Witness Chase (Nick Teffinger Thriller) Read Online Free

hesitated.
    “Yes.”
    “You don’t sound sure. You need to be sure. We can’t afford . . .”
    She cut him off.
    “I’m sure. Your getting here late didn’t help anything, that’s all.”
    He looked at her hard, glanced at his watch and then at the rearview mirror.
    “They should be here any minute. I’ll give them a five-minute head start, time to gas up and get positioned. When I leave, give me thirty seconds before you take off. Then bring your speed up to twenty-five and hold it there . . .”
    “I know.”
    “I know you know. I’m just being sure.”
    “Thirty seconds, twenty-five miles an hour. Relax.”
    “Watch my taillights. If you get too close, back off. Timing is everything.” He looked at her and she looked back at him, realizing that this was it. “Okay, point of no return. Anything else?”
    She thought about it.
    Was there anything else?
    If so, it wasn’t popping up in neon.
    They talked it over at lunch, twice. She drove the area yesterday and knew the layout. She played it out repeatedly in her mind, running through What Ifs one after the other. The cell phone signal was strong, no problems there.
    But something was out of place.
    What?
    The van?
    The weirdness of seeing Michael out here in the dark?
    “Where’d you get the van?” she questioned.
    “Borrowed it.”
    A beat, then, “If we get caught . . .”
    He cut her off.
    “We won’t.”
     
    SUDDENLY THERE WAS A LIGHT ON HIS FACE , a flicker of illumination present and then gone, and she realized that headlights from behind them were reflecting in his rearview mirror and into his eyes. She twisted and saw them, snaking up the road, punching out fleeting images of trees and brush and asphalt as they approached. They looked eerie and for a brief moment she wondered if she was really going to go through with this, but knew that she had already come too far to go back.
    He turned his eyes from the rearview mirror and looked at her.
    “Looks like we’re up.”
    She nodded.
    “See you in hell.”
    He smiled.
    “Dramatic. I like that.”
    Northway pulled up in front of her, on the shoulder, and waited with the engine running, looking in the driver’s side rearview mirror at the approaching car. From behind, the headlights grew brighter. The inside of her car started to light up. She turned on her parking lights as a safety precaution and the dashboard sprang to life. She could hear the whine of the approaching car’s tires now.
    It pulled up next to her and stopped. There were three figures inside, all women, she could tell that from the hair and profiles, two in the front and one in the back. She could see well enough to tell that she didn’t know any of them. The sound of a radio dropped off, she could hear them talking to one another, but couldn’t make out the words. Then she saw Michael with his arm out the window, waving them forward, and they must have seen it too because they pulled up next to him and stopped. She heard a brief exchange of words, laughter, then more talk. Then they took off. Whoever was in the passenger seat waved an arm out the window. The whole thing reminded her a little of high school, when they’d pull over somewhere and decide whether to head to Dairy Queen or down by the river.
    She looked at her watch.
    Ten fifteen.
    With luck she’d be home by midnight.
    There was nothing to do now but wait—wait for five minutes, then Michael would take off; wait for another thirty seconds, then she’d take off. Wait and hope that another car didn’t come along and screw things up.
     
    SHE SHIFTED IN HER SEAT and tried to clear her head.
    Tomorrow morning would be busy.
    Russell Travis, the horniest man on the face of the earth, wanted to meet her for an early breakfast at the Brown Palace, ostensibly to discuss his case. He put in the infrastructure for an upscale residential subdivision and then enticed five builders to construct spec houses, at their cost, with an understanding that anyone who bought