He Let Me Crash on Christmas Eve, So I Took Our Daughter novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Report

I did not say it out loud in front of Nate.

When he came back from the bathroom I took a bite of the sandwich and asked Peggy about her knitting.

She understood at once and talked about a baby blanket for ten minutes.

By nine the numbers on the screen had held steady for four hours, and the doctor said the antibiotics were working.

Nate went to work, and he kissed Joy's hat before he left.

At ten I called my sister from the stairwell.

"Lorna. The officer who took my report on the twenty-fourth. Do you still have his number?"

"I have his number, and he owes you a call back," she said. "What happened?"

"I don't know yet. I might."

"I'm coming."

"Don't come. Just call him. Please."

He met me in the hospital cafeteria at one o'clock.

He was a big, slow, gray-haired man in a patrol jacket, and he sat down across from me with a paper cup of coffee and a notebook he never opened.

"Mrs. Ardrey. I've been meaning to come by. I'm sorry I didn't, with the holidays."

"I understand."

"I wanted to tell you it's still open." He turned the cup in his hand. "We never found the driver."

"I know."

"A hit-and-run with injury. Normally they'd turn up. This one didn't."

"What do you have?"

He leaned back.

"Not enough. There's gray paint on your rear door that doesn't come off, and that tells me the color. There were pieces of a broken headlight lens in the road, and our lab says that lens fits one make of full-size SUV, and about forty thousand of them were sold in this state in four years."

"What about cameras?"

"Delmont's got none at that corner. Two businesses up the hill have cameras, and we asked in January, and one of them overwrote its tape."

← Chapter 9 · All chapters · Chapter 11 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend