slumbering giant—only to leave the landscape bleeding when it was extracted by the roots.
The silence here was marred by the faint whoosh of the cars on the wet road high above, but all I saw when I looked up was dark green with just a hint of gray. It took my brain several seconds to process that the gray was the gap in the canopy through which the police had lifted my mother’s car.
“It’s the perfect burial spot,” I murmured. “No one to see, no one to know.”
Constable Neri didn’t turn, didn’t look at me. We stood there as the rain fell, insulated from the outside world.
A rustle as Neri lowered her hood. Tiny droplets immediately formed on her hair. “She was in the passenger seat.”
The words were drops of water falling onto a still pond. Even though I’d already worked it out, I said, “You’re sure?” It was a critical factor, this piece of knowledge.
“Part of her body was still harnessed by the seat belt. There’s no doubt she wasn’t driving.”
I stared at the churned-up dirt that could tell me nothing. “How far back was the driver’s seat?”
Sliding the hood back up, Neri slipped her hands into her pockets. “Inconclusive at present. Impact caused damage to the mechanism. Forensic mechanics are processing the vehicle.”
“Why the sudden openness?”
“We’re officially launching a homicide inquiry. News will be all over the media by this evening. I’m on my way to brief you and your father.”
Yet she’d come here first because this was where it had all begun. “What else did you find?”
“Why don’t we go to your father’s home so we can speak together?”
“Let’s not.”
“There’s a lot of pain in your book, a deep sense of loss and rage.”
“I’m a good writer.”
Her face was invisible to me, the hood eclipsing her profile. She stepped forward until she was right on the edge of the caution tape.
I followed.
“The car came down that bank.” She pointed to where the road existed high above. “There wasn’t so much growth back then, which is why it didn’t end up wedged against trees higher up.”
“Land would’ve been slippery, muddy that night.”
“Meteorological reports confirm your memory of the conditions.”
Echoes of rain so hard it had stung, thousands of tiny bees all over my body.
“Storm might’ve brought down more trees and foliage after the car came to a rest,” Neri added. “That would’ve further camouflaged it—especially as indications are that it came to a halt in an area of heavy undergrowth that would’ve bounced up around it within a matter of days. See there.”
I followed the line of her arm, saw the tough forest plants designed to not be easily crushed. The rain had continued for days after the storm. Which meant no sunlight to spark off the metal until it was too late and the Jaguar was buried.
“Do you think whoever did it expected the car to disappear for ten years?”
“Anyone thinking rationally wouldn’t have left your mother in the passenger seat.”
I should’ve thought of that. A simple move to the driver’s seat could’ve confused matters even had the car been found only days after it’d vanished. Had the killer also fully lowered the windows, the rain would’ve diluted or contaminated any trace evidence. “Crime of passion?”
“Too early to call.”
“What about the money?”
“According to the old police report, your mother is meant to have taken a leather satchel from your father’s office. She apparently concealed the money in there.”
“An old brown thing my grandfather gave him. I think he was as pissed about losing that as he was about the quarter mil.” If my mother had even taken anything at all.
His rage though . . . that had been real. So maybe she’d taken it well before that night and hidden it somewhere where no one would ever find it. But he checked that safe daily. He’d have noticed. So she must’ve taken it before their night out. Chances were high it had still been in the car.
“Is it possible the people who found the car took it?”
“No, the Department of Conservation team didn’t even get close enough to see the remains. They reported it as an abandoned car. Two officers came out here on a routine pass to check it out—they’re the ones who made the discovery.”
“Nice of you to share so much information.” I made no attempt at sincerity. You’d have to live under a rock not to know the police tended to be manipulative when they suspected family involvement.