“I think so. Thanks.”
“And your airbag didn’t even go off!” She reached for the latch to unhook the seat belt that held me suspended but seemed to rethink. “Looks like there are some people coming from the construction site. If you can wait a minute until they get here, we’ll get you out. That way you won’t fall forward when I release the belt. You sure you’re OK? Nothing broken?”
I shook my head. My neck protested. Loudly. Whip-lash, probably. “I don’t think so. I can move my legs and my arms, and nothing hurts too badly. Everything seems to work.”
While I was talking, my mind was skittering around what she’d just said. No, the airbag hadn’t deployed. It should have. So not only had the brakes malfunctioned, but the airbag, too.
After a minute, one that felt a whole lot longer than sixty seconds, a handful of workers from the construction site hoofed it up to us, out of breath and wide-eyed. With their help, my Good Samaritan was able to get me out of the car and onto the shoulder of the road, where I sat breathing in great gulps of air and shivering from delayed reaction. My neck and head hurt like hell, and I’d probably have severe bruising across my shoulder and chest, all the way down to my hip, where the seat belt had practically cut me in half. Thank God for it, though; if I’d hit the windshield at sixty miles per hour, I’d be dead at worst, and at best, I’d have a broken nose and possibly a lot of scarring, if the window had broken and cut me.
A truck pulled up on the shoulder behind me, one of the black Stenham Construction vehicles, and someone got out and ran toward me, high-heeled shoes clicking. I squinted into the sun. Blonde, elegant, lovely…
“Avery!” She squatted in front of me.
“Hi, Melissa,” I managed between chattering teeth. Beyond her, I could see one of my cousins-probably Ray-getting out of the driver’s side of the truck, more slowly. Raymond and Randall are identical twins, and I don’t know them well enough to tell them apart, but since this guy was with Melissa, he was most likely her boyfriend-Ray.
“Were you alone?” Melissa asked, redirecting my attention to herself again. “Was Derek in the car with you?”
“It was just me. He’s at the house already.” And boy was he going to be pissed when he heard what had happened to his truck! I should call him-he needed to know what had happened-he had a right to know what had happened, to me and his truck-but I could just imagine his reaction…
“Do you need to go to the emergency room? See Ben?”
Her use of Derek’s father’s first name was a little jarring, but of course he’d been her father-in-law for five years; I guess I couldn’t really blame her. Calling him Doctor Ellis after being his daughter-in-law would have been even weirder. It didn’t keep me from feeling just a little put out, though.
“I just want to see Derek,” I said. “He’ll be able to tell me if I need x-rays or bandaging.”
Melissa nodded, her shining cap of pale hair swinging. “I’ll drive you. One of the guys will get a chain and pull the truck out. Everyone’s cars are getting stuck in the dirt around here; they’re used to it. Ray…” She turned to her boyfriend, who nodded.
“Thank you,” I said. “It can’t be driven, though. The brakes don’t work.”
A couple of the other men arched their brows at this and came a little closer, listening. I noticed Lionel Kenefick’s freckled face among them. He wasn’t looking at me, but at the car, so I didn’t go out of my way to say hello to him.
“What happened?” Ray asked. I shrugged, grimacing at the resultant pain.
“No idea.” I’d used the brakes earlier, on my way through town, stopping at red lights and slowing down to let pedestrians cross in front of me. They’d been fine then. A little slow to respond, maybe, but not so much that I’d worried that something was wrong. It wasn’t until I’d gotten out of town and had put on some speed that they’d malfunctioned. If I were the suspicious sort, I’d worry about that.
“We can have it towed somewhere,” Melissa suggested. I nodded.
“That might be best. Although I’m not sure…”
“Derek uses the auto shop on Broad Street,” Melissa said helpfully. “The owner is an old friend from high school.”
Ray and I shared an unwanted moment of kinship as our eyes met, both of us equally unhappy with Melissa’s ready knowledge of the details of Derek’s life.
“I guess you’d know,” I said after a second. Melissa looked stricken.
“Oh, Avery, I didn’t mean…!”
“Of course not.” My voice was as lacking in sincerity as hers had been. I got to my feet, slowly. “If it’s not out of your way, I’d appreciate a ride out to Becklea. It’s just down the road apiece, and then right.”
Nothing more was said as I made my way over to the Stenham Construction truck parked on the shoulder of the road and climbed in. Melissa and Ray conferred for a minute, their conversation too low for me to hear, before Melissa put her hand on Ray’s muscular arm for a moment and then came toward me. He pulled out his phone.
“Ray will take care of having the car towed to Cortino’s on Broad,” she said, when she had cranked the engine over and the truck was rolling down the hill-at a much more sedate clip than I’d been going just a few minutes ago.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. He’s calling Derek, too. I’m sure you’re not looking forward to that.”
I grimaced. Couldn’t deny that, unfortunately. And damn her for realizing it.
“You know, Avery,” she glanced over at me, her eyes a vivid violet under mascaraed lashes, “I’m happy that you and Derek have found each other.”
“I’m sure,” I said, not bothering to sound like I meant it.
She smiled. “I don’t blame you for disliking me. After all, Derek and I were married for a long time. And he was quite depressed after we broke up, poor baby. Didn’t go on another date for years.”
I opened my mouth to say that Derek and Kate had dated for a while not too long after Melissa had dumped him, and she added, “Oh, I know he and Kate went out a few times, but really… Derek and Kate?”
She rolled those expressive eyes.
“I think they’re kind of cute,” I said, a little defensively. They were usually squabbling like children, so the word seemed appropriate.
“Yes,” Melissa said, “well… exactly.”
I shrugged and grimaced.
“My point,” Melissa said with rather strained patience, obviously determined to make it, whether I wanted to hear it or not, “is that I’m happy for you. He’s a sweet guy. You’re lucky.”
It sounded more like she was saying that I was lucky he’d chosen me. Which I was, although I rather resented the implication that he’d had to stoop to find me.
“Thank you,” was all I said, however.
“How are things going?” Melissa glanced over at me as she turned the truck off the highway and onto Primrose.
“With Derek? Fine, thank you.”
“Does he still spend all night tinkering with his toys instead of coming to bed?” She smiled reminiscently but not without another quick look at me from under her lashes to gauge my reaction. I kept my face immobile, or as immobile as I could manage.
“No idea. We don’t live together.”
“Ah.” It was all she said, but it spoke volumes. I felt myself flush, and forced it back, biting my lip hard. Dammit, I was not going to let this conniving witch get to me.
We pulled onto Becklea after another minute, and I peered out the windshield at all the excitement as we neared the end of the cul-de-sac. The crowd was even bigger today than yesterday, and I saw several of the same faces, including those belonging to my neighbors. Minus Lionel Kenefick, of course, who was at work down at Devon Highlands. And minus Venetia Rudolph, who was probably keeping an eye on things through her curtains, just like yesterday.
The same two police cruisers were back again today, along with a paler blue state police vehicle. K-9 was written on the back in white letters, and in the distance, back at the tree line on the far left side of the house, I could see a blue-clad trooper and his canine companion sniffing along the property line. From this distance, the dog looked like a beautiful specimen of German shepherd, and Stella the shih tzu was straining at her leash to be allowed to go back there and make friends. Arthur Mattson, yet again deep in conversation with Irina and Denise, kept swaying sideways with her frantic pulls.