grabbed a pen and paper from the desk.
"We know that Marvin liked the ladies," Kelly said and then popped a cream cheese wonton in her mouth.
"He was a huge cheater. No monogamous relationships for him. He was stringing Bambi, Addie, and Chelsea along at the same time."
I jotted down notes as we spoke.
"Marvin was killed at 11:00 pm on the night of the twenty-second. Chelsea said she was at home waiting for Marvin to show up. Addie said she had to pick her mom up from the airport that day, but we still don't know where she was that night."
"From what Smith said, none of the ladies have an alibi for that night," Kelly said.
"But the odds of Addie being able to move Marvin's body under the tree is miniscule. She's barely half his size."
"True," Kelly agreed. "So Addie being the killer is highly unlikely."
I chewed a bite of noodles then tapped the box with a chopstick. "I think one of the other two women did it. A lover scorned and all of that, but without any real evidence, there's no way to know for sure," I said. "I wish we knew what the cops have found so far, if they even have any evidence."
I took a bite of a pot sticker and continued to tap the box with the chopstick. "Chelsea said that the mall closed at 9:00 pm on the night that Marvin was killed. According to Chelsea, the only people still in the mall after that time would've been those whose job it was to straighten up the winter wonderland scene in preparation for the next day."
"If Marvin was killed at around 11:00 pm, then everyone had to be out of the building or else someone would've witnessed Marvin being killed," Kelly said around a mouthful of rice.
"Unless he was killed somewhere else and then moved to the tree," I added.
"True," Kelly agreed. "We need to watch the tapes of the areas closest to the wonderland scene around the time of death, between 10:00 pm and 12:00 pm."
"Sounds like as good of a place to start as any." I shrugged and took a sip of coffee.
We finished off the tasty Chinese food Detective Smith had left us and turned our attention to the monitors.
"Which camera is closest to the wonderland area?" Kelly asked.
"That would be"—I rolled my chair over to look at the paper directory hanging on the wall—"the food court." I rolled back to the desk.
She clicked on the computer screen, scrolled to the one labeled food court, and clicked on play.
We waited a minute then a grainy black and white picture of the area just outside of the food court popped up.
I reached up and hit the fast-forward button until the time at the bottom right corner of the screen hit the 10:00 pm mark.
The camera panned the entire food court and about twenty feet outside of the area. We could see a small portion of the tree but not the actual murder scene.
We leaned back in our chairs and settled in to watch the next two hours of tape. We watched in silence as the camera panned the food court, then to the area just outside of it, and back to the starting point again.
"I don't think any of the women murdered Marvin," Kelly spoke up.
"What? Why not?" I looked at her like she was crazy. The killer was almost always a scorned lover. Didn't she watch CSI?
"Well." She propped her feet up on the corner of the desk and laced her finger across her midsection. "Usually when a woman really loves a man and he's been murdered, she's pretty distraught. None of the women we talked to today looked like they had shed even a single tear over the guy. There were no shaky voices, no sniffles, not even any bad acting to pretend they cared when we talked to them. It was like none of them really gave a damn about Marvin."
I thought about what she said for a second. "Maybe he'd cheated on them so much, treated them so poorly, that they didn't care anymore. It would serve him right if all three women stopped giving a darn about him." I shrugged and took a sip of my coffee, my eyes never leaving the screen. "That alone might be enough for one, or all of them, to take Marvin out."
"I just don't see it." She dropped her feet and waved a hand in the air. "They didn't even seem all that angry about him cheating. It was like they had just washed their hands of him."
Kelly was right. The women, with the exception of Addie, who had only seemed disappointed and not really upset, hadn't shown any signs of despair over losing Marvin.
"Okay, so say that none of the women killed him. Who else have we talked to that would have wanted him dead?" I asked.
"The only other person we've talked to is Reginald, the mall supervisor," Kelly answered.
"Reginald said he didn't know him, that Marvin had only been hired on to work the holiday season, so he hadn't interacted with him. What reason would he have to kill Marvin?" I asked.
"None, that we know of," Kelly answered.
"Right. So we're back at zero." I shook my head. "I hope Smith is having better luck with this than we are."
I settled back into my chair, tried to enjoy my coffee, and glued my eyes to the screen as Kelly did the same. We watched the screen for another hour. Mall workers came and went without us really being able to see some of their faces due to the angle of the camera. Around the 10:30 pm mark, the mall fell silent, and the lights dimmed. I felt my pulse tick up as the time of Marvin's death inched closer and closer.
I was seriously starting to wonder if studying the tapes was going to be worth the time and effort since we couldn't see most of the people's faces or the crime scene itself. Then something caught my eye.
"Wait. Go back." I sprang forward in my seat.
"What? How far?" Kelly sat forward and hit the rewind button on the player.
"There! Stop there." I patted her arm with enthusiasm. "Watch."
