“Can I help you?” a woman called from behind her.
Juliet shook her head, not looking back as the glass door closed.
She pressed the button on the key fob, and a horn honked. She smiled. Once more luck was on her side.
A few seconds later, she’d secured a getaway car. The older Chevy Cruze wasn’t in the best shape, but she prayed the engine would last long enough to get her someplace safe.
At the very least, it would get her out of the immediate vicinity until the heat died down.
JJ was standing still, watching as people continued to congregate around the scene of the accident.
She was still trying to wrap her head around what had happened, although deep inside she knew.
Baz was currently talking to one of the deputies, informing him they had seen the blue Mustang pulling into the parking space earlier. They’d been watching as Kylie was loaded into the ambulance when someone mentioned what they’d witnessed. In that moment, JJ had looked at Baz, her gut churning.
No one had confirmed that the woman driving the car was Juliet Prince, but she figured it was a safe assumption. After all, like Brantley and Reese, JJ didn’t believe in coincidence, and they had just been alerted that the woman was seen exiting the highway only a couple of miles down the road.
“Brantley wants us to come to the hospital,” Baz relayed when he joined her.
JJ frowned. “Why?” Realizing she sounded bitchy, she clarified. “I mean, I don’t have a problem with it, but won’t we be more helpful if we start searchin’?”
“A BOLO’s been issued,” Baz informed her.
JJ knew that was police speak for abe on the lookoutnotification. It would alert other departments so they could assist in locating the vehicle.
Glancing back at Kylie’s sister and the other family members who remained—most had already left for the hospital—JJ recalled the day she’d found her brother. It hadn’t been a traumatic incident like this. She’d found him in his bedroom on his bed. She hadn’t realized he was dead at the time, rather noticing he looked peaceful in sleep. Of course, she’d yelled at him because that was what she’d done back then. It had been the last time she’d ever spoken to him, but unfortunately, he hadn’t heard her.
Swallowing back the emotions she preferred not to dredge up, JJ turned to Baz. “Whatever Brantley needs.”
With a hand on her back, he guided her toward his truck just as he’d done so many times. She’d always thought of it as a possessive gesture, one she found oddly intriguing. When he’d done it before, it had made her feel good knowing he wanted her that way. Now it just felt awkward.
Once they were in the truck and on the road, Baz turned something on just beneath his dash.
When radio calls sounded, she looked at him. “Is that a police scanner?”
He nodded, then turned it up.
JJ’s eyes widened when she heard what they were saying. Someone had located a ’65 blue Mustang with front end damage at a motel just down the road.
“That’s half a mile from here,” she told Baz. “Turn around.”
“JJ…”
“Turn around, Baz,” she demanded. “We can’t do anything at the hospital that’ll benefit anyone. At least this way there’s a chance we might find that bitch.”
“In case you don’t remember, we don’t have badges anymore.”
“So?” She glared at him. “I’ve never had a badge before and it hasn’t stopped me. Just turn around.”
He grunted, but then pulled a U-ey, heading east rather than west toward the hospital.
The radio had gone silent, but JJ held out hope that they’d found Juliet Prince and were taking her into custody.
She fought the urge to push her foot to the floor on the pretend gas pedal that would get them to their destination faster. But as they approached the single-story motel with its rust-stained stucco and threadbare shingles, she leaned toward the windshield, as though that would help her see better. In the parking lot, she noticed a single police car and two officers speaking to a very animated young woman.
JJ wanted to know what the woman was saying.
“Pull in here,” she snapped. “By the Coke machine.”
