InSight

better.”
    Abby restrained the temptation to tell Lucy everything. Why frighten her more?
    Then a tap sounded on the driver’s side window. “Are you two all right?” a man’s voice asked. Lucy lowered her window. “That guy was nuts,” he said. Then another voice asked how they were, and another.
    “We’re fine,” Abby answered. “Did you get the make of the car or the license plate?”
    “It was a black SUV, a Lincoln, but I didn’t get the plate.”
    “Did you see the driver?” Abby persisted.
    “No, the car had tinted windows. Do you want me to call the police?”
    “I already called when I saw him trying to push them off the road,” another voice said.
    “I don’t know what they can do now,” Abby said. “He’s long gone.”
    “Where’s a cop when you need one?” one man said. “I got a ticket for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, and here’s a guy running someone off the road, and no one sees.”
    Lucy got out. “How badly is my car damaged?”
    “Just the bumper,” the man said. “Taillights, too. Nothing that can’t be fixed. You’re lucky it isn’t worse.”
    The other man came around to Abby’s window. “A police car is pulling up now,” he said. “Are you sure you’re all right, miss? Anything I can do?”
    “No. Thanks.”
    “I wish I saw the license plate, but I was two cars behind.”
    “I wish you did too, but thanks for stopping.”
    The police officer came to her window and asked if she was okay
    “A little shaken, but otherwise, fine.”
    “I radioed in to watch out for a black Lincoln Navigator, but with no license plate or other identification, it’d be hard to stop anyone.”
    “He hit us. He’d have a dent in the front of his car.”
    “I’ll radio that in. Anyone you know might want to hurt you or your mother?”
    Abby hesitated. “No one I know.” That was the truth. When he walked off, she pulled her cell from her purse and called the vet to tell him she’d be late.
    After a while, Lucy got back in the car , put her hand on Abby’s shoulder. “You’re sure you’re okay, honey?”
    “I’m fine.”
    “That guy was probably some redneck out to intimidate two women alone.”
    Abby knew he was anything but.
    “The officer was so nice. I filled out the information. Good thing those two men in back stopped and told him what happened.”
    “I called Dr. Daniel. He said he’d wait. Take your time. You’ve had a scare.”
    “You too.”
    Yes, she had a scare. If only she knew why someone was doing this to her. She took a couple of deep breaths. They got to the vet’s office without incident. Lucy led her inside. “Thanks for waiting, Harry,” Abby said when the vet greeted her.
    “I would have waited even if you hadn’t called,” he said. “I figured if you were late, you had a good reason.”
    Lucy started to rattle off what happened, when the tech brought out Daisy. She jumped all over Abby, eager to be her eyes again, to be her best friend. Abby crouched and rubbed her dog’s neck. Daisy wiggled her excitement.
    “Hey, girl.” Abby and Daisy had connected immediately. Her guide dog sensed Abby’s needs in inexplicable ways, almost as if she were inside her head, reading her mind.
    “She’ll be fine, Abby,” Harry said.
    “Thank God. Send the bill to my office.” They said their goodbyes, and Lucy dropped them off at home. After their near-death experience, neither felt like dinner. Abby wanted to ask her to check the house, but then Lucy would know something more was going on than a crazy driver with road rage. She opened the door and listened for a minute before entering.
    Tonight, only the steady hum of the refrigerator broke the silence. Any doubts and Daisy dispelled them when Abby undid her harness and Daisy went to her water bowl and slurped.
    When Luke still hadn’t called after that night or the next, Abby acknowledged what she said to Lucy was true. She was afraid of losing Luke—terrified, in fact. It had taken so long to share any part of her life, she was now panicked she might lose someone she wasn’t sure was hers to lose. Had prying into his life scared him away? A sickening sensation shot through her at the thought.
    But not as sickening as the glass-shattering sound of something crashing through her front window, tipping over whatever it hit on the way down.

Chapter Thirteen
    Shock Wave

    A bby pulled out her phone and punched a shaky finger onto Pete’s speed dial number.
    “I’ll be