Undeniably His(56)

“Miss, I’m Officer Collins. What is your name?”

“Annabelle Ried.”

“Miss Ried, you were with Mr. Kalin Davis this evening, correct?”

“Yes, we were having dinner.” My eyes wander to the back of the ambulance. The paramedics begin the resuscitation process on Kalin as the ambulance sirens light up. The ambulance speeds around and accelerates onto the highway. Its siren blares into the distance.

“Can I have a ride to the hospital?” I ask.

“Another ambulance will be here shortly to take you,” Officer Collins replies.

I clutch my upper arm and elbow, shifting and trying to calm the shaking of my body.

“How do you know Mr. Davis, Miss Ried?”

“He recently hired me. We’re also seeing each other. The Southampton police already have a record of all of this. His place was ransacked in Southampton, and Kalin filed a report.”

“We will be sure and look into it. Who is the detective on that case, Miss Ried?”

“Um, Detective O’Donnell.”

The officer writes some notes on his pad and returns his gaze to me. “Can you tell me what happened here?”

“We were driving home from dinner. All of a sudden we were rammed by another