The Escape (US Marshals #1) - Lisa Harris Page 0,41
summer. All I’m saying is, she isn’t exactly the kind I can see having an extramarital fling.”
“Has she had any problems with her husband?” Madison asked, still not convinced.
“What couple doesn’t have problems?” he said.
“We’ll need to keep this quiet, but she’ll have to come in for questioning,” Jonas said.
The sheriff looked back and forth between the marshals, then sighed. “Then let me bring her in.”
Jonas glanced at him. “That’s fine, but if you see any sign of Barrick around, call us in before you do anything. The man’s armed and dangerous.”
“Nothing I haven’t dealt with before.”
Madison ignored the comment. “In the meantime, if you’d have one of your deputies check local stores and find out if she bought a burner phone here in town in the past twenty-four hours, we’d appreciate it. They’re going to need a way to communicate.”
Sheriff Fischer grabbed his hat off a hook on the wall, then headed for the door. “Can’t say that I’m happy about this, but who am I to argue with a US Marshal.”
Mary Margaret didn’t look a day over twenty-one with her platinum-blonde hair and pink diner uniform. She sat down across from them in one of the back offices of the sheriff’s department, clearly wanting to be anywhere else but there.
“Mary Margaret, I’m Deputy US Marshal Jonas Quinn and this is my partner, Deputy US Marshal Madison James.”
“I don’t understand what’s going on. The sheriff wouldn’t tell me anything.”
Madison slipped a photo across the table. “We’re looking for this man. His name is Damon Barrick, and we believe you’ve spoken with him recently.”
She sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “I’ve never seen him before.”
“We have information that says otherwise. Phone records that say he called you yesterday.”
“Then you must be mistaken. I don’t know him. Maybe it was a wrong number.”
“Except it wasn’t,” Jonas said. “He called you yesterday afternoon, and you spoke for three minutes. That’s not a wrong number.”
Mary Margaret shrugged. “I’m sorry, but I can’t help you. And I really need to get back to work.”
“Here’s the thing. You’re protecting a murderer, Mary Margaret.” Madison leaned forward. “And that isn’t going to end well. Damon Barrick has been in prison the last nine months in connection with two murders. He murdered a fellow inmate while incarcerated. And two days ago, he escaped from a prisoner transport and now another man is dead.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“How about the truth.” Madison slid a second photo across the table. “Look at this photo. This is Ryan Phelps. It was his phone that Barrick used to call you. Ryan had three kids. A teenage daughter and twin boys. They were on vacation for a week, and Barrick killed him because he needed his car to leave Idaho. We need to know where he is and what his plans are before he kills someone else.”
Mary Margaret turned her head away from the photo.
“What did he ask you for?” Jonas asked.
Tears welled in the woman’s eyes as she shoved the photo back across the table. Maybe they were getting somewhere. “I told you I don’t know who he is.”
Jonas stayed silent, looking directly at her. Finally he spoke. “The law is very clear on what happens to someone who helps a felon evade detection or even escape. Charges can be brought against you. The only way out of this for you at this point is if you help us find him.”
Mary Margaret stared at a chip on her fingernail.
“We can protect you,” Madison said, “but you’re going to have to tell the truth.”
A clock on the wall clicked by the seconds. Ryan Phelps’s vacant stare seemed to fill the room. They were right. Madison knew it. At the very least, the woman had spoken with Barrick. More than likely had seen him as well, which meant he was here.
Mary Margaret shifted in her seat. “I had completely severed ties with him, but then he called me yesterday.”
“What did he say to you?”
“That he was in trouble. That he’d been framed. He didn’t want me to believe what I was going to see on the news. Said that the couple they say he killed—he didn’t do it. He was set up.”
“Say you are right and he’s innocent. Protecting him won’t help either of you. He won’t be able to keep running. We need to know where he is right now.”
“I don’t know where he is. He didn’t tell me. He wanted to