In the car, Anson found a place to turn around. As they headed back to the highway, music from that era blared from his sound system.
“It’s a little loud.” Eve resisted the urge to cover her ears.
“That’s how I played it back then.” He smiled. “Drove my parents crazy. I’ll turn it down.”
“Don’t,” she said before he could make a move. “The loud music is part of the experience.”
He slanted her a sideways glance. “You’re sure?”
“Positive.” She refocused on the road and tried to visualize that night. “Okay, so it’s foggy and dark, and the music is loud. Is that right?”
He nodded, keeping his gaze firmly focused on the road.
“You’re feeling—”
“Pissed.” The word popped out as they reached West Morrison Road. “Irritated that I drove all the way out here for nothing. Angry that Tiffany was with that guy. Worst of all, I knew if my parents beat me home, there would be hell to pay.”
“Good, that’s good,” Eve told him.
“I was also nervous about getting in trouble if my parents found out I left the house when they told me not to.”
She noticed Anson’s grip tightening on the steering wheel.
“We’re approaching the site of the accident,” she said.
“I’m going to pull off here,” Anson told her, wheeling the Range Rover off the road. “There’s not much room ahead.”
Eve’s brows pulled together. “I don’t understand why Aubrey chose to pull off here.”
“She might have been afraid she’d ruin the tire if she drove on it flat. Or the flat might have made the car hard to steer.” Anson got out of the SUV and met Eve in front of it.
“Was it raining or just foggy when you approached this area?” Eve prompted.
“The fog was bad when I left Sly’s. I wanted to go fast, but it was difficult to see. It would lift, and then I’d go around a bend and run into it again.”
“You were driving slower than you normally would have?”
“I was.” Anson’s gaze turned distant. “My headlights picked up the white car when I came around the curve. I recall thinking what a crazy-ass place for someone to park. I slowed even further. It was lucky I did, because a car pulled onto the road right in front of me and sped off. If I’d been going faster, I might have hit it.”
“Where was this other car parked before it did that?” Eve kept her tone deliberately offhand.
“In front of the white car.”
“What color was it?”
Anson stopped walking. After a moment, he shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“That’s okay.” She placed a supportive hand on his arm. “You’ve remembered a lot.”
“The taillights were strange.”
Eve waited for him to continue.
“The other car was there.”
Where he pointed this time had to be at least a good seven or eight car lengths ahead of where he’d indicated the white car had been parked.
Eve tapped two fingers against her lips and considered. “Tell me what you think of this scenario. Aubrey is standing by her car, close to the road, obviously too close to the road, maybe trying to flag someone down. The guy hits her, and the impact knocks her onto the shoulder of the road. The driver is freaked, but pulls over to check on her. When he sees she’s dead, he calls 911 from her phone, then takes off.”