intense red light hovering then moving towards ground quickly.

was driving home from thanksgiving dinner westward on highway 88 1-2 miles west of lockford california. the wife and i spotted a stationary red light hovering for about 1 second then rapidly descending down towards the ground. it did not make a sound or leave a smoke trail like a meteor. i grew up observing the night sky with my father who is astronomer dave barosso so i have seen my share of fireballs and large meteors. this red light was red like a flare but was not a flare as it was too big. there were no sparks or break-ups of meteor parts as would be expected. it also did not diminish as you would see when a meteor streaks across the sky and gets smaller as it travels away from you. it seemed to be within a 2 mile distance judging from how fast we were travelling and its movement. it did not travel across the sky. it appeared maybe 45 degrees above the horizon-line and went to ground in 1-2 seconds. i kept my eye on it incase there was some kind of impact or secondary flash like if it hit the ground. no flash or explosion of any kind. from our vantage point driving roughly south west, it appeared approximately due south out of the left side of our windscreen. it did not re-appear. we turned off highway 88 onto victor road heading due west about 30 seconds after sighting it placing the location of the red object roughly behind us and to the left.