Page 7 of Catch
Without question, I should have arrested the guy for wearing a Members Only jacket.What did he think this was, 1985?Just the jacket alone almost had me convinced he was a serial killer.
Isn’t this how they caught Ted Bundy?
“Sir, I’m going to need you to step out of the car.”
“For speeding?” He asked, then cleared his throat. “Just give me a ticket, I’ll pay it.”
It was the most he had spoken and there was definitely something off apart from his poor fashion sense and the alien-like sunglasses.
“Can you look at me please?”
He turned his head just enough for his eyes to glance up, but never fully turned around.
“Sir,” I said, my voice louder, “just get out of the car. You were doing twenty over the speed limit.”
Then, the driver jerked his body around so fast that I didn’t have time to react. He almost knocked his baseball cap off and the sunglasses fell down his nose.
“I was not!” he squeaked, sounding less like a gruff man and more like the high cadence of a pissed off woman.
Chapter Three
LOXLEY
The sudden flashof red and blue lights in my rearview mirror cut through the haze of music that had been consuming me. I glanced at the speedometer and saw 63 in a 55, which didn’t feel like a big deal.
It wasn’t that big of an infraction, and for some reason, I thought if I passed Sam’s driver's license to the officer and stayed cool, he’d write me a ticket, and I’d be on my merry way.
That was the naivety of a twenty-four-year-old who’d been driven around since she was seventeen. I’d had my problems solved for me so that I could keep making everyone money.
But I wasn’t stupid. I knew exactly how fast I had been going. The officer wasn’t going to gaslight me into thinking I was somehow at fault just so he could check off a quota.
"Um, ma'am?" The officer’s voice broke through my thoughts, his words stumbling over each other. I watched as he flicked his eyes between the photo on the license—an older man with salt-and-pepper hair—and then up at me.
“There is no way I was doing twenty over, Mr.….” I looked at his uniform, trying to find his name tag. “Brooks.”
“Officer Brooks,” he corrected, looking angry. “And I know you weren’t, but I also know you aren’t who you were telling me you were. Step out of the vehicle.”
Dammit.
“Please, Mr… Officer Brooks. I need to get somewhere safe as soon as possible.” I flashed a look out the window. The last thing I wanted was for someone to drive by and realize Loxley Adams was sitting on the side of the road with a cop. It wouldn’t be the end of the world, but it would sure feel like the end of my world.
The press would show up. Sam would have a meltdown. The label would send their goons to drag me back to my tour bus like some kind of rock-n-roll hostage.
I couldn’t let them know I was in Harmony Haven. I needed a break. I needed to get away—I needed coffee—and then I could come up with a plan to fix everything.
"Are you in some kind of danger?" Officer Brooks’ voice dropped to a protective tone. He started scanning the horizon like he was about to uncover some major criminal conspiracy. Which, for the record, wasn’t exactly in my plans for the day.
“Not particularly.” I half-smiled, hoping he wouldn’t start checking the undercarriage of my car for bombs.
He sighed deeply, as if I were some big problem that had fallen into his lap and motioned for me to exit the vehicle. I really wasn’t in the mood for a power struggle, but clearly,Mr. Officerwasn’t about to let me off with a mere “sorry.”
There was no way he wasn’t going to report the car as stolen, but I wouldn’t be going to jail. Sam would just bail me out and send me back to the tour bus like a lost puppy.
I sighed exaggeratedly, throwing open the door like it was the most dramatic thing to happen in my day. “You’reseriousright now?” I chuckled, mostly to myself, tossing Sam’s jacket into the driver’s seat, followed by the hat. “This can’t possiblybe the most important thing you’ve got going on today, right? Shouldn’t there be a bank robbery or something?”
Officer Brooks stood there, chest puffed out as though he was about to challenge me to a duel at high noon. The sun was beating down on me, so I shaded my eyes with my hand as I glanced up. Eventually, I looked him square in the eye.
“You’re not Sam Moreno, are ya?” he asked knowingly.
