Page 18 of Justice Denied

A light touch on her arm brought her out of the painful memories and back to the side of the road. Seth’s gaze fastened on hers, his brown eyes dark with compassion.

“Sorry, trying to make sense of it all,” she said, not bothering to explain what was on her mind. Let him think it was the accident rather than her ex.

The Fairfax County Police officer—O’Brien, Jetta recalled—returned. Jetta introduced Seth as her next-door neighbor and indicated the officer could talk in front of him.

“Ms. Ainsley, we have reports of a truck abandoned at a Safeway parking lot a few miles from here with the driver gone. We’ll tow it to our forensics lab to see about any prints and to match the damage on the vehicle’s front bumper with your car.”

By the skepticism she detected in the officer’s voice, Jetta said, “But you don’t think we’ll catch whoever hit me.”

O’Brien shook her head. “My guess is whoever stole the vehicle clipped your car by accident as they attempted to put as much distance between where they got the truck and wherever they were headed.”

“You don’t believe Jetta was deliberately targeted?” Seth’s question was one Jetta hadn’t considered.

“Why would you think that?” O’Brien raised her eyebrows as she looked from Jetta back to Seth.

“Because someone deliberately poisoned her dog yesterday and killed a raccoon,” Seth said.

“Tell me what happened.” O’Brien pulled a notebook from her breast pocket and jotted down Jetta’s account of Bingley’s trip to the vet. “Where’s this dead raccoon?”

“In my trashcan,” Seth said. “I checked her backyard this morning and found traces of ground beef near the left back corner fence line.” He showed several photos of the flecks of hamburger on his phone to the officer and Jetta.

O’Brien frowned. “I’ll send one of our animal control officers over to recover the raccoon’s body and do a thorough search of your yard. Do you have any security cameras installed on the property?”

“Not that I know of, but I’ll ask my mom.” Jetta explained about her mother’s accident. “I’m cleaning out the home so Mom can put it on the market. She needs to live in a one-level home when she gets out of rehab.” Too much information the officer didn’t need to know, but Jetta couldn’t wrap her mind around the idea of someone after her. Kyle had harassed her, but his MO was to use his current love interest to do his dirty work for him. Except for…

Jetta clamped a hand over her mouth as bile rose in her throat. She stumbled toward a bit of land between the pavement and a parking lot curb and heaved the contents of her stomach onto the straggling grass. She leaned over, hands on her knees until the nausea passed. After straightening, she wiped the back of her hand over her mouth. Yuck. She needed something to swish out the aftertaste.

“Here.” Seth handed her bottle of water. “It’s a little warm.”

She accepted it and used a mouthful to rinse her mouth, spitting it out onto the grass. Then she drank some of the water. “Sorry about that.”

“No need to apologize.” His gaze flicked down to her extended belly, then back to her face. “It happens.”

“Ms. Ainsley?” O’Brien called. “Are you feeling better?”

Jetta nodded, then returned to where the office stood by the crushed back bumper of her car. She couldn’t dredge up another apology for her unruly stomach.

“Is there anything else I need to know?”

“Yes.” Seth showed the officer the photo of the note. “I found it on her front porch this morning when I was checking the outside of the house for any more contaminated meat.”

The officer read the note. “What do you think it means?”

“I have no idea.” A headache gathered strength behind her eyes. “I’ve only been home for the past seven months.”

“Where were you before?” the officer asked.

“Chicago.” Jetta didn’t provide additional info, not wanting to go down that particular rabbit trail.

“And you’re helping your mom?”

“Yes.” Jetta had nothing else to add, fatigue pulling at her body as the adrenaline drained away.

“I put the note in a plastic bag. It’s at my house,” Seth put in.

“I’ll tell the animal control officer to pick it up when she comes to do the sweep of the backyard.” O’Brien closed her notebook. “I’ll let you know if forensics recovers anything useable from the truck.”

“Do you think this is related to the string of carjackings and stolen vehicles?” Seth inquired. “TheHeraldran a story about the uptick in those kinds of crime last week.”

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