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As images of trucks, videos, and screenshots of information began appearing, Carter moved them from one screen to another until each monitor held a different data set.
“Rebecca,” said Jac, “are you able to identify any of these vehicles?”
Carter hid his grin. Jac was back to referring to her by her full name. It had taken several years to train him to try Becky, but the name didn’t work for him. The man just wasn’t going to use any name but Rebecca. Rolling her eyes, Becky concentrated on the trucks.
Sharlee spoke on the video connection. “Try to envision what they would look like from your position as a walker and then in the ditch after hitting the culvert.”
Carter cringed. They didn’t know that Becky had already had the beginnings of a panic attack when they drove past the spot earlier. Reliving things from the position she was in when it happened could bring on another. He opened his mouth to speak but Becky spoke first.
Becky shook her head, “Other than big, white, and diesel with a plow, I don’t know. Sorry.”
Carter shook his head. “Nothing to be sorry about.”
Sharlee sighed. “Thanks, but it means you can’t identify the right truck or person.”
“It looked like a truck I’m familiar with, similar to Carter’s but different. I’m still trying to work out where I’ve seen it before,” said Becky.
Carter kissed the top of her head. “You’ll remember.”
“I hope so. So now what?”
“Now we start working on a plan to keep you safe and figure out what’s going on here,” said Jac.
“You’re not going to stop me from going to work. Because Jac, if you think I’m just going to stay home and let people figure things out, you’ve got another think coming. I’ve got lots of projects going, and there are meetings to set up, papers to file, a new employee to set up with orientation, and a whole lot more. I don’t just sit around eating bonbons, you know.”
At first, Jac didn’t say anything. He just focused his calm, intense stare on Becky. After working with Jac almost since the business started, Becky knew exactly what that meant. Jac was either humoring her, waiting for her to stick her foot in her mouth or engage in other self-sabotaging moves. Her boss would be quiet and look like he was giving you all your due respect. Which a person couldn’t deny he was doing, but it had a purpose: to let you run out of steam before he gave you the final plan by laying down the law.
It wasn’t a plan he was suggesting but a strategy to be executed without question, and today Becky would need more time to agree to that. So, she thought she’d get all her words in first because once Jac spoke, it wouldn’t matter how many words she used. They wouldn’t change his mind.
“Carter and I have already discussed the things that have to happen to keep me safe, and I’m on board with it. But if you’re going to say that I can’t go anywhere or drive myself or any other super restrictive things, I call foul. You guys don’t even necessarily believe that it was on purpose.” Becky looked around the room and crossed her arms from her seated position. “I’ve seen how you guys cut your eyes to each other or look away when I said it was not an accident but let me submit some information you may not know about because you weren’t privy to it. First, since we’ve been here, no plow has ever pushed snow in the ditch in front of our house. We pay for snow removal, and no one else on the road after Ivy and Kaden’s place had been plowed. Like always, they wait until the snow has stopped or in the middle of the night. Midnight is not the middle of the night. And we did not pay for immediate removal which isn’t what happened anyway.”
“Becky, I absolutely believe you, but if I’m being honest, I can’t say that I noticed very often where the snow was pushed when they cleared the roads. But all the rest, absolutely true.”
Carter wasn’t being mean. He was his typical trustworthy self, and she couldn’t fault him for that, although it did irritate her a little that this was the time he chose to be totally transparent instead of when she wanted to know why children were such a significant roadblock for him.
“Oh, and my scarf was very bright. You guys have seen my knitted scarf, hat, and mittens sets. You’ve all commented on them at one time or another that I was like a neon sign entering a room. I had those on, so to say that he couldn’t see me in the dark was ridiculous. It would have been obvious the minute lights hit my head.
“Or when my flashlight shined in the air and all around me trying to get his attention. But despite the fact that I was so bright, the truck and the plow continued to come off the road in my direction.”
“She’s got some excellent points,” stated Mark.
“And finally, I’m not one of those drama people. I’m the person who tends to assess everything in front of her and then decide. I have thought about this and am positive it wasn’t an accident. I don’t know why or if I was some random victim that some crazy person saw and decided to share his lunacy with, or if I was targeted or was a target just at that moment, I can’t say. But I can say if you guys don’t believe in me, then I just want to let the police figure it out.”
Carter went down on his haunches in front of Becky’s chair and grabbed her hands while staring into her eyes. She looked down.
“Sweetheart, show me your eyes. That’s my girl. I’m going to speak for everyone, and they can take it up with me if they have a different opinion, but we do believe you. We have to look at this clinically because if we don’t, we let our emotions get in the way we feel because it’s one of ours. It will cloud our judgment causing us to miss something significant. So, bear with us whilewe get through this. Okay?” Becky nodded her head. “Words, baby.”
“I do understand. It just feels like I’m out here on a limb, dangling without a net.”
The room was quiet for a few moments, and then Jac spoke.
“Rebecca, believing you is never a question. The question is do we have enough information to do anything about this incident? If this is all the information we have, then there really is nowhere else for us to go except to try to troll things like trucks that went by during that time frame on other cameras and back track. We can modify it with additional descriptions that you come up with as you remember things. There are no distinguishing items on the truck, and we didn’t get a shot to enhance the license plate. It’s going to be tough if not impossible.”
“I know.”
“We intend to return to where you had your accident, but I don’t think we’ll find anything after so many people have been tromping around out there. But we’re still looking. So that leaves us with only one other option to keep you safe, and that’s to put in more restrictive safeguards than you’re used to. You know we can get much worse if something else happens. The lockdown safehouse is the final response when we go hunting.”
“Jac, have you talked with Carter about the things I agreed to do? It’s enough.”
