A text.
I swipe it open.
Ingram
You were right to keep the case open. Meet me at the junkyard at 2pm.
And just like that, the spell breaks.
Behind me, Anton straightens, instantly alert.
“Everything okay?” he asks.
I look up at him, heart thudding.
“I don’t know…”
A junkyard isn’t neutral ground. It’s where things go to die. And Ingram wouldn’t drag me there unless he found something that shouldn’t exist. Why is he being active on this case now?
As far as he’s concerned, if he did a thorough job, myrunning through the Marshall case is a practice run through a fatal accident.
But it seems like Ingram is seamlessly following my logic because I was headed to the police impound today. At the junkyard.
I think back to the wrench at the quarry. The feeling of being watched.
Ingram knew I was going there.
My pulse ticks up a notch.
Suddenly, Anton’s backup doesn’t just feel sexy; it feels necessary.
17
I offerto drive Freya into the station. I’m not ready to take my eyes off of her after last night. There is something too coincidental about the wrench at the quarry—someone hiding in the shadows.
And now she tells me Ingram wants to meet up with her at the junkyard behind the police impound.
She told me on the way here that he simply said she was right to keep the case open. And now, if they’re meeting at the impound, he’s clearly ready to have another look at Zoe’s car.
So he’s missed something and admitting it.That either says he’s humble, or he’s getting involved because he wants control of this case again.
I watch Freya walk toward the double glass doors of the station, her shoulders squared, ass swaying in those black uniform pants. It feels wrong to let her walk up alone. Ungentlemanly. Unnatural.
But walking her in would embarrass her. And hovering would piss her off. So I stay where she needs me: close enough to catch her if she falls, far enough to let her lead.
She doesn’t look back. She wouldn’t, not when she’s trying so hard to make a mark here.
She doesn’t want to be taken care of, but every instinct I have is built for exactly that.
I’m not sure how I’m supposed to turn that off.
I’m not sure I even want to.
She pushes through the glass, and the station doors swallow her up.
I put the truck in gear.
I think about the wrench again and how a lot of people in this town knew the case was reopening by the time Freya went to the quarry, but for sure, Ingram was one of them.
