Lone Star Standoff. Margaret Daley

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СКАЧАТЬ the stairs and changed into a new pair of jeans and a white blouse instead of sweatpants and an old T-shirt.

      While her twins sat in the front seat of the patrol car, the officer told them about the different things he did as a law enforcement officer. They got to turn on the red lights, but the young man stopped short of sounding the siren.

      So intent on her children, she didn’t realize that Sean had parked along the curb and approached her until he said in a soft voice right behind her, “One day I’ll let them try the siren in my car.”

      Her heartbeat tripled its rate, leaving Aubrey sucking in shallow breaths. With a laptop bag slung over his shoulder, Sean moved to her side while the officer showed her kids the equipment in the trunk. Sammy was smiling from ear to ear while Camy began looking bored. Aubrey turned toward Sean. “Did you find out who put the rat in my car?”

      “Not who, but at least where he did it, I believe. I went through all the surveillance tapes available last night and this morning. After talking to you, I left here and went to the courthouse to look at its surveillance tapes. Nothing happened in its parking lot that I could tell, but your vehicle was parked in a blind spot at Sweet Haven. I went by the ice-cream parlor first thing this morning. Their security cameras were focused on the front and back doors and inside the place, not the parking lot. They didn’t show anything unusual. I’ve obtained traffic cam footage around the time you went to Sweet Haven and would like you to view it with me. The rat must have been placed in your trunk during the twenty minutes you were inside the ice-cream parlor. Did you notice a car following you when you left at lunchtime yesterday?”

      “No, but I have to confess—” she paused, hating to admit she’d been careless “—I wasn’t paying attention. I was relishing getting away from the courthouse for an hour. I’ve felt so confined since the Villa trial started.”

      “For a good reason. Bento Villa is high up in the Coastal Cartel and its drug ring component.”

      “He sure isn’t cooperating with the prosecution. He was offered a good deal in exchange for information on the cartel. He refused it. Not that I thought he would take a deal.” Thinking about the threat now hanging over her, she approached the police officer. “Sammy and Camy, it’s time to go back inside. What do you say to Officer Carter?”

      “Thank you,” Sammy said in a loud voice that half the neighborhood probably heard, while Camy mumbled her thanks.

      “I appreciate you doing this,” Aubrey said then tried to corral her two children toward the front porch. Finally Sammy glued himself to Sean while Camy took Aubrey’s hand and practically dragged her toward the house.

      “Is your car like that?” Sammy asked Sean, slowing his pace.

      Sean patted Sammy’s shoulder and kept walking right behind Aubrey. “Similar.”

      Her son pointed to the top of Sean’s SUV. “Where’s your siren?”

      “Inside the vehicle. I stick it on top if I need to.”

      At the bottom of the steps, Sammy’s forehead winkled. “But no one will know you’re a policeman.”

      Sean chuckled and proceeded up the steps to the porch. “Sometimes I don’t want them to know.”

      Aubrey held the front door open. “Hurry up, Sammy, or the mosquitoes will invade the house. You know how much they love biting me.”

      “Me, too,” Camy said and hurried into the house and down the hall toward the kitchen.

      When everyone was inside, Aubrey shut the door and locked it. Her son remained next to Sean. “Sammy, I need to talk to him. Grandma is fixing breakfast.”

      He stuck out his bottom lip. “I already had cereal.”

      “That was to tide you over until Grandma got up to fix our big breakfast we have on Saturday as a family.” Her mother also did it Sunday before church. She drew in a deep breath. “It smells like pancakes, probably chocolate chip.”

      Sammy took off for the kitchen.

      “He has two speeds, fast or slow. Usually with no in between.” Aubrey gestured toward her office. “We can talk in here.”

      Inside the room, she closed the door. “I appreciate your quick response on this. Anything I can do to help, I will. Let’s look at the traffic cam footage. Maybe it’ll jog my memory.”

      “I hope so.” He made his way to the couch and sat. After he took out his laptop, she joined him on the love seat. Sitting next to him, only inches away, caused her heart to beat faster. A faint musky scent wafted to her as she tried to focus on the video.

      “I’m starting when you left the courthouse, and we’ll follow your trip as best as we can, since Port Bliss only has traffic cams in the downtown area and a few roads in and out of town.”

      The sight of a white sedan a couple of cars behind her while she drove from the clothing store to Sweet Haven nagged at her mind. When she drove into the parking lot on the side of the ice-cream parlor, the white car passed on by, not even slowing down. For the next twenty minutes, she kept expecting to see it, but she didn’t.

      “I thought for a moment the person in the white sedan might be following me, but it kept going.”

      “Why did you think that?”

      “Because...” Her voice faded as she searched her mind, trying to remember why it had bothered her. Other cars had been behind her. Why that one?

      Because the white car had been in the parking lot at the clothing store and pulled out into traffic when she left the shop—it was the only vehicle that started following her from there.

       THREE

      Sean rewound the video footage, paused it and zoomed in on the white vehicle, trying to make out the license plate. The last three numbers were 249, but he couldn’t make out the first part of it. “Is there something that makes you suspicious of that car?”

      Aubrey sat back on the couch. “When I saw it on the screen, it provoked a memory. I don’t remember seeing it when it was behind me. It was at least six cars back and hidden from my view in the rearview mirror. But when I left the parking lot at the clothing store, that white car pulled into it. The person must have turned around fast to be behind me when I went to Sweet Haven.”

      “Did you see the driver?”

      “I glanced for maybe a second or two in that direction. The glass was tinted too dark to make out the driver.”

      “White is the most common color for a vehicle. What makes you think the one in the parking lot is the same car on this footage?”

      “The driver’s-side back fender has a dent in it.” Aubrey leaned forward and tapped the computer screen. “There.”

      Sean focused onto the area she indicated. “It’s a Chevy Malibu. So the driver must have turned around in the clothing store parking lot as you said and quickly pulled back out into the traffic. I’ll follow up on this and see who owns the car.”

      She СКАЧАТЬ