The car came to a quick stop, blocking the intersection.
A second squad car showed up a moment later as they were getting out of their own.
Officers Swinton and Swan.
Josephine, or ‘Joe’ as they knew her, was a stand-up officer.
And just as shrewd as Pilar at accessing a scene.
“We’ll handle traffic. Call out of you need anything.”
They kept to their sides of the car, from their patrol vehicle to the crashed car.
Crois could tell that it was a Toyota from the insignia on the back of the trunk, but much of the back bumper had been sheered off and he wasn’t big on Toyotas so he couldn’t tell much more than that.
He barely beat Pilar to the car. While his legs were longer, his partner could beat him at the track any day.
The moment he put his hand on the door handle, he bit the inside of his cheek. He did it a lot.
He let his mind run to keep his emotions from getting the better of him.
A lot of men in the police department would make fun of emotions, but he’d been raised differently. He might be a bit of an ass outwardly, but that was all smoke and bluster.
His ‘shield’ as his mother called it.
Now, as he put all of his energy behind wrenching open the passenger door, that shield was gone.
He was all eyes and ears and heart.
“Airbag deployed,” that came from Pilar.
“Same here,” he ground out through his teeth. “Passenger is pregnant.”
It took a moment for him to steel himself and reach out. He put his fingers against her neck and felt for a pulse.
There.
Thank god.
“Ma’am?”
He touched her shoulder, giving her a gentle shake.
“Ma’am?”
Pilar spoke on the other side of the car. “The driver is gone.”
That seemed to stir the woman in the passenger seat. “Keith?”
“Ma’am?”
“Whe…where’s Keith?”
His stomach felt like a rock settled in it.
He wasn’t qualified to break the news to her.
And he sure as hell didn’t want to deliver that kind of blow.
