A bright flash of lightning lit the sky. Cash could just make out the weathered logo on the rusting water tank near the factory's entrance. The vines were whipping in the wind; the rain was pouring.
Cash quietly managed to free one wrist from the cuffs. Jamie was barreling down the road at a breakneck speed. The blue lights were flashing, but the siren was off. He steered the patrol car into the sharp curve leading into the factory's entrance. The old gates were opened. Seconds later, blinding headlights glared off Jamie's windshield. A car was careening straight toward them.
"Look out." Cash screamed.
Through the gates, it flew. The sickening crash of metal against metal and glass breaking filled the air. The force of the crash blew out the rear window of the officer's car. Cash tumbled out, somersaulted over the back corner of the trunk, and plopped in the soupy, soft mud and overgrowth like a rag doll.
The empty handcuff hung on a limb, and Cash's arm dangled in the air. Cash did not know how long he'd been unconscious. He groaned, wiping the mud and water from his face. He sat up, shaking the stars from his eyes. The torrential downpour was relentless. He slowly got up, untangled the cuff from the tree, and took a few unsteady steps toward Jamie's cruiser.
Lightning flashed. Jamie was pinned in the wreck. He reached inside the broken window and felt of the officer's carotid artery.
No pulse.
Thunder rumbled over his head, completely covering the whimpering noises Cash made. The driver's side door of the other car was open. Rain was pouring in, soaking the immaculate interior of the gray Toyota. No one was in the car that had rammed Jamie's cruiser, but there were blood stains on the driver's seat.
"Leland! You bastard! I'm going to kill you!" Cash yelled.
Cash slid in the mud, falling to his knees. He got up and made his way round to the passenger's side of Jamie's squad car. He wrestled the front door open. The interior light blinked on. On the floorboard, he spied a flashlight. He grabbed it and stumbled toward the entrance of the old plant.
YOU ARE READING
In Hell: When Love Kills A Small Town Mystery
Mystery / ThrillerWhen love kills, it leaves more questions than answers. Cash Matstock's mother was murdered when he was a small child. When his drunken uncle is found beaten to death in the home they share, suspicion falls on Cash. Maybe murder really does run in...
