Page 66 of Break My Fall

Gray wished he could agree with them. He tapped his pen on the planner on his desk. “I get what you’re saying.” He focused on looking at both women, even though every time he looked atMeredith a nasty rage roiled through him and then was followed by an almost overwhelming compulsion to pull her onto his lap and hold her and tell her he would never let anyone hurt her ever again.

“I need to ask you something, and I need you to try to keep an open mind.”

Both women gave him wary nods.

“How well do you know Judy?”

“We went to school with her.” Bronwyn turned to Meredith and Meredith nodded. “We’ve known her forever.”

“Would she have any reason to want to see you harmed? Or any reason to be willing to share your location with—”

“You think Judy set us up for this?” Meredith’s disbelief rang through her question. “No way.”

“I’m just aski—”

“What motivation would she have?” Bronwyn frowned. “There’s no reason for her to come after us.”

“Ladies, I’m not saying there is. I’m doing my job. Asking tough questions. I don’t know Judy well, and the way you described her keeping you around until the very end ...”

“It wasn’t Judy.” Meredith’s voice was firm.

“I agree.” Bronwyn gave him a stern look. “You’d have to have ironclad proof before I’d believe it.”

“Look, I’m not saying it was, but you need to understand that these people who came after you didn’t get a harebrained idea and run with it. Unfortunately, there’ve been a couple of incidents in Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina that could be related to what happened to you.”

“What?” Meredith’s gasp was so full of worry and shock that he had to force himself to continue.

“I have some contacts who’ve been very helpful. When I told them what happened on Monday, they put it through some kindof computer program that looks for patterns. I don’t know how it works exactly, but it generated a few leads. They forwarded the results to me, and one pattern stands out.”

He stood and walked over to the board he had on the interior wall of his office. “There are five cases. In each one there were two assailants believed to be working together. In three of the five events, the individuals involved”—Gray made it a point not to use the wordvictims—“were shoved into traffic. There were three fatalities, two serious injuries, and one case where the man rolled to the other side of the road and suffered nothing more than a few scrapes.”

“And seeing his life flash before his eyes,” Meredith whispered to Bronwyn, who nodded her agreement.

“I’m sure that’s true,” Gray said. “In those cases, a large vehicle, which was later confirmed to be stolen, raced along in the aftermath. It didn’t hit the people in the street but flew past and picked up the perpetrator. The vehicles were later found abandoned. In one case, the vehicle did hit the victims. That’s the one where there were two fatalities. Clear case of hit-and-run, but it was a small town with few cameras. They didn’t catch the event. Witnesses told them what happened and that they caught a glimpse of a large vehicle speeding away. Didn’t see the plates. It’s assumed that the driver picked up the man who did the shoving and took off.”

“So these people have worked this out and done it before? Multiple times?” Meredith asked.

“Yes.”

“What happened in the fifth incident?”

He didn’t want to answer Meredith, but he had no choice. “In that incident, there were two individuals standing outside on the street. They climbed into their cars. Once one had pulled away, a large truck followed them and ran them off the road. The otherperson hadn’t gotten out of the parking spot yet when an individual in a ski mask opened their car door, knocked them out with the gun, shoved them into the back seat, and drove off.”

Bronwyn and Meredith both stared at him now, eyes wide.

“The woman was assaulted and left in her car. The police found her later that night about fifteen miles away.”

Fear had a scent. A taste. And the air in his office was full of it. He didn’t have to spell it out for them. They understood. He could see it in their eyes, and in the way they now clutched each other’s hands.

“They have DNA from the victim. The Buncombe County officers know and will be running DNA on the two men in the truck to see if they match.”

Meredith’s eyes were wet. Bronwyn had tears streaming down her face. He rose and handed each of them a tissue before returning to his seat. “I’m sorry. I promise my goal in this is not to frighten you but to protect you.”

Meredith spoke first. “You think whoever came after me, bugged me, and tracked me hired these men to ... what? Kill me? Abduct me?”

Gray had no way to soften the blow. “Yes. We think the plan was hit-and-run. But if they couldn’t make that work, they’d go for plan B. The task force has started running searches to see if they can find any other hits that match the profile.”

“What do we do now?” Bronwyn blew her nose.

---