“Can I see the registration?”
“Sure.” Briggs reaches over to the glove compartment.
“Center,” Finn mutters.
“I forgot he keeps it here,” Briggs says, opening the center console. He pulls it out and hands it to the officer.
“Kingsley. Is that the tech guy?”
“Yeah,” Briggs says. “I’m friends with his son. We go to school together.”
“Can I ask why you’re driving his car?”
Briggs laughs a little. “Check it out. Wouldn’t you want to drive it?”
He nods. “It’s a nice vehicle.” He holds his hand out. “Can I get your license?”
“Is this really necessary? I can just tell my friend’s dad to get it fixed.”
“License, please.” The officer keeps his hand out.
Briggs gives him the license.
“Briggs Chadwick.” He hands him the license back. “My brother has some money invested with your father’s firm.”
Briggs doesn’t respond as he puts his license away.
“What’s that smell?” the officer asks, sniffing the air and making a face. He must smell the puke.
“I don’t smell it,” Briggs says.
The officer hands back the registration. “I’m going to let you go but your friend needs to get that headlight fixed. If he keeps driving it around like this and I catch him, I’ll be writing a ticket.”
“Got it,” Briggs says. “I’ll make sure to tell him.”
“You boys stay out of trouble tonight.” He looks back at me. “You too, young lady.”
I nod, feeling like I’m going to throw up again.
The officer walks back to his car.
“Let’s get out of here,” Parker says.
Briggs slowly pulls back on the road. We look back, watching the officer’s car until he turns down a different street.
We all sigh in relief.
“That was close,” Parker says. “I thought he was going to arrest us, which is stupid since he has no idea what happened.”
“He might now,” Briggs says. “That broken headlight could make us a suspect.”
“A lot of people have broken headlights,” Parker says.
“Not around here. This is a rich area. People fix their cars, especially ones like this.”
“I’m gonna be sick,” I say.
“Puke out the fucking window!” Finn yells, reaching across me to push the button that rolls down the window.
