Week 9: The Wreck
The red and blue glow of police lights were blaring on a cold, moonless night. Sheriff Roy Higgins took a sip of luke-warm coffee and scanned the area. This was not his first accident, by a long shot. He had been on the job, in one form or another, for about half of his life. He was a city cop in Richmond for 18 years before a bullet to his leg put him into early retirement. The injury forced him to move closer to home, so that family could help out when needed. He healed quickly and found retirement boring. After that, a couple years as a Resource Officer in his old high school convinced him that he could be doing a lot of good in Peril County as a sheriff. The locals agreed and voted him into office just over two years ago. He and his deputies have been doing what they can to keep the peace and serve the people ever since.
It was 4:18 in the morning and Sheriff Higgins was not happy about being called out so early. He was not on duty, but Deputy McElroy was out with the flu, so they were a bit short-staffed. The WEKT television truck at his crime scene also left a bad taste in his mouth. The working relationship between his department and the news crew was pretty solid, but he hated when they came to active crime scenes and had asked them several times in the past to wait until proper processing had occurred before showing up. But some rookie EMT had mentioned that there were pounds of crystal meth in the trunk of the wrecked vehicle over the radio and the station had heard it over the scanner. That’s all it took.
“Sheriff, we got a mess here,” a female voice said as Higgins exited his cruiser. He put on his hat and started walking toward the scene. Deputy Judy Watts, the only female on the force, was close on his heels. “We got 2 DB’s and a trunk full of meth. Looks like they hit a patch of black ice and slammed into the cliffside.”
“Locals?” the sheriff asked.
Deputy Watts nodded her head. “Peril County tags, but we’ve not id’d the bodies yet. EMT’s still trying to get ‘em out. Vehicle’s registered to John Anderson.
Sheriff Higgins laughed dryly. “Well, check for lumps a’coal. Might be a diamond in there too!”
A confused look crossed the deputy’s face. “‘Fraid I’m not sure what you’re talkin’ ‘bout, sir.”
He shook his head. “‘Fore your time, I guess. There’s an old county singer with family from ‘round these parts named John Anderson. Couple counties over. Had a few hits. It don’t matter. We got an address or contact info. on this John Anderson?”
“Collins and Trooper Joseph are headed over there now,” she replied.
Higgins tried and failed to hide a wince when he heard that Collins was the one heading to the secondary site. Deputy Trevor Collins was the newest hire for the Peril County Sheriff’s Office. He had the makings of a good cop, but he had it in him to be a little over zealous at times. And by-the-book to a fault. “Alright, keep me updated,” he said as he motioned for her to head to her cruiser.
“Sheriff Higgins! Sheriff Higgins, a moment if you have it?” Jess McNamara, the newest WEKT News reporter was motioning for him to come closer. “Sheriff, would you like to make a comment on the accident?”
He shook his head and took another sip of coffee. “Miss, I been here less than five minutes. I ain’t had time to hear what happened, much less make a statement.” He turned to walk on toward the accident.
“Any comment on the multiple pounds of crystal meth found in the vehicle?”
Sheriff Higgins let out a little laugh and stopped walking. He turned to face Jess from EKT. “You new, ma’am?” he asked
She looked confused. “I’ve been with WEKT for a couple of months now, why do you ask?”
He took a step in her direction. “One, most reporters know that we’ll come and talk to them when we got something to say. Two, we can’t make a determination on crystalline substances in the field. Those have to be sent to the lab. So, most know not to even ask if that’s what was found. And three, most reporters know better than to blab pertinent information on an open investigation when the damn bodies are still warm and within ear shot! Now, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go talk to the coroner.” He knew he shouldn’t have lost his temper with the young girl, even as he was chastising her. But, it was early, it was cold, and she had to learn somewhere.
The sheriff walked down to the gully where he saw a blue Corolla laying on its passenger door and resting against the cliff side. Rob Osborne, the county’s long time Coroner, stood watching two EMT’s attempt to remove the bodies from the wreckage. The vehicle had clearly rolled at least once as the top showed deep scuffs and scrape marks. The majority of the windows were shattered, Higgins notices, with severe damage to the back windshield. "Whata’ya got, Robbie?” he asked as he came to a stop.
“One male, one female, DOA. EMT’s said that they were’t wearing seatbelts. I did a prelim before they started pullin’ ‘em out. Car reeked of whiskey and weed. Female had a massive head wound. She was drivin’. Didn’t get a good look at the guy.” He spit into a bottle.
With his flashlight, Higgins scanned the ground around the wreck. “Watts, you do a skid check?” Glass had shot ten feet away from the point of impact, but he couldn’t find any sign of skid marks, which would indicate the driver attempting to stop the vehicle.
Watts shut the door to her cruiser. “Yes sir. Went back ninety feet. Found evidence of some slush and possible black ice. No indication of braking or skids of any kind to point of impact, sir.”
“And the trunk?”
“Best you take a look for yourself,” she replied.
Higgins had wanted to avoid crawling down into the gully. But he supposed now was as good a time as any. The first step he took into the thick brush along the side of the road saw Sheriff Higgins’ foot sink deep into the cold wet mud. “Well, shit!” he said to himself. Pulling it out, he could feel the earth gripping at his shoe, trying to keep it underground. He wiggled his toes and rotated his ankle just enough to keep his shoe on and kicked as much muck as he could from his leg once it was free.
The trunk to the Corolla was open, but a warming blanket covered the opening. Higgins lifted the blanket and shone his flashlight into the darkness. After a few seconds he lowered the blanked back into place. He stood there, unable to believe what he had just seen. He reached back down and pulled the blanket away fully. In the glow of his flashlight, he saw dozens of plastic sandwich bags, bulging full of what he assumed was crystal meth. “There’s twenty kilos here, easy,” he thought as he scanned the trunk. He also saw two small scales and several boxes of tiny baggies, both of which are indications of distribution.
“Watts, get down here!” he yelled out. The young deputy ran down quickly and stood next to her sheriff. “I want this cataloged and processed. Send a sample off to Frankfort first thing in the morning. We need to get this out of here and locked up before whoever it was goin’ to figures out it ain’t comin’.”
He reached up to his shoulder and clicked his radio. “Unit 1 to Collins. Unit 1 to Collins. Come in?
The radio crackled. “Collins here. We’re pulling out of the Anderson’s driveway.”
Higgins stood there a moment, expectantly. “Find anything out, deputy?” he asked as he smashed the button on his radio.
The radio crackled again. “Maybe, sir. We spoke to a Mr. John Anderson. He says he let his son, Sam borrow the car about a week ago and hasn’t seen or heard from him since. I did inform him that his vehicle may have been involved in an accident.”
“Is that all you told him,” the sheriff asked, expecting bad news.
“That’s an affirmative.”
Sheriff Higgins let out a deep sigh. “10-4. Hustle back to scene and assist Watts in extraction of evidence. Unit 1 out.” He took several muddy steps back up the gully toward Rob Osborne.“How long before you can ID these, Rob?”
Rob spit into his bottle again. “Depends. If they got photo ID's on ‘em, bout 5 minutes after I get ‘em to the funeral home.”
The Sheriff nodded. “Well, give the office a call as soon as you do. We’ll notify the families.”
“Will do, sheriff. Will do. Looks like these boys are making some headway…er, progress.”
Jess McNamara stood with her back to the scene, a microphone in her hand. She was practicing her live shot coming up in a little over an hour. “…Reporting live from the Devil’s Leap section of Peril County. This is Jess,” she was saying before the sound of the sheriff approaching startled her.
“Don’t quit on my account,” he said, limping up the hill, his shoe still full of muck.
Her cheeks blushed in embarrassment. “I was just doing some trial runs. This is my first live shot,” she said, sheepishly.
He nodded, not really knowing if that was truly a big deal or not. “I got a statement if you want to record it.”
She repositioned her camera so that the red and blue flashing lights dramatically hit the sheriffs face, and he was well lit by the rig on her truck. She put the microphone in front of his face. “Sheriff Higgins, what happened here tonight?”
The sheriff looked down at the young reporter, solemnly. “Around 3:50 am, Sheriff’s Deputy Watts responded to a crashed vehicle in the Devil’s Leap area of Peril County. She, along with Peril Count EMT’s arrived on the scene to find a Corolla overturned in the gully with a driver and passenger both incapacitated. EMT’s were not able to resuscitate the victims, and they were pronounced dead at the scene. Additionally, an initial search of the vehicle has resulted in the Sheriff’s office locating a significant amount of some form of crystalline substance that we believe may be crystal meth. This will be transported to a secure location and tested. If this is in fact crystal meth, it would be the largest single seizure in Peril County history of any illicit substance.”
Jess nodded her head and turned off the camera. “Thank you for your time sheriff. That will add a lot to my story.”
Higgins smiled. “Good luck with the live shot.” He walked back toward his cruiser, hoping to find a clean pair of shoes and wondering what this much meth going through his town was gonna mean for little old Black Grass, KY.