Page 30 of Night Prey
Peck held up his hands. “Not me. One of you guys will have to do it. Start with the front tire.”
Ian dropped to the dirt floor by the car.
“Jack up under the body of the car to let the suspension hang down,” Peck said.
Ian placed the jack and glanced back at Peck. “Here good?”
Peck nodded.
Ian cranked the jack until the tire hung free.
“Now grab the tire at three and nine o’clock position.” Peck leaned forward. “Push and pull on it. You shouldn’t feel any movement.”
He took hold of the tire as directed and shook it. The wheel rattled and wobbled.
“You definitely have a malfunctioning tie rod,” Peck said. “We call that a death wobble.”
Malone took a sharp breath. “What happens exactly?”
“Worst case scenario?” He rubbed a hand over his whiskered jaw. “If a tie rod completely fails, the wheel will break free of the steering assembly. That causes the driver to lose the ability to steer the vehicle.”
“And someone could crash,” Ian added.
“Would most likely crash.” Peck sat upright. “I need you to look at the nuts holding all of the tie-rods. It’s like a long metal arm going from the body to the tire. Don’t have a cell phone but know you can make a video call to one of these other guys or Malone as you look. They can show me what you see, and I can tell you if you’re in the right place.”
“I have Malone’s number.” Ian got out his phone and placed the call, then crawled under the car and aimed the camera at what he thought he should be looking at.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s it.” Peck sounded excited. “You’re looking at the ball joint. Check that nut. It looks like it’s about to fall off.”
Ian snapped on a latex glove, thankful he always carried them in his jacket pocket, and grasped the nut. It came off in his hands.
“Just like I thought,” Peck said. “Been loosened. That could happen on its own. Not likely that loose, but it could. We find more than one of them like that, and you have a legitimate case of tampering.”
Feeling sick to his stomach, Ian moved to the other side of the car, where the wheel was already dangling. How had Malone’s dad felt when he couldn’t steer the car, his wife depending on him? It was the stuff of Ian’s nightmares. Someone counting on him and him not being there for them.
“No need for you to look at this one,” he said.
“Show it to me,” Malone called out.
Ian was glad she was holding the phone for Peck so she didn’t see this in person. It was going to be bad enough on video. He aimed the camera at the spot where the nut should have been located, but the ball joint was no longer connected to the tire. “The tie rod doesn’t appear to be damaged, but the nut is missing.”
“How could the deputies have missed this?” Malone cried. “It’s so obvious.”
“We’re looking for tampering,” Ian said. “They probably weren’t.”
“And crash investigations in rural counties weren’t as thorough back in the day,” Peck added. “They must’ve thought the crash caused the tire issue.”
Ian took a few pictures of the ball joint, crawled out from beneath the car, and came around the vehicle to look at Peck. “In your opinion, then, this definitely wasn’t an accident.”
Peck shook his head hard, his hair flying in the breeze. “Not an accident at all. Someone wanted this car to crash.”
Ian looked at Malone. “And now the question is, who murdered your parents?”
The silence in the Nighthawk SUV was nearly deafening, and Malone couldn’t think with the tension pressing in on her. Why wasn’t anyone talking? Throwing out questions or scenarios? She couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Why is everyone so quiet?” she asked.
“Guess we’re waiting on a cue from you.” Ian faced her. “You just learned your parents were most likely murdered. That’s got to be hard to hear.”
