the sheriff’s office?”
His question cut to the core. Sheriff. After living through her brother’s fiasco for the last ten months, Boone law enforcement wasn’t exactly at the top of her list of people she hoped to run into during her return, especially Detective Seth Garrison.
Paige fought off a sigh and shrugged. “By the time I realized what was happening, I couldn’t get to my cell phone and there was no safe place to pull over.”
Seth looked as if he was going to say something but stopped. He probably wanted to chastise her for not being more careful. The former navy SEAL lived and breathed extreme caution. Always keep your phone close and don’t wait until something goes wrong. If you feel uncomfortable in a situation, get out of there and call for help. His notorious words rang in her head. But instead of issuing a reminder, Seth straightened his broad shoulders. Full-on cop mode. Reminding her this wasn’t personal. This was business.
She should have felt relief, but instead her heart slipped a bit.
“You mentioned the stormy weather conditions at the time of the accident,” Seth said, jolting her back to the present.
Paige blinked and breathed deep, readjusting her focus to the accident and not the man asking the questions. She lifted her chin slightly. “Yes, the weather was terrible.”
He raised a curious brow. “Is it safe to assume that you were traveling below the speed limit?”
“Yes.” She shrugged one shoulder. “That is, until the truck pulled up beside me, then I sped up trying to get away from him.”
Seth gave a subtle nod and scribbled something on his notepad. Uneasiness prickled the fine hairs on the back of her neck. She could almost see the thoughts churning in his head, and she didn’t like the vibes she was getting.
“Okay.” Seth stuffed the notepad in his pocket and cast her a look that said, I’ve got this figured out. “It sounds to me like you were a victim to a hit-and-run. Impatient drivers often tailgate slower vehicles, and unfortunately stormy weather doesn’t deter everyone. If the driver of the truck got annoyed and tried to get around you, his tires may have slipped on the wet road, which could have sent him into your lane.”
Paige bristled at Seth’s presumptuous assessment. He obviously wasn’t listening. “No, that’s not what happened,” she snapped and struggled to sit up straighter. “The driver knew exactly what he was doing. He rammed into the side of my Jeep, and as I futilely fought to get my vehicle under control, he took off, vanishing into the night.”
Seth looked back at his notes as if to process what she’d just said. The grim silence that followed did nothing to quell the anxiety churning inside her. “Paige—” He looked up at her, keeping his voice low, as if to deescalate the situation. Like it was that easy. “Roughly 10 percent of all traffic accidents are hit-and-runs. And just as you described, they often involve an aggressive driver who causes the accident, then gets scared and takes off without stopping to help. Who knows, maybe this driver was even intoxicated.”
Seth’s simplistic cop logic sent adrenaline shooting through her veins. Some maniac had tried to kill her. Didn’t he get that? Paige felt her jaw go rock hard as she tried to control the frustration exploding in her chest. “What this driver did was intentional, not an accident.”
Seth perched a hand on the footboard and studied her, a question mark on his face. “Paige, is there a reason that you’d think someone would want to hurt you?”
Paige shivered as a montage of memories roared through her head. Spiraling, reeling, flooding her brain with such veracity she felt dizzy again. Madison’s death. Her brother’s arrest. Evidence and more evidence. The bloody knife. The DNA. The upcoming trial...a killer still on the loose.
She opened her mouth, barely getting the words out. “Yes, I do believe there’s a reason someone would want to hurt me.”
Seth’s deep brown gaze locked on hers, probing, assessing. “And why is that?”
Her throat knotted. She lifted her chin. “Because, Detective, I came back to Boone looking for the truth.”
* * *
Seth’s brows rose again. Truth? No amount of evidence would ever be enough for this woman.
And the last thing he needed was Trey Becker’s sister running around Boone, asking questions and stirring up more anger and strife toward her brother.
Seth felt a tight curl of frustration in his gut. Trey had been charged in the stabbing death of his estranged wife, Madison Cramer Becker. A death that sparked outrage in the community and left Boone residents with a bad taste in their mouths when it came to Trey Becker.
Even ten months later, that anger was still burning strong.
The Cramers were well-known, longtime residents in Boone. The family owned the local antique mart, and several generations still lived in the area.
A tight-knit bunch, but unfortunately not immune to tragedy. Ten years earlier, Frank Cramer, Madison’s father, was killed after being involved in an accident with a drunk driver. His death spurred an outpouring of community support and sympathy for the surviving family members—Madison, her brother and her mother.
Many of those same residents now counted the days until Trey Becker’s trial. They weren’t going to rest until Madison’s killer was convicted and facing life in prison without parole.
Paige couldn’t have picked a worse time to come back.
“Paige, don’t do this to yourself,” Seth urged, knowing he was probably wasting his breath. “Trey has a good legal team on his case. Let them do their job.”
“Are you kidding?” Paige shot him a look. “For ten months I sat back and let everyone ‘do their job.’” Her fingers made air quotes. “Detectives, police, reporters, attorneys.”
“And there’s some strong evidence against Trey.” Seth sighed, already growing annoyed by the conversation. “People have been doing their job.”
“Really?” She let out a heavy sigh. “Then whose job is it to find evidence in support of my brother? Nobody seems to be doing that.”
Seth took a deep breath, frustration battling with empathy. It wasn’t like he hadn’t given her brother the benefit of the doubt. Trey had been a friend. A fellow SEAL. But from the get-go, things hadn’t looked good. When Seth and other officers arrived at Madison’s home, they’d found Trey, his hands covered in blood. More blood on his clothes.
Forensics later confirmed Madison had been stabbed multiple times and her throat slit by a government-issue US Navy Ka-Bar, the combat knife presented to SEALs upon graduation. Evidence of Trey’s fingerprints on the weapon and DNA at the scene hammered the final nail in his case.
Still, part of Seth got what Paige was doing. Trey was the only family she had left. Family was important. She wanted no stone left unturned. But, up to now, every stone they touched produced more evidence against her brother.
Seth spread his hands. “Paige, you know if new evidence turns up against anyone else, we’d reopen your brother’s investigation. But right now, every shred of evidence we’ve come up with points to Trey.”
A tousled, silky
