The Chase (8 page)

“That’s very nice of you.”

He didn’t respond and turned back towards the window again.

The next few minutes passed in silence, and then Kendall asked, “Are you from around here?”

“Nope. Just passing through.”

“Where are you from?”

There was a brief hesitation before he answered. “Oklahoma.”

“Really? Based on your accent, I would have pegged you as being from somewhere just south of the Mason-Dixon line.”

Jake didn’t respond.

“You’re a long way from home. Are you in a hurry to be hitting the road again?”

He sighed and slowly turned his head towards her. “Like I said before, you sure do ask a lot of questions.”

And you sure don’t like to answer them
, Kendall thought.

Z
elda McGraw sat on the bench near the pay phone in front of Kroger’s Supermarket. She took a long drag on her cigarette and eyed a blue Camaro that pulled up to the curb.

“Hey there, Zelda,” Pinky Barnes said as he stuck his head out the window and revved the engine. “Want to cruise over to Thirsty’s with me and have a few cold ones?”

“Beat it, Pinky. I got me a steady man now.”

“I don’t see him around here nowhere.”

“I’m waiting on his phone call right now,” Zelda said, pointing towards the pay phone behind her. “He had to leave town on business for a couple of days.”

“On business? I had no idea that you’d found yourself a genuine businessman. I’ll bet you he don’t have no set of wheels like this, now does he?” Pinky revved the engine again.

“Get lost, Pinky. You and me are over and done with.”

Pinky laughed and gave her the finger, then floored it, burning rubber as he peeled away from the curb.

“Fuck you,” Zelda muttered, staring after him. She was so done with this shitty town and all the redneck assholes who lived in it. Fact was, they could all burn in hell for all she cared. Pretty soon she’d be kissing this town goodbye for good.

Zelda got up and walked over to the phone. The clock on the wall inside Kroger’s read twenty minutes past five. Earl was twenty minutes late calling, but that didn’t mean that anything had gone wrong. She’d give him another ten minutes; if he didn’t call by then, she’d come back at nine o’clock in the morning, just as they had planned.

That’s one thing she really liked about Earl, besides how good he was in the sack. He was real smart, and he had understood right from the get-go that they always had to have a backup plan in case things didn’t go the way they were supposed to.

Earl was so much smarter than Doug Cummings and his bimbo lawyer wife, they’d never catch on to who he really was. Until it was too late. Of course, it didn’t hurt that he was so hot-looking and such a smooth talker.

Zelda looked at the clock again and saw that it was five-thirty, so she moseyed down to the street and stuck her thumb out. It didn’t even bother her that she had let Earl take her car to Virginia and she had to thumb a ride home. It was a small price to pay for what she would get in return.

A
nne awoke with a start when the ICU nurse tapped her on the shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Cummings, I didn’t mean to startle you,” the nurse said quietly.

“That’s okay,” Anne said, rubbing her eyes. “I must have dozed off.”

She sat forward in the chair and curled her fingers against Doug’s cheek.

“Has his condition changed any?”

The nurse shook her head. “No, he’s the same.”

Anne ran her fingertips lightly over Doug’s temple, where a touch of gray crept into his close-cropped dark hair. She spoke quietly to him. “I’m right here, Doug. You’re in the hospital and everything’s going to be just fine. Kendall went to check on Chancellor. They took him in the horse ambulance to the EMC. She’s going to call me as soon as she knows how he’s doing.”

She was beginning to feel less self-conscious about talking to Doug in front of the nurses. They acted as if it were a natural thing to do and had told her more than once that they believed he could hear her, or at least knew that she was there.

“Mrs. Cummings, there are a couple of sheriff’s deputies in the waiting room. They would like to speak with you,” the nurse said.

“Sheriff’s deputies?”

The nurse nodded. “They want to talk to you about your husband’s accident.”

“Now? Surely that can wait.”

“I already suggested that to them, but they were pretty insistent. They said it won’t take long.” She smiled sympathetically.

Anne sighed and rose reluctantly. She leaned down and kissed Doug on the top of his head and whispered, “I’ll be right back.” She turned to the nurse. “Will you come and get me right away if anything changes?”

“Of course I will. By the way, my name is Robin. I just came on shift and I’ll be working until eleven tonight. Dr. Martin wrote instructions that you’ll be spending the night here, so if there is anything I can do to make it more comfortable for you, please let me know.”

“Thank you, Robin.”

“Just press the buzzer by the door when you’re ready to come back, and I’ll let you in.”

Anne left Doug’s room and headed slowly towards the waiting area. Her lower back was killing her, and she rubbed it with both hands as she walked. She was still wearing the heels she’d put on for the baby shower, and her feet were so swollen, each step was excruciating. She fought the urge to kick off her shoes and go barefoot.

She found the deputies sitting on a couch in the waiting room. One was older, balding and weathered-looking, and he fiddled with a sheriff’s hat that rested on his knee; the younger one flipped through an issue of
Sports Illustrated
. They both stood as she approached, and the older man extended his hand.

“Good evening, Mrs. Cummings. I’m Deputy Hodgkins, and this is Deputy Ward,” he said, nodding his head towards the younger deputy.

Anne shook both their hands.

“We’d like to talk to you about your husband’s accident, Mrs. Cummings. Why don’t you have a seat?” Deputy Hodgkins gestured towards an armchair that stood next to the couch.

“Is it really necessary that we have this conversation right now, Deputy?” Anne asked. “As you probably know, my husband is in critical condition, and I really hate to leave him.”

