The Chocolate Bear Burglary by JoAnna Carl

Author:JoAnna Carl [Carl, JoAnna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery & Detective, General, Women Sleuths
ISBN: 9781101563793
Google: KgiOOMiVeXgC
Amazon: 0451207475
Publisher: Signet
Published: 2002-11-05T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

I stared at the broken taillight, trying not to panic. It was the left one, like on the car Jeff and I had seen. Would Chief Jones think that Tess had been in the car that sped away after the burglary? Would he think Jeff had tried to cover up her connection with the crime?

I tried frantically to picture the car Jeff and I had seen. I simply didn’t care enough about cars to remember it. My dad was an auto mechanic, so you’d think I would have been raised knowing one taillight from another, but Rich’s view of cars solely as status symbols had made me lose interest in the whole subject. If a vehicle moved when I pressed the accelerator, that was all I asked.

Tess’s car was an inexpensive Ford. But Jeff had said the fleeing car had been some sort of sports car. Had he recognized it as a sports car? Or had he simply been leading us astray?

Joe and Chief Jones had also been staring at the broken taillight; and it was Tess who spoke first. “I certainly hope the city of Warner Pier will pay for that light,” she said. “Those things are expensive to replace, and I’ll get a ticket if I drive without it.”

I bent over to look more closely, and both Chief Jones and Joe knelt behind the car.

“You won’t be driving it for a few days,” Chief Jones said. He and Joe looked at the snow under the rear of the car.

“Maybe you could scoop the snow up and melt it down,” Joe said. “See what you find.”

“It had to happen here,” the Chief said. “We were looking all over for broken taillights. If we’d found an abandoned car with one, we’d have noticed. Besides, if one of my guys puts a car in the lot without making a note of anything that’s wrong with it, I’ll have his uniform. There was nothing on the record sheet.”

“What are they talking about?” Tess said to me.

“They’re saying the light wasn’t broken when the car was towed in.”

It made sense. If the police impounded a car, they’d be responsible for its condition when it was picked up by the owner. They couldn’t leave themselves open to the kind of demands that Tess had just made, that they pay for damage that occurred while the car was in their lot.

The chief stood up. “Guess I’d better ask around, find out if anybody unusual was seen in the city lot.”

“But who’s going to take care of getting this fixed?” Tess said. “If it was all right when it was towed in . . .”

“For the moment, we’re going to keep the car, get the crime lab to look at it,” the chief said. “We’ll try to find out just what happened.”

“I haven’t got the money to repair it,” Tess said. “And my dad doesn’t either.” Her face was all screwed up. Tess obviously didn’t come from a wealthy family. Jeff would have shrugged off the damage.

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