Page 6 of Under the Radar

Within a half-hour, three more police cars and a tow truck pulled onto the street. Mo sat in the air-conditioned cruiser watching the commotion in stunned silence. The odor in this back seat was awful. Like a foul mixture of hair products, perfume, and something else. Mo sniffed a few times. Ugh.Vomit. She reached for the door handle, but the door wouldn’t open.

Holy. Freaking. Crap.

She was locked in the cruiser? Well, of course. Suspects and criminals sat in the back seat of police cruisers. Claustrophobia trickled down her head to her chest. The putrid cocktail of scents made her choke and claw against the air-sucking fear closing her throat. There was no way out.

Ever since watching that stupid movie as a kid where they’d buried someone alive, she’d been claustrophobic in random small spaces. Damn movie. Some things were hard to erase from the mind, rational or not. She’d be gasping for air and wheezing like an asthmatic soon.

A knock on the window startled her. It was Officer Winters.

He opened the door and lifted her briefcase onto the floor by her feet. “Don’t want to forget your stuff.” He slammed the door, climbed in the driver's seat. “How’re you feeling?” Winters glanced in the rearview mirror. “Oh, you don’t look so good.”

Mo gagged again. “It smells terrible back here. Would you mind opening the windows?”

“Sure.” Winters cracked all of them a few inches. “This isn’t my usual patrol car. I heard last night was real busy. Makes for a dirty back seat.”

Mo angled her nose toward the open window. “When do you think we’ll get to the station?”

“In about ten minutes. We’re leaving now.” He pulled a few maneuvers to get around all the other vehicles.

Mo watched in disbelief as her impounded Escalade was lifted onto the tow truck as crime scene evidence. All of her personal items were in that car, including her sunglasses.

Well, there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it right now. She’d get to the beach tomorrow and hopefully have her car with her.

Mo’s breathing quieted as she inhaled the fresh air. She sat back and admired the Inner Harbor lights from a distance. “The city is pretty at dusk, don’t you think, Officer?”

“Oh, yeah. It’s easy to enjoy the glitz and charm downtown. But I love the people and neighborhoods over here. See these row homes we’re driving past? I know every family by name for a six-block stretch. Their kids too. The poverty and lack of jobs in this area is a crying shame. See that little restaurant on your right? Best subs in the city. I got the spare tire to prove it.” He laughed, and they locked eyes for a second in the rearview mirror.

Mo smiled for the first time in a couple of hours because she loved this section of Baltimore as much as he did. But all the love in the world wouldn’t save her job if her face ended up in a mug shot.

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