Shadow of Suspicion

by Christy Barritt

  The woman backed from the parking space and began to exit the area.

  As he pulled out to follow the woman, Laney did the same. This was a disaster waiting to happen. But there was no way to stop her now. Attempting to would only alert the brunette that she was being followed.

  The woman pulled out onto the main highway. As soon as she did, she rapidly accelerated.

  An impending feeling of doom pressed on his shoulders. This was going to end badly. And there was little he could do to stop it.

  In front of him, Laney sped toward an intersection. The light turned yellow. She kept going forward.

  He heard the screeching of tires seconds before he saw a car ram right into Laney’s door.

  TEN

  Laney felt her world spin again. Everything blurred around her. Her body and mind didn’t move together. Everything seemed fast, yet in slow motion.

  She blinked, trying to make sense of the moment.

  Smoke rose from the hood of her rental. Shattered glass glimmered around her, falling out of her hair even. The smell of something hot and burning hit her nose. She coughed as the powder from the air bag aspirated into her lungs.

  Shouts sounded around her. Vehicles squealed as they scrambled to avoid her. People appeared in the street, some to gawk, others rushing to help.

  She let her head fall to the side. A black truck had hit her. The impact had pushed the vehicle away from the point of the collision and away from her door. She had the impression that her sedan had received the bulk of the damage.

  She blinked again and saw the driver, sitting in his truck, staring at her. Was he in shock? Was he okay?

  He didn’t move yet his eyes were open. Was he even alive?

  Events began replaying in her mind. She’d been chasing the brunette from the park. The light had been yellow when she went through...right?

  Trembles overtook her muscles. Panic seized her thoughts.

  In a blur, she saw Mark appear at her door. “Laney?”

  She tried to respond but couldn’t. Her lips wouldn’t cooperate.

  Using his coat, he pushed away shards of glass atop her window, removing the last of the broken pieces. He mumbled something, probably assurances.

  Laney willed her lips to move. Finally something indiscernible escaped. More of a moan than words.

  All at once, words tumbled from her mouth, sounding like nonsense until finally, “Sol...woman...followed.”

  Mark reached into the car and unclasped her seat belt. “We’ll talk about that later. Right now we have to get you out of this car. Can you move?”

  Could she? She tried to pull her leg up from beneath the dashboard. Yes—it worked. She appeared to be in one piece and totally functional. Thank God!

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  Mark reached his arms beneath her and lifted her. Gently, he brought her through the window and out of the car. His strong arms made him seem like a rock beneath her, like a source of strength worth holding on to. Her head flopped onto his chest.

  He carried her across the street and laid her on the sidewalk, away from her battered car. Away from the gawking crowds. Away from the nightmare that surrounded her. As she felt the sidewalk beneath her, everything tilted around her.

  Her body ached. Her head throbbed. But she was alive.

  That meant that Mark could chase after the woman in the car before it was too late. Before their one lead got away.

  “You’ve got to go after that woman...” She pointed to the car she’d been following. It was long gone. Time had seemed fluid, and she couldn’t even guess how many minutes had passed. One? Five? Thirty?

  Mark knelt beside her, studying her face. “Other officers are in pursuit. I’ve got the license plate. You don’t worry about that.”

  She pushed herself up, ignoring her wobbling head. Ignoring the stares of those around her. Trying to pinpoint the facts that tugged at her consciousness. What was it that begged to get her attention? She didn’t know.

  “You followed me?” she finally settled with as his face came into focus. Scruff grew on his cheeks and chin. His eyes looked blue and intense. Blood covered his shoulder.

  Her blood?

  “I was trying to make sure you stayed out of trouble,” Mark said.

  Her heart raced. Had he seen everything? That would mean he was a witness also. That it wouldn’t just be her word against Sol’s. “You saw the drop?”

  “I did.” He glanced toward the scene of the accident, toward the driver who’d T-boned her.

  That’s when it hit her. The other driver had stared at her after she’d been hit. He was alive.

  And she hadn’t run a red light.

  She’d been hit on purpose.

  Just then, the man leaped from his truck and began running down the road.

  “Go!” Laney raised her arm and pointed.

  Mark hesitated only a moment before darting after the man.

  Laney watched as they disappeared around the corner. Just as they did, the paramedics arrived.

  “We need to take you to the hospital,” a paramedic said.

  “I’ll be fine,” she insisted. She was surprisingly unscathed. But how much more could her body endure? Would the next incident be the one that finished her off for good?

  And why had Mark really been following her?

  “Ma’am, I really think it’s a good idea that you get checked out.”

  “No, really, I’m okay.” No more hospitals. She needed freedom. It felt like this whole situation was a ticking time bomb.

  She only hoped that Mark caught the man who’d hit her.

  * * *

  Mark pushed himself as hard as his body would allow as his feet pounded against the pavement. The man had too much of a head start. The distance between them seemed insurmountable.

