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“Are you convinced that Bull was trying to stop Arnie from shooting Hanna, or do you believe he was responsible for it happening?” Jesse asked bluntly.
Marlene certainly didn’t voice a quick answer this time. “I don’t think my brother is innocent,” she finally said. “In fact, I think he’s the one who arranged to have me kidnapped.”
All right then. Maybe they were getting somewhere. Then again, the only place they might be getting with this was where Marlene was trying to lead them.
“Why would you say that?” Jesse asked, hopeful that the woman had some actual proof and not just suspicions. “Did you actually see Bull when you were taken? Because earlier, you thought Isabel was the one who’d arranged your kidnapping.”
“No, I didn’t see him or Isabel,” she said on a heavy sigh. “And Isabel might have had a part in it. I can’t be sure.”
Jesse huffed. “What are you sure of then?”
“Like I told Grayson and Theo, I heard someone on the back porch of my house. I thought it was a stray dog who’d been coming to the door, but when I opened it, a man wearing a ski mask hit me on the head.” She lightly touched the bandage. “He knocked me out and apparently drugged me, too. The next thing I remember, I woke up blindfolded and tied to a chair.”
“Where?” Jesse immediately asked.
“A cabin.”
Jesse looked at Theo to get his take on that. “She was able to give us a description of the place where she was held, and the CSIs are heading out there to take a look. We believe it could be one of the old fishing cabins on the north fork of Silver Creek.”
Good. Maybe the CSIs would find something to shed some light on all of this.
“Did your kidnapper speak or tell you why you’d been taken?” Jesse continued.
“Oh, he spoke, all right,” Marlene verified with some anger in her tone now. “It wasn’t Bull, but the man threatened to kill me if I didn’t give him my ATM card and pin and the location and combination of the safe at my house.”
So, the motive was money. Well, maybe. Jesse was still deciding whether or not Marlene was giving them the full story.
“The safe had been emptied,” Theo confirmed. “But the ATM card wasn’t used.”
“I had ten thousand in cash in the safe,” Marlene explained. “And some family jewelry. Theo said my attacker took that, too.”
“Did he bring the money and jewelry to the cabin?” Jesse wanted to know.
“No. After I told him about the safe and gave him my ATM card, he left and didn’t come back. Other than that glimpse of him before he hit me, I didn’t see him, but Bull must have sent him to get the money from me. He must have been part of the militia.”
That would certainly fit, but Jesse recalled how upset Bull had seemed when he’d learned his sister had been taken. Of course, Bull could have faked that. Or maybe it was Bull’s plan and he hadn’t intended for Marlene to be hurt.
“How’d you escape?” Jesse prodded.
Marlene held up her wrist for him to see the bandages there. There were also abrasions around her ankles. “I just kept tugging and pulling until I got free. Then I got out of the cabin and started running.”
“Marlene said she ran to the nearest cabin, but no one was there.” Theo filled him in when the woman stopped. “But there was the old car, and the key was under the mat. She used the car to come here to Hanna’s.”
“Why not go to the sheriff’s office?” Jesse queried.
Marlene shook her head. “I wasn’t thinking straight, and Hanna’s house was on the way.”
Depending on which road Marlene had taken, Hanna’s could have indeed been on the way, but the most common instinct should have been for Marlene to go straight to the cops. Still, it was possible she had been drugged, so that could have played into her decision.
“We still haven’t found Marlene’s car,” Theo disclosed, “and we’re processing the truck left at her house.”
“The truck the kidnapper must have used,” Marlene provided. “He put me in my car and drove to the cabin.”
“We told her that Bull had been spotted earlier in a truck that matches that description,” Theo told Jesse.
“And that’s another reason why I believe my brother has to be involved. First, the militia connection and now the truck,” Marlene muttered, and she got to her feet. “I don’t want to think he would do something like this, but I can’t just bury my head in the sand. I’ve told Grayson and Theo this, and I’m telling you now. If Bull contacts me, I’ll let you know ASAP. He has to be stopped.”
If he was behind all of this, then yes, he would be stopped, and if Marlene could help with that, then something good had come out of this chat.
