Chapter 13 - THE WOMAN WHO RAN
I called Ruiz immediately.
She was already on her way when Victoria called again.
This time I put her on speaker.
“Daniel?”
“I’m here.”
“He left me at a gas station.”
“Which one?”
“I don’t know.”
“Look outside.”
A ragged breath.
“Blue sign. Route Seventeen. There’s a diner.”
Ruiz wrote something down and sent it to another officer.
“Stay inside,” I said. “Go to the cashier.”
“I can’t have people seeing me like this.”
Even then.
Even frightened.
She was thinking about how she looked.
“Victoria. Go to the cashier.”
“I didn’t want Caroline dead.”
Ruiz held up a hand, telling me to let her speak.
“We needed time,” Victoria said. “That’s all. Mason wanted her to pull over.”
“So he hit her?”
“He bumped her. He thought she’d stop.”
I stared at Ruiz.
“She went over the edge,” Victoria whispered.
“What did you do?”
No answer.
“Victoria.”
“We drove away.”
The room seemed to lose all its air.
“Was she alive?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t check?”
“Mason wouldn’t stop.”
“You had a phone.”
She began sobbing.
I pressed my fist against my mouth.
Ruiz leaned toward me and quietly pointed to the location she had written.
Help was going.
I forced myself to keep Victoria talking.
“Why come to my house?”
“Because the money was still there.”
There it was.
No poetry.
No tragic excuse.
Just the money.
“And Lily?”
“She kept getting in the way.”
Owen turned and walked out of the room.
I stayed still because moving felt dangerous.
Victoria inhaled sharply.
“Oh God.”
“What?”
“He’s here.”
“Get to the cashier.”
“I can see his truck.”
“Victoria, move.”
A bell rang through the phone.
A woman said, “Ma’am, are you okay?”
Then Mason’s voice cut across hers.
“Hang up.”
The sound that followed was a crash.
I stood so fast my chair fell backward.
Ruiz was already speaking into her radio.
On the phone, Victoria screamed my name.
May you like
Then a different voice shouted:
“Police! Show me your hands!”
