“I was heading for the ferry,” she said, “and this car came off a side street, the one back by the coffee stand, and went right into the oncoming lanes. I think he was trying to pass me, maybe he thought he was late for the ferry, but he suddenly just veered back into my lane, like he didn’t see me at all.”

She heard someone suck in an audible breath, thought it was Adam. But the deputy—Lindholm her name tag said—just nodded. “Go on,” she said, and her voice was very kind.

“It was weird, because there wasn’t a lot of traffic, so they weren’t dodging someone else. I didn’t see any animals on the road, either.”

“What did you do?” Deputy Lindholm asked.

“The only thing I could think of—I cut hard right, to try to avoid him. He still hit me, which sent me into the ditch.”

“And he kept going?”

“I...guess so.”

“He made a U-turn and left westbound at a high rate of speed,” Adam said. “Silver four-door, midsize. I was too far away to get the plate, but they were in state. Had something hanging from the rearview mirror, something rectangular, like a badge or parking permit. White male driver, black shirt, baseball cap, also black I think.”

Amanda stared at him. The deputy looked at him assessingly. “You our witness call from about ten ago? Kirk?”

He nodded.

“Quinn said you were a cop.”

“Once upon a time,” he said, his voice flatly unemotional.

“Good,” Lindholm said. “We got the suspect vehicle broadcast out right away.”

“The crash may have been an accident,” Adam said. “No skids, so he could have hydroplaned into her, the road’s wet enough. But the running was a definite decision.”

Lindholm nodded. “No reports of him being spotted yet, but he may have gone to ground.”

“Gone to ground?” Amanda asked.

It was Adam who answered her, although he didn’t look at her. “People’s first instinct, if they’re the sort to hit-and-run in the first place, is to hide the car.”

“Maybe he didn’t realize,” she said.

“Oh, he knew,” Adam said, and this time she looked at him, his voice was so cold. “Why do you think he hung that U-turn and got out of here in such a hurry? Didn’t even pause to see if you were hurt.”

He was, she realized with a little shock, furious. Was there still that much cop in him, that he took such affronts to the law so seriously? It didn’t make sense to her, for if that was true, why had he quit? Why had he walked away from what her father had told her was his life’s dream?