Truths Unveiled - By Kimberly Alan Page 0,81

you doing here?”

Tom kept an arm around her shoulders. “Eddie found some more pictures.” He didn’t want to spring it on her like that, but he felt anxious and annoyed. Someone had deliberately removed these photos from the police department’s files. Why? He didn’t know. But he intended to find out.

“Last week, at your apartment, you said the photos I showed you meant nothing,” Tom continued.

Pale now, Pam sat down. She kept her back straight and nodded.

“Would you look at these with us?”

Her eyes widened, confirming what Tom believed. Though she felt better about her role in the accident, she still had questions. And so did Tom. The more he thought about it, the more he became convinced that the person who removed the photos from the file was in some way connected to the pranks pulled on Pam. In fact, he felt certain that the burglary in Pam’s Boston apartment was also related.

Someone didn’t want her returning to Middleton. Though the culprit had remained quiet this week, instinct told him he or she would strike again soon.

Tom pulled two chairs up to the table and reached for Pam’s hand. “After the first hypnosis session, you told me you recalled most of the accident but something was still missing.”

She nodded once.

“Then, after meeting Carl Tedford, you remembered more.”

Again, Pam nodded.

“But we’ve still got a ton of questions. Maybe some of the answers are right here in one of these photos.”

Pam’s eyes flickered from Tom to Eddie.

“I put the bad ones at the end,” Eddie said. “Promise.”

She released a deep breath. “Okay.”

“Good.” Tom found a small note pad near the telephone and removed a pen from his back pocket.

“Let’s start from the beginning,” He drew a diagram. “The reports say you drove your Ford Escort northbound on Spindle Hill Road at approximately midnight. The car contained two occupants. You and Megan. Weather conditions were dangerous and neither of you were wearing seatbelts. Am I right so far?”

“Uh-huh.”

Before continuing, Tom shot her a parental scowl.

“What?” Then, she rolled her eyes. “I wear my seatbelt now. All the time.”

Tom winked at her and continued. “Vehicle two, a station wagon, traveled southbound on Spindle Hill Road. It crossed over the center line on that narrow curve and hit you head on, causing your car to roll over and pushing you off the road and into a tree.” He left out the part about Pam being the sole survivor.

“Got it?” he asked Eddie.

“Yup.”

Quiet now, Tom placed one photo at a time on the table.

“I can’t tell where one car starts and the other ends,” Pam told them.

Eddie frowned at the almost unrecognizable metal twisted into a tree. “It’s a miracle you survived. Look at the intrusion into the front seats.”

Tom selected a clearer shot. “Take a look at this. You can see the inside of the car.”

“Check out all the glass,” Eddie said.

Tom met his best friend’s eye. He thought back to other accident scenes he’d been to.

“What are you thinking?” Pam asked. “What does the glass have to do with it?”

“Maybe nothing,” Eddie answered.

“But…”

“In most cases,” Tom began, “if a vehicle is hit head on, all the objects inside, including the occupants and the rear window glass, fly forward.”

Pam looked back at the pictures. “I was hit head on. It’s in the report.”

“It is,” Eddie agreed. “And your car was a hatchback. It should be filled with glass.”

Quickly, his pulse racing, Tom shuffled through the remaining photos, then pointed to one in particular. “Take a look here. There’s glass all over the road.” Then he took it away. It showed Pam and Megan still inside the car. Hoping to distract her, he looked to Eddie and pointed to the envelope he held. “Is the paramedic’s report there? If not, I’ve got a copy at home.”

Eddie flipped through several sheets of paper. “Here it is. What do you want to know?”

“What led the officer to think it was a head-on crash?”

Eddie frowned. “Beats me.” He went back to the photographs. “Hey. Look at this.” He pointed to a photo showing a shiny object. It was stuck in the Escort’s mangled back bumper. “What is that?”

Tom looked closer and shook his head. “Don’t know. It’s odd that it’s stuck in the back. I would think it should be in the front.”

“Let’s get the picture blown up.”

“Hold on here,” Pam interrupted. “Are you saying I was rearended? How could that be?”

“Don’t know yet, Honey.”

“But you think it’s a possibility?”

Tom looked to Eddie, then back to Pam. “Think