Trustworthy Redhead by Iris Johansen

Author:Iris Johansen [Johansen, Iris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-345-53853-6
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-10-30T04:00:00+00:00

SIX

THE RAIN WAS falling steadily, and the young servant was still on duty outside with his big, black umbrella. She brushed him aside and ran out to the far end of the courtyard where the station wagon was parked. She was wet through in seconds but she didn’t even feel the cold. Her only thought was flight. She jumped into the driver’s seat, turned on the ignition, and in a moment she was driving out of the courtyard and onto the access road as the boy in the vestibule stared bewilderedly after her.

The panic goading her gradually abated as she continued to drive. This had been a crazy thing to do, driving off into the night like some soap-opera heroine. Driving the car made her feel more in control, though, and slowly the ability to think logically returned. Where was she going? She couldn’t drive around in the rain all night. She certainly couldn’t return to the Mendoza house. She’d left her purse and belongings when she’d panicked, so she couldn’t drive into town and stay at a hotel. There was only one course of action: to try the bridge. She’d drive to the approach and stop and take a look at it. If it appeared safe, she’d go for it. If not, she’d have to resign herself to parking somewhere along the road and spending the night in the station wagon.

The pounding of the pain in her head seemed to keep tempo with the rain on the roof. As she drove the rain dwindled to a fine drizzle, and now that visibility was improved her foot pressed harder and harder on the accelerator; the car flew along the country road. The back of her neck was rigid with tension as she crested the last hill and started down the other side, her eyes straining to make out the dim outlines of the bridge in the darkness.

She didn’t notice the water until the station wagon’s wheels hit it with such violence that muddy water sprayed in all directions, completely obscuring the windshield! For one terrible moment she thought she might overshoot and drive straight into the icy waters of the river. But the engine cut off abruptly, and she hurriedly rolled down the glass and stuck her head out the window. She was surrounded by water almost up to the car door handles.

The Concho had obviously overflowed the basin at the bottom of the hill, and her car had landed right in the middle of the flooded road. She leaned her head on the steering wheel in sheer frustration. She was stuck, she realized dismally. There was no possibility of backing the station wagon out. The engine was no doubt thoroughly flooded.

She could see the muddy, yellow water begin to trickle in a thin stream under the door; it would be only a matter of minutes before the interior of the car was flooded.

She gave a resigned sigh as she realized there was only one thing to do. She’d have to abandon the car and climb back up the hill on foot.

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