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I'm looking for a particular short story about a hot rod that speeds along the back country roads at night, and the local sheriff's department keeps setting up these ever more elaborate traps to catch the driver, but always fails.

The short story goes back and forth regarding the time period, some of which is current, and some flashbacks are recent history. I recall details about the car: it's a hand-built hot rod, fixed up by a teenage boy who's a loner. The car is painted strawberry red with gold metal flake or veining. Police can't catch the car that runs at high speeds along the back roads, because it always disappears before the trap they set.

The story is written in the PoV of a reporter on assignment for the story. Police traps get more and more elaborate, but they can't catch the driver. The boy's girlfriend is sickly, and they just disappear one day. The families believe they just ran away together. The epilogue by the reporter gives details about the car eventually being found in a canal with two skeletons in it, but writes about the police still trying to catch the midnight driver.

I've been looking for this story for years, and I am starting to think I've made it all up because I can't find it!! Please help!

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  • Hi, welcome to the site. In roughly which year did you read this and when do you think it might've been published? Also, did you read it in an anthology, a magazine, or online?
    – LogicDictates
    Commented Sep 28, 2023 at 14:13
  • What's science fiction about this story?
    – DavidW
    Commented Sep 28, 2023 at 14:15
  • 1
    @DavidW nothing. It's a ghost story.
    – Organic Marble
    Commented Sep 28, 2023 at 14:30
  • 1
    You can accept a correct answer by clicking on the checkmark by the voting buttons, as per the tour.
    – FuzzyBoots
    Commented Sep 28, 2023 at 14:43

1 Answer 1

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This is "The Legend of Joe Lee" by John D. MacDonald.

I read it in Judy Merrill's 1965 collection "10th Annual Edition: The Year's Best SF"

The story is written in the PoV of a reporter on assignment for the story.

"I had come over from Lauderdale on the half chance of a human interest story..."

The epilogue by the reporter gives details about the car eventually being found in a canal with two skeletons in it, but writes about the police still trying to catch the midnight driver.

"...I saw, through a smeared window, the two huddled masses, the slumped boy and girl, side by side, still belted in."

The car is painted strawberry red with gold metal flake or veining.

It ends: "Strawberry red. Flecked with gold."

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