The twin beams behind her grew larger, loomed closer in the mirror.
Go faster. Her foot flexed, pressed harder on the accelerator. The Jaguar zoomed forward. She took the curves way faster than she should, struggled to keep the vehicle on the crooked road.
When she dared to glance in her mirror again the headlights were gone.
Her heart seemingly stilled in her chest.
Where . . . ?
Panic shot through her veins.
Right on her bumper. So close the headlights were no longer visible in her rearview mirror.
Her right foot rammed harder against the accelerator.Shit!
The first nudge against her rear bumper propelled her forward, sent the Jaguar careening into the other lane. Annette fought the momentum, wrestled the vehicle back under control and into the proper side of the yellow line.
She couldn’t risk taking a hand off the wheel to reach for her cell phone. Why the hell hadn’t she allowed her cell to connect with the damned car?Shit!She had to go faster. Had to lose him.
She thought of Jazel . . . was this what she’d . . .
Annette’s breath stalled in her lungs.
A second set of headlights appeared in her side mirror.
What the hell?
The car right on her bumper backed off, but not far.
The new arrival roared up right next to the car following her. Moved in so close she couldn’t believe the two didn’t collide.
Her attention snapped forward. Adrenaline burned through her limbs as she barely made the next dangerously sharp bend in the road. By the time she could breathe again and risk another lingering look in her rearview mirror the road behind her was black.
Both cars had disappeared.
30
He brought the Charger to a screeching halt.
Bill Lynch bailed out the driver’s side door and raced around the hood. He peered through the darkness, could see the headlamps of the black sedan deep in the ravine below. He’d forced the car off the road at eighty miles per hour. The larger trees had stopped its momentum.
Flashlight in hand, he cautiously picked his way downward. He considered that this particular Mountain Brook road could be treacherous. If a vehicle left the pavement and plunged into the wooded hillside, it might not be found for days. It had happened before. Several larger saplings had lost the battle with this particular vehicle.
He’d seen this same vehicle lurking around Carson Tanner’s location once or twice before. Bill had run the license plate, which was assigned to a local car dealership. The dealership claimed the sedan didn’t belong to them and had no idea until the manager looked that the license plate in question was missing.
Palming his service weapon, Bill slowly approached the vehicle. The headlights still blared into the darkness of the woods. Too bad the driver evidently hadn’t been wearing his seat belt, since his head and upper torso protruded through the windshield. The air bag had done its job as the vehicle plowed down a couple of smaller trees, but the final impact had come after it deflated. Too much blood to ID the victim visually.
Bill put his unneeded weapon away before kicking in the driver’s side window. He reached inside, shut off the headlamps; then fished the wallet from the driver’s hip pocket. Took a look at the man’s driver’s license beneath the flashlight’s beam.
Well, that was a surprise.
He knew the guy all right.
Bill pocketed the wallet. He would dispose of it later. Might as well buy some time before the driver was ID’d. The fewer complications at this point, the better.
The whole situation was escalating out of control far too fast.
Bill took one last look at the victim. If he wasn’t dead already, he would be soon considering the visible injuries. Oh well, he deserved to die.
