Eyewitness 4: A Gripping Mystery Suspense Thriller

by Marc Timms

  Eyewitness

  BOOK 4

  By

  Marc Timms

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  Copyright Notice

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 by Mark Timms – All rights reserved

  All rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication / use of the trademarks is not authorized, associated with or sponsored by the trademark.

  Table of Contents

  Books By Marc Timms

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  About The Author

  Books By Marc Timms

  Books by Marc Timms

  SHOCK SERIES

  SHOCK

  SHOCK – The Truth

  SHOCK – The Chase

  SHOCK – The Chaos

  SHOCK – The Capture

  FORGOTTEN SERIES

  FORGOTTEN – The Return

  FORGOTTEN – THE Quest

  FORGOTTEN – The Revelations

  FORGOTTEN – The Reveal

  FORGOTTEN – The Unveil

  EYEWITNESS SERIES

  EYEWITNESS – BOOK 1

  EYEWITNESS – BOOK 2

  EYEWITNESS – BOOK 3

  EYEWITNESS – BOOK 4

  EYEWITNESS – BOOK 5 - COMING SOON

  BOOK 4

  Chapter 1

  Arthur Tremblay didn't say a word for two days. Johanna Cole knew this because Detective Dempsey would routinely call her to rant at the world.

  On the third day, he asked for a lawyer.

  Johanna thought it was merely another layer of frustration to the already too many levels of bureaucracy in the case. Still, Detective Dempsey was pleased by the event. "Now, at least we'll get to find something out. The lawyer will try to cooperate to some degree, and we'll learn something. Certainly, things like his accomplices and what has happened to his son and to the man who shot at you could be teased out of him."

  Johanna hoped that some of those things would be revealed. She'd had no word from Thomas since he'd disappeared from the hospital. She didn't know if he'd run for it, thinking that he would be arrested next—or if something had happened to him.

  The status of not knowing was driving her crazy. She'd invested time and a certain amount of emotion into the relationship with Thomas. While she wouldn't label it as a serious relationship, she would say that it had potential.

  The scariest part of the whole situation was what had happened to the man who had cared for Penny while she was missing. He had seen Marnie's car and shot at them several times. He wasn't afraid to use force or kill either of them. She had checked into a hotel, not far from her home, under a different name. Marnie had come to stay with her.

  After three days, the adventure of living in a nice hotel had worn off. Everything cost too much money, and Johanna had tired of having a roommate in the minimal space.

  Yet, the thought of going home held no appeal. Johanna knew that the kidnapper could quickly get past the simplistic security in the building and be at her door in seconds. She wouldn't even be able to call the police before she would be at his mercy. The thought made her shiver again.

  Johanna was sure that Carolyn would have known how to handle father and son, but she had been killed, run over like Thomas had been.

  She wondered if the crimes had been committed by the same person. The police operated on that assumption. They had decided to concentrate on the hit-and-run involving Thomas for some reason. They had given little time to Carolyn's death or the events that led up to it.

  The person who had killed Carolyn had taken a car from the apartment building's parking lot, so the means were available to everybody—anyone who could break into a car and get it started. She'd made this argument to the police, but the suggestion had fallen on deaf ears.

  On the fifth day, Johanna decided that she needed to solve this for herself. Marnie had found some talk show on the hotel room's TV and had settled in for the day. Johanna had opted to find out what would be involved in hot-wiring a car and who would know how to do it.

  She decided to start with the police since they likely knew many of the people who had this skill.

  Detective Dempsey was at his desk when she arrived at the station. He barely looked up at her as she approached.

  Johanna cleared her throat, and he looked up after a slight pause. "What brings you here today?" he asked, in a very flat tone. She wasn't sure if she'd done something to make him angry, but he was not happy to see her.

  "I was curious to find out how to hot-wire a car," she said, knowing that her words sounded presumptuous and awkward as she said them.

  Dempsey looked at her for a moment and then laughed. However, he stopped suddenly. "You're serious? You're asking a cop how to hot-wire a car? What is this for?"

  Johanna started to explain the situation, but then he apparently understood. "You want to learn how easy it is to hot-wire a car so that you can apply this to the fact that Carolyn's killer hot-wired a car to run her over."

  The last words were harsh, and Johanna felt a shiver down her spine. She wasn't prepared to think of it in such unforgiving terms. "Something like that," she said.

  He sighed. "Fine, since for some reason you think that this is going to get you somewhere, I'll tell you. The car was a keyless entry, so you need a device that basically steals the fob's signal that locks and unlocks the car. Then the car has to have a keyless start. It's easy when you only have to push a button. Not so easy when you have to use a key with a chip inside of it."

  Johanna thought about what he said. "So you need a device, and you need to recognize what types of cars are the easiest to steal."

  "And if you're thinking about the murders in the park, I can find out what types of cars they were. If they are a similar build to the car that killed Carolyn, that might be a link that you could use between the events."

  Johanna flashed back to the time when she'd been chased by the man who had killed the woman in the park. He had tried to run her off the road with his car, but in the fear and anger of the moment, she had not thought about the make and model of the vehicle. She'd only concentrated on getting out of there alive.

  She gave up on trying to identify a part of that memory. "I don't remember what type of car it was," she said finally.

  "We'll find out. I'm sure the information will be in the reports. They should have been able to pull something from the traffic cameras. From what I understand, you were breaking a lot of traffic rules that day."

  Though she gave him a small smile,
Johanna had been terrified that day. She'd thought of how close she'd come to being caught by the man in the park, and her mind traveled to the thoughts of cars trying to hit her and men trying to shoot her. This case was far more dangerous than she assumed.

  "I'll walk you out. I'll call with the information on the models later today, if that's okay." He opened the door to the office and extended an arm to show her the direction.

  Except as she stepped into the hall, she heard a man shout. "You: I'll talk to you."

  She turned, and it was Arthur Tremblay, standing in the middle of the hallway with cuffs around his wrists.

  Johanna sat in the interview room, the same one where she'd been held a few days before. It was hard to believe that it had only been a few days ago, but she'd sat here for hours waiting for permission to leave.

  Today she sat here, waiting for them to bring in Arthur Tremblay. Detective Dempsey had pulled her aside and tried to point out how important it would be to get him to talk. "Anytime a criminal talks, they give away secrets. We need those secrets. He hasn't said a word except to ask for a lawyer, and suddenly, he wants to talk to you."

  "It’s a ploy,” Johanna said, trying to minimize the fact that this criminal—a stranger—wanted to sit and talk in a wired room. Did he have a message from Thomas? Or better yet, did he know where he was? Information like that pushed her to meet with him, despite the feeling that this was all a trick of some sort.

  So here she sat in the interview room, with all the cameras and mics set up for the police to hear every word he uttered—and she spoke. They’d promised her a guard just outside the door who would contact the viewers of the room. Nothing could happen to her. So why did she feel so nervous?

  The man came into the room, still in handcuffs and manacles on his ankles. A guard walked him to a seat and pushed him into it. The guard looked at Johanna and said, “I’ll be outside.”

  She waited for Arthur to say something, and in the meantime, she studied him. He definitely wasn’t the man in the park. Arthur was older and nowhere near as suave as the other man. Even given the noticeable difference in clothes and grooming, he just was not in the same league of well-pampered men as that killer was.

  “You’re the one who smacked me with that tray,” he said, with a snicker. “It’s a rare woman who can catch a grifter like me. I have to hand it to you.”

  “That’s all you wanted to say?” Johanna asked. “You wanted to compliment me on my technique in hitting people with a restaurant tray?”

  “There’s more than a few who couldn’t do that. You show resourcefulness. That’s a good trait.”

  “Thank you, I guess.”

  “You were seeing Thomas too, weren’t you? He talked about you a lot. He was right. You were pretty, and he wouldn’t be able to get away with much if you were around. I can see that now. You’re on top of things.”

  While she remained seated, Johanna pantomimed a curtsy. “Thank you.”

  They sat in silence for a moment, each thinking about Thomas.

  They both spoke at the same time and much the same: “Where’s Thomas?” Johanna asked. He asked, “Where’s my son?”

  Her first inclination was to leave now. This man had no idea where Thomas was, so presumably, he hadn’t killed his son. But that didn’t mean that he was telling the truth. However, she was inclined to believe him. Why would he want her to tell him Thomas’s location if he already knew it? This meeting would be unnecessary if that were the case.

  “I haven’t seen him since he left the hospital,” she said first. “I don’t know where he is. I thought you would know. Besides, he’s not really even Thomas, is he?”

  “It’s easier to call him that.”

  “He even fooled Carolyn,” Johanna added, wondering what the man would say about his former daughter-in-law.

  “When I went to see the man, I did some artistic arrangement of the bandages. It was hard to see more than a few inches of face when I was done.” He gave her a grin that appeared to boast of how clever he’d been.

  “So, where is the real Thomas?” Johanna asked, wanting to know more about the real man.

  “He decided that this life wasn’t for him. He quit the life and went straight. Changed his name and got a respectable job. You’d probably like him,” the man said, with almost a sneer.

  Arthur shook his head while he stared at her. He was obviously assessing her and watching for whatever signs would label her a liar.

  “But Carolyn is dead?” he said finally.

