Police
Sergeant Paul Carbon went outside for the paper.
“It looks like rain.”
Rain
clouds were stalled over the roof of his life these past months. Several months
ago his wife of twenty-eight years had died. Since then, the washer and dishwasher
both had quit working. The roof was leaking. He was learning to cook, but half
the meals he fixed weren’t fit for dog food. He depended on the dry cleaners to
wash or clean and press his uniforms. That didn’t leave much money to eat in
restaurants. He poured dry cereal into a bowl, then discovered that there
wasn’t any milk in the refrigerator.
Just
then the phone rang. It was Marge, the dispatcher.
“Paul,
I know that you aren’t scheduled to come on duty for more than half an hour,
but we have the report of an auto collision at the intersection of Maplewood
and Trace. The other squad cars are either out on call or not answering. Would
you cover it? I’ve already called the ambulance and it is on its way.”
Maplewood
and Trace was just six blocks away. He left the bowl of cereal untouched, put
on his duty belt with pistol and baton, and grabbed his uniform coat. As he
stepped outside, the rain was beginning..
“Great! This old
police cruiser leaks water through the side window and somehow it comes in onto
my leg and foot.”
When
he arrived at the accident scene, he saw that it was bad. One car had the hit
the other car broadside and had “T-boned” it. The paramedic came up to him.
“The
driver in that car is dead. I was waiting for you, in case you need to take
pictures. Then we’ll use cutting tools to pry the door open so we can remove
the body. The other driver is over there in that store entrance to get out of
the rain.”
“Thank
you, Steve.”
SGT
Carbon went to the patrol car for the camera and tape measure. After taking a
half dozen photos from different perspectives, he measured the distance from
the stop sign to the point of impact. Then, he walked over to where the other
driver was standing.
“Now
that you are finally here, I’ll give you my name, address, and telephone number.
Then I need to find a telephone and call my wife. She can pick me up and take
me home.”
After
taking the driver’s name, address, and phone number, SGT Carbon said,
“Tell
me what happened.”
“I
was just driving to work. I stopped at that stop sign, looked both ways, and
started off. That green car just came out of nowhere. I couldn’t stop!”
“There
are no marks indicating you tried to stop. Your car could not have reached the
speed needed to cause that much damage to the other car if you had stopped.”
“I
tell you I STOPPED!”
“A
judge will decide that. Let’s take a walk through the rain to my patrol car.
I’m placing you under arrest for vehicular manslaughter.”
