“Are you leaving?”
I’d tried to be quiet, but it was better that I could tell her where I was going. “Yeah. There’s been a bad accident. Go back to sleep. I don’t know when I’ll get back.” I gave her a kiss before heading out. Until I found out more information, I chose not to tell her about Stephanie.
When I reached the scene, Stephanie was in the back of Kim’s cruiser with Kim standing guard at the back door, and Captain Moody was in Tommy’s face.
“I don’t care what the chief said. I’m taking her home,” Moody said.
So intent on intimidating Tommy, he didn’t hear me walk up behind him. “Captain Moody, your presence isn’t needed here.” He spun, opened his mouth, then closed it. I could see he was making a visible effort to control his temper.
“You need to let that girl go home,” he said after a few deep breaths. “She’s upset enough.”
“I’m sure she is, but she’s not going anywhere until we get a blood test done on her. You, on the other hand, can go home. As for your not caring what I say, we’ll discuss this in my office Monday morning at nine.”
“The mayor’s not going to be happy about this,” he yelled as I walked away.
Too true. I ignored him and went to Kim. “You handcuff her?” Kim nodded, eyeing me as if she wasn’t sure she should have. “Good. Take her to the hospital. Get a blood test done and have them check her out to make sure she doesn’t have any internal injuries. After that, take her home. We’ll decide what to charge her with depending on the results.”
“Yes sir.”
Stephanie banged her head on the window, trying to get my attention. I ignored her, too. Moody had moved to his car, but he was sending me death glares. Like I cared. Tommy was now at Stephanie’s Mercedes, and I joined him. “Looks like she took the curve too fast.”
Tommy nodded. “She denies it, but my guess, she was doing over sixty. The posted speed limit here is thirty-five.”
Stupid woman. The car was wrapped around a tree on the passenger side. If her passenger had been wearing his seat belt, he would have been killed instantly. One of the rare times not wearing one might have saved a life.
“I’d say it’s totaled. Who’s Sean Lamar and where is he?”
“The ambulance took him to the ball field where the helicopter will land. His parents own the Apple Orchard Motel and Gift Shop.”
“How old is Sean?”
“Twenty-four. He’s army, stationed at Fort Bragg. He was home for the weekend. Stephanie said they’d been at Hideouts and were heading back to her place.”
The honky-tonk bar. I glanced at my watch. The bar would be closed by now. “Tomorrow night when you go on duty, go there first. Find out how long they were there and how much they were drinking.” I hadn’t met the Lamars yet, but I could see a lawsuit against Stephanie in the making. “When you get to the station tonight, write up a report while everything’s still fresh in your mind. This could get nasty before it’s all over. I want every word she said, everything you saw here documented. That includes everything Moody said or did.”
Tommy eyed me with approval. “Yes, sir.”
“And Tommy, no talking to anyone about this. Not even to other cops, capisce? Tell Kim she’s under the same orders. Tomorrow morning I’ll get an accident investigator out here.”
He nodded. I trusted Tommy and Kim to keep their mouths shut, but Moody? Doubtful. The rumors would fly, and we didn’t need to be contributing to them. I went back to my car and got the camera I kept in the glove box. After getting pictures of the Mercedes from all angles, I lowered the camera, taking one last look at the mangled car. It was hard to believe that Stephanie had walked away without an apparent scratch. The next thing I had to do was what I hated the most, but it couldn’t be put off any longer.
“Tommy, follow me to the station so I can drop off my car. We’ll go together to notify Sean’s parents.”
What a shitty ending to what had been one of the best nights I’d had in what felt like forever.
23
~ Jenny ~
Iofferedto cancel our Sunday waterfall trip thinking Dylan would prefer to get some sleep, but he refused. He didn’t return until this morning, and I could tell he was tired.
“Thanks,” he said when I slid a plate of scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast in front of him. “This and a quick shower, I’ll be good as new.”
“It must have been a bad one if it had you out this long.” He still hadn’t told me anything, and as small as my town was, I worried that it involved someone I knew.
His eyes searched mine. “As I understand the bartender rules, you’re bound by oath to keep anything said to you while serving beers confidential, right?”
Kind of a weird question, but I’d play along. “Absolutely, and I’ve never once broken a confidence.”