  Mark dodged pedestrians, skirted around a crowd gathered at a bus stop and pushed by a man selling rugs on the busy street. He couldn’t lose sight of the other driver. The answers were so close. All the man had to do was trip up once, and Mark would catch him. He could settle this once and for all.

  An intersection loomed in the distance. Tension grew between Mark’s shoulders. This could be the moment where everything fell apart or came together.

  A surge of speed shot through him as the urgency of the matter pressed on him harder.

  Just then the man darted out in traffic.

  Horns honked. Cars swerved. Brakes screeched.

  The man pressed himself into the hood of an Impala that came dangerously close to running him over. He glanced back at Mark, and his eyes widened.

  Then he darted away, even faster than before.

  Mark soaked him in, trying to remember as many details as possible. The man had dark hair with a touch of wave. He was tall, thin and fit. He wore black, including a leather coat with the collar turned up.

  Cars stopped at the intersection formed a blockade in front of them. Mark tried to dart around them, but they were bumper-to-bumper.

  As he looked up, he spotted a car pull up to the curb. The man he’d been chasing jumped into the backseat. Just as Mark reached them, they squealed away. He glanced at the license plate, but it was gone.

  Mark stopped in his tracks, knowing it was too late to catch them. His hands went to his hips as frustration took over. He’d been close. So close.

  Using his cell, he put out an all-points bulletin for the car. Maybe another officer would catch it before the man got away.

  All of this only confirmed what he already knew: whoever had rammed Laney had done it on purpose.

  He started back toward where he’d left her, praying that she was okay. Praying that she would live to see another day. As he walked down the sidewalk, his phone rang. It was Jim. “We lost
her.”

  “What?” Alarm rushed through him. Laney? Had something happened to Laney?

  “Traffic was heavy and she took us on a crazy chase through town. It sounds staged, but a train actually cut us off.”

  “You’re talking about the brunette,” Mark muttered, relief flushing his heart. All he’d been able to think about was Laney sustaining injuries from the accident that hadn’t taken effect until later. The concern he felt was surprising. He always cared about the people involved in his cases, but his concern this time felt staggering.

  The thought threw him off guard. He couldn’t give in to his emotions. That only ended in disaster every time.

  But there was something about Laney that seemed different. In the short time he’d known her, she’d surprised him. She was intelligent and kind. Smart and trusting. Scared but strong.

  Those were combinations he didn’t always see. Even when he wasn’t with her, his thoughts drifted toward her and they went beyond the investigation. He pictured what it might be like to come home to someone like her. To actually feel hope for the future. To feel a sense of real community in his life, one that went beyond the police department.

  He’d long since buried his dreams of happily growing old. His family had been stripped away from him. The one woman he thought he’d loved had only used him. All of it was enough to make him want to seclude himself.

  Maybe he didn’t follow through on that like Laney did. He didn’t have a job where he could work at home alone without ever having to interact with people. But, in another way, they were very much the same.

  The past had altered their futures—and not for the better.

  Maybe he needed to change that. But he was going to have to do a lot of praying to get himself to that place emotionally.

  “Of course I’m talking about the brunette,” Jim said. “Who did you think I was talking about?”

  “Never mind. Did you run the plates?”

  “We did. The car was stolen from a place out in Mechanicsville yesterday. We got nothing on the driver.”

  Of course. Mark wasn’t even surprised. Whoever was doing this was good. They’d covered all of their tracks and made certain not to make mistakes.

  “How about the business, CybCorp. Anything on that yet?”

  “Nah, Williams is on his way up there to check it out.”

  “Thanks, Jim.”

  “Yeah, I’ll keep you updated.”

  When he reached Laney, he found her arguing with paramedics.

  “I’ve got this,” he told them.

  They stared at him a moment and finally shrugged, probably happy to hand her off to someone else. It was time to get her somewhere safe—whether she liked it or not.

  * * *

  “So this is your friend’s house?” Laney asked, staring at the brick ranch house set back on a couple acres of property. It was charming with neat shrubs in the flowerbeds, and a porch swing welcoming guests near the front door.

  A home. She’d had one of those at one time. She’d just spent the past hour on the drive here talking to the insurance company. It was going to be a long process before anything would be restored. Those were things she needed to think about later, though. She had other more pressing concerns at the moment.

  Small cuts scratched her face, but the medics had put ointment on them. She also had a bump on her forehead, but Mark had been given strict instructions on what to watch for in case of a concussion.

  She wasn’t going back to the hospital, though. She was going to be fine.

  They climbed out and walked toward the house.

  “That’s right,” Mark said, unlocking the door. “They should be back later on this evening. I already talked to them and they’re fine with you staying here. Trent’s a former cop, so he’s a good one to be around. And his wife, Tessa, is a real sweetheart.”

  Mark locked the door behind them and extended his hand toward the living room at their left. Hesitantly, feeling out of her element, she followed him into the room. He lowered himself onto a chair, but his muscles still looked alert.

  “Why don’t you sit for a minute?” Mark said.