I leaned forward and pressed my forearms into the desktop.
We watched the screen with baited breath then I saw it again.
"Who is that?" Kelly asked. "Do you think that's our guy?" I could hear excitement creeping into her voice.
We watched an arm then a leg move into view.
The rest of the scene played out right in front of the camera.
Dressed in full Santa garb, Marvin ran into full view of the camera. He turned and raised his arms to shield his face, but it was too late. Countless small pieces of something blasted him in the face, and he fell. His head slammed into the hard cement floor. We couldn't see who was shooting him or what he was being shot with because the person was out of the camera's range.
Marvin lay motionless, a pool of blood forming around him as the camera started to pan back to the food court.
"What in the hell just happened? What blasted him in the face?" Kelly asked and fast-forwarded the tape. When the camera was
pointed back at Marvin's body, he was being hoisted over the shoulder of a large man.
"Who is that?"
I studied the man. He was tall, muscular, and wore a pair of black slacks and a dark-colored shirt with a collar.
"Oh my God," I whispered. "I know who that is."
Kelly looked at me and shook her head, then looked back at the screen. "I don't recognize him. How do you? We haven't even seen his face. Just his body."
I grabbed my cell phone from out of my jeans pocket and dialed Smith's number. It rang then went to voicemail.
"Damn it, detective. Why did you give me this number if you weren't going to answer the stinking phone when I called? I know who killed Marvin," I shouted when the voicemail beeped for me to leave a message.
I shoved the phone back into my front jeans pocket and jumped to my feet.
"Barb? Who is that guy?" Kelly started to stand, but I was already headed toward the door.
"Just come on. I'll explain on the way," I called behind me as I grasped the doorknob. "We have to find Detective Smith."
I yanked the door open and came face-to-face with the barrel of a gun.
CHAPTER SEVEN
"Back up slowly. No funny business."
It was the wrong time to question such a thing, but who still says things like no funny business?
Apparently deranged security guards, that's who.
I looked up into the calm face of Eric.
"Just back up slowly, Ms. Jackson, and everything will be just fine. You over there, hands where I can see them."
I didn't dare chance a look at Kelly. The gun in my face held my complete attention.
"Recognize him now?" I asked.
"Yep," Kelly said quietly.
"You killed Marvin," I said as Eric backed me up by pressing the gun closer and closer to my face. My knees came up against the chair I'd vacated, and I sat, hands still raised in the air.
"The way you were running out of here, I'm guessing that you know I did." He switched his gaze back and forth between Kelly and me.
I watched Kelly from out of the corner of my eye. In the past, she had been known to pull some Die Hard, Bruce Willis stunts to help us escape a sticky situation.
Eric reached behind him and pulled two black zip ties from his pocket, then tossed one into my lap.
"Tie her up." He nodded in Kelly's direction.
I took the tie and stood slowly.
Kelly held her hands in front of her.
"No. Behind her back. I'm not taking any chances with the two of you." Eric waved the gun at me. Kelly kept her cool and turned around while I secured her wrists behind her back.
"Now, sit down," Eric told Kelly.
Kelly sat and glared at Eric, but I remained standing.
"Tell me why you killed Marvin?"
If Addie, Bambi, or Chelsea had been waving a gun in my face I wouldn't have even asked why they'd killed Marvin. But Eric being the killer had caught me completely off guard.
"Marvin was a pig."
"True," I agreed. There really was no denying that Marvin was a pig. "In my line of work most of the men I meet are pigs, but that doesn't give me the right to go around killing them no matter how many times the thought might cross my mind."
"You're full of sass, aren't you?" Eric screwed up his face with disbelief and chuckled. "It's a shame that it's come down to this. I really liked you, but you can't seem to keep your nose out of other people's business."
Now where had I heard that before?
"You want to know why I killed Marvin? Fine. I'll tell you. Take a seat." He reached out and pushed me down into the chair. "We're going to make this quick. I don't want to take the chance of your boyfriend showing up before I'm finished with the two of you."
"Detective Smith isn't my boyfriend." I'm not sure why I felt the need to clarify that little tidbit of information, but I did.
Eric shrugged. "That doesn't matter. We still need to move this along."
Eric took a step back and eyed us carefully.
"Marvin was sleeping with Chelsea."
I frowned and shook my head. "And Bambi, and Addie, and most likely a handful of others. We know that but—"
"Chelsea and I were seeing each other before Marvin came along." Eric interrupted me. "We were happy too. Then here comes this guy, a little bit younger than me, a smooth talker, arrogant. I suspected they were messing around behind my back for about a week. Then a couple of days ago Chelsea tells me that we're over." He snarled. "I knew that it was because of Marvin. I can't even figure out what she saw in the guy. He was a fool, a drunk, a cheater, a liar."
