Chapter 3The Car Full of the Dead

My phone rang again. It was the precinct, demanding my location.

"Can you get back here immediately? If not, stay exactly where you are. We are sending a cruiser to get you."

Ten minutes later, flashing red and blue lights cut through the bleak afternoon.

Detective Carter stepped out of the cruiser. His eyes were like a hawk's, scanning me, dissecting me.

"My condolences. Right now, our priority is finding the bastard who did this. I need your full cooperation."

I grabbed his heavy winter coat, desperate.

"Detective, this is a prank, right? Tell me this is some kind of sick joke! My parents, my wife, my kid, they were just here. We were in the same damn car. They can't be dead. It's impossible."

Carter's expression remained carved from stone. "I know trauma does strange things to the mind, but the reality is what it is. Pull yourself together and get in the car."

I practically begged him. "Check the traffic cameras! I swear to you, I'm not lying. How else would I end up stranded on the shoulder of the interstate?"

Carter didn't waste another breath on me. He grabbed my arm and shoved me into the back of the cruiser.

The sirens wailed as we sped down the highway. Suddenly, I saw Kitty's SUV up ahead in the right lane.

I slammed my hands against the wire mesh separating the seats. "There! Look! That's my car! My whole family is in there. Pull them over! I swear to God, they are alive!"

Carter glanced out the window, then glared at me through the rearview mirror. "Stop making a scene. This is an interstate. I can't just run a random vehicle off the road."

The cruiser blew right past Kitty's SUV. No matter how raw my throat got from screaming, they completely ignored me.

"Call her!" I pleaded. "Call my wife. She's alive."

Visibly annoyed, Carter pulled out his phone. "Give me the number."

I rattled off the digits. He put it on speaker. It rang and rang, straight to voicemail.

Of course. She was driving. She hated highway driving, it terrified her. She was already furious at me, she wouldn't answer an unknown number right now.

"She's driving," I said quickly. "Call my mom."

Carter dialed my mom's number. Voicemail again.

Panic clawing at my chest, I pulled out my own phone and called my dad. Nothing. Just endless ringing.

Carter ended the call and turned slightly, shooting me a look usually reserved for serial killers. "Anything else you want to add?"