Chapter 10 #3
“No, sitting around doing nothing is a waste of time. I’d rather keep searching for evidence, even if that means finding another dead body.
” He grimaced and added, “But a quick pit stop at the rental house is a good idea. I saw some bug spray in the bathroom closet that will come in handy. And we may want to make sure we have enough food and water for Bruno.”
She hesitated only for a second before nodding in agreement. “Okay.”
He opened the back hatch for Bruno, who looked at them strangely when Evie told him to get in. Cam slid in behind the wheel and started the car as Evie settled in beside him. Before he had a chance to shift into reverse or back out of the parking space, another car pulled in alongside them.
Curious, he glanced over to see who was pulling in. He was immediately struck by the ravaged expressions on the couple’s faces.
They had to be Jasmine’s parents. He grimaced, realizing Rueger wasn’t meeting with the chief of police but rather the couple who had just learned their daughter was dead.
He thought it was unusual for the bereaved parents to come to the police station rather than Rueger going to their house to give the bad news, but maybe they’d already heard rumblings through the small-town grapevine.
Or the two parents may have been at work, and coming here made more sense.
The man who got out of the car looked to be in his mid to late forties.
He put his arm around the woman’s shoulders as she swiped at the tears streaming down her eyes.
Leaning heavily on each other, they slowly made their way inside.
Through the glass door, Cam was glad to see the stern woman behind the desk had come out to meet with the couple.
“How awful for them,” Evie murmured.
He nodded slowly. “Yeah, but it’s probably better to know the truth about what happened rather than spending your whole life wondering if your kid ran away.” He glanced at her as he shifted into reverse. “Do you know what happened to Skye’s parents?”
“Yes. They died within two years of each other.” Evie glanced at him.
“It’s not breaking hospital privacy laws to give you this information as privacy ends with death.
Skye’s mother, Elaine, had emergency surgery for a brain aneurysm.
She did okay initially but then suffered a cardiac arrest and died.
When I was reviewing her chart, I noticed a notation about her ex-husband, Gerald Gray, having passed away a year earlier from a heart attack. ”
He shook his head, feeling slightly sick to his stomach. “They both passed away without ever knowing what happened to their daughter.”
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I thought at the time.
I guess you’re right that it’s better to know the truth than to be left hanging for years without answers.
” He noticed Evie’s gaze tracked the couple as they disappeared inside the police station.
Then she sighed and added, “That doesn’t make it any easier to accept your daughter is never coming home. ”
“True. I can’t imagine anything worse than losing a child.
” He hated to admit that once he was shipped off to Afghanistan, he hadn’t spent much time thinking about Skye.
Part of that was because he needed to stay focused on the mission.
Being distracted in enemy territory was a sure way to get himself or his fellow soldiers killed.
But if he were being completely honest, he’d wanted to believe Skye had simply taken off to start over in a new city.
That she was living her life on her own terms, without regrets.
Not that she’d been murdered and buried in the nature preserve.
“We need to figure out who did this.” Evie’s expression was solemn. “Skye’s parents are gone, but Jasmine’s family deserves answers.”
“Let’s get back to work then.” He put the car in reverse and finished backing out of the parking space.
Soon, he turned right out of the police station and onto the highway that would take them back to the rental house in Duncan Woods.
After reaching the city limits, the speed limit increased.
They were about two miles outside of town when he noticed a large black pickup truck was coming up fast behind them.
With a frown, he watched the truck via the rearview mirror as the gap between them narrowed at an alarming rate.
The driver wasn’t going swerve to go around them!
“What the—” He yanked the steering wheel to the right and tapped the brake, careening off the road and onto the rutted shoulder and beyond a split second before the truck would have struck their rear bumper.
“Cam! What’s happening?” Evie’s voice rose in fear.
He couldn’t answer, too focused on attempting to slow their speed over the rocky terrain while at the same time trying to get a good look at the rear license plate of the black truck disappearing in the distance.
This wasn’t an accident.
The right front tire of the SUV struck a rock with a sickening thudding sound. Instantly, the car lurched to one side, throwing poor Bruno roughly to the opposite side of the crate area. Cam knew they’d blown out a tire, but there was nothing he could do about it now.
Bringing the SUV to a jerky stop, he shifted into park and glanced at Evie. There was no doubt in his mind the driver in the pickup truck had tried to kill them.