  She knew once she stopped moving that she’d be finished for a while. Her body was pleading with her to slow down and rest, but her mind raced full-speed ahead.

  Laney rubbed her hands on her jeans and nodded, finally conceding to being seated. “I can’t believe that lady got away,” she murmured, replaying the scene over and over, and asking herself what she could have done differently.

  “What were you doing at Sol’s place of employment? And on the weekend, at that?” Mark leveled his gaze with her, getting right to the point.

  She ignored the queasy feeling in her gut. She knew he’d followed her, but the thought still unnerved her. “I just wanted to talk to him. He works weekends a lot.”

  “What did you want to talk to him about?”

  She let out a heavy sigh, the familiar feeling of having the weight of the world on her shoulders returning again. “I don’t know. And that’s the truth. I just want answers, and I wondered if Sol knew more than he’s letting on.”

  “You’re probably not the person to get those answers.”

  Ouch. But he’d spoken the truth. “I realize that. But I’m desperate.”

  “Don’t do something stupid in that desperation.”

  His words hit her somehow. She pinched the skin between her eyes. She couldn’t deny what he’d said. She was acting recklessly. But everything was on the line—everything. Not just her life, but Sarah’s also. She couldn’t just sit back and do nothing.

  “It looks like the fire in your house was started by an electrical problem, by the way,” Mark said quietly. “I talked to the fire marshal a few minutes ago.”

  Her sorrow only deepened at his words. Her house. All of her memories of her time with Nate. It was all gone now. “I’m sure that’s what it was. An accident or a coincidence.”

  “They’re not done investigating yet, Laney.”

  Suddenly, everything hit her. Maybe it was the car crash just now. Or the near catastrophe at the frozen yogurt shop earlier. Or the way she’d been drugged. Or accused of kidnapping. She supposed she could take her pick of any of those.

  But the future seemed daunting at the moment, so much so that tears sprang to her eyes. She hung her head, wishing Mark wasn’t here to see all of this. The tears had been bound to come eventually, though.

  “I’m sorry, Laney.” Mark’s words sounded so kind and compassionate that they only made more moisture rush to the surface.

  “No, I’m sorry.”

  “You’ve been through a lot over the past twenty-four hours. Anyone would break under the pressure. All things considered, I think you’re doing pretty well.”

  She grabbed a tissue from the end table and dabbed under her eyes. “It’s just that everything about my past was in that house. My parents are deceased, and I had my mom’s old jewelry. My dad’s flag for his military service. Then there was Nate and all of the reminders of our life together...”

  His frown deepened. “You said it’s been three years?”

  “Sometimes it feels like decades and other times like weeks.”

  “The good news is that we always carry parts of our past in our heart. You can’t ever lose that.”

  His words brought a strange comfort to her, but also the realization that he spoke from experience. “Thank you. It sounds like you know a thing or two about that.”

  He cleared his throat. “You could say that. I lost my sister eight years ago.”

  Compassion panged through her. “I’m so sorry.”

  “Me too. She was a great girl.”

  “If you don’t mind me asking, what happened?”

  A shadow passed his gaze. Laney wanted
to take the question back, but didn’t want to at the same time. Her death had obviously been a pivotal time in his life and Laney wanted to know more.

  “My stepdad abducted her and killed her,” he finally said.

  Her hand went over her mouth. She couldn’t even fathom what that would have been like. “I’m so sorry,” she said again for lack of a better response.

  He nodded, stoic and stiff. “When my stepdad found out he’d been discovered as the perpetrator in the crime, he shot my mom and then killed himself.”

  “You lost everything too...” She hadn’t meant to say it aloud, but it was so unusual for her to meet people who could understand her pain. Most people her age hadn’t experienced the loss she had. They had no idea what it felt like to have everything stripped away.

  “That’s so awful. I’m so sorry,” she said once more.

  “Thank you.”

  “Have you ever been married, Mark?” She wasn’t sure where the question came from, but it slipped out. Maybe it was just curiosity. But she wondered if he had someone to go home to. If he had a wife who worried about him.

  “No, I’ve never been married. Almost.” He didn’t offer any more information, and she didn’t push it. She’d already asked far too many questions.

  Just then, his phone rang. He put his cell to his ear, mumbled a few things, and then turned to Laney. “They just talked to Sol. Apparently he left a jump drive with information about his bank records and pin numbers on it. It was at the request of the kidnappers. They somehow managed to slip a note onto his car while he was at work.”

  Laney bit down for a minute. “Successfully avoiding being tracked by the FBI, who, I assume, are monitoring his phone calls.”

  “Of course. The police just brought Sol to the station to ask him some more questions. Maybe we’ll know more soon. In the meantime, why don’t you go get some rest?”

  “That’s probably a good idea,” she said.

  But she had no intention of resting. Not when so much was at stake.

  ELEVEN

  Laney waited until Mark lay back on the couch and closed his eyes. She could see that he was tired and knew it was just a matter of time before he fell asleep.