“What speed were you driving?” Ward asked. “Because sometimes drivers can be impatient, and when they aren’t able to get around you, they get frustrated.”
Was he trying to paint this asherfault?
Joel opened his mouth, but Ethan clenched his shoulder.
“I can’t remember how fast I was going,” she finally answered. “But when they dinged my car, it certainly wasn’t slow, because I was trying to get away from them. As I’m sure you’d be able to tell with one look at the car.” Her car… God. The thing was probably totaled.
“So you were speeding?” Ward confirmed.
“Do you intend to fine her if she was?” Maggie asked in disbelief.
Cox cleared his throat. “Do you remember anything about the car behind you, Polly? A make or model? Color?”
She shook her head. “It was dark and they had their high beams on. I was also distracted by a phone call.”
“You were on the phone?” Ward asked, almost suspiciously.
“For fuck’s sake, Ward,” Joel growled. “That has nothing to do with this.”
“I’ll do my job how I see fit,” Ward yelled back. “And whatI’mhearing is, she was distracted and driving too fast. So far, I’m not fully believing this was intentional. Maybe they were just trying to get around her and scraped the back of her car.”
“It was not an accidental scrape,” Polly growled.
“There was a note,” Ethan said through gritted teeth.
Polly’s gaze flew to him. “A note?”
Ethan pulled out a small piece of paper. It was in a Ziploc bag, but Polly could read every word.
Stop looking into things that are none of your business.
All the fine hairs on her arms stood on end.
That was it. Confirmation that this wasn’t random or some road rage incident. She’d been targeted. Run off the road and left to die because she’d looked into the missing women.
Ward snatched the bag and his eyes ran over the note before he looked at her. “What things are you looking into?”
“Jenna.” The single name was quiet. She felt numb. The kind of numb that trickled from her vocal cords right down to her fingertips.
Someone was trying to keep the truth buried. To stop her from asking questions. And the person was close enough to her to know that shewasasking questions.
Ward and Joel started a back-and-forth, but she barely heard a thing. Someone was working overtime to keep their identity hidden—stealing the phone, killing Jenna, now this.
“Out.Now.”
At Joel’s raised voice, her gaze flicked back to Ward.
He touched his belt beneath his protruding belly and straightened, but it didn’t bring him close to Joel’s height. “Look here, son, I’ll tellyouwhen I’m done, not the other way around.”
“She—”
“There’s nothing more to tell,” Polly interrupted. “Iwaslooking into Jenna’s death. But I’m not anymore. This person is clearly confused. Hopefully they’ll leave me alone.”
Ward nodded. “That’s a smart girl. Leave it to the professionals.”
Her fingers curled into fists.
Patronizing jerk.
