An Accidental Murder
Chapter One
Roar.
I looked up from the mannequin I was positioning in my shop window to see a car flying through the intersection in downtown Cascade. To my horror, I saw that the sedan was headed straight for a woman in the crosswalk directly in front of my store. I heard the squeal of brakes, the crash as the car hit a parked vehicle, and then another squeal as it backed up and sped away, leaving destruction in its wake. All the while, my gaze never left the person who had leaped out of the way just in time to avoid being struck and possibly killed.
I jumped up from the floor of the window display and rushed out to the sidewalk to see if I could help. I hurried up to the woman and gasped as I realized it was my old friend Kay lying there with blood pouring out of her hands and a nasty cut above her eye.
“Oh my gosh, Kay, are you hurt badly? Should I call an ambulance?” I hurried to help her as she sat up, but when she tried to stand, I put my hand on her shoulder and pressed down gently. “You shouldn’t try to get up yet. Let the paramedics check you out first.”
“Ellen?” She looked up at me, seeming surprised that it was someone she knew.
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I nodded and gave her a tight smile.
Kay relaxed back down onto the sidewalk as we saw the ambulance pull up, along with several police cars.
The paramedics started tending to Kay, and I stood back surveying the carnage, amazed at how much damage had been done in just a few seconds. There was glass all over the road, and bits of twisted metal that must have come off one of the cars littered the area. The parked vehicle had its tires on one side pushed up onto the sidewalk. My heart went out to the owner. Imagine parking your car and coming out to find it severely damaged. They were going to have a hefty repair bill if it wasn’t totaled.
It had been pushed into one of the planters and knocked it over. The planters lined the street with small Christmas trees in them, so the damaged planter had left broken glass Christmas tree balls and lights all over the sidewalk in front of my store. As I stepped back, my heel caught on one of the ornaments that was still intact, and I would have fallen if an arm hadn’t reached out to steady me in time.
I looked up to see a tall, muscular man with salt-and-pepper hair and piercing blue eyes scanning me. “Are you hurt, Ellen?”
“No, Jim, I’m fine. Just stepped on a ball off the downed Christmas tree.” The Cascade Police Chief, James Andrews, and I had met a couple of months ago when I found a body in the woods in a nearby park. “I’m much more worried about Kay. That was a nasty fall she took to avoid being run over by the car.”
“Kay?” He raised his eyebrows inquiringly, and I gestured to my friend, who was being tended to by the paramedics.
“Kay Price is the woman the car almost hit.” I shuddered, thinking about what could have happened.
“So, you saw the accident?” he asked, bringing me back to the conversation.
I nodded. “I was working on my window for the Cascade Christmas Festival when I heard a car engine roar. I looked up just in time to see it come barreling through the intersection and nearly take Kay out. It hit the parked car and then zipped out of here as fast as it had come.”
“Do you remember what kind of car it was?” he asked as he jotted down notes on what I had said.
“I was more focused on making sure the person in the crosswalk was going to make it, but it was dark blue or black, and it sounded like a Charger or a Challenger. You know that muscle car growl they have.”
He nodded.
“I didn’t notice if it was a two-door or four-door since it went by so fast.” I frowned, trying to remember if I’d seen anything else.
“Did you get a look at who was driving?”
I shook my head. “It only took seconds, and I really was focused on Kay.”
