Sue steps out of the car again and sees the cop signaling his partner without taking his eyes off her. A moment later the other cop is out with his flashlight aimed into the Expedition, following the bloodstains across the upholstery.
"Ma'am, what happened here?"
"The deer, when I hit it…" She falters and gives up, unable to weave even the most rudimentary strands of the story together. "Please, can't you just let me go? I have to get my daughter."
Neither of them answers her. The first cop circles around the back and Sue sees him shining a light down inside, then opening the door. There's a rustle of blankets being pulled aside. Then an awful, staring silence.
"Jesus H. Christ."
The second cop, standing in front of her, reacts immediately to the alarm in his partner's voice, glancing over his shoulder. "Rich? What's going on?"
"Cuff her."
The second cop frowns, straining to see beyond the bloodstained backseat without turning completely away from Sue. "What is it? What's back there?"
"Cuff her, cuff her now!"
The urgency in his voice is contagious and for an instant Sue is irrationally compelled to make a run for it, jump back in the Expedition and go screaming off into the night. Of course this is idiotic, only morons try to outrun cops, and morons with dead bodies in the backnever get away. Besides, the second cop is already turning her around, pulling her arms together, tightening cold steel at her wrists. He leads her around the back of the Expedition and Sue watches him join his partner, both of them shining their lights down on Marilyn's corpse sprawled on its back, mouth open, eyeless sockets facing up.
"Holy fuck."
"Yeah."
"Holyfuck. "
Without speaking another word to Sue, the second cop takes her back to the cruiser. Inside it's warm and smells like coffee. She steals a glimpse at the dashboard clock, feeling the minutes flash by. She tries not to think about this but knows she can't help it. Where has the time gone? The night which just moments ago seemed endless is already draining away from her at an alarming speed, and Veda is that much closer to dying.
Eventually another cruiser pulls up, along with an ambulance and a tow truck. An unmarked sedan is the last car to arrive and she sees an older man with a beard step out, wearing a parka and holding a cup of coffee. He talks to the cops, looks in the back of the Expedition, then glances in Sue's direction. She watches as he scratches his beard and gets back in his car. The tow truck driver hooks the Expedition to the winch, and the others all return to their cars. The whole process takes a little over twenty minutes.
The sedan leads the procession back to town, followed by the ambulance, the other cruiser, and the tow truck hauling the Expedition. The two cops and Sue bring up the rear. They drive in silence for several minutes until, up ahead, Sue sees the sign along the side of the road: