Blood Tears Read Free Page B

got here.”
    “ You
haven’t given me any reason to smile.”
    “ Some
days I wonder which of us is the one actually being punished,” Baz
laughed. “I really do.”
    “ Finn
wanted to know how you’ve been coping,” Harley said
tentatively.
    “ I
don’t care what he wants to know. He’s not my supervisor anymore,
and my career is none of his business.”
    “ It’s
going to be a long three days,” muttered Trig.
    My snarky reply died on
my tongue. A young man brandishing a knife ran from the grocery
store, frantically shoving cash into his jeans pocket.
    “ Baz,” I alerted, sitting up.
    “ I
see him.” He screeched around the corner, braked hard, pulling over
to the curb, and parking the car askew.
    We flung open our doors
and hared off after the man. He looked around in panic, speeding
up. We chased him down the street, people jumping out of our
way.
    I began to gain on him,
Baz falling behind, his breathing laboured and harsh. The man threw
a desperate glance over his shoulder and sprinted across the road,
doubling back on himself, heading for the main road. I cut across
the road at an angle that helped close the distance between us. We
both pounded down the street.
    The next few minutes
were a blur of nightmare. We never really knew what the man was
thinking at that moment. Maybe he thought he could dodge around the
traffic to lose me but misjudged, or maybe he just didn’t look
properly.
    “ Stop!” I remember yelling at him. “ Stop! ”
    But he didn’t. He ran
right out on to the highway, forcing a semi-trailer to slam on its
brakes, locking them up. The driver struggled, battling to keep his
rig on the road.
    “ Out
of the way! Get out of the damn way!” Baz shouted loudly, pushing
the pedestrians standing around watching in horror away from the
road.
    The man froze in fear
in the middle of the highway, and that was the last I saw of him as
the semi-trailer smashed into him.
     

Chapter 2
     
    It was a traumatic
scene. After the impact, it took the truck driver a few tense and
uncertain moments to bring his rig safely to a halt, the trailer
jackknifed across the highway, the smell of burning tyres rancid in
the air. The remains of the young man lay scattered across the road
in a sickening tableau.
    I ran over to help the
driver climb out of the truck. He collapsed at the side of the
road, shaking uncontrollably, his face stripped of all colour.
    “ I
tried to stop. I tried,” he kept repeating. “He came out of nowhere
– right in front of me. I tried to stop.”
    “ We
know you did,” I soothed absently, my mind racing through all the
things Baz and I needed to do.
    I didn’t need a coroner
to tell me there was no saving the young man, so traffic control
was our first priority. Although the Coastal Range Highway wasn’t
busy compared to many others, it was still an important route with
a regular flow of traffic.
    “ Shit, Tezza,” Baz said grimly, slipping his phone back into
his pocket. “What a mess. I’ve rung the Super. It’s going to be
hard for us to manage this by ourselves.”
    “ Let’s rope in some of the townsfolk for traffic duty. I’ll
look after that. The semi is completely blocking the highway, so
I’ll detour it through the back streets here.”
    “ Sounds like a plan. I’ll go talk to the supermarket owner and
find out what happened.”
    I blocked off the
highway at either end of the accident scene with bollards and crime
scene tape, before rounding up the more sensible and less shocked
people amongst those standing around. I set them to work directing
traffic off the main stretch to wind through the back streets
before safely rejoining the highway again. When that activity was
operating to my satisfaction, I took out my notebook, and commenced
interviewing.
    In between collecting
initial statements, Baz came over to me, reading through his
notes.
    “ Mr
Grimmell told me the guy came into the store and loitered for a
while, arousing his suspicions. It