Page 11 of Hold Your Breath

“Huh.” Examining the slash again, she felt her whole body droop. God, she was tired. “I have another flat. Any chance you have a tire on hand that would fit?”

“I ordered you one last week after looking at this. Tried calling you, but your phone wouldn’t let me leave a message.”

She resisted the urge to bang her head against the auto shop wall. “Sorry, Donnie. Voice mail stops working every so often on my phone. I need a new one. It’s on my list.”

“Which list?”

She ignored Callum’s comment. “Thanks for ordering the tire for me. What do I owe you?”

A little proud at how she managed to repress her wince at the amount, she pulled out her battered bank card. Her hand shook only a little as Donnie took it from her.

“That did look like it was done with a knife,” Callum said quietly, leaning so his mouth was close to her ear. “You been annoying anyone lately?”

“Besides you?”

“Yes.”

“Nope.” Rubbing her forehead with the heel of her hand, she shrugged. “No one that I know of, at least. I might be ignorantly aggravating random people, though. I wouldn’t put it past me.”

He reached up to gently squeeze her shoulder before pulling away. “I’ll take a closer look at the other flat when we get back to the station.”

At the thought, she felt her stomach clench. “That’s probably another tire Donnie won’t be able to patch. Shoot. Guess ten-ply tires just jumped even higher on my list.”

“You know,” Donnie said, handing back her card, “you might want to wait on getting those Load E tires until you figure out if anyone’s stabbing holes in them.”

Her teeth ground together, but she managed a tight smile. “Thanks.”

“Anytime.” His face grew serious. “And let me know if you hear anything more about the guy you found in the reservoir. I might call a couple of guys I haven’t seen in a while, just to make sure they’re okay.”

She murmured something noncommittal and backed toward the door. “Thanks, Donnie. Can we just back up Callum’s truck to the garage bay?”

“That’ll work. Have a good one!”

“Too late.” Lou sighed.

* * *

The second tire had definitely been slashed. Even Lou, despite her lack of experience, could tell that the long, even cut had not been inflicted by a rock.

Frowning harder than usual, Callum examined the ruined tire. “Where were you when the other tire went flat?”

“I was at my day job. The Coffee Spot.”

He shot her a look. “I know where you work, Sparks.”

“Right. I knew that. I think this day has just turned my brain into goo.” She tugged her cap down over her ears. Now that it was dark and the wind had picked up, the mostly empty parking lot was even colder than before. “I was parked in back, in that dirt lot off the alley.”

“What time?”

“I closed that night, so probably seven thirty? Quarter to eight, maybe? It was well after dark, I remember. I could tell something was wrong with my truck, since it looked uneven, but I thought I’d just parked with one wheel in a low spot or something. That halogen light in the parking lot casts some funky shadows. It didn’t register in my brain that it was a flat until I was right up next to it.”

He didn’t say anything until after he lifted the tire with enviable ease into the bed of her pickup. Dusting off his gloves, he turned to look at her again. She braced, since she knew his “lecture face” all too well. It was not her favorite expression.

“You were alone?”

“Leaving work?” She knew where this was headed. “Yeah. It’s really slow after five in the winter, so Ivy schedules only one of us to close. Plus, since Sylvia quit a couple of weeks ago, we’ve been shorthanded. I’m scheduled to work by myself for every shift this week.”

“Huh.” He pulled his dive-team baseball cap halfway off his head before yanking it back into place. “Don’t like that.”