I wanted to look at Kelly and say, "See, told you it was a scorned lover," but I refrained. That snide little line would probably get me shot. Eric might have been calm when he'd entered the room, but reciting the story had obviously started to rile him up. His face reddened with anger, and his hands shook as he held the gun even with my chest.
I sent up a silent prayer that Detective Smith checked his voicemail before Eric blew our heads off.
I needed to keep him talking in order to give Smith a chance to find us.
"You confronted Marvin?" Kelly asked, obviously thinking along the same lines I was.
Eric switched his gaze to her. "Yeah, I did. Wouldn't you? I was in love with Chelsea, but that fool was in my way. I knew he'd be here helping set up the wonderland scene. Reginald had ordered a new Santa Claus costume, and Marvin had to try it on."
I still had my gun in an ankle holster, but I was no Billy the Kid. I could draw my weapon, but I'd never be fast enough. Either Kelly or I would wind up dead. I was stuck sitting there in that chair like a stuffed Christmas goose.
"I knew that fool would be here late. I'd seen him drinking in the parking lot and watched him stagger in after almost everyone was gone. I don't know why, but he came out of the men's room still wearing his costume and went over to the tree. Who knows what he was thinking? He was obviously drunk."
Kelly peeked over at me. I could tell she was thinking of a way to get to my gun. If we could catch Eric off guard, I'd have time to pull my weapon and maybe save our lives.
"I told him to stay away from Chelsea, but he just laughed. Said that he'd string her along for as long as he wanted to. He called her a slut, and that's when I snapped. I punched him in the mouth. He fell but got back up and started cursing Chelsea, calling her all sorts of names. Then he spit blood in my face. I shoved him, and he started to turn and run away. I grabbed the T-shirt cannon, turned the air pressure all the way up, and fired it at his face. He fell and hit his head. I grabbed him and shoved him under the tree, cleaned up the mess, and ran out of there as fast as I could."
"Wait," I said with confusion. "You said you shot him in the face with the T-shirt cannon, but on the tape he wasn't hit in the face with a shirt. It was a lot of something small."
"Candy."
"What?"
"It was candy that hit him in the face. Christmas candy," he clarified. "That day the elves had the pressure on the cannon turned down and were shooting candy into the air for the little kids instead of softballs and T-shirts."
"How'd you know we were in here?" Kelly asked.
"Obviously I knew that you were snooping around since you even asked for my help at one point, so I started watching the two of you in case you started getting too close to the truth. I saw that detective lead you in here then leave. I already knew what this room was used for, so I assumed he'd stuck you with the task of watching the tapes." He directed the gun at my forehead. "I didn't know for certain if any of the cameras had captured what happened. I doubted it, but you can never be too careful. I tried to get in here and delete the recordings, but the cops have been crawling all over the place since last night. Then I did a little research on you and found out that you're pretty good at your job. It would be only a matter of time before you figured out that I'd killed Marvin."
"So is your plan to kill us too?" I asked. "How far do you think you'll ge
t?"
"I really hate that it's come down to this. You're smart and a bit spunky." He laughed. "Yes, I'm going to kill the two of you. Then I'm going to erase the recordings and walk out of here like nothing ever happened."
"Smith's a great detective. He'll figure out that it was you. Then what?" I was getting angry. It was my favorite holiday, and instead of being at home with a belly full of food and opening presents with my makeshift family, we were about to die in a surveillance room because of some sleaze ball who couldn't keep it in his pants and a psycho, disgruntled ex-boyfriend.
I always figured that my death would be caused by being sarcastic at the wrong time to the wrong person. I guess I was wrong.
"The detective can't figure anything out if he's dead."
He was going to kill Smith. I couldn't let that happen. I thought of what it was like for me when my family had died. I couldn't let that happen to Smith's kids.
I didn't even think, just reacted. I summoned my inner JJ Watt and sprang up from the chair, hitting Eric in the stomach with my shoulder like a linebacker on the football field.
He grunted and stumbled backward. My weight wasn't enough to take him off of his feet. Fortunately, Kelly was anticipating my move. She slammed into my back a second later, and we all three fell to the floor in a tangled mess of limbs.
The gun flew out of Eric's hands, but I couldn't get to my gun because I was crushed between Kelly's and Eric's bodies.
Eric wiggled out from under us and scrambled for the gun. Kelly finally rolled off of me and quickly stood. She kicked the gun, it slid across the floor, and it came to rest in the farthest corner of the room.
Eric stood and threw a hard right hand that connected with Kelly's jaw, dropping her instantly. I struggled to catch my breath and reached behind me to grab my gun, but before I could get a good aim Eric kicked the gun out of my hand and shoved me over onto my back.
I didn't have time to worry about whether or not Kelly was all right. Eric sat on my chest and wrapped his meaty hands around my throat.
His fingers dug into my skin. I couldn't breathe, and panic started to set in. I slapped and clawed at his face and hands, but he continued to snarl down at me.
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