The Other Passenger by JE Rowney

Author:JE Rowney [Rowney, JE]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Little Fox Publishing
Published: 2024-05-30T00:00:00+00:00

THIRTEEN

Now

David’s hand paused on the gear stick, the distant purr of the engine cutting through the silence. From the corner of his eye, he saw the girl step closer to the car, her posture stiff. She hadn’t taken her eyes off the approaching vehicle with its red and blue glow since she had spotted it.

“Police,” she stated flatly, her voice barely above a murmur, as though she needed to say something, but didn’t know what.

Stating the obvious was fine, but David needed the girl to move.

His throat tightened, the urge to flee wrestling with the need to appear indifferent. He couldn’t let the girl see the panic clawing at his insides. He was torn between wanting her to hurry, to get into the car so they could be on their way, and wanting her to take her time so he could compose himself.

His palm was clammy against the leather, and he withdrew his hand, wiping it on the damp fabric of his tux trousers. What must he look like? Soaked to the skin, dressed in this suit, out here with a strange girl.

He took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm himself, and called out to the girl.

“Are you coming?” he asked, a forced casualness in his tone.

The girl looked as though she was a photograph of herself, blown up to life size. Rigid, unmoving.

“Twenty-One?” he called, trying to keep the tone light even though he felt the heavy weight of the night and his actions upon him.

The words seemed to snap her to life, and she darted to the passenger door.

“We should go,” she said, with an urgency in her voice that matched David’s own concealed anxiety.

She slid into the passenger seat, placing her legs to either side of the bag in the footwell, and slammed the door.

“We should go,” she said again, looking at the driver. “Now.”

David checked his mirror out of muscle memory rather than necessity, flicked on the indicator, and sped up along the road.

The car complied with no sign that it had any objection. The damage from the collision was superficial, at least on their end.

As the police car moved towards them, and they towards it, David tried not to think about what might happen if the officer inside pulled them over.

“They’ve got their lights on,” the girl stated the obvious again. She was struggling. “They must be in a hurry. They won’t stop.”

The two vehicles came level and then glided past each other. As they passed, the distinctive whine of the Doppler effect resonated in David’s ears, its pitch bending and fading even through the drumming rain.

“Guess so,” he replied. His nonchalance sounded forced, and he tried to dial it down. “They must be on their way back to the crime scene,” David said, not taking his eyes off the road.

“What?” the girl said, before quickly following on. “Of course. Her.”

She flicked her gaze up to the mirror, but there was no sign of the patrol vehicle. It had already rounded a bend, heading off into the darkness of the night.

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