“Is Emily’s car still there?” Hawk asked.
A long silence followed.
“It’s scheduled for destruction Friday.”
“Why so soon?”
“I don’t know.”
“I need to see it tonight.”
“Hawk, that vehicle is evidence.”
“The case is closed.”
Carl sighed.
“Give me forty minutes.”
The riders left Leo at the garage with Miriam, Marcus’s wife, who brought him clean clothes and a bowl of soup. Hawk promised the boy he would return.
“You believe me?” Leo asked.
Hawk placed one hand on his shoulder.
“My daughter trusted you. So do I.”
The county storage yard stood behind two high fences on the industrial edge of Ridgewood. Carl unlocked a side gate after checking the road to ensure nobody was watching.
He led Hawk and Marcus toward a tarped vehicle in the far corner.
“I never saw the body,” Carl admitted. “Outside officials removed it before the car arrived.”
“What outside officials?”
“They didn’t identify themselves to me.”
Carl pulled the tarp away.
The burned sedan looked like a blackened skeleton beneath the yard lights. Most of the passenger compartment had been destroyed, yet the fire damage appeared strangely uneven.
Marcus walked around the wreck.
“The driver’s door isn’t crushed.”
Hawk examined the steering wheel. Despite the reported intensity of the fire, part of it remained almost untouched.
“Could someone have exited before the fire?” he asked.
Carl nodded slowly. “Easily.”
Hawk leaned through the broken passenger window.
Beneath the seat frame, something reflected the overhead light. He reached through twisted metal and pulled out a damaged cell phone.
The case carried a faded mountain sticker.
Emily had placed that sticker there during a hiking trip with friends.