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Shit, that was awful. Wild curly hair and a goatee? Images ran through Grant’s head of all the possible suspects in this county that he was aware of and knew well. No one fit that description, however.
“Did she say why he might have done it?”
A simple lane change could set the wrong person off if they were having a less than great day.
“No, she said she didn’t know why but she got the feeling that he hated women drivers.”
That was certainly possible, although he wasn’t sure what gave Ashley that idea. Had the man said - or yelled - something?
It was summer in Florida. It was hot. Windows were generally rolled up and the air conditioning was on. Even from this distance, he could see that Ashley’s windows were all up.
“Okay, I’m going to talk with Ashley. Hang around in case I need you.”
“Will do. I’ll be back here writing up the report.”
Leaving Scott in the SUV, Grant approached Ashley who had been leaning against her car watching him speak with the deputy. Just as he was about to open his mouth to ask her to tell him her story, she flung herself forward against his chest and wrapped her arms around him tightly while sobbing that everything was terrible, and she was scared for her life.
Carefully, stepping back and extricating himself from her hold, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, offering it to her as her own tissue was a sodden mess.
“Easy there, Ash. You’re okay, and we’re going to make sure you stay that way. No one is going to hurt you. Can you please tell me what happened? Take your time. Try to remember all the details that you can.”
It took a few stops and starts, but Ashley was eventually able to explain what had happened. An aggressive driver - male - had followed her from the downtown area and then terrorized her on the roads until he had jerked the wheel to the right while his car was next to hers, and she’d veered off the road to avoid a collision.
“I’m just so glad you’re here,” she said, clinging to Grant’s shirt. “This has been the scariest day of my life.”
It sounded like it had been a harrowing experience that he wouldn’t wish on anyone. He tried to soothe Ashley’s frayed nerves, assuring her that he would find out who did this.
“How can you possibly do that?” she asked, wiping her face with his handkerchief. “He’s probably out of the county by now and headed for Georgia.”
“It shouldn’t be that hard,” Grant explained. “There are traffic cameras all along the road and the one you took from downtown. Plus, some of the stores along the way might have footage as well. We’ll get a look at his plate, and we’ll have him.”
“Wait…there are cameras on this road? I…didn’t know that. I knew there were red light cameras in town but why on the highway? For what purpose?”
“For purposes just like this. We got them late last year. They’re going up in several parts of the state. My deputy has his laptop with him so I can go download the video right now. We’re lucky that this was caught early as they don’t keep the footage more than twenty-four hours. With any luck, we’ll have a BOLO out before he gets too far. He may not even run if he thinks he’s gotten away with it.”
From what Grant has seen in his job, often people who did illegal things didn’t think it all the way through. It was usually dumb details that caught them out.
“Just wait here while I?—”
“No,” Ashley said, grabbing his arm to drag him back. “It’s just…you can’t leave me right now. I’m upset.”
“Let me just have a quick word with my deputy. He can get the video, and I’ll stay here with you.”
“No,” Ashley exclaimed again, her fingernails digging into the flesh of his wrist. Panic was clearing written in her features. “You can’t do that.”
Grant’s gut was talking to him again, saying that something wasn’t right here. As scared as Ashley might be, she should want the guy who ran her off the road to be caught. Right?
He was, for the most part, a patient man. He had to be in this line of work, but the vibes he was getting from his ex-girlfriend weren’t good. This whole situation didn’t pass the sniff test. Ashley’s car didn’t have a scratch on it. If she’d avoided a man trying to run her off the road, then she’d driven like a Formula One race car driver. He had a vivid memory of her telling him that she didn’t even like to parallel park.
“Ashley, what really happened here today?” he asked, trying to keep his tone gentle and judgment free. “Why don’t you want me to look at the video? Is it because it won’t match your story? Have you been drinking, by any chance?”
Usually when Grant would get a wild-ass story it was because someone was trying to hide the fact that they were under the influence.
Ashley immediately shook her head, her arms gesticulating wildly so much that he had to take a step back.
“No! No, I was not drinking. I was?—”
She broke off, more tears sliding down her already red cheeks. Her shoulders shook with sobs as words he couldn’t understand flowed. Every now and then he heard one he recognized but not enough to build anything remotely coherent.
