The guy down at Autos-R-Us--Joe, according to his nametag-- took one look at the tire Dillon had pulled from Ben's trunk and said,
"Dude, who slashed your tire?"
Dillon could feel Jamie go rigid beside him. "You mean the tire was cut?"
Joe narrowed his eyes. "You're telling me your tire was cut and you didn't even know it."
Jamie shook his head. "The car belonged to a friend of mine. The tire was like that when I got it."
Joe took a pen out of his pocket and pointed to the black surface. "See this gash here, on the side?"
Jamie said, "Yeah, I see it. But what does it mean?"
Dillon tuned Joe out as he gave Jamie his explanation. Dillon already knew what it meant. If Ben had run over something which caused the tire to go flat, the gash would be on the bottom, not the side.
But even
