Chapter 21 - The Evidence Against Marco
Marco did not run.
When Detective Morse called, he arrived at the station with his attorney.
Jenna wanted that fact to matter.
It did not erase the DNA.
Vincent sat at the kitchen table while Elena explained.
Marco’s blood had been found on a jagged section of glass near the shop’s rear window.
The prosecution theory had not been formed.
The evidence could mean many things.
Vincent hated all of them.
“Did he admit being there?”
“No.”
“Did he deny it?”
“Yes.”
“When was the last time he was at the shop?”
“According to him, weeks before the fire.”
Jenna remembered.
Marco had helped move a heavy cutting table after one of her assistants injured her wrist.
But he had entered through the front.
“He wasn’t near the window,” Jenna said.
Elena nodded.
“Which is why this needs investigation.”
Vincent stood.
“I want to speak to him.”
“No,” Elena said.
“He’s my friend.”
“He’s also under investigation for burning your wife’s business.”
“That’s why I need—”
“No.”
Jenna touched his arm.
“Elena’s right.”
Vincent looked at her.
“If he’s innocent, we don’t make things worse. If he isn’t…”
She could not finish.
Marco had driven Lily to soccer once when Jenna’s car battery died.
He had stood in their garden during the wedding.
He had cried when Vincent exchanged vows.
Jenna hated how betrayal taught the mind to rewrite every memory.
The next day, police obtained footage from a traffic camera.
Marco’s car had been three blocks from Jenna’s shop at 1:47 a.m.
Twenty-six minutes before the alarm.
The case became darker.
Marco’s attorney released a statement saying he had been meeting an informant connected to Raymond’s network.
He had not told investigators earlier because the informant feared exposure.
Detective Morse was furious.
“So he obstructed an investigation to protect a secret source?”
Elena’s expression remained neutral.
“If his account is true.”
Vincent stared at the wall.
“Why would he do that after everything?”
“Because people don’t become perfect witnesses because they decide to cooperate,” Elena said.
The informant was identified forty-eight hours later.
A former Voss employee named Denise Harper.
She confirmed meeting Marco.
She also confirmed something worse.
Marco had asked her to help him find Raymond without involving police.
Jenna closed her eyes.
Vincent looked as if someone had struck him.
“He went back to the old way.”
“Yes,” Elena said.
“But did he set the fire?”
“No evidence yet.”
Denise said the meeting ended at 1:58.
Marco left.
She left in the opposite direction.
Marco claimed he noticed someone moving near Jenna’s alley, stopped, climbed through a side passage, cut his palm on the broken window, and chased a figure toward the railroad tracks.
He never caught the person.
He never reported it.
“Why?” Jenna asked when she finally agreed to speak with him through attorneys present.
Marco looked ashamed.
“Because I had already broken the rules.”
“That doesn’t answer it.”
“I thought if I told police I was trying to find Raymond myself, Vincent would know.”
Vincent’s face hardened.
“And you cared more about keeping your place beside me than helping investigators?”
Marco looked at him.
“Yes.”
The answer hurt because it was clean.
Jenna leaned back.
“Did you set the fire?”
“No.”
“Did you know who did?”
“No.”
“Did Raymond ask you to?”
“No.”
Vincent spoke.
“Why should I believe you?”
Marco’s eyes reddened.
“You shouldn’t because we’re friends.”
He placed both hands on the table.
“Believe the evidence if it proves me innocent. Believe it if it proves me guilty.”
No one spoke.
That afternoon, Detective Morse received laboratory results.
A second blood trace existed inside the alley.
Different person.
The DNA did not match any database entry.
Then analysts enhanced footage from a delivery truck parked two blocks away.
A figure ran from the shop.
Marco appeared fourteen seconds later.
Chasing him.
The footage did not clear every question.
It cleared the worst one.
Jenna sat down when she heard.
Vincent closed his eyes.
Marco was released from suspicion in the arson but remained under scrutiny for his unauthorized investigation.
He called Vincent once.
Vincent answered.
“I’m sorry,” Marco said.
“For what?”
“For making you wonder whether I burned her shop.”
“You didn’t make me wonder. Evidence did.”
“I should have called police.”
“Yes.”
“I thought I could fix it.”
Vincent almost laughed.
“Apparently that disease spreads.”
Marco understood.
“I’m done fixing things alone.”
“Good.”
After the call, Jenna asked, “Friends again?”
Vincent looked at the phone.
“I don’t know.”
“That’s okay.”
Before they could discuss it further, Elena received an encrypted message from Cole Mercer.
He had found one more file in Raymond’s archive.
A recording made two days before the shop fire.
Howard Pike’s voice said:
“If the woman loses something she built herself, Marino will stop thinking like a reformer and start thinking like himself.”
May you like
Raymond replied:
“That’s exactly the point.”
