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Jesse got a confirming nod from Theo before he motioned for Marlene to continue.
“You’ll need to help Grayson and Theo to make sure I’m not taken again.” She stopped, blinked back tears. “Oh, God. They want me dead.”
“They?” Jesse questioned, not reacting to the woman’s crying. And he wouldn’t. Not until he was convinced he could trust her, and they were a long way from that happening.
“The militia. My brother,” Marlene revealed. Since her trembling got worse, Theo helped her to the sofa and had her sit.
“You think Bull had you kidnapped?” Jesse pressed. Neither Hanna nor he sat. They stood side by side, looking down at the woman. “And what does your kidnapping have to do with what you insist you have to tell Hanna?”
“It might have everything to do with it,” Marlene muttered, and she swiped away a tear that slid down her cheek. “Let me start from the beginning. Well, one beginning anyway. Years ago, I had a relationship with Arnie Ross.”
Jesse was sure he blinked. Of all the possibilities he’d considered of what the woman might say, that one hadn’t been on his radar.
“I know, Arnie doesn’t look like my type.” Marlene shook her head. “But this was before he started using drugs. Your mother can tell you just how handsome and charming Arnie used to be,” she added.
It took Jesse a moment to realize that Marlene had aimed that comment at Hanna. “Isabel knew Arnie?” Jesse asked.
“Yes,” Marlene confirmed. “She dated him when they were in college. I figured she’d told you.”
“Maybe,” Hanna admitted in a whisper, and her forehead creased with fresh worry.
Perhaps Isabel had told her before Hanna had lost her memory, but if so, that made Jesse wonder why the heck Isabel hadn’t mentioned it after the shooting. He hoped Isabel had a good explanation. Of course, first they’d have to find the woman to get any answers.
“Charming and handsome,” Marlene repeated. “But that was all before he got involved with the militia. An involvement I figure he used to feed his addiction since he’d already blown through his inheritance and trust fund by then.”
“Any reason you didn’t tell us about all of this when we were investigating Hanna’s and Arnie’s shootings?” Jesse didn’t bother to take the anger out of his voice. Marlene shouldn’t have withheld any info whether or not she thought it was pertinent.
“Because I didn’t want anyone to know I’d had a relationship with a man like that. My business associates wouldn’t understand.” Marlene locked gazes with him. “And I swear I didn’t have anything to do with the militia. I didn’t even know Arnie was involved in that until hours before he was killed.”
That got Jesse’s full attention. “How did you find out?”
Marlene swallowed hard. “I’d dropped by to see Bull. He wasn’t in his house, he was on his back porch. I overheard him talking to Arnie on the phone about a shipment of guns coming in. I can’t recall Bull’s exact words, but I could tell it was something illegal, and he mentioned the Brotherhood. I knew that’s what the militia members called it.”
Jesse had plenty of questions for Marlene, including how all of this connected to Hanna, but he went with a simple one. “You’re sure your brother was talking to Arnie?”
“Yes,” she quickly confirmed. “He said Arnie’s name a couple of times, and it sounded as if Bull was angry with him. Lecturing him, you know, like demanding that Arnie stay sober until the shipment was done.”
Hanna and Jesse exchanged a glance, and he saw some of the same skepticism in her eyes that he was also feeling. If Bull truly was a deep cover ATF agent, then why the heck would he have had that level of trust with a known drug user? Shaw might have some insight on that, but even if Shaw was clean, he would only know the info Bull had given him. Info that might be a bunch of lies.
“If I hadn’t overheard that conversation,” Marlene went on, shifting her attention to Hanna, “you might have never been shot.”
Hanna didn’t make a sound, but Jesse could practically feel the muscles in her body turn to steel. “What do you mean?” Hanna asked.
More tears welled in Marlene’s eyes and she gathered her breath. “I confronted Bull. I demanded to know what he was involved with. He blew me off, saying I misheard him, that he wasn’t involved with the militia. I played along because I didn’t want him to know I was suspicious, and on the way back home, I stopped by Arnie’s.”
Jesse’s skepticism went up a notch. “You went alone to visit a drug user you suspected was a member of a dangerous militia group?”
“I know it was a stupid thing to do,” Marlene blurted out, “but I was worried about my brother. I just wanted to talk with Arnie and try to get him to admit if Bull was involved in something that would get him hurt. Or killed.” She drew in another long breath. “I tried to keep the conversation casual, and I didn’t specifically ask anything about the call I overheard or the militia, but Arnie figured out why I was really there.”
“What did he do?” Jesse prompted when the woman didn’t continue.
Marlene cleared her throat. “He was angry. Furious. And he said I should keep my mouth shut if I didn’t want to have to visit my brother behind bars. I managed to get him calmed down. At least, I thought I had. I swore I wouldn’t tell anyone, and I left.” Her voice hitched and she pressed her trembling fingers to her mouth for a moment. “But he must not have been calm at all because that night he went to the ranch to confront you. That night, he shot Hanna.”
Jesse thought about that for a couple of seconds and couldn’t totally dismiss that the conversation with Marlene had played a small part in spurring Arnie to come to the ranch. But Jesse was betting it was the news of the man’s imminent arrest that had sent Arnie on the fateful trip.
And that was right back on Jesse.
Jesse would have liked to put some of the blame for the shooting onto Marlene, but he couldn’t. Arnie and Bull had come to the ranch because Jesse hadn’t been fast enough in making that arrest. It didn’t matter that he’d still been trying to build a case against the men. He should have moved sooner, should have had them behind bars so they couldn’t hurt Hanna or anyone else.
