Tropical Threat (#3 - Semper Fi Series )

Chapter 3 - Direction

Marcus Channing answered the door at 8:30 on his way out. The badge presented to him made him stop dead in his tracks. “C-c-can I h-help you?

“You know why I’m here. I need to talk to you about Marilee. You’re not a suspect. We’re just trying to gather some information.”

“Hang on; lemme call my boss. Come on in and have a seat.” He acquiesced and turned to go back inside. He found the detective looking around his house, but remaining nearby. “So, what do you wanna know, Detective?”

“Everything. Start at the beginning.”

“Like when we met or since graduation?”

“Just tell me what life has been like for her, and you, for maybe the past year.”

Marcus smiled in a way that said he was remembering good times. “Well, Senior Year is always the best year of a person’s life, right? We were no different. I was on the football team and she was Homecoming Queen. She wasn’t a cheerleader, but she was popular anyway. She made being smart cool. We were in a play at the end of the year, and she graduated as Salutatorian of the Class. She was going to be a Pharmacy Technician, then later become a Pharmacist. I was going to propose to her on her birthday. It would’ve been next week.”

“Was there any one person, or a group of people, that threatened her?” He shook his head in reply before she could finish the sentence. “How about people she worked with or people she hung out with, when she wasn’t with you?”

“I can’t think of anyone off the top of my head. Her dad, well, step-dad, Kerri, Anthony, but called Tony, and Miranda were her co-workers. She got along with all of them.” He seemed to be virtually racking his brain to come up with other people.

“Any chance a drug dealer, or king pin could’ve...”

“No. She wasn’t like that at all. She didn’t drink; she never tried drugs, or even smoke cigarettes. She was the poster child for clean living.” Natasha thought Marcus was getting angry.

“Hey,” she tried calming him down, “I’m on your side. I just wanna find who did this to her and bring him in. There’s a person injured after I asked questions at the pharmacy. Someone decided to blow it up. So, if you remember anything odd or anyone out of place, call me. Any lead is a good lead to me.”

“Okay! I will. Look, I’m a little too shaken up now. No offense, but I think we’re done for now. I’ll call you if I think of anything else. Thanks for trying to find this creep. If I find him... never mind. I don’t wanna go to jail for threatening bodily harm.” Marcus scoffed

“Mr. Channing: I know you’re not the only one. Thank you for your time. Take care. And for what it’s worth, I am sorry for your loss.” Natasha said apologetically before leaving.

**********************************************

After a quick call to the Sheriff, she headed to the hospital to visit Kerri, and to see if she’d be more willing to talk. She was interrupted by her phone yet again.

“Bill, what’s up? I was getting ready to go see Kerri Corliss.” Natasha had a strange feeling in her gut about this phone call.

“We have another body. As if they haven’t had enough. It’s Bryan Phillips. Shot execution style. He was found in his car. The car was under a bridge a couple of counties over. They said since it’s tied to our investigation, we should at least know about it.”

Natasha breathed a heavy sigh. She was not expecting that news. He was her main suspect. “Looks like we need a new suspect. Any leads?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing. I wanna go talk to the boyfriend and her mom.” Billings was sounding as frustrated as she was feeling.