“I’ve called for help. People know where I am. The police are on their way.” There was a quiver in her voice, and I realized that she was scared of me. Well, yeah. Here we were on a lonely back road, and I come at her like I’m loaded for bear. I swallowed my irritation and tried to think how I would feel if it were Ali in this position.
Only she wouldn’t be, because I keep her car in good shape and she knows better than to drive deserted roads at midnight.
“Okay.” I held up both hands. “I’m only here to help. I promise, I’m not going to hurt you.”
She made a sound of derision, somewhere between “Yeah, sure” and “Pbbbt.” “Because the murderer-rapist is always kind enough to announce his intentions.”
She had a point. “All right. Well, here’s the deal. I don’t know who you called, but no one in Burton is going to be coming out here tonight. If you got in touch with your auto service, they might make it before dawn. Maybe. But there’s only one mechanic around here, and he’s closed, for sure. So why don’t you let me take a look at it for you? If it makes you feel better, you can get back into the car and lock the door before I get any closer. And keep your cell handy, of course.”
She eyed me suspiciously. I could see caution battling with a sense of self-preservation—the part of her that didn’t want to spend the night alone on the side of this road—and that part won.
“Okay. Come look at it. Please.” She didn’t move to get back in the car, and I had to give her points for gumption.
“Can you pop the hood for me? And what happened? Did it make it noise or just quit running?”
“It made some kind of weird whining sound, and then all the warning lights came on and started flashing, and then it just kind of ... died.” She opened the driver’s side door and leaned in to find the hood latch.
“Hey, listen, turn on your flashers while you’re there, too, okay? I don’t expect anyone else to be coming this way, but you never know. And you’re right on the bad side of the curve.”
She complied, and soon we were both bathed in intermittent yellow light. I leaned under the hood, holding my phone’s flashlight down to see what was happening.
“Do you live around here?” The girl was thawing out a little, though I noticed she still kept her phone clenched in her hand. Smart.
“Yeah, about fifteen minutes down the road. I had a meeting in town tonight, though, which is why I happened to be coming past here.” I lifted my head to take a closer look at her. She was wearing those tight legging things Ali sometimes wore to exercise, and over them, a bright red dress. It didn’t go very far down, but still, she didn’t look trashy. She was short, with long blonde hair that was piled on top of her head, making her look like one of the pixies Bridge loved to watch on TV.
“I’m thinking you’re not from this area, are you? What were you doing out here, if you don’t mind me asking?” I lifted an eyebrow.
She sighed, long and loud. “My friend and I came down to go to the new bar that just opened outside town. We’re both students in Savannah.”
I frowned at her as I stood up. “What happened to your friend? Did she—or he—ditch you at the bar?”
“No.” She made the single syllable emphatic. “She is sitting right there in the car.” She pointed through the windshield.
I stepped to the left, and sure enough, I could see a body slumped in the passenger seat. “Is she okay?”
The blonde girl sighed and ran a hand through her hair. “Yeah, she’s just sleeping it off. Too much rum. She knew she had a designated driver, and so she might have gone just a little overboard.”
“I’ll say,” I muttered. “So what you’re looking at here is a bad serpentine belt. Needs to be replaced before you can drive it.”
“Oh, that’s just peachy.” Frustration filled her voice. “What the hell am I supposed to do about that?”
I leaned my hip against the car, my hand on the top of the raised hood. “Well, the mechanic in town is a good guy. He can get you fixed up.”
“But how am I supposed to get it there?” She twisted her fingers, and for the first time, I saw the glint of a ring on her left hand.
“I can help you with that part.” I disengaged the hood prop and let it slam. “I have a winch and chain on my truck. I’ll take it into town.”
Hope blossomed on her face. “I can’t ask you to do that. I don’t even know your name.”
I stuck out my hand. “Sam Reynolds. And you didn’t ask, I offered.”