Page 107 of Three for a Girl

“You drove halfway across the country in this car.”

Romeo linked eyes with him in the mirror. “Yeah, me alone. If I’d have been caught so be it, I’m not letting you get locked up.”

“If we go down, we go down together.”

“Very romantic, but it’s not like they’d put us in the same cell, is it?”

“I wasn’t referring to prison. We go out, we go out together.”

Romeo clicked his seatbelt into position then shoved the back of Chad’s chair, gesturing for him to do the same.

“You’re not going out from not wearing your seatbelt.”

Chad chuckled, fixing his own into position. There was only the thinnest of orange lines left on the horizon.

It looked more like the fields were on fire, burning in the distance, and Chad’s mind went back to the barn. The huge painting of the monster on fire, Romeo’s devastation when he came out, and saw what Chad had done.

When Chad darted a look at Romeo in the mirror, his expression was far from devastated.

He sat in the middle seat so he could see out the windscreen. His eyes gleamed with the glow in the distance, and when he realized Chad was watching him, he didn’t make eye contact, but grinned, keeping his focus on the road ahead.

“Are we going or what?”

Chad smirked, starting the car.

He didn’t know why his gut demanded he return to the bridge, but he trusted it and he trusted the man on the back seat to be with him, whatever they found.

The road had been reopened, any trace of Andrew on the road had been hosed away. The eeriness of the road seeped into Chad’s already weary bones. The road held no note that it was the place a life had gone out.

A man’s helpless anguish had ended hours before on the very road they were rushing along. There were no flowers or cards stacked at the bottom of the bridge. Where Kerion and Ellen’s death had been broadcast as a heinous tragedy, with an outpouring of mourning, Andrew got the opposite. His death had been reported as a cowardice justice.

A killer too afraid to face punishment, and his victims, robbed of their selfless lives.

Lies.

“He jumped from there—I say jumped … he sat on the edge, and he slipped off.”

Romeo leaned between the seats. “Wait, you saw him do it?”

“I was up there with him.”

“He wanted to ensure he wasn’t caught?”

“No. He was a broken man, trapped, tortured, I could see it in his eyes. I could see it. In that moment he just wanted it to be over.”

Chad stiffened at the squeeze to his shoulder before relaxing. He inwardly cursed himself for his jumpy reaction and Romeo didn’t let go, he kept his hand as a heavy weight on Chad.

“Why did he kill?”

“Revenge. Kerion and Ellen were responsible for his daughter’s disappearance. He was settling the score.”

Chad pulled into the layby and glared at the empty space in front of him. When nothing emerged from his memories, he scrunched his eyes shut and ran through what happened. Romeo stayed silent, so silent it was only thanks to his firm hand on Chad’s shoulder that he knew he was still there.

Andrew’s van had been in front. He’d creeped up beside him, the police car screeched past, alerting Andrew. He’d opened the door of the car, his eyes met Chad’s and then he ran.

Something flittered into his mind, cushioning the emptiness. It landed at the bottom, curling around itself.

Chad opened his eyes. “He dropped something while he was running up the verge, he dropped something.”

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