Page 81 of Cold Case, Warm Hearts

“Where? There’s no shoulder. It’s not like?—”

“There’s a shoulder on Rattlesnake.” The man said the words as if Aspen were crazy. Or lying.

“Not past the condos.” Garrett had been trying to stay out of it. He had nothing to offer but moral support. But Pollard was seriously getting on his nerves. “The road’s barely wide enough for two cars. And with the snowbank?—”

As if Aspen weren’t there, Pollard responded to Garrett with, “She could’ve pulled over onto the dirt, though.”

Garrett forced his tone to stay even. “It’s not dirt, it’s snow, and she’s not a local. She doesn’t know how to drive in the?—”

“All right, all right.” He waved off Garrett’s words and focused on Aspen. “Look, I’m not saying nobody hit you. But how can you be sure it wasn’t an accident?”

“Twice, detective. He hit metwice.”

“Even still, it could have been an accident. And it sounds like he came to help you, but you took off.”

“It didn’t feel like he was coming to help me.”

The detective’s gaze flicked to Garrett with a definiteCan you believe this woman?look. “What would thatfeellike, exactly?”

She took a steadying breath, and when she spoke, it was with slow, even words. “He never called out to me. He never said anything.”

“What should he have said?”

“I don’t know,” she snapped. “How about, ‘Hey, you okay?’ Or ‘Don’t worry, help is on the way.’ He also wasn’t running. Wouldn’t you run, detective? If you saw a car go off the road, saw a car about to go over a cliff, wouldn’t you pick up the pace a little?”

The man made a note on a little notepad.

A thought occurred to Garrett. “Did anybody call it in?”

The detective glanced up from his paper. “Only Miss Kincaid.”

“Don’t you suppose someone who was there to help would have called 9-1-1?”

“Assuming therewassomeone, service is spotty?—”

“Are you calling her aliar?” Garrett asked.

“Not a liar.” He stretched his lips into what he must have thought passed for a smile. “Just confused.”

Confused.

Oh.

“I. Am. Not. My. Mother.” Aspen’s words were spoken slowly and deliberately.

“Just calm down, ma’am.”

Before Aspen could spout a scathing reply—not that the detective didn’t deserve it—Garrett said, “Someone ran her off the road. It’s been over an hour. Why hasn’t anyone called it in?”

Pollard gave Garrett an indulgent smile that made his fists clench. “We’ll look into it.” He turned back Aspen. “So you say he rammed into you.”

Garrett growled under his breath. If this guy hadn’t been a cop, he’d have punched him already.

“And then what happened?”

“And then my car hit the snow and?—”

“I thought you said you drove an SUV.”

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