Post by WILLIAM CARNEGIE on Apr 19, 2024 18:54:13 GMT
Beneath the confusion and grief for a marriage he’d destroyed, Will had felt some spark of hope as Zoey had walked towards him at that first crime scene. Tiny embers warming his heart, threatening to start burning out of control while she’d been doing everything possible to damp the flames that had already left her scorched. As the blaze had started to catch at the edges of them again he’d found himself holding his breath. One wrong word, one wrong move and the fire could rage out of control. What was left afterwards crumbling in his hand like ashes.
Will glanced at Zoey’s office door as he passed, offering a small smile as he caught sight of her talking on the phone through the open doorway. He would’ve stopped if she hadn’t been, feeling as though their kindling relationship meant she was owed an explanation as to where he was going – and why he might end up working late tonight. Back when they were married, they would likely have gone out on the call together, but now Zoey was on the other side of things legally speaking and that divide remained between them. It was small enough now that he would still call later, checking on both her and her father.
How long would it be before Zoey’s dad became convinced that the two of them were still together again? How long before they perhaps were? Those embers of hope stirred, burning at the edges of his conscience as he got into his car. He could swear he wanted their relationship to go back to where it had been before he’d start ruining things, but he couldn’t, not yet. There were still too many things he had to put aside to make certain he wouldn’t hurt her again. Lex being one of them.
Trying to make the most of the short drive out of town, Will considered what Lex was going to do when he told him that he was going to quit his sideline. It seemed like it had become a game to him, a way to test out of his abilities and catch a high all at the same time. The fact that they were returning things stolen from their rightful owners during a nightmarish period that most didn’t end up surviving probably hadn’t even struck him. Maybe he could convince Lex to at least try and follow through on his plan to apply to the FBI, but that felt like he’d end up just more hot air, whistling past Lex’s ears.
Ten minutes later he was pulling off of the road that wound through the woods. The lights of a patrol car flashed up ahead, illuminating the empty car in the deepening dusk. It was angled at the side of the road, as though it had swerved away from something. The front doors stood open, music still drifting faintly from it. The storm he’d watched flash its way across the sky from the safety of his office an hour before had left the dark grey Chevy glittering with raindrops, like diamonds tossed across the roof, and, he realised as he got closer, across the front seat.
”Is this why you called for a detective?” Will called out sceptically to the deputy who approached. A smashed driver’s side window could’ve been proof that something serious had happened, but all on its own, it wasn’t much to get excited about.
The guy’s mouth twitched, but not enough for it to have been called a grin. He gestured around to the other side of the car. ”Nope, it was the blood that had me doing that.”
Shit.
Making his way around to the other side of the car, Will peered through the open passenger door. There wasn’t much glass spread that far into the car, but there was a dark stain soaked into the grey fabric of the seat. Enough for it to be certain that whoever was in the car was dead? Nope, but enough to be worrying. As he straightened up to start checking around the vehicle, he caught sight of another car approaching. ”I want the road closed,” Will growled, stepping out into the road to wave down the other vehicle. Already slowing, it pulled up behind his.
For a split second, the tumble of dark hair he could see through the windscreen had him thinking Zoey had heard about the call and had come anyway. The woman who emerged was smaller though, as though her partner had been gifted all the height and her all the manners. Will frowned and approached Agent de León to intercept her. ”I’m not sure who called in the Bureau, but they’ve wasted your time. I’ve got this.” What he had, he wasn’t sure yet. An abandoned car, a possible injured person? None of it was technically criminal, but that chill feeling still crept over his skin as he tried to justify keeping the case out of the FBI’s hands.
Tagged: CAMILLA DE LEÓN * Word Count: 829