Chapter 25
Ella
I go to the living room and see a pretty blonde woman standing next to my dad.
She looks fit, like she works out a lot.
Her hair is short, and she’s not wearing much makeup.
She has on jeans and a casual button-up shirt.
She’s exactly the type of woman I could see being with my dad.
He’d never date someone who shows up in a fancy dress and heels, her face coated with makeup. That’s just not his type.
“You must be Ella,” Susan says, walking up to me to shake my hand.
“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?
Briggs still hasn’t texted me. Rugby practice is over. Maybe he’s at the gym. I text him again, but get nothing back. Desperate to reach him, I text Parker. Do you know where Briggs is?
He texts right back. Home. Why?
I grab my keys and run out to my truck. I speed down the road to Briggs’ house and pull up to the gate.
I bring up the text Briggs sent me with the code.
I punch it in and wait for the gate to open.
I probably should’ve pushed the call button and asked Briggs to open the gate instead of putting in the code, but given how he acted earlier, I didn’t think he’d let me in.
Pulling around to the front of the house, I park the truck and run to the door. I ring the bell and wait. Seconds pass, and nobody answers. I knock on the door. “Briggs, open the door! I need to talk to you! It’s an emergency!”
The door swings open, and I see Briggs standing there, an angry look on his face and blood on the side of his lip.
“What do you want?” he says.
“What happened?” I reach up to touch his lip. “You’re bleeding.”
He shoves my hand away and wipes his mouth. “What the fuck do you want?”
“I need to talk to you. Can I come inside?”
“You get five minutes and then I want you gone.” He steps aside.
What’s going on with him? Why is he so angry, and why is his face a mess? His lip’s still bleeding, and it looks swollen, like he got in a fight.
“My dad just introduced me to his girlfriend,” I say.
“You banged on my door to tell me that?”
“No, there’s more. The woman is a cop, or she was. Now she’s a detective and she’s been assigned to the hit-and-run. She’s looking for who did it.”
“She told you this?”
“Yes, and she said the guy we hit woke up a few hours ago.”
“Fuck.” Briggs rubs his jaw, which pulls on his lip, making it bleed more.
“She said she’s going to go talk to him tonight or tomorrow. What if he tells her about us?”
“He wasn’t conscious that night. He was passed out.”
“We think he was unconscious, but what if we’re wrong? What if he was conscious enough to hear what we were saying? Or what if he opened his eyes long enough to identify us?”
“It was dark. There’s no way he would’ve seen us well enough to identify us. It’s not even an issue because he was definitely passed out. You don’t get slammed into with a vehicle that size and remain conscious.”
“She said they’re checking with body shops. What if that place that worked on the Range Rover kept records and gave them to the police?”
“Did she say they had any suspects?”
“She couldn’t give me details, but she said they think a white truck did it.”
“So then what are you freaking out about? They’re looking for a truck, not a Range Rover.”
“They’re not that different.”
“They’re totally different. You need to stop worrying about this. It’s over. The cops will look for the truck, never find it, and close the case.”
“I guess, but—”
“Ella, I can’t keep talking about this. It’s over. You gotta let it go. You’re going to create more problems if you keep obsessing over this, and your dad’s new girlfriend’s going to notice. You need to calm the fuck down and act like it never happened.”
“Easier said than done.”
“You want to go to prison?”
“Of course not.”
“Then keep your mouth shut and don’t talk about this ever again. It’s over.” He opens the door. “You need to go.”
I walk out of the house to my truck, feeling sick with guilt that I’m part of this horrible secret. What if the man doesn’t recover? Susan said he’s getting better, but what if he gets worse again? What if he dies?
“Ella!” Briggs yells as I’m getting in my truck.
“What?”
“Get over here. You have to see this.”
Briggs is standing at the door, staring at his phone.
I walk back to him. “What is it?”
His eyes lift to mine. “This can’t be real. There’s no way.”
“What can’t be real?”
He turns his phone to me. There’s a text on it that reads, I know you did it.
I saw you. All of you. And now it’s time to pay for what you’ve done.
You always think you’re in charge but I’M in charge now and you’re going to do what I say or kiss your precious futures goodbye.
Instructions are coming. Follow them, you go free. Ignore them, and your lives are over.
THE END