Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 82282 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82282 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 411(@200wpm)___ 329(@250wpm)___ 274(@300wpm)
It rankled, and I was tired of it.
So I’d come to Benton. The smallest town I could find that was hiring at the time.
It was the best decision of my life.
“It was lots of fun for everyone but the police. It got old really fast. Trust me.” I said, releasing her and heading to the cabinet for plates.
She must’ve heard the underlying tone of sadness and shame in my voice. Viddy was perceptive as hell, and her next question brought me back to the nightmare that ended my time in Las Vegas. Making it come to a screeching halt so fast my head spun.
“Why’d you move here from Las Vegas? Seems like a drastic change.” Viddy said into the darkness.
The plates that were in my hands were set gently on the counter, and I planted my hands on the counter, letting my head hang in defeat. My biggest regret. The one I didn’t save.
“One case got to me, and I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I needed to escape somewhere that didn’t have so much heartache attached to it. Not quite so much drama.”
“Will you tell me about it?” Viddy asked, laying her head against my chest.
The story came out of me. Pouring like acid out of my throat.
***
I was headed to lunch.
I hated eating out, but at least Subway was one of the healthier choices.
To get to Subway from where I was at, I had two options. One was to go the short way and cut through the heart of Las Vegas, and the other was to cross over a large bridge that looped around the city.
Normally, I’d go through the city, but I wasn’t up to pulling anybody over. It was inevitable. Every single time. Instead, I pulled onto the street that looped around, and started driving. It’d been a long day, and I was tired. I just wanted to get home.
Of course, nothing ever works out the way it’s supposed to.
Never.
I looked up when I noticed a large SUV barreling down on me. Since I was going nearly ten under the speed limit, I didn’t give it a second thought when the woman passed me.
Sure, it was unusual for anyone to pass a cop, but I liked it when people drove normally around me. It was very trying when all I had to do was pull up behind someone for them to start driving as perfect as they could. Like it’s not obvious to me that the only reason they’re going two under the speed limit is that they saw me.
And yes, when you stare straight ahead and refuse to make eye contact with the cop, it only makes us more suspicious.
I had to smile as the woman passed. It was a breath of fresh air; it took guts to pass a cop, no matter what the situation.
It didn’t take long before the woman was around the bend, and I could no longer see her car.
I drove for another five minutes before I came to the bridge...and the SUV that had passed me.
At an odd angle at the side of the road, I pulled over with a sigh.
Like I said, nothing was ever easy. Everything that happened in life had an opposite reaction. I liked to think that things happened for a reason, and by me taking this way, fate had tried to intercept what was about to happen.
Getting out of the car, I opened the door for Radar, and we went to check the vehicle out.
The SUV’s engine was off, the soft click-click of the let me know that it hadn’t been off for long, otherwise that wouldn’t be happening.
Doing a quick peek in the windows and finding nothing, I started scanning the area.
“Ma’am?” I called out.
With no answer, I continued to move forward until I was within ten feet of the bridge.
When I saw it, my eyes didn’t completely understand.
It took a few swings of the body hanging from the rope for me to fully comprehend what had happened, and I started running.
The woman on the other end of the noose wasn’t struggling.
When I got to the rope, I started pulling the rope up hand over hand.
I didn’t have any other option since the alternative was cutting the rope and losing her to the gorge down below.
I thanked God the woman was on the smaller side; otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to get her up by myself. With quick, efficient pulls, I had her up and over the bridge within moments, laying her limp body down on the hot asphalt.
After requesting a medic, I felt for a pulse and didn’t find one.
That’s when I started CPR.
By the time the ambulance showed, my muscles burned from the exertion, and I was sweating like a pig in the late afternoon sun.
“Take over compressions. I’ll tube her.” One medic said to another.
I moved, reluctantly, to let them do their job, but I had zero hope.
The woman was dead. There was no other explanation for it. She was stiff as a goddamned board. After nearly fifteen minutes of CPR and no pulse, I was fairly sure she wouldn’t be coming back.
I’d worked a lot of cases with dead people, and there was just no way.
***
“My fears were confirmed twenty minutes later when I called to check on the patient and they told me she didn’t make it. Her neck had been broken with the impact of the fall.” I said woodenly. “When I performed a search of her vehicle, I found a medal of honor, and a note. The note said that she’d gotten the news that her husband was never coming home from the war. That he’d died in a roadside bomb. She said she couldn’t live without him; that she never wanted to¸ and she decided to join him in the afterlife. That she loved him too much to live without him anymore.”
“That’s just horrible. Oh, God. How dreadful.” Viddy whispered sadly.
It was horrible. The whole thing was just a completely gut-wrenching situation. One that tanked my career in Las Vegas so completely that I’d been jaded ever since.