Page 61 of Breathe Me In

“Friends,” she said weakly, “coworkers, I guess.” Pain showed on her face, and I wanted to reach out and touch her, but I also had to respect her wishes. She needed space to figure out what she wanted. For now, at least, I’d have to give her the time.

“I’ll see you soon.”

“And I’ll let you know if I find anything else.” She gave a smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes, and I stepped back so she could open the door. “Bye, Brad.”

The ride home was painful. My head was so messed up. My relationship with Sherry had been so important to me when I was younger. She had been my anchor through everything that had happened. The terrible aftereffects the murders at the river had left me with and the constant unwanted attention afterward had almost swallowed me whole. I felt guilty for checking out on her, and I know I was the one who’d pushed our marriage to where it was, even though she was the one who’d left. Things got dark, and I couldn’t find my way out. She told me either I did things her way or she wanted a divorce, but I wasn’t willing to spend the rest of my life like that. I needed peace, and going out all the time wouldn’t bring me any.

The time away from life with Sherry had done me good, and I’d started to come around. Then when Bree returned, something inside of me that had been missing switched back on.

While I sat at the stoplight at the entrance of town, I spotted Bree’s old Chevy truck parked by the fence in the impound lot. I quickly switched lanes, flashed my ID at the gate, and was waved through. I was pleased there was even someone willing to let me in this late. I hadn’t seen her truck up close yet, and I needed to brace myself for how it might look. Cap said the guys would check it out as soon as they could, but I wanted to see it for myself. I pulled up alongside it.

“Is she yours?” one of the employees who was rubbing grease off his hands with a dirty rag asked me.

“No.” I ran my hands along the dent on the bumper. “It’s my partner’s.”

He whistled. “Your partner okay? I heard they fished it out of the lake.”

“She’s okay.” I opened the passenger-side door and saw the damage the water had done. “Lucky as hell but okay.”

“Happy to hear that.” He scratched his head.

“Me too.” I ran my fingers over the broken windshield where her head had hit. I couldn’t even imagine the fear she must have gone through when she came to and found herself in the middle of a lake, taking on water.

“At least you got a lead.”

I pulled my hand away from the windshield and looked at him. “Lead?”

“Well, yeah.” He pointed at something, and I hurried over to his side. “See this?” He scratched at a black mark on the tailgate, then flipped his finger over. “I tried to tell the officer that came by before what I discovered, but he wasn’t too interested.” He rolled his eyes. “Seems I’m not someone people want to listen to.”

“Yeah, well. I’m listening.”

He smiled. “All right.” He wiped his hands free of oil. “Well, this paint came from a Ram.” He flipped the tiny flake of paint over. “Back in 2021, Ram discontinued the color sky gray.” He showed me the other side. “Seems this guy wanted black. He’d have gone to the manufacturer and got the new 2024 black that just came out and got her repainted. If you look real careful, you can see it has a sparkle to it.”

That all lined up with the black Ram that had come at us before. “Okay, what else?”

“My best guess then would be a 2021 with a lift kit, given where this scratch is.” He pointed to Bree’s truck as I scribbled down the information.

“Anything else?”

“Yeah, actually.” He dug in his pocket and pulled out his phone. “My buddy, Ricky, he’s batshit crazy, but he said he was out night fishing and heard the crash. He was about a mile down from it and said he noticed the truck as it whipped by him. He caught a pic.”

I moved to see his phone screen. “Seriously?”

“Yeah.” He pointed. “See right there? ‘ACD.’ Last three letters on the license plate.”

Yup, that’s the same plate that I called in the day we were run off the road.

“Did you take this to the police?”

“I was going to show that other detective, but like I said, he didn’t seem interested.” He gave a shrug. “He said everyone’s an expert, or some shit like that. So, screw him. If he didn’t want the tip, it was fine with me.”

I ran through my head who was on call that day. I turned to him. “Tall, hair kind of like mine, big smile, skinnier build?”

“No, older, weathered-looking, shitty attitude.”

Fuck me, that’s Ray. “Any idea what he was doing with the truck?”

“He just said he needed to see it. Flashed his badge and waved at me to hang back while he rooted around. I didn’t see him take anything—he just seemed to look it all over.”