“Hold on!” Jonas yelled as the SUV tore through the snowbank, ice and snow clods flinging in all directions. Flying into the abyss, hurtling forward, the Jeep went airborne.
Branches snapped, scraping metal.
The tires landed, the whole vehicle jarring.
A huge fir tree loomed.
“Kara, watch out—”
Bam!
The Jeep shuddered as it crashed into the tree, steel groaning as it crumpled.
Emergency airbags inflated.
Glass rained into her hair.
Cold air surrounded her.
Jonas screamed in agony, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t think.
From far away, as her eyes closed, she heard the honk of a huge vehicle’s horn. The sound was steady and mournful, a one-note funeral dirge drowning out the sound of her brother’s moans.
“Jonas . . .” she tried to say, but the sound was a whisper. She was going to die. Right here on this frozen mountainside. Maybe if she could find her phone and call . . . the thought crossed her mind, but only for a second and then everything went dark.
CHAPTER 16
“Wouldn’t you know?” Johnson said as the body bag carrying
Merritt Margrove’s corpse was slammed into the back of the ambulance. “The lieutenant finally hands you the case that has consumed you for years and a primary witness, the damned attorney for the man convicted of the crime, has his throat slit before you even have a chance to question him. How’s that for irony?”
“Or convenience,” Thomas said as he eyed the trailer where the attorney had lost his life. The place that probably had looked peaceful, an aging single-wide mobile home nestled in the snowy woods, was now crawling with cops, vehicles parked between the trees, yellow tape strung around the perimeter, the quietude disturbed. Inside the aging mobile home was a bloody crime scene, the forensic team and ME already having examined the mobile home and surrounding area. All the while, snow just kept falling, disturbing any footprints and tire tracks.
And it was cold as a mother up here.
Despite his down jacket and gloves and hat, he felt the chill, the bitter wind harsh against his face.
Johnson didn’t seem to notice as she studied the grounds, watching the ambulance roll away. Things had been tense between them since the meeting in Gleason’s office when he’d felt as if his own partner had been holding out on him. He’d confronted her in the hallway, telling her that she’d crossed a line with him, that either they were a team of equals who shared info and worked together, or they weren’t.
Johnson hadn’t seemed chastised as they’d walked down the crowded hallway, jostled by a steady stream of cops heading the opposite direction. Instead, she’d thrown him a disbelieving look. “We are a team,” she’d said, skirting a potted plant in the reception area. “We share information, but that doesn’t mean either of us is looking over the other’s shoulder. I guess I should have told you about asking for new DNA results. I thought you trusted me.”
“We just need to work together.”
“I was just being efficient.” Her lips had twisted downward. “I figure that’s a good thing, right. We weren’t just spinning our wheels.”
“But you didn’t let me know.”
“Oh, Christ, Thomas, I wasn’t keeping anything from you! Jesus! It’s just there’s a lot going on and we were called in to report to the lieutenant before I could share.” She’d let out a huff. “Get over your bad self. Let’s just solve the damned case. Together.”
“That’s all I want.”
“Is it?” She’d pushed open the outside door, letting in the cold air before he’d had a chance to open it for her. “Then open your mind. You and Gleason both. It could just be, you know, that Jonas McIntyre isn’t the killer.”
“You weren’t here then.”
“Precisely,” she’d said. “Fresh eyes. Could be the department could use a pair.”
“Just don’t undercut me again.”
“Ouch. Undercut? Seriously? Is that the sound of wounded male pride I’m hearing?” She’d reached his SUV. “Wow.”
And then, before they’d had a chance to drive to Kara McIntyre’s place to interview her, Thomas had received the call from dispatch after Kara had phoned 9-1-1. They’d ended up here at Margrove’s mountain retreat. It had taken them longer than anticipated because of some accident that had clogged the main highway and they’d been diverted to a secondary road that had barely been plowed.