“Can’t be soon enough for me,” I said, as we rounded a rather sharp curve. It occurred to me that it would be wiser to hang up and drive with both hands, but if Debbie Anne was giving out information, I didn’t want to miss my chance. “You don’t already have a car on the scene, do you? There’s someone I don’t know tagging along behind me—is that one of your people?”

“I’ll check,” she said, putting me on hold.

Was that a siren in the distance, or was I only imagining it?

“If it’s one of ours, it’s not anyone who’s checking in,” Debbie Anne said. “You be careful now.”

“Call me if there’s anything I should know,” I said, and cut the connection.

I definitely heard a siren now—it was still faint, but getting closer. Coming from ahead of us.

Suddenly, I heard squealing tires ahead and hit my own brakes. I stopped without too much trouble, but in front of me, Seth Early’s truck skidded and landed with the truck bed on the road and the front end in the right-hand ditch. The car behind me nicked my right rear fender before coming to a halt about ten feet past me. Beyond it, I could see the blue Honda backing out of a driveway. Evidently Freddy had heard the sirens and decided to turn around.

The unknown fourth car—a beat up old sedan that looked vaguely familiar—moved again. At first I thought it was going to turn around to follow Freddy, but then instead the driver pulled it to block the left-hand lane. Seth Early’s car was blocking part of the right-hand lane. I said a few words Mother probably didn’t think I knew and pulled my car into the remaining gap, passenger side toward Freddy, of course, and I immediately cut the engine and leaped out, cell phone in hand.

The sedan’s driver wasn’t as quick, and I think Freddy accelerated as much as he could before plowing broadside into the sedan, knocking it partly out of his way. He backed up, shedding bits of his car and the sedan, and I suspected he was going to ram the sedan again.

Probably not the smartest thing to do, but I ran over to see if I could pull the sedan’s driver out.

I heard a familiar sound—someone racking a shotgun.

“Stop the car or I’ll shoot!” Seth Early shouted.

He strode out into the roadway with his shotgun pointed at the Honda. The shotgun that according to Chief Burke he wasn’t supposed to be carrying anymore, though at the moment, I wasn’t complaining.

I looked into the sedan and my jaw dropped.

“Karen!”

No wonder the sedan had looked so familiar—it was the same one Karen had driven off in. Though that seemed a century ago now.

Karen was lying across the front seat—evidently she’d unhooked her seat belt and had been moving to jump out the passenger side when Freddy rammed her car.

Her eyes fluttered open.