purse and call for help.
Still, if she didn’t do something quickly she knew that the woman would be strangled to death. She opened her car door and stepped halfway out.
“Hey,” she cried out. “Hey, you, let her go!”
At that moment the woman fell to the ground in a boneless drop that made Nina realize it was too late, the woman was definitely unconscious or possibly dead. As the man raised his head and stared at her, Nina’s heartbeat raced with a frantic rhythm.
He started toward her, and she nearly stumbled as she got back into her car and locked the doors. She had to get out of here and fast. Her heart nearly halted as she realized her car had stopped running.
“Come on, come on,” she cried as she turned the key and heard the familiar grinding noise. She glanced out the window to see that the man was getting closer...closer.
“Please,” she begged as she pumped the gas and tried to start the car again, knowing that if she didn’t get rolling she was a sitting duck for a man who had just possibly committed a murder right in front of her eyes.
Terrified, sobbing gasps escaped Nina, and she cried out in relief as headlights appeared from a car coming from the opposite direction on the road. Maybe the presence of another car, of other people, would stop the man and save her.
Her engine finally started. For a single instant her gaze caught the killer’s, his cold and glittering with unsuppressed rage.
She threw her car into gear and spun out, nearly losing control of it in an effort to escape the scene. She sped down the residential road, passing Grace’s house as she continued to play and replay in her mind what had just happened, what she had just seen.
She needed to get to the police station. Maybe the woman on the ground wasn’t really dead, but had just been strangled to unconsciousness. If Nina got help soon enough, maybe she could still be saved.
Surely the man had run from the scene when he’d seen the other car coming and knew that if he stuck around, there would be more witnesses to what he had done.
A glance in her rearview mirror showed no car pursuing her. She hadn’t even seen a vehicle near the corner where the man might have come from, but she’d been riveted to the struggle, not looking for nearby cars.
It took her only minutes to pull onto Main Street and squeal to a halt in front of the police station. She jumped out of the car and raced inside, still crying with shock and fear.
She flew past Glenda McDonald, who worked the night shift at the front desk. “Hey, wait,” Glenda yelled in protest as Nina burst through the door that led into the inner sanctum of the station.
Flint appeared seemingly from nowhere and grabbed her by the shoulders. “Nina, what’s wrong?” he asked urgently.
“I...I think I just saw a murder.” She was once again overwhelmed by sobs as she tried to choke out what had happened. She was vaguely aware of Officer Mike Harriman moving closer to where they stood with Flint still firmly grasping her.
She feared that if he released his hold on her, she’d fall to the floor as her legs shook so badly beneath her, and she couldn’t halt the violent trembling of her entire body.
“Where did this happen?” Flint asked, his handsome features tense, and his green eyes piercing as he stared at her intently.
“At the corner of Cherry and Oak Street. I was on my way to Grace Willard’s house when I saw them struggling near the streetlight. I think he killed her, Flint. I think she was dead when I drove off.”
Flint gave a nod to Mike, who immediately left, taking with him Officer Sam Blair. Flint guided Nina to a chair and gently pushed her to sit. He knelt down to one knee, his calm demeanor a counter to the terror that still screamed silently inside her.
He didn’t speak for several moments, and she finally stopped crying and felt his calm slowly sweeping through her. Even the scent of his woodsy cologne smelled of safety.
“Better?” he asked.
She nodded and released a deep sigh. “A little better.”
“Good. I need you to be as clearheaded as possible and answer some questions for me.” He stood and grabbed a chair from a nearby desk and pulled it in front of her. He sat close, his knees almost touching hers. “What did the man look like?”
Nina frowned, trying to fight the fear that leaped back into her throat as she thought about the man she’d seen. “He was dressed all in black, and he had dark hair and evil, glittering eyes.”
“What color eyes?”
“I’m not sure. I think they were dark, but the lighting was bad.”
“Was he young or old?”
“Maybe late twenties or early thirties,” she replied.
“What kind of build? Tall...short...skinny?” Flint’s gaze never left hers. She hadn’t noticed before that his green eyes held a faint touch of gold right in the center, along with a sharp focus that made it appear he was looking not just at her, but rather into her very soul.
She finally broke their gaze, looking down at her trembling hands in her lap. “He was tall and had a muscular build.” A sob welled up, and she swallowed hard against it as she remembered the sight of his arm muscles bulging, his taut neck muscles as he pulled the rope so tight against the woman’s throat.
“Sounds like Bittard. Was it Hank?”
Nina shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know...maybe. It was dark and everything happened so fast. I didn’t get a solid look at him. Plus, I’ve only seen Hank a couple of times and that was before he murdered Donny Gilmore at the gas station. Hank never came into the diner so I only saw him from a distance. That, plus his mug shot.”
The conversation was interrupted by the ring of Flint’s cell phone in his pocket. He grabbed the phone and stood, walking away from where Nina sat as he answered.
Nina tracked him with her eyes, afraid that if she didn’t look at him she’d fall back into the utter terror that had momentarily gripped her and still simmered just beneath the surface.
Flint was on the phone only a minute or two and then he came back to her and sat once again, his face a study in both weariness and a simmering anger.
“It had to have been Bittard. The woman is Jolene Tate, and she is dead.”
Nina gasped, and tears rose to her eyes once again. “Why would he kill her?”
“She was Hank’s off-and-on girlfriend and was at the Dead River Gas Station the night Hank killed Donny. She was a key eyewitness to the murder and intended to testify against Hank.”
He slammed a fist against his thigh. “Dammit, I should have insisted she go into protective custody when Hank escaped, but she wanted nothing to do with it and refused to even talk about it.” He rubbed the center of his forehead, as if attempting to ease a headache. “Did he see you? Did the man you saw strangle Jolene get a good look at you?”
Nina raised a hand to her throat, a new fear searing through her. “I...I don’t know. I mean, I can’t be sure how well he saw me. He was more in the light than I was, but I’m not sure if he recognized me or not. I’m not sure even if he got a good look at me that he would know who I was.”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “I should have done something more. I should have done something to help her.”
“You did the right thing in getting out of there and coming right here,” Flint said. “We shouldn’t take any chances and assume that he didn’t recognize you. You need to be in protective custody.”
“Protective custody?” She repeated the words mindlessly.