Wreckage: A Nadine Harrow Mystery

Written for Crispina’s
Crimson’s Creative Challenge

Detective Nadine Harrow pushed through the dense undergrowth, thorns catching her sleeve, until the red paint stopped her cold. The victim’s Alfa Romeo …. nose-down in the treetops, cradled by hazel and bramble, like Mother Nature’s woods had been waiting for it with open arms.

No skid marks on the road above. The Alfa hadn’t crashed here; it had been deliberately driven off the embankment and into cover.

Nadine circled to the driver’s door, hanging open at an angle that made her stomach turn. Empty. There was blood on the seatbelt buckle, drying, but no body.

So someone had walked away …. or was picked up. Injured, maybe …. that blood wasn’t nothing …. but if they were on their feet and thinking clearly enough to hide a car, they could still be in the area.

Nadine looked up through the canopy at the strip of sky. Whoever did this knew these woods. Which meant they probably knew where to hide out and hadn’t gone far at all.

She radioed Jeffries back at the footbridge to inspect the road above for the possibility of a get-away car. She removed her gun from its shoulder holster, and took her first steps deeper into the woods.

NAR©2026

This is “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked” by Cage The Elephant

Crimson’s Creative Challenge #101

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