He Killed Me Then Loved Me novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: Route 44
Hallie's POV
We borrowed Maggie's old hatchback and drove to Windsor at seven on Saturday morning.
Phillip drove, with both hands on the wheel and his eyes on every mirror.
The tow yard sat beside the rail line behind a chain-link fence.
An old man in a stained jacket came out of the office with a coffee cup. He looked at Phillip first.
"You're Chichester's boy," he said. "I saw you on the news."
"Yes, sir."
"I don't talk about Chichester."
"I know," I said.
He looked at me.
"Twelve years ago you stopped on Route 44," I said. "There was a blue car on its side. A little girl in the back seat."
His cup stopped halfway to his mouth.
"I was that girl."
The old man set the cup down very carefully on the fence post.
"Come inside," he said.
His office smelled of oil and cold coffee.
He opened the bottom drawer of a steel desk and took out a shoebox. Under old receipts lay a small plastic card in a sandwich bag.
"I should have thrown it out the same night," he said. "He gave me ten thousand dollars at the curb. I took it, and then I couldn't stop thinking about the woman."
"Which woman?" Phillip asked.
"The one in the car." He wiped his hand across his mouth. "She was alive when I pulled up. I saw her chest moving."
My eyes closed.
"I'm sorry, miss. I've been sorry for twelve years."
He plugged the card into an old monitor on the wall.
The screen flickered gray, and then it showed a night road in rain.
I made myself watch.
There was the blue car on its side, and the crushed black one across the lane. A man in a good coat sat on the asphalt with his legs out in front of him.
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