AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My stomach sinks as I see the guilt on Cameron’s face.
“Sorry, Detective. I’ve known Halley for a long time. I just know she doesn’t have anything to do with it. I didn’t want to be kicked off the case.”
A strange expression crosses the detective’s face as something seems to click in his mind, and he murmurs, “Halley Cooper. No wonder the name was so familiar.”
“What?” His companion barks out.
He shakes his head. “Nothing. Give me the file.”
Seeing Jace shift, I glance towards him and catch him staring at my friend, his brow furrowed.
The younger detective opens the file and hands me a photo.
Jace takes it before forcing me to sit down and seating himself next to me.
The moment my eyes land on the picture, my breath catches and I feel a pounding in my head. It’s a dark picture at a traffic light but the blue sedan in it is quite clear and the red hair is distinguishable.
My face is white as my hand reaches out, blindly to clutch at Jace’s wrist.
“Miss Cooper.” Felix’s voice is sharp.
Cameron says, alarmed, “Halley?”
I ignore both of them, staring at the car that is so familiar to me. Even with the bad quality of the picture, I know that there is a large scratch on the driver’s door, and that the lid of the trunk doesn’t close properly. I curl my fingers around Jace’s wrist, squeezing, as memories blind me.
“Halley.” His voice is firm and steady and I grasp on to it.
My lower lip trembles as I lift my gaze to Cameron’s. My voice is hoarse as I ask, “You don’t recognize the car?”
Cameron frowns. “What?” He strides over to look at it and then he freezes, shock in his eyes. “How is this possible?”
“What is it?!” Both detectives demand.
I swallow heavily, trying to bury the grief, which is thick in my throat. “This is my mother’s car.”
Jace stiffens next to me. “What?”
I nod, not noticing how my fingers are digging into his arm as my jaw tenses.
Could it be true?
“Miss Cooper, your mother has been legally declared dead. No one has seen her in years. You know that.”
Felix’s gentle words wash over me like a bucket of cold water.
“Halley, are you sure this is your mother’s car?” Jace asks, his voice tense.
I nod, dumbly. It takes me a few seconds to get my voice working. “It is her car. I—The car was never found, but here it is, fourteen years later, and the driver’s red hair…?” Hope fills my heart, as I look at Jace. “What if it’s her? What if she’s been alive all this time and she’s come back for me?” However, even as I speak the words, it hits me that the car and the dri
ver have been involved in a deliberate hit and run.
According to the traffic cam footage, the parked Sedan had hit Hashem as he had been crossing the road. It had stopped for a second and then driven in reverse over the injured man, before speeding off somewhere.
Jace takes the picture from me.
My hands are shaking. “My mom wasn’t a violent person. She was—She didn’t even like to kill the spiders in our home. She would trap them in glasses and release them outside.” My voice is quivering. “She couldn’t have done this.”
“How do we know you’re not making this up?” David demands. “This car—?”
