Page 30 of Search for the Truth

No sooner than she had the thought than it vanished.

The headlights became bigger as the car behind them sped up again.

Blake didn’t leave room for interpretation now.

The car was trying to hit them.

And there was no time to figure out why.

“Hold on, Clem.”

ADRIVERWENTwhen they weren’t supposed to at the headache of an intersection. Once they realized their mistake, they panicked and stopped in the middle of the street. Blake and the car that had been able to slip in between her and Liam had managed to get ahead of the confusion. Liam, however, rolled down his window and slowed next to it.

He recognized the older woman behind the wheel and motioned for her to roll her window down too.

She did so, eyes wide.

Liam cut off any lengthy explanation or apology.

“It’s okay, Mrs. Connie,” he called out. “The light changes here don’t make much sense. Just try to be more careful. You can go on now.”

She had been trying to turn into the same lane as he was in, so Liam waved her ahead, glad that they were the only cars around.

Mrs. Connie wasn’t so sure, so he called out to her again and told her to go ahead with more assurances.

She did so after a few more moments that seemed to crawl by. Not everyone became nervous around Liam, but Mrs. Connie always acted as though she’d been on the fence about law enforcement. Her overcautiousness showed as Liam’s speed was reduced by twenty following her down the two-lane road.

He sighed and accepted the delay. Blake’s taillights were nowhere in sight. He idly wondered how people had treated her during her times as a sheriff. She had left a small town that hadn’t known her originally and yet she’d managed to be elected during her time living there.

It was the same as his story, but Liam would bet money that Blake had blazed her way into her position. He, on the other hand, had been elected for McCoy County’s sheriff in a calm, quiet event. There had been no pushback, no fuss that he wasn’t a true local. There had simply been a need for the position to be filled after the former sheriff had retired. Liam just so happened to be there with the right résumé.

He had been suspicious though at first. Why hadn’t someone else tried to run against him?

Price had been open about the answer.

“We’re boring here in McCoy County,” he’d said. “Not a bad thing, but there’s not many people who want to be in charge of all of that boring.”

Boring equated to still. Still meant quiet.

Liam started to knead his hip with his fist.

Quiet is what he’d been wanting.

The current silence in the cab of his truck didn’t last long. It was only humorous timing that a few moments after recalling his memory with Price did his name pop up on the phone screen.

It was just past seven. Both men were off work.

Liam answered with an eyebrow raise that no one could see.

“Hello?”

Price’s words came out through the truck’s speakers strong but rushed.

“Where are you right now?”

Liam’s back zipped straight to attention.

“Just left the cluster intersection. Running along the access road that goes to County 22. Why?”