Forever After Read Free

estimated time that the accident occurred. It’s a perfect match.”
    “So? Since when is it against your rules to check out a license plate? A couple of hours earlier, I saw the truck down by the river. No one was inside, and there was no one around. That seemed suspicious, so I jotted down the tag number to check it out later.”
    “Why later? Why not right then?”
    “I was too busy.”
    “Doing what?”
    “It was my lunch break.”
    Heath sighed. This was going nowhere fast. Judging by the deadpan look in Moore’s eyes, he doubted the deputy was going to admit that he’d tried to pull the teenagers over and then given chase. And there was no way Heath could actually prove it. Sadly enough, even if he did, Moore’s ass would be covered. Going by the book, a lawman should have pursued the teenagers. They’d been breaking the law nine ways to hell, not to mention that the one boy had been driving drunk.
    Major problem. On this particular issue, Heath’s law enforcement tactics parted company with the “book.” And he wanted his deputies to follow suit.
    The boys in that truck would have faced a list of charges nearly as long as Heath’s arm. They also could have been expelled from school for truancy at the midnight hour before their graduations, and after all that, they still would have had to face their angry parents whose disciplinary measures, according to the statistics, were usually unreasonably harsh, especially when meted out by a frustratedfather who lost his temper and didn’t realize his own strength.
    Who could blame anyone for running to avoid facing all of that? With so much at stake, most kids panicked. Heath had learned that the hard way. When you mixed in a little alcohol with that panic, you came up with teenagers whose thought processes were so muddled, they might do almost anything.
    The long and short of it was that Heath didn’t want kids to be afraid when they saw him coming. At least they didn’t run from him, which gave him a chance to get them enrolled in educational programs that strongly discouraged teenage alcohol and drug abuse.
    Once you zipped a kid into a body bag, there were no second chances. It was the end, period. This afternoon was a good example of that.
    “Get out of here before I do something I may regret,” Heath told Moore softly. “Go help them search the brush.”
    Moore shifted to plant his feet more widely apart. His arms hung loosely at his sides, but Heath didn’t miss the fact that the younger man was clenching and unclenching his fists. Maybe it was bad of him, but he almost wished the cocky little bastard would throw a punch. Beating the snot out of him wouldn’t bring those boys back, but Heath figured it might make him feel a little better.
    In the distance, he heard automobiles approaching. The news hounds . Damn, he’d forgotten all about them. Roving reporters generally monitored the police channels and showed up en masse at the scene of a serious automobile accident. Most times, Heath briefed himself before giving an official statement. There was no time for that today.
    At the sound of squealing brakes and tires skidding on gravel, Moore glanced over his shoulder. His expression was strained when he turned back to meet Heath’s gaze. “If you so much as hint that I was chasing those kids when they went over, I’ll make your life a living hell,” he grated out. “I’m not taking the heat for this.”
    Heath had never wanted to hit someone so badly in allhis life. He had a sneaking hunch that Moore had engaged in that high-speed chase hoping he could run those boys off the road, arrest all of them, and come out looking like a hero. But the plan had backfired. Two star football players from Wynema High were dead. If the news media learned the truth, they might tout Moore as a hero. Considering the popularity of the kids, though, it could easily go the other way, with Moore being dubbed a hard-nosed fanatic who chased drunk teenagers over