But a few turns in the road, she looked back and saw nothing but darkness behind her. Either the pickup hadn’t been able to get out of the wheat field. Or whoever had tried to run her off the road had given up, having successfully sent their message.

She didn’t slow until she reached the outskirts of town. Her heart was still pounding as she drove down the main drag looking for the sheriff’s department.

The office was in a small, brick building. She was glad to see Shane Corbett as she rushed in.

“What’s wrong?” he asked as he saw her face.

“Someone just tried to run me off the road.” She motioned toward her rental car parked outside.

“Let me have a look. Stay here.” And he was gone. A few minutes later he returned. “Come into the office and I’ll take your report.”

By then she wasn’t shaking anymore and was able to tell him what she could about the truck. “Dark colored.” She saw by his expression that the description wasn’t going to help. “There are a lot of dark-colored trucks around here, aren’t there?”

He nodded. “But the driver left some paint on your rental car. The pickup was brown and I would imagine you left some bright red paint on his pickup. We’ll look for it and have the body shop watch for it.”

She doubted the truck would be turning up. The driver would be a fool not to park it in his barn and leave it there.

“Any reason someone would want to run you off the road?”

“No.” Even as she said it, she wondered if she was wrong.

“Did the driver appear to be drunk?”

“Not really.”

“I guess what I’m asking is if you were going too slow and taking up the road?” he said, looking embarrassed.

“You mean being a city girl?” She sighed. “No, I was going normal speed and I even pulled over to let him go around and he wouldn’t.”

Shane nodded. “Didn’t mean to insult you. Just trying to figure out why anyone would want to run you off the road.”

“I haven’t been here long enough to make enemies, but I have been looking into Laura Beaumont’s murder.”

He nodded slowly. “Russell mentioned that. You know—”

“You aren’t going to tell me that I might be putting myself in danger by doing that, are you?”

Shane smiled. Those Corbett men really were good-looking. “I might have thought about warning you that sometimes locals don’t take kindly to a newcomer butting into their business.”

“That’s what I thought. But isn’t it more likely that, since the murder was never solved, I’m making someone nervous?”