Page 85 of Deputy Brand Gets Her Man
“I wish it was under better circumstances. Are you up to answering a few questions about the hit and run?”
“Sure.” Elena raised her bed so she was more upright. Willow went into the room and sat down in a blue-padded chair beside the bed. There were flower arrangements on the windowsill, and get-well cards thumbtacked to a cork board opposite the bed. She didn’t have an IV or anything.
“You were contesting your birth father, Vincent de Lorean’s will, correct?”
Her dark brows came together. “What?”
“Um, yes, Vincent de Lorean, your birth father? The records show you contested his will.”
“No, no, that’s a mistake. I didn’t know who my father was until night before last.” She shook her head rapidly. “I was so in my head about it, I think that’s why I didn’t see the truck that hit me.”
“So you blame yourself for the accident?”
She nodded. Then she stopped nodding and frowned, and then said, “Well, it did seem like they were way too far to the right, you know? Almost like it veered toward me.”
“It veered toward you.”
“Yeah. I figured there was something in the road, a squirrel or something.”
“So you got a look at the vehicle?”
She nodded. “Rusty yellow pickup truck. Three guys in it, two in the front and one in the back.”
“Son of a?—”
“What?” Elena looked alarmed.
“Nothing. No, all good.”
“Good.”
“But about the will?—”
“I’m telling you, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Please, explain it to me.”
Willow nodded slowly. “Ethan was the sole heir to de Lorean’s fortune—or what the government left of it, which is significant. Ethan refused it so it all went to Jeremiah. However, it’s been held up because an unnamed person contested the will, a person we found out yesterday was another of de Lorean’s offspring, one Elena Montrose. You were awarded several million dollars yesterday.”
She blinked as if Willow were speaking gibberish. “I promise you, I wasn’t. And none of this makes any sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Willow said. “But it will. I have a call in to the lawyer representing you. Several calls actually. In the meantime, I’m gonna talk to the fellas who ran you down.”
“You mean you know who it is?”
“I have a pretty good idea. I’m fixin to have El Paso PD put an officer on your door, just as a precaution. Don’t let it scare you.”
“Too late,” she said. Her face had changed. Her eyes were wider, her full lips parted. “Do you think somebody ran me down on purpose?”
“I just think it’s a heckuva a coincidence that you were awarded a huge sum and hit by a truck in the same day, is all. I mean, it could be a coincidence, but it can’t hurt to take precautions, can it?”
Her eyes shifted lower, to Willow’s badge, and then she frowned. “The other cop didn’t mention any of that.”
She shrugged. “Let me get on this. I’ll keep you posted, okay? Here’s my number. If you need anything call me. I mean it.” She fished a card from her pocket, scribbled her personal cell number on the back, and set it on the tray table.
“Thanks, Willow.” She looked at the door. “Am I…safe? There’s no officer out there yet.”
“Yeah, there is. He’s at the nurses’ desk pleading for coffee. You’re safe. Besides, it’s just precaution. Okay?”
“Yeah, okay.”
