in Casey’s hearing.
But Casey’s lawyers hadn’t trusted the woman, even at the beginning. In fact, they’d gone so far as to call her a slimy, bottom-dwelling, daughter-of-a-snake cannibal. And that was just for starters.
Casey had wanted to believe the best. Had actually been in too much shock and misery from the loss of her family, not to mention her own injuries, to notice when Dottie said things that might’ve been out of line. Such as suggesting it would be easier for Casey to just forget the whole thing and go on with her life, rather than fight the fight with Pegasus.
Casey hadn’t wanted to fight the fight. Had sincerely thought it would be best to leave it all, so she could just fade away, spending her days in the darkness of her bedroom, with her blanket over her head. But her lawyers hadn’t felt that way. Neither had Ricky, or her mother. They said she had to keep her head up. Go on with it all to show Pegasus that they couldn’t get away with their faulty mechanics. To keep anyone else from losing their family.
But Casey could honestly say she hadn’t cared at the time. Hadn’t cared that an entire fleet of hybrid cars and the people in them were headed for catastrophe. She didn’t care about anything at that point, other than the fact that she was alive, and didn’t want to be. In fact, she wasn’t convinced any car other than hers had had the same problem. Hers was a freak. An almost impossibility. Dottie Spears had told her so.
But as the months went on, as Ricky and her mother forced her to survive, she began to realize that something wasn’t right. The CEO of the company who killed her family shouldn’t be allowed to come to Casey’s house whenever she wanted, bearing plates of cookies. Sure, there was the possibility the woman actually cared, but as time went on Casey could see the reality of that was even more remote than the chance her car really was the only faulty one.
Casey finally agreed to take them on.
It wasn’t pretty. None of it was. Dottie Spears’ change from sympathetic friend to lethal opponent was so fierce it gave Casey nightmares. As if she needed any more of those. At least these involved claws and teeth, rather than flames and explosions and the screams of loved ones.
Casey didn’t want to go to court. Didn’t want photographs of her mutilated husband and son plastered across the courtroom, and therefore the nightly news. Didn’t want her family to become the poster children of vehicles gone awry. Didn’t want to sit in the witness stand at the mercy of Dottie and her legions of lawyers, who claimed Reuben had been drinking too much before they’d gone to pick up Omar that night…
She also didn’t want to look like the crazy woman, going after a scapegoat Pegasus for millions to make up for her dead family. Because nothing could make that up. And nothing is what would happen if she came off looking like a money-hungry bitch.
So they’d fought it in boardrooms. Closed doors, keeping out the media. Hammering away at a resolution that should please them all. All except Casey, who would be pleased only when she received a pass to that eternal haven, where she would meet up with Reuben and Omar.
She hadn’t gotten that.
Casey, now back at the library under stick-thin librarian Stacy’s watchful eye, had forced herself to return to the Pegasus web site. Not that they would have anything worthwhile there. She would have to look elsewhere for whatever had spurred Dottie Spears’ visit to Ricky. The woman still looked the same…if the on-line photo was up- to-date. The same as yesterday. The same as every day Casey looked.
Shaking her head, she brought up a search engine and typed in “Pegasus,” plus the date. If anything new was happening, it should be in the day’s news. She scrolled through the hits. Stock prices—still growing. Car dealerships—mostly the company’s own, with their trademark “personal green touch.” A question and answer site, where Pegasus owners took turns praising and criticizing their new rides. Nothing controversial, that Casey could find. Nothing new.
She expanded her search to include the entire month of September and received more of the same. Paging down, she scanned the headlines, looking for anything different, anything other than the Pegasus propaganda and useless “how do I take out the middle drink tray to clean it” questions.
She found it on page four. “Man Dies in Fatal Crash.” Pulse pounding in her temple, she read the article, which described the fiery inferno that engulfed a fifty-two-year-old man on his way home from work in Clear Lake, Iowa. He was driving a Pegasus car, same model and year as Casey’s had been. He left a wife and two college-aged children, and had been a large-animal veterinarian.
Casey laid her face on her fists, her breath coming in short, shallow gulps. How could this happen? Pegasus was supposed to—
“Everything okay?”
Casey’s breath caught, and she rounded on the person at the next computer, her voice a hiss. “No, everything is not okay!”
Death glanced around, eyebrows raised, before leaning toward Casey. “So you found it?”
Casey jabbed a finger at the article. “How long have you known about this?”
“Let’s see, when did it happen?” Death looked at the computer screen. “Two weeks ago Thursday, right? Yes. I’ve known since then.”
Casey turned back to her computer and closed her eyes. “You kept this from me—”
“Ma’am?” Stacy the Librarian hovered at her elbow. “Um, is everything all right?”
Casey took a deep breath and let it out before looking up at him. “I’m sorry. I just found out some…bad news.”
“Oh.” He looked at the computer screen. “Anything I can help with?”
“No.”
He backed up a short step.
“No, I’m sorry.” Casey held up her hand. “But thank you. I’m…fine. I’ll go in a minute.”
Relief washed over his features, quickly replaced by a professional mask of helpfulness. “Okay. Well, let me know if I can do anything for you.”
“I will.”
She watched from the corner of her eye as he made his way back to his desk, and avoided his gaze as he glanced back at her.
“You get me in more trouble…” She talked without moving her lips.
But Death was gone.
Casey found the “forward this article” button and e-mailed it to Ricky. He needed to know Pegasus had fresh worries. And had possibly violated the agreement they’d hashed out in those boardrooms so long ago.
Chapter Nineteen
“They were supposed to fix those cars, Don,” Casey said. “Every one.”
“I know.” Her lawyer’s voice was even and quiet. “It was my understanding they did.”
“Well, apparently they missed one. And the guy’s dead.”
“Okay. Tell me where to find the information.”
Casey did. “It shouldn’t have happened, Don.”
“No. No, it shouldn’t have.” Casey could hear him ruffling some papers. “I’ll make some inquiries.”
“Have they been there?”
“Who?”
“The Pegasus people. Have they been bothering you?”
“No.” He sounded surprised. “Why would they?”
“Because they’re trying to find me. They won’t leave Ricky alone. And I’m afraid they’ll go after my mother.”
“What are they doing?” Don’s voice wasn’t so quiet now. “It was part of the agreement. No contact. You would both keep up your end of the settlement, and that was supposed to be that.”
“Yeah, but the agreement just talked about me. No contact with me. It didn’t say anything about Ricky or my mom.”
