Page 9 of Four of Hearts

‘What is? What’s wrong? What’s happened?’

‘He just rang,’ said Jadyn. ‘He’s been run off the road.’

‘What? Where?’

Jen pointed off to Harry’s right.

‘Just before the road up into Burtersett. On that sharp bend.’

‘He’s okay?’

‘He sounded shaken up,’ said Jen. ‘We were going to call you on the way. Just thought we’d get there sharp. We’ve already got Mike on the case. He’s heading out with his recovery vehicle.’

Harry held up his keys.

‘I’ll drive,’ he said, and turning on his heels, led Jen and Jadyn to his Rav.

The journey was all speed and silence. The road was clear and having left Hawes, Harry soon had them at the location of Matt’s collision.

‘Bloody hell ...’

Matt’s car was on its side and facing back up towards Bainbridge, the opposite way to which Matt would’ve been travelling. Matt, miracle of miracles, was standing in the road, ready to wave traffic past. Harry slowed down and pulled up beside him.

‘Get out of the road, Matt,’ he said. ‘You want to cause another accident?’

‘I didn’t cause this one,’ Matt replied, an edge to his voice that Harry had rarely heard. ‘Some pillock in a black four-by-four rammed me. Came out of nowhere. One minute they were?—’

Matt stepped back as a passing tractor rumbled through, drowning him out.

Harry turned to Jen who was sitting beside him in the passenger seat, Jadyn in the back.

‘We need to make this safe,’ he said. ‘I’ve everything you need is in the back.’

‘Will we need a collision investigator?’ Jadyn asked.

‘No,’ Harry said. ‘Looks like Matt’s okay, though he’ll need checking over to be doubly sure. We’ll handle this ourselves.’

‘What do you need us to do?’

‘Photograph the scene, not just Matt’s car, but the road, any skid marks, collect as much evidence as you can.’ He pointed at a scattering of smashed glass on the road. ‘There’s a good chance some of that is from the other vehicle. Plus, there should be marks on Matt’s car. Just gather everything we can, and we’ll go from there.’

Harry pulled over, putting himself between Matt’s wreck of a car, and the line of traffic building up. He jumped out and waved it through as Jen and Jadyn proceeded to unload bollards and warning signs from the rear of Harry’s vehicle. They jogged in opposite directions along the road to set them out and warn oncoming traffic of the incident ahead. They then took it in turns to let traffic through.

‘Jen’s told me Mike’s on his way,’ said Harry. ‘And we need to get you to the doctor’s for a check over.’

‘I’m fine,’ said Matt. ‘Just a bit knocked about, that’s all.’

Harry jabbed a finger at Matt’s vehicle, then stared at the DS.

‘You’ve seen your vehicle, right? It’s on its side. It’s facing the wrong way. How the hell did it happen, and how did you manage to get out of it without a scratch?’

‘It’s like I was saying, whoever it was, they came out of nowhere.’

Harry looked up the road. There was a corner far off, but the road between it and where they were now stood was arrow straight, no hidden dips.

‘They must’ve been doing a hell of speed for you not to see them.’

‘And to do that to my vehicle,’ Matt said. ‘I’ve never known anything like it.’