  This time, Johanna just nodded. She seemed to be providing him with far more information than he was giving her. She bristled at the thought and debated leaving again. She’d had enough of men who could not tell the truth.

  She waited for him to speak again. She looked at the cameras and the window, which was mirrored over with one-way glass. Johanna wished the police had given her more instruction on what to ask and what the police wanted from this interview. So far, she’d gained nothing.

  “Are you sure about that?” he asked.

  Johanna resented Arthur’s tone. He had a reputation as a grifter, and yet he was questioning her integrity in the matter.

  “I saw it happen,” she said, trying not to let the tears come to her eyes again. Whatever Carolyn had been and what she’d kept hidden, she’d been kind to Johanna. That was far more than these two men had been.

  He tsked a few times. “That’s too bad. I always liked her. Carolyn could always see through us and cut to the quick. She knew what was what, and she wasn’t afraid to tell it.”

  Johanna let the compliment stand for a minute, not wanting to rush the only eulogy that Carolyn was likely to receive. The police had found no relatives, which meant that her ex-husband and ex-father-in-law were the only people who had known her before she visited town.

  “So, how did you catch up with me?” he asked. “I thought I’d covered my tracks well.”

  “We went to the house,” Johanna said. “We saw the photos on the wall. You were there, and Thomas was there—but not the Thomas that I’d met. A different one. That’s why you took his wallet, didn’t you?”

  The older man nodded. “I was worried that would come back to haunt me, but I couldn’t let them see his real name and his identification.”

  “Carolyn thought you stole it for the cash, but she was on the right track. So you killed her.” The words were harsh, but Johanna felt better for the accusation. Maybe now she’d get something from the man.

  He laughed. “Did the cops put you up to that?” he asked. “I’m not a killer. I’m many things, and I’ll admit to them all, but I have never killed a soul.”

  “But you stole a dog, and you sent that hitman after us,” Johanna said. She remembered the joy of discovering Penny and how it had turned to panic, as the man had gone for his weapon and started shooting at them.

  “Well, I might have had something to do with that dog, but we weren’t going to hurt her. The plan was to give her to a rescue or a shelter. She’d have a good life, but just not with all that money.”

  Arthur was very forthright about his plans, but Johanna debated whether she should give him his rights or any warning that the room had ears and eyes.

  “I already know that they’re listening,” he said with a sigh. “I appreciate the concern, but it’s not needed. I was going to give a missing dog to a shelter that could care for her. Not exactly a crime in doing that. I might have even given that woman the information on Penny after the will was settled.”

  “So you knew the provisions of the will?” Johanna asked, surprised to learn this. She shouldn’t have been shocked since the plot had stemmed from Penny’s inheritance, but Lily had seemed so confident that the will was not known. Indeed, Henry had acted as though the bulk of the estate would come to her. She had been mistaken.

  “My son was able to find out the terms of the will. It took a few days since the most recent will and the will before that were both destroyed.”

  His st
atements only served to point out that the cousins would be the ones who inherit money from the will.

  “So exactly what would the terms be under the will that they can find?” she asked.

  “Half of the money goes to Penny and her caretaker. That money lasts for the life of the dog and then would be split between the caretaker and the cousins.”

  Some of the pieces lined up, but there were still questions to be answered. Who had hired the man who had shot at them? Where was Thomas, and who was trying to kill him? “Who told you about the will? You’re not an heir, and the lawyer was tight-lipped about who gained from the latest will vs. the one that would need to be probated.”

  “Word travels fast when there are millions at stake,” Arthur said, with a slight leer.

  “Millions?” she asked. Johanna had known that the inheritance would be significant, but she had thought thousands for each of the nieces and nephews. Now she was finding that it was hundreds of thousands for each of them.

  Arthur nodded his head. “Absolutely. That’s why everyone has been flocking around here. Do you honestly think that any of them would be here except for the money? Deanna and her brood are up to their ears in debt. We have a fake Thomas running around, hoping to get money, and Henry feels she’s entitled to it all. Apparently, Jessica had told her at one point that Henry would be the sole heir. She still wants to hold Jessica to that promise.”

  Johanna hadn’t known that, but it certainly matched the woman’s personality. She had an air of entitlement, which she didn’t bother to try to hide.

  She hoped that the police were getting all of this down. While nothing positive was coming out of the talk, the detectives should be happy with the motives being provided regarding who had committed the crimes.

  “So do you think Henry could have burned down the lawyer’s offices? I mean, the old will would be valid if the other one burned.” Johanna thought about the implications of that.

  He laughed. “I can’t imagine Henry getting her hands dirty like that. Now, if she’d hired the man who shot at you to burn down the place, I could see her doing that. However, she’d never do it herself.”