Luke eased out of his door and walked to the back of the vehicle while Tessa strapped on her vest. Then she sent Zane a quick text so he wouldn’t stress when they didn’t arrive in the next five minutes.
She watched in the side mirror as Luke squeezed himself between her car and the car beside them and approached Tessa’s window. She rolled it down. “There are three other cars on the shoulder now behind you.” Luke pointed to the road behind them. “At least fifteen cars with damage ranging from minor to total loss.”
“Injuries?”
“Hard to tell.” He looked her over. She had the vest on and her weapon and badge in full view on her belt.
“I’m going to see if I can help with the injured.”
“Tess—”
“I can’t sit here and do nothing.” She tapped the vest. “I’ve taken precautions. Now I’m going to be useful.”
She didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that Luke didn’t like her plan. She could see the argument behind his eyes, and then the moment he knew it would be a waste of breath to try to talk her out of it. “Text Zane.”
She waved her phone at him. “I already did.”
“I’m coming with you.”
She rolled up her window, turned off the car, and squeezed out beside Luke. “Let’s go.”
They made their way to the car that had started this whole mess. The driver’s-side door was open.
The seat was empty.
ZANE OPENEDthe car door before Gil pulled to a complete stop. He ignored Gil’s shouted “Are you crazy?” and ran along the shoulder toward the collection of law enforcement vehicles, ambulances, and fire trucks.
They were a good half mile from the wreck. It was as close as Gil could get with the traffic stopped to stare at the carnage on the other side of the highway. Zane scrambled across to the now-empty lanes of traffic and ran.
He paused long enough to flash his badge at the first officer he came to and kept going. He had one goal.
Tessa.
He spotted her a minute later, and a piece of him relaxed thathe hadn’t realized he was holding tight. She wore a forensics hat and a Raleigh Police Department jacket engulfed her frame, but he knew it was her.
He stopped when he reached her side but didn’t interrupt the conversation she was having with Luke, Faith, and their “not so favorite but always there in a pinch detective,” Daniel Morris.
It was Morris’s jacket that graced Tessa’s shoulders. Smart move to make an effort to disguise her identity.
Morris, Luke, and Faith all acknowledged Zane’s presence with a chin lift. Tessa didn’t look at him, but she moved toward him. It was subtle. A small shift of her feet that almost looked like she was doing nothing more than adjusting her stance. But when she came to a stop, her left arm brushed against his right.
“We have to get this road open.” Morris waved a hand toward the highway. “But I’ve instructed the uniforms to have the car towed to the forensics guys. They’ll go over it from top to toe.”
“That would be great.” Tessa shrugged out of the jacket and handed it to Morris. “Thanks for the camouflage. We’ll get out of your hair.”
Morris took the jacket. “I don’t like this, Tessa. Keep an eye out. Yeah?”
“I will.”
Morris strode off in the direction of the flashing lights.
Zane wrapped a hand around Tessa’s elbow. “What doesn’t he like?”
“The car that started all this.” Tessa pointed to a gray Toyota Camry, or what was left of one. “It came to a stop in the middle of the road. By the time we got here, the driver was gone. No one remembers seeing anything. We have no description. The driver could have been in a T-Rex costume and no one would have noticed.”
Tessa’s aggravation put a gruffness in her voice. “There’s noway this was an accident. Someone decided to snarl traffic this morning. It’s possible our presence was a coincidence, but I find that hard to believe.”
Gil joined them, sides heaving, as Luke said, “Let’s take this to the office.”
