Stand Alone - Fire & Ice by Eve Langlais

Author:Eve Langlais
Language: nld
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Romance
Published: 2005-06-28T23:11:52+00:00

Chapter Ten

Andy pushed Marissa’s car onto the lift in the garage, using the

tow truck, its bumper padded, to prevent further damage.

Dirk stared at the car, a frown on his face, while Andy got out of

the truck and whistled looking at the wrecked Beretta. “And you say she

did this bumping into her garage door? How fast was she going? Jeez,

look at the front end.”

The car would never be the same—although Dirk intended to do

his best. He had a lot of work ahead of him. The bumper—what was left

of it—hung brokenly, the grill and lights cracked and smashed. The hood

had buckled up, enough that straightening it would not be an option. Dirk

shooed Andy away from Marissa’s car, sending him to work on a

Volkswagen that had come in that morning. He wanted to look at it

himself. Needed to look at it himself. Something didn’t seem right about

the accident. Marissa’s car, while old, had appeared to him to be in perfect

condition. Like the rest of her home and garden, it had been pristine on

the outside, and knowing what he did of her, he’d wager she kept its inner

workings superbly maintained too.

The first thing he did, after placing it up in the air on a hoist, was

pull off all the wheels and check the brakes. Everything looked in working

condition, actually better than working—the pads still thick, the rotors

miraculously rust free. When he ran his finger along the first brake line,

his finger came away greasy with fluid. Frowning, he checked the other

three brake lines and to his disbelief, on each of the lines he felt the

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Fire and Ice by Eve Langlais

slickness indicating a leak. Upon further inspection, he found tiny

pinprick holes on all four lines. Un-freaking-believable. This was no

accident!

Dirk brought the car down and looked at the bent hood. He wanted

to look at the engine compartment, but first he’d have to take the hood off.

After much grunting and swearing, and a hand from Andy, they pulled

the piece of humped metal off. Grabbing a rag, Dirk then twisted off the

brake line reservoir and confirmed its empty state. Dirk bet he’d find most

of it pooled on Marissa’s driveway. When she’d pulled out initially, there

had probably been just enough fluid in the brakes for her to stop and pull

back in. But trying to stop again, the brake lines now empty, she’d been

screwed. That alone should have just put her into the garage with a bump,

but she’d hit the garage hard. He remembered her mentioning the engine

surging, like she had her foot on the gas even though she’d been braking

at the time. Dirk opened the little spring door on the side of the car,

unscrewed the gas cap, and found traces of a white powder. It actually

looked like flour, not that he’d taste it. With a sneaky suspicion, Dirk

quickly found the needed tools and proceeded to pull out the fuel filter.

As he’d already begun to suspect, he found it partially clogged with a

sticky matter—the white flour or powder he’d found. A partially clogged

filter explained the surge. The car’s electronic computer would

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