The rain hammered down upon the van. Mackenzie noted that the cop bypassed the flooded turnoff to the highway in favor of the bridge, a longer route, the hills alongside the road sodden and slick. There were literally no other vehicles on the road, not that she could see anyway, except possibly the police car she’d heard would be following them. The cops were stretching their staff to the brink since two more officers would be required to transfer the men to the county jail and the rest to move cars and equipment before the station was inundated.
In the distance she could barely see the metal beams of the bridge that spanned the river. Far upstream, lost toview, was the Cotton Flower Dam. If it really did fail, two hundred thousand acre-feet of water would empty itself with deadly force into the river, which would promptly submerge the town. Goose bumps prickled her skin as she scanned the heavily forested surroundings through the windshield. Aaron would have loved to ride the trails here. Of course, he’d want to overnight at a luxury inn somewhere. What had happened to make him start using drugs?
Aaron could lie to their parents, to his sister, and probably to his girlfriend, Leah, whom she’d never met, in that charismatic way that fooled everyone.
But not Gideon.
If only Gideon had forced Aaron to come clean that night since he wouldn’t confess the truth to her. Deep down she was absolutely certain Gideon could have saved her brother.
But neither of them had stopped the tragedy from unfolding.You are just as much to blame, Mackenzie.
She refocused on Lorraine.
Lorraine blew out a breath. “Okay.” She hunched her shoulders and strained toward Mackenzie as far as the cuffs would allow. “My boyfriend, Cal, is ...” Lorraine sighed. “Hewasmy boyfriend. Probably won’t want anything to do with me now that I’ve been arrested. He works at the airport in town, and they let him bunk there. He’s not a pilot, he does the office work and helps load and unload cargo, but he started to notice strange patterns. Small planes that flew in without proper flight plans or paperwork, and pilots who refused help and unloaded packages themselves when there were few people around.”
“Where did the packages go?”
“Cal wasn’t sure at first, but after a while, he noticed the same truckers who picked it up all worked for—” She stopped as the van shimmied.
Mackenzie pulled against the restraints. “Who?”
“Sorry,” the cop called. “Hit a patch of standing water there when we rolled onto the bridge. Driving this thing is like steering an elephant.”
Lorraine clutched the side to steady herself, breathing hard.
“Who did the truckers work for, Lorraine?”
Lorraine started to answer when the cop suddenly grabbed his radio.
Mackenzie didn’t hear what he said over the clatter of rain, but his urgency caught their attention.
Mackenzie pulled the restraints to the limit to get a look.
She caught a snippet of the cop’s conversation.
“Dispatch, transport one.”
“Transport one, dispatch.”
“A white truck behind me.”
Her blood went cold. A white truck ... like the one that had been popping up in her sights since she hit town. The officer’s eyes widened in the rearview mirror. He squeezed the radio.
“I no longer have a visual on transport two. Request ...”
In a blur she saw the white truck pull adjacent.
Lorraine was right. Punishment was coming.
As the truck drew even, she got a quick look just before it smashed into the side of the prison van. The women ricocheted hard against the metal interior.
Lorraine screamed.
The silver-haired lady flopped forward in the seat like a rag doll. Her eyes were enormous, petrified. “That truck’s going to shove us over the side of the bridge!”
Mackenzie didn’t want to believe it, but her gut told her that was exactly what was going to happen. With a flash of nausea, she also knew this was her fault too. Bullseye found out she was talking to Lorraine and sent his people to eliminate any threats.
The cop, the two terrified women...What have I done to them?
