Chapter 2 - BLUE LIGHTS
“TURN THE VEHICLE OFF! PUT YOUR HANDS OUT THE WINDOW!”
Emily obeyed instantly.
Rain hit the windshield in silver streaks while red and blue lights flashed across the glass. Her heartbeat pounded so hard it seemed to fill the car.
An officer advanced with his gun aimed at her.
“OUT OF THE CAR! NOW!”
Emily stepped out slowly with both hands raised.
“I think there’s some mistake—”
“Turn around!”
She did.
Hands seized her shoulders and forced her against the hood.
Cold metal pressed against her cheek.
Then came the click.
Handcuffs.
“Wait!” Emily cried. “This is my car! Check the registration! It’s my car!”
The officer began dragging her toward a cruiser.
A second SUV pulled up hard. Another officer stepped out, took one look at the scene, and froze.
“Emily?!”
She turned at the voice.
Ryan Walker stood in the rain in full uniform, his body cam blinking red. Her former fiancé. The man she still knew by breath and silence before words.
“Ryan, please!”
He crossed the space in seconds and snatched the report sheet from the nearest officer.
“What happened?”
“Stolen vehicle flag. Anonymous tip. Possible weapons transport.”
Ryan looked at the VIN, the plate, then the report.
His face hardened.
“The car is hers,” he said. “Take those cuffs off.”
Relief hit her so hard it almost made her knees give way.
Then another officer called from behind the car.
“Walker… you need to see this.”
Ryan turned.
An officer was crouched by the rear of Emily’s sedan, flashlight angled beneath the trunk latch.
He was holding up a flat, wired metal device fixed under the latch with tape and a magnet.
Emily’s stomach dropped.
“That’s not mine…”
Ryan moved fast. Too fast.
“DON’T OPEN IT!”
Too late.
The officer had already hit the trunk release.
The lid clicked and began to rise.
Ryan sprinted toward it.
“Emily,” he shouted, “who had access to your car?”
Her mind flashed back to her father holding her keys in the hallway. Her mother saying he was only helping.
“My parents,” she whispered.
The trunk rose another inch.
Enough for everyone to see a black lockbox inside.
Enough to glimpse a dark leather laptop bag shoved beside it, stained with something darker than rain.
Enough to see a wire running from the latch device into the trunk frame.
May you like
Bomb squad sirens began wailing in the distance.
And Emily realized with sick clarity that whoever planned this had wanted the trunk found by police before she ever got the chance to explain anything.
