You're doing exactly what everybody does," Clare said, and her voice went up all the way up the first time she had ever let it. "You're telling me I don't know my own mind, Marcus. That is what he did. That is what he did for four years. Every single time I said something was wrong, he'd tilt his head and say, "Are you sure?
Are you sure, Claire? You've had a long week, Clare." And I'd stand there and check my own math in front of him. And every time, every single time, I'd come out thinking maybe I'd unplugged my own refrigerator. The room rang.
"Don't you ask me if I'm sure," she said. At 12:29, Marcus Williams said, "Okay, okay, okay." He put both hands up. "You're right. I'm sorry.
That's one. You're counting." "I'm counting," Marcus said. And Clare laughed and then immediately put her hand over her mouth because it was 12:29 in the morning and there was a child asleep down the hall. At 12:35, sitting on the floor with her back against the couch, Clare said.
So, what do we do? We Marcus said, "Yes, we fight me." Marcus didn't fight her. Nothing. He said, "Marcus, tonight nothing.
Tomorrow I go to work. Friday, I write you a check for $26." Oh my god. $26. Claire Marcus, there is a man. I know there's a man, Marcus said.
There's always a man. Claire, you don't understand what I'm telling you. I'm not telling you to give up. I'm telling you what I've got. I've got a kid and a job and a truck note and a mortgage and one uncle who's dead and a sister indicator and about $1,100 and that's the whole army.
That's everything I can put in the field. So, we don't go at him tomorrow. We go at him when we can hit him. And until then, we do not give him one single thing to use. So, we do nothing.
We do nothing loud. Marcus said there's a difference. Deacon Hollis taught me that with a compressor in a truck bed. At 12:44, Clare said, "Marcus, can I ask you something?" You're going to anyway when you were on the porch with him.
She turned her head. You said doorbell cameras. The second thing I put in this house after my wife died. First was the deadbolt. Yeah.
Was that a lie, too? Marcus was quiet for a second. The deadbolt's real, he said. Why'd you put in a deadbolt? And Marcus Williams said something he had never said to his sister, his pastor, or himself.
Because for about 4 months after Nikki died, he said, "I couldn't sleep unless I knew the door was locked. And I'd get up two, three times a night and I'd check it. And I'd go back to bed and I'd lie there and I'd think, "Did I actually check it or did I dream that?" And I'd get up and check it again. Clare didn't move.
And one night, Lily came out at 2:00 in the morning and found her daddy standing in the dark holding a door handle. Marcus said, "5 years old." And she said, "Daddy, are you locking the door or are you leaving?" Oh my god. So, I put in a deadbolt with a thumb turn.
You can see from the hall, Marcus said. So she could look. So she could stand in her doorway and look down the hall and see it turned so she'd know. Clare had both hands over her face. I'm telling you this, Marcus said, because I want you to understand what I am.
I'm not brave. I'm a man who bought a lock he could see from the hallway. And you came to my door at 11:47 at night because you thought it was the safe house. and you were right. And it's the safe house because a 5-year-old asked me if I was leaving. At 12:51, Clare said into her hands, "Marcus, I unplugged my own refrigerator."
"What? That's what I told myself in March for 3 days." She lowered her hands. I want you to understand what he took. He didn't take a ring, Marcus.
He took the part of me that knows what's true. I couldn't trust my own hands. I stood in my kitchen and I did not know if my own hands had done a thing an hour before. Claire. And then tonight, she said, "You stood on a porch and told a man there was a camera and there is no camera and I watched him walk away not knowing what was real."
She looked at him. That's the first time, she said. In 11 months that it was on the other side. At 1:02 in the morning, Marcus's phone lit up on the arm of the couch. He looked at it.
He didn't pick it up. Marcus, it's Doug, your boss. It's 1:00 in the morning. Marcus, don't. He picked it up.
This is Marcus. He listened for 11 seconds. Then he said, "Yes, sir." Then he said, "No, sir, that's not." Then he said, "Doug, Doug, can I Doug?"
Then he said, "Yes, sir." And he hung up. Clare was on her feet. "Marcus." Marcus set the phone down on the arm of the couch very carefully like it might go off.
"Marcus, what complaint?" he said. "What complaint?" "Customer complaint." His voice had gone completely flat, which was the worst thing Clare had heard, yet worse than the driveway, worse than the porch.
Residents on Delano Street says the tech performed unauthorized work and misrepresented a warranty. Claire's hand went to her mouth. Ruthie Coleman's house, she said. Ruthie Coleman doesn't own that house. Marcus said, "That's the whole thing.
She doesn't own it. I've been going in a house for 4 years and doing free work in a building that as of April belongs to Marsh Development. And I told an 81-year-old woman a part was on warranty when it wasn't because I paid for it out of my own pocket." And Claire, that is a lie. in writing on a work order with my signature on it. That's not It's a false warranty claim on company paperwork.
Marcus said 11 times in 4 years. They can't. They can. Marcus said it's true. That's the beauty of it.
It's completely true. At 106, Clare said, "What did Doug say?" Suspended pending review. pending Monday. That's That's 4 days, Marcus said. That's 4 days to find out if I'm an HVAC tech or a man with an 8-year-old and $1,100.
He sat down on the couch and then he didn't sit. He sort of went down and he put his elbows on his knees. He didn't have to touch me, Marcus said. You understand? He didn't have to do one thing to me.
He just went and found the nicest thing I ever did and handed it to my boss. At 1111, Lily Williams's voice came down the hall. Daddy. Marcus' head came up so fast. Baby, go back to bed.
Daddy, why is Miss Clare crying? She's not crying, baby. Yes, I am. Clare said. Marcus looked at her.