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“Where were you last night, Marcus?" Amber asked. It was time to try to pin him down to something that they could check. If he didn't have an alibi, then they could start to look more closely at him, trying to find anything that would connect him definitively to the crimes.
"I…” He shrugged.
“We need an answer, Marcus,” Amber said. “A woman was killed last night. If you can tell us where you were, if you can give us an alibi, then you’re off the hook for the murders.”
Marcus sat there for several seconds longer. Amber couldn’t tell if he was considering whether to start talking or just trying to remember where he’d been. She suspected that doing so wouldn’t be entirely simple for him a lot of the time.
“I made it into a local shelter for the night," Marcus said. "I got in there a little after six. I was there all night."
"Which shelter?" Simon asked, obviously determined to pin down the details.
"On Barnabus Street."
Simon looked over to Amber, then nodded to the door. Amber went along with him. She was already looking up the number for the homeless shelter. She called it as soon as she and Simon were out of the interrogation room and into the hallway beyond.
"Barnabus Shelter. How can I help you?"
"Hi, this is Agent Amber Young with the FBI. I'm calling to ask if you had a guest by the name of Marcus Johnson last night," she said, hoping that they would be able to either verify or break his alibi. Either way, she and Simon needed to know for sure whether Marcus was telling them the truth.
There was a pause on the other end of the phone, and then a woman's voice replied. "What's this about?"
"Mr. Johnson has given your shelter as an alibi in an ongoing investigation," Amber said. "Was he there?"
“Mr. Johnson?” the woman said. She laughed. “I doubt Marcus has been called that much in his life. But yes, he was here. Cantankerous, crazy guy that he is.”
“Do you remember what time he was there?” Amber asked.
"He came in around 6:30 pm and stayed until we closed this morning. That would be around 8 am."
"Did he leave at any point during the night?" Simon asked, taking the phone from Amber.
"No, as far as I know, he stayed here the whole time. He would have been here all night."
"Thank you," Simon said before hanging up with a wince.
"Damn it," Amber said, feeling a wave of frustration rising in her at the realization that Marcus Johnson’s alibi checked out. She'd thought that Marcus was a strong suspect, but he couldn't have committed the murder of Kelly Wasner. Since both victims had undoubtedly been murdered by the same person, he wasn't the killer they were looking for.
They would have to let him go, but what then? What were they going to do next? Instantly, Amber wanted to find another angle to pursue, another way to find a suspect. There was still a killer out there, somewhere in the dark.
"We should go to the university," she said. "We should-"
"We should call it a night," Simon said. "It's getting late, Amber. This lead didn’t pan out, and it’s too late to go looking for another. Let’s start again tomorrow."
"But the killer is still out there," Amber argued. She didn't want to leave things like this.
"We'll have the police guard the bridges tonight," Simon said. "But we need to get some rest and start fresh in the morning."
As much as Amber wanted to keep working on the case, she knew that Simon had a point. She had to go along with it.
“All right, but we start first thing tomorrow.”
The two of them left the police department, leaving word to release Marcus in the morning before heading for a motel. They got two rooms there. It was cheap and simple, but it was more than enough when they wouldn’t be spending much time there.
Amber and Simon hesitated outside of their respective rooms. Amber couldn’t help looking over at Simon, taking a moment or two to look at him simply standing in the doorway.
"I'll see you in the morning," Simon said. Was there the smallest of hesitations there, as if he wanted to invite her to come in? Or was that Amber’s imagination? Was it something Amber was hoping, and if so,whywas she hoping it?
"Yes, see you then," Amber replied. It was still too easy to imagine going over to him there, even though she knew that he was with Detective Angelique, even thoughshewas with Joseph.
