“Are you ready to go?”she asked.
Something inside him snapped.The quiet in which he’d encompassed himself over the past few months suddenly seemed too confining.Sarcasm colored his answer.
“I don’t know, Mrs.Justice, are you?”
Her bossy, managerial attitude disappeared like air out of a punctured balloon.He had the satisfaction of seeing her pale as he walked past her and out the door.
* * *
The air was muggy, a promise of another long, hot July day.Sweat was already rolling down the middle of Casey’s back and there was a snag in her stockings.Since yesterday when she’d made her exit from Lash’s office, her hairdo had been windblown and finger-combed a dozen times.The last time she remembered putting on makeup was right before she’d gotten out of the car to go into the office for the reading of the will.She felt like hell and figured she looked a shade or two worse.She was exhausted and couldn’t wait to get home and into a bed.
But thirty minutes outside of Ruban Crossing, Casey’s plans were about to change.The flashing red-and-blue lights of a Mississippi highway patrol were an unwelcome addition to the events of the day.She had expected complications, but not quite so soon, or from the state police.She looked at Ryder, then began pulling over to the side of the road.
“I wasn’t speeding,” she said.
Ryder glanced over his shoulder, then started unbuckling his seat belt.The highway patrolman was already out of his vehicle with his gun drawn, and although the air conditioner was on and Casey’s car windows were up, they could hear him shouting for them to get out of the car.
“I don’t think that’s the problem.”
“What do you mean?”Casey asked, and turned.There was a gun pointed straight at her head.
“Get out of the car!”the patrolman shouted again.“Do it!Do it now!”
Stunned by the order, Casey began fumbling with her seat belt, but couldn’t seem to find the catch.The harder she tried, the worse her fingers shook, and the longer she delayed, the louder and more insistent the officer became.
“Let me,” Ryder said, and to her relief, the latch gave way, freeing her from the straps.
She opened the door.“Look, Officer, I don’t know what…”
“Get out and put your hands on the hood of the car!You!”he shouted, pointing the gun at Ryder.“On the passenger side!Come around the front of the car with your hands in the air!”
Ryder didn’t argue.He’d learned years ago never to argue with an armed man, especially one wearing a badge.
By now, Casey was out of the car and furious.“What’s the meaning of this?”
Handcuffs snapped.First one on her right wrist, then the remaining cuff on her other.
“Sit down,” the officer ordered, pushing Casey none too gently to a seat beside the rear wheel of her car before proceeding to cuff Ryder in the same smooth manner.He hauled Ryder off to the back seat of his patrol car and shut him inside while Casey watched in disbelief.
“This better be good,” Casey said, as the officer returned and helped her to her feet.
“You’re driving a stolen car and the woman who owns it has been reported missing.”
Casey couldn’t believe what she was hearing.“I am not missing, andthisis my car.”
The officer took a long, slow look at the disheveled woman in black and didn’t bother to hide a smirk.
“That car belongs to Casey Ruban.Her family reported her missing when she didn’t come home last night.”
“I repeat, this is my car, and I didn’t go home because I was out getting myself married,” she said.
“Excuse me?”the officer asked.
She closed her eyes, counted to ten, then glared at the patrolman, derisively enunciating each syllable.
“Married.Capitalm—littlea—doubler—i—e—d…Maaried.Last night…no, actually it was early this morning that we got married.You might say I’ve been on my honeymoon and you…” she frowned against the glare of early morning sun, peering at the name tag on the front of his uniform “…Officer Howard, have just stuffed my groom in the back of your patrol car.I want him out, and I want the handcuffs taken off both of us now, or I swear to God I will have your badge and all that goes with it.”
Her adamancy startled the cop, and for the first time since he’d pulled them over, he began to consider the possibility of having been wrong in his first assumption.But he’d been so focused on being the one to get a lead on the missing heir that he hadn’t followed protocol by asking for their identification first.
