When Doom Found Violet novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: The Recording

I did not take off the jacket.

"It's cold," I said. "I'll keep it."

The detective's smile stayed where it was.

"Ma'am, I'm asking nicely."

"You're a man in a lot at night with my husband. That isn't nice."

Kent stepped between us with both hands up.

"Sully, she doesn't know anything. Let me talk to her."

"Move, Kent."

"She'll drop the papers. I've got it handled."

"You have nothing handled." The detective didn't even look at him. "You lost the phone, and you let her walk into my lot with a biker's blessing."

I kept my eyes on his face.

My heart was beating against the tape under my arm, and I thought of the recorder, and I made my voice small.

"My husband says you told him nobody would be hurt."

The detective's eyebrows rose.

"Did he?"

"He says the roadblock was meant to catch a man with drugs and nothing else."

"The roadblock was meant to put Calder Rushton in a cell."

"Mile 14," I said.

"Mile 14. Where the road bends and the ditch is deep."

"And you knew he'd run it."

"I knew a man carrying that much product wouldn't stop," he said. "I wanted him to run. A chase gets me a warrant."

"A chase got me a seat belt bruise and a dislocated shoulder."

"A civilian in an intersection was nobody's plan." He shrugged. "Your husband gave me the hour. I didn't ask what car you'd be in."

"You said the hour came from him."

"It did. Every Friday, for a year. He's been worth every dollar, and I paid for most of it out of a discretionary fund."

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