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“What do you mean,” Rory demanded.
He grimaced. “Someone tried to run me off the road tonight on the way back here.”
“What?” Both Jordana and Rory sat up straight on the couch.
“Are you okay?” Jordana asked.
“Yeah, fine. A bruise or two but nothing serious. The airbags deployed so my SUV is undrivable. I called Mario to give me a lift back here and the guys towed the SUV to the track. They’re gonna take a look at it tomorrow and see if there’s anything they can do to fix it.” Dalton leaned back in the chair. “I think my questions might have ticked someone off and now they want me to shut up.”
“Dalton, promise me you’ll be careful.” Rory’s face was ashen.
It hit Dalton at that moment how much of a risk he’d been taking. His family, such as it was, needed him. He hadn’t thought about the risks before this. Just the need to find the murderer and keep his team afloat. Maybe he’d made an error in judgment.
“I promise,” he said gravely. And he meant it.
“But the incident does prove your theory,” Jordana pointed out as she leaned back on the couch once again. “Dennis Moore was murdered, intentional or otherwise. So, what are we going to do about it?”
Dalton smiled slightly. Straight to the point. Jordana didn’t miss anything.
“We tell the police,” Rory said. “That’s the only thing to do.”
Jordana’s gaze met Dalton’s and for the first time he felt like they were on the same wavelength and Rory was not. She placed a hand on Rory’s thigh. “We can’t do that, Ror.”
He stared at her. “What do you mean?” he demanded.
She squeezed his leg. “If we tell the cops then the blame will more than likely fall on us. Austria has very few murders a year. It’s not like these cops have a ton of experience at it. If we say the wing was moving and caused the accident, they are going to say it was negligence. Hughes Racing will be done if that gets out.”
“She’s right,” Dalton agreed. “I already showed them the video and they took no notice of the wing. Haas was more interested in how upset Moore seemed to be. As far as they’re concerned, he had a heart attack and that’s the end of the story.”
“But we can’t let a murderer get away with it,” Rory insisted.
“No, which is why I was asking questions in the first place.” Dalton sighed. “It’s a delicate balance. We need help with this investigation but bringing the cops in, even if we can convince them of what we know, will not guarantee the person will be caught, but it will definitely hurt Hughes Racing.”
Rory flopped back on the couch next to Jordana. “So, what do you suggest?”
Dalton shrugged one more time. “I have no idea. I need to think about it, I guess. Maybe something will come to me. I can’t even give you a list of suspects or anything. I spoke to everyone today. You know what the paddock is like. The whole world wants to gossip, so I chatted with them giving them something to gossip about in hopes someone saw something or knew something or told me something helpful. I got nothing.”
“Well, maybe this will help,” Jordana said. “I just spent some more time with Claire, Joe, and Brian. I sat with them for dinner. Turns out Claire just wants all this to be over so she can go home. She didn’t want to come in the first place. She and Dennis were in a bit of a rough patch. Joe, Claire’s brother, was stoned and he can’t wait to go home either. He’s not even trying to really support his sister, not that she seems to need it. Brian is making lots of noise about suing, but he’s all bluster. The heart attack angle has taken the wind out of his sales.”
Dalton cocked his head. “That’s interesting about Claire and Dennis having troubles. I’m surprised then that she brought Joe with them or made Dennis bring him. That can’t be fun for either of them. He stuck out like a sore thumb. He was also as high as a kite earlier when I spoke to him.”
Rory snorted. “The entourage. I’d forgotten about them. About his son, though… I can tell you Dennis hasn’t been happy with Brian for a while. I did some lessons with Dennis on the simulator to prepare for the race, and he was always yelling at Brian in the background. He told me he didn’t think his son had what it takes to be successful. He thought Brian was a bit of an idiot. Said he was weak like his mother and often had lame ideas that he was always trying to get Dennis to invest in.”
“Wonderful. So now we’re in the middle of family drama.” Jordana pushed a stray hair behind her ear. “I went to Race Control and hung out a bit. The polizei believe Moore had a heart attack. Everyone is sympathetic to our situation for the time being, but Claasen is spreading rumors that we’re going under. That’s making Juan Carlos a bit nervous. Any hint of a slipup on our part, and I think he’ll kick us out of the league. After what happened last year with his daughter and handing out the win to Claasen, he doesn’t want any whiff of impropriety. She’s still sleeping with Claasen on and off, by the way. It’s worth noting since Juan Carlos doesn’t know, but everyone else does. There’s a rumor she screwed up the data from the last race on purpose.”
“Well, shit, isn’t that wonderful? Claasen is such a pain in the ass. And now we have to worry about Race Control.” Rory snorted. “You know why he’s trying to bring us down, right? Claasen, that is.”
“He wants to win and take the purse,” Dalton commented. “We all do.”
Rory shook his head. “No, Claasen lost his shirt in the Carrera Cup debacle. His driver in that series claimed the mechanics screwed up and sent him out without enough tire pressure. He says that’s why he hit the wall and took two other drivers out with him. He could be heard screaming at Claasen all the way down the paddock. Claasen lost two other drivers after that.
“So he needs the money to stay afloat, too. He had a couple of big-time drivers interested in joining his team for the European Cup, the Landon family for one, but after the team’s performance during the Carrera Cup, they’ve all backed off. Too many complaints about the mechanics and engineers. He needs the win to get backers for next year. And if we win this year, Landon will go with us because we’ve got the reputation for being the best. We’re the team to launch any driver from amateur to pro.”
“Interesting that we’re not the only one in financial difficulties,” Dalton noted.
“Not even close to alone in that. There are a lot of teams that are struggling this year,” Jordana added. “But I’m not sure they’re in the same situation as we are, and now with Moore gone, we’re in real trouble. Plus, we can’t take the bad publicity. We’ll lose Michael Landon paying for his kid for next year and any other serious drivers if people think we had anything to do with Moore’s death. We’re going to have to fill the seat for this season somehow. And we’re going to have to win.”
“The whole Bianchi thing… This just couldn’t have happened at a worse time.” Rory lost the bit of color in his cheeks. “Shit, I mean, I’m truly sorry Dennis is dead. That’s horrible. I didn’t mean it wasn’t a tragedy. God, I sound so callous. Really?—”
