“And you’re Susan?”
“I am.” She smiles back at my dad. “I hope your father told you at least a little about me.”
“Ella knows we meet up at the coffee shop every morning,” my dad says, “but that’s about it.” He comes up beside Susan, putting his hand on her back. “I was hoping you could tell her more, but we don’t have much time. We need to be going soon.”
Susan looks back at me. “We originally planned to go out next week, but a friend of mine at work had concert tickets he couldn’t use so I asked your father if he’d like to go. I was hoping to give you more time before we met but then I got these tickets and—”
“It’s fine. I don’t need time. So where do you work?”
“I’m a police officer, or I was. I was recently promoted to investigations. I’m still in training, but so far I’m loving it.”
“She was assigned her first case last week.” My dad puts his arm around her, which makes me uncomfortable, but I guess I just have to get used to it. I don’t mind him dating someone. I just wish he’d told me sooner than five minutes before meeting her.
“It’s nothing too exciting,” she says. “But it’s a good starter case.”
“It’s that one we were talking about,” my dad says to me. “Remember when we went to get your truck and we passed by where that man was hit?”
“Yeah?” I feel my throat tightening up and my heart thumping faster. “What about it?”
“That’s the case I’ve been assigned,” Susan says. “It was a hit-and-run.”
“Why... why are you looking into it? I mean, didn’t it happen weeks ago?” I hear how nervous I sound and try to calm down, but how can I when the woman my dad is dating could be the woman putting me in jail?
“It doesn’t matter when it happened. We have cases from years ago that we’re still looking into. As for this particular case, we’re just getting started. We have all the body shops in town reporting back to us about any vehicles that come in with damages. The man’s clothing had traces of paint on it from the vehicle so we know it was from a white car or truck.”
“Do you have any suspects?”
“We do, but I’m not able to talk about that.”
“C’mon,” I say, smiling. “Just tell me. I can keep a secret.”
“Well, I suppose I can keep it generic and just say that we believe it was a white pickup truck.”
“A pickup,” I say, feeling relieved. “Well, I hope you find whoever did it. If you do, what happens to the person?”
“That’ll be up to the judge, but it could mean several years in prison if the victim doesn’t survive. But it’s looking like he might be okay.”
“He’s getting better?”
She nods. “He woke up a few hours ago. I’ll be going to speak with him later tonight or tomorrow, whenever he’s feeling up to it.”
He’s going to tell her what we did. What if he remembers the Range Rover? What if he wasn’t really passed out that night and saw us standing over his body? He could’ve opened his eyes long enough to see us. Or maybe he heard us. Did we call each other by name? I can’t remember.
I’m feeling lightheaded. I need to get out of here. I have to talk to Briggs.
“I should let you guys get to your concert. It was nice meeting you!” I hurry to my room.
“We’ll be home around eleven!” my dad yells as I close my door.
“Okay!” I yell back. “Have fun!”
I call Briggs, but he doesn’t answer. I text him.We need to talk. It can’t wait.
He doesn’t text back.
I hear the front door open and close as my dad and Susan leave. I go to the living room to make sure they’re gone.
How is this possible? Out of all the women my dad could date, he picks a cop? An investigator looking for whoever was involved in the hit-and-run, which happens to be me?