He smiled sympathetically. “I can certainly understand that, Mrs. Cummings. I promise we won’t take but a few minutes of your time. We have some information about the accident that we really need to discuss with you. Let’s sit down, and we’ll be as brief as possible.”

Anne felt too weary to argue, so she eased herself into the chair. “All right,” she said with a sigh.

Both deputies sat back down, and Deputy Hodgkins placed his hat next to him on the couch.

“Mrs. Cummings, there’s no easy way to say this, so I guess I’ll just get on with it.” He cleared his throat. “We have reason to believe that your husband’s vehicle was tampered with and that was the cause of his accident.”

“
What?”
Anne couldn’t believe that she had heard him right. “What do you mean by
tampered with?”

“It looks as if someone messed with his brakes,” Deputy Hodgkins replied.

“How do you know that?” Anne asked, frowning. “His accident happened just a few hours ago. Have you already inspected his Range Rover?”

He nodded. “Yes, ma’am. One of the witnesses we interviewed told us something that raised our suspicion, so Deputy Ward checked the vehicle out, and, sure enough, he found that the brake line had been cut. We’ve had the vehicle and the trailer towed to the station, where they will be more thoroughly inspected.”

“What did the witness tell you? Did they see Doug’s accident?”

The younger deputy sat forward. “I’m the one who spoke with the witness, Mrs. Cummings. He was driving behind your husband and saw your husband’s vehicle go off the road. He called nine-one-one from his cell phone.”

“He can probably be credited with saving your husband’s life,” Deputy Hodgkins interjected. “Your husband’s vehicle crashed so far down the mountainside that it wasn’t visible from the road. Who knows when, or if, someone would have noticed it.”

The younger deputy nodded. “Yeah, it was lucky he was there. Anyway, he said that the first thing that caught his attention was how fast your husband was going. They were approaching a sharp curve going down a steep hill on the far side of Mount Weather, and he said he couldn’t believe that someone would drive so fast, especially hauling a horse trailer. He said he kept waiting for the driver to slow down, but the trailer brake lights never came on. Then he noticed that some kind of fluid was leaking from your husband’s vehicle. He saw it on the highway and said some of it sprayed on his windshield. That’s what made us suspect that your husband had some kind of mechanical trouble that caused him to lose control and go off the road.”

Anne nodded. “Go on.”

“When the vehicle was hauled up to go on the wrecker, I took a look at it and found that there was a good six-inch slit that ran along the brake line. Whoever cut it probably wanted the brake fluid to come out gradually, maybe to make sure your husband was out on the highway before the brakes went out. I also discovered that the emergency brake’s cable had been sliced clear through, and the brake line to the horse trailer was all torn up, as if it had been dragging on the highway.”

“But who would do such a thing?”

“That’s why we wanted to talk to you, Mrs. Cummings,” Deputy Hodgkins said. “We were hoping you might be able to shed some light on that.”

“I have no idea,” she replied.

“No disgruntled employees? Someone who was fired recently, perhaps?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Someone your husband sold a horse to? Or, maybe, someone he didn’t buy a horse from?”

Anne frowned as she shook her head again, more vehemently. “No, there’s been nothing like that.”

Deputy Hodgkins leaned forward and put both elbows on his knees. “Mrs. Cummings, I recall that you and your husband had some trouble a few months back. What was the name of that fella who had it in for your husband?”

Anne stiffened. “Zeb McGraw.”

“That’s it. Has he gone to trial yet?”

“No. It’s set for September.” Her voice cracked, and she paused and took a deep breath. “But Zeb McGraw is in jail. He couldn’t have tampered with Doug’s car today.”

The deputy nodded. “Still, I’ll make a mention of it. Wouldn’t hurt to take a look at who’s been visiting McGraw in jail.”

“Mrs. Cummings, you’re a criminal lawyer, right?” the younger deputy asked.

“Yes.”

“Can you think of a client, or a family member of a client, who might have a grudge against you? It happens more than you think, a client seeking retaliation for a case that didn’t turn out the way he wanted.”

“Yes, I know,” Anne said quietly.
That’s why Zeb McGraw had come after Doug. Seeking revenge for the way Doug had handled the case for McGraw’s brother, Zeke
. “No client comes to mind right now, Deputy.”

“Well, just keep it in mind.”

She nodded. “Do you think whoever tampered with Doug’s car might come here and try to harm him?”

“I wouldn’t be too worried about that,” Deputy Hodgkins replied. “I think that cutting a brake line is a far cry from coming into a hospital and harming someone. Besides, from what I’ve seen, it seems like they run a pretty tight ship here. I don’t think anyone could get near him.”

Anne knew he was right, but, still, a wave of panic washed over her. Doug might be behind secure doors, but what about Samantha?
What if the person who had tampered with Doug’s car tried to hurt Samantha?
Anne’s heart pounded and she put a hand on her chest and forced herself to slow her breathing.

“Mrs. Cummings, are you all right?” Deputy Hodgkins asked, rising from the couch and placing a hand on her shoulder.

She looked up at him. “What if he goes after our daughter?”

“Where is she?”

“At a friend’s house.”

“Look, Mrs. Cummings, I don’t want you to be unnecessarily alarmed by this incident. I really don’t think you need to worry about your daughter right now. For all we know, whoever tampered with your husband’s vehicle might not even have known who the car belonged to. Maybe it was a teenage dare, or some kind of gang initiation. And even if they did intend to target your husband, that doesn’t mean that they would do anything to your daughter.”