“You’re too much.”
“I guess I was lucky I was the first boy. I got named after my grampa. Who can blame a guy for being a bit of a hippie when his mom names him Freedom? Then again, the ladies love him. Maybe there’s something to the name.”
“I think I prefer Randy,” she said.
His lips spread into a smile. “I was hoping you’d say that someday.” He hoped the inuendo landed a little smoother than it felt coming out, because it sounded like a cornball line from here.
Her smile reached all the way to her eyes, but she didn’t remark. Just a polite little nod and a half snicker that, in a stretch, he planned to consider flirty.
Trying to recover from the awkward comment, he blundered on. “So, let me tell you what I’ve got for you and why you drove hours to see me.”
Damn, I’m out of practice. Maybe all work and no play really does hurt a guy. A beautiful woman is sitting in front of me, and I don’t even know what to say. Get back to business. You haven’t lost that.
“It wasn’t but two hours. Not bad at all.”
“Right. Good.” Randy lifted a folder and pulled the one beneath it to the top. “Now for the good news.”
Chapter Sixteen
NATALIE HADjust about let go of any hope that Randy would be able to make progress on her case. Even sitting here in front of him, she couldn’t believe it. All the way here she’d been afraid to get her hopes up. “You really found something?”
“Sure did.”
She leaned forward, resting her forearms on Randy’s desk. “I still can’t believe it. Is the car in one piece?”
“Yes. Well, not the car. We recovered the truck.” He flipped open the folder and slid it across his desk to her. “I really hope this is just the beginning.”
It looked like Jeremy’s pickup truck, but without the personalized tag.
“Are we sure it’s mine?”
“Yes. VIN matched. We’ve already checked everything out. It passed through a couple of hands, but this small dealership felt like the too-good-to-be-true price sounded fishy. Rather than shuffle it along and make money on the deal, he checked and found that it had been stolen. We got very lucky. I can’t even take the credit for it.”
“So it wasn’t because of your awesome detective skills?”
“Afraid not. But I’ve always been kind of lucky.”
“And Marc?”
“He’s luckier than me, I guess. The kid who tried to sell the truck to the dealership had bought it from someone else, who didn’t match Marc Swindell’s description, but we’re working our way through a list of people to see if we can trace it back to—”
“Marc.” She didn’t even like to utter his name anymore. The bitterness hung in the back of her throat. “Where did the guy buy the truck?”
“Williamsburg.”
“That’s not far away.” She blinked in realization. “He could still even be here in town, couldn’t he?” The thought of him possibly being nearby, or showing up again, made her thankful she’d taken the step to move.
“We don’t know if that means he’s in Williamsburg. I’m still working through the leads.”
“Do we have to go there to get the truck?”
“No. I had it transferred to the impound lot here. I’ve got the paperwork all filled out. We’ll just need a couple signatures from you, and it’ll be yours.”
An overwhelming feeling swirled around her, and she hoped she wasn’t about to break down and cry.This is good news.“Thank you. The timing couldn’t be better. The roads to the cabin in Chestnut Ridge aren’t really fit for a car. There’s not a speck of pavement, and it’s a long trail back to the cabin from the main road.”
“Well, this truck should get you there just fine. You’ll need to sign here, here, and there.”
She picked up the pen and scribbled her signature.
