Harlequin Intrigue March 2019, Box Set 1 of 2 by Rita Herron

Author:Rita Herron
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2019-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

The instant she saw him, Caleb knew how much trouble he was in.

He’d come back primarily to ask her about the license plate and for any other details she’d recalled. Okay, and to be sure she really was all right.

She sat out on the porch, hands folded in her lap, as if she’d been waiting for him. Which she probably had been. He had to assume she didn’t want to talk to him in front of any of her relatives. As he crossed the yard, Abby’s face remained expressionless. This was the cop, not the complex woman he’d been getting to know.

Without a word, he sat down and flipped open his notebook on the wide arm of the Adirondack chair. He had to get this out of the way before he let her take her shots.

“Did you see a license plate?”

“There wasn’t one in front.”

He frowned. “Two are required.”

She gave him a did-you-forget-what-I-do-for-a-living look.

“You’re sure.”

“The car came straight at me. I lay across the hood, slipped off it when the driver backed up. Yes, I’m positive. And no, I did not see the license plate on the back. I should have made an effort, but had other things going on at the time.”

Things that had left her with so many visible bruises and scrapes, he hated to think how many more were covered by her stockings and calf-length dress.

“Could it have been covered?”

“No, just not there. I can picture empty screw holes in the bumper.”

“Okay. How many people were in the car?” Joshua had thought only the driver, but Caleb had had the impression that the boy had been paralyzed by fear.

“One that I could see.”

She closed her eyes when she described the man to him. Unfortunately, she hadn’t seen any distinctive features. He’d worn a baseball-style cap with a tractor logo on it that didn’t go with the car, which she described as a full-size sedan. He’d worn sunglasses when he first hit them, but they must have fallen off in the collision.

“He was furious,” she said calmly. “If looks could kill.”

“You’re not suggesting this was anything but an accident.” Although he wouldn’t be much of a cop if he hadn’t already been speculating himself.

“It crossed my mind.” Her body language remained placid, her voice willfully calm, her eyes angry. “We should have seen or heard the car coming before we did. I think he was parked on the shoulder in the shade of the grove of trees not that far from the corner. It felt like he was going fast, but if he’d really been at full speed after coming down the hill, I doubt Joshua and I would have survived.”

His gut twisted. “The buggy is in pieces.”

“I know.”

“You didn’t recognize the car make?”

“No.”

“Anything else you noticed? A bumper sticker, say?”

“No.”

After a moment, he closed the notebook and stuck the pen in the spiral-wire top. “Something is on your mind.”

“You searched my things.”

His jaw hurt, he’d been gritting his teeth so hard. “I…thought it was the one last thing I should do before I told Mike to forget his unlikely scenario.

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