Chapters (68)
- Dedication
- Title Page
- Contents
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- Thirty-Five
- Thirty-Six
- Thirty-Seven
- Thirty-Eight
- Thirty-Nine
- Forty
- Forty-One
- Forty-Two
- Forty-Three
- Forty-Four
- Forty-Five
- Forty-Six
- Forty-Seven
- Forty-Eight
- Forty-Nine
- Fifty
- Fifty-One
- Fifty-Two
- Fifty-Three
- Fifty-Four
- Fifty-Five
- Fifty-Six
- Fifty-Seven
- Fifty-Eight
- Fifty-Nine
- Sixty
- Sixty-One
- Sixty-Two
- Sixty-Three
- Sixty-Four
- Sixty-Five
- Copyright
“She . . . she just came out of nowhere. Ran across the road, right in front of me. I tried to swerve, to miss her, but I still caught her . . . and then I ran into the tree. I got out, I ran over . . . Oh Jesus.”
He was struggling to hold it together.
“Hey, look,” I said. “Kids do dumb stuff.”
“Yes,” he said. “It wasn’t my fault. But . . . but if they’d tested me, I’d probably have been over the limit. Maybe . . . way over.”
“I drive over the limit all the time,” I said. “Still drive fine.”
Broadhurst nodded.
“So,” I said, “how’d you get the kid into the car?”
“It wasn’t . . . the first thing I did. I was thinking about the girl.”
“Of course.”
“I . . . I went over to see how bad it was. And . . . she was gone. I felt for a pulse, checked for any signs that she was alive, and . . .”
I nodded. “Right, she’d bought it. I’m guessing Jeremy was nearby.”
“Yes.”
“Passed out?”
He nodded.
“On a bench. I went over . . . I don’t know when I got the idea exactly. It just . . . came to me. I saw a way to get out of this. He’d . . . he’d already tried to take the car once. I figured, if I put him behind the wheel . . .”
“Quick thinking,” I said, with just a hint of admiration.
“I got my arms under him, but he was hard to move. He’s . . . heavy, and I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“Then . . .”
“I guess when the car hit the tree, it was loud enough to be heard. I mean, at least by one person,” Broadhurst said. “I looked, saw someone running. I thought . . . I thought, I can’t do it. I can’t pull it off. But then . . .”
“But then you saw who it was,” I said. I had a pretty good idea who it would turn out to be.
Broadhurst nodded. “I kind of blackmailed Bob into helping me. Said if I went to jail, our multimillion-dollar deal would fall through. He’d lose a fortune. On top of that, the McFadden girl, her father was one of the major investors. You think he’d buy into the project of a guy who ran down his daughter? Bad enough it was my car. Anyway, Bob didn’t take a lot of convincing, He helped me get Jeremy into the Porsche.” He took in a long breath. “Bob was the one who slammed Jeremy’s head into the steering wheel, so there’d be blood for a DNA match, if it came to that.”
“And then, when other partygoers showed up, you and Bob acted like you’d just got there.” I thought a moment. “Did Finch know?”