A state patrol supervisor called back. Unlike the local sheriff's office, he wanted details before making promises. Jack answered what he could and acknowledged what he did not know. Chloe listened to the conversation with an unfamiliar feeling rising in her chest. Someone was taking notes about Richard as a suspect instead of taking notes about her as a troublesome girl.
Miller retrieved a heavy blanket from a saddlebag and wrapped it around Chloe's shoulders. He helped her sit on the folding stool again, leaving enough space that she did not feel confined. A rider named Tess, who had come with the group as a medic and family friend, checked Chloe's condition and asked whether she had trouble breathing. Chloe admitted that her ribs hurt and that she was dizzy. Tess advised an urgent examination as soon as emergency medical help arrived, then made certain Chloe had water and did not feel obligated to answer questions faster than she could manage.
For nearly forty minutes, the desert remained filled with an uneasy stillness. Richard muttered accusations and bargaining promises, alternately demanding a lawyer and swearing he could lead investigators to the sheriff's records. Jack gave him water and refused every suggestion from the angrier riders that they should make him suffer while they waited. The kindness angered Chloe for a moment because Richard had never shown her the same consideration. Then she understood it was not kindness for Richard's sake. It was a refusal to let him decide the moral terms of the night.
Far away, sirens began to rise. Chloe's body tensed before she could control it. Jack heard the sound too and looked down the road, his face grim but steady. "Those are the people we asked for," he told her. "They're not here to hand you back. You get to speak for yourself."
The first arriving vehicle belonged to the state highway patrol. Two troopers stepped out, wearing the cautious expressions of officers who had received an extraordinary report and were now confronted with a roadside scene even stranger than the dispatcher had described. Behind them came an ambulance and an unmarked SUV carrying investigators from outside the local department. The officers asked everyone to step back, separated Richard from the witnesses, secured their own perimeter, and began documenting the motorcycle without moving it. Jack cooperated, though not every rider found it easy to watch him do so.
Chloe watched the troopers take Richard away from the cruiser. He tried to speak to the senior officer first, the way he always did when a uniform entered a room. But the trooper asked him to stop talking until the situation had been sorted out and immediately moved him away from Chloe. The simple act of creating distance left her shaking. It was the first time she could remember a uniformed officer placing her safety above Richard's convenience.