Chapter 14 - Mile Marker 14
The scream of the patrol car’s siren tore through the humid Pennsylvania night, slicing open the heavy silence that had fallen over the porch only seconds before. Detective Ruiz barely had time to open the passenger door before Julian grabbed my hand, pulling me into the back seat of the cruiser. Evelyn Vance slid into the front passenger seat, clutching the leather trust dossier tightly against her chest.
"Stay back, Elaine, you don't have to see this," Julian whispered, his fingers interlacing with mine, warm and steady against the ice spreading through my veins.
"No," I said, my voice firmer than I thought possible. "For twenty-six years, she orchestrated every nightmare in my life behind closed doors. If this is where her curtain falls, I want to look it in the eye."
We reached Mile Marker 14 within seven minutes. The scene looked like a war zone painted in flashing crimson and strobe-blue. The heavy county transport van had swerved off the shoulder, its front bumper crumpled against a steel guardrail. Two state trooper cruisers had blocked both lanes of the turnpike.
Through the pouring rain, I saw the rear doors of the ambulance flung wide open. Two paramedics were kneeling inside, their arms rising and falling rhythmically as they performed CPR on the gurney.
Detective Ruiz jumped out before the car had completely halted, his badge held high as he sprinted into the rain. Julian and I followed under the blinding glare of the spotlights.
"What do we have?" Ruiz shouted over the engine roar.
"Pulse is erratic! We got a faint rhythm back after the third shock, but her potassium levels spiked dangerously within minutes of departure," a female paramedic gasped, sweat dripping from her forehead beneath her visor. "Someone introduced a concentrated paralytic agent directly into the secondary port of the IV bag before we left the staging area. The safety seal was punctured with a micro-gauge needle."
I stepped closer to the open doors. Bernice lay on the narrow stretcher, stripped of the regal vanity she had worn like armor my entire life. Her perfectly coiffed silver hair was matted with sweat; her lips were tinged a terrible, ghostly violet. The woman who had sneered as my silk wedding gown burned to cinders was now fighting for a single breath of air through a plastic tube.
"Did anyone approach the transport before departure?" Ruiz barked at the driver, who stood trembling by the guardrail.
"Only... only the family liaison," the driver stammered, pulling off his soaked cap. "A young man. Well-dressed. He showed a power of attorney card and said he needed to hand her an asthma inhaler she left at the precinct. He was only inside the cabin for twenty seconds!"
A cold drop of rain ran down my neck. Julian pulled me against his shoulder, his jaw tightening into iron.
"Sterling," I whispered.
May you like
Ruiz cursed under his breath, reaching for his radio. "Dispatch, issue an immediate BOLO for Sterling Vance. Suspect is armed, dangerous, and believed to have attempted murder of a state witness."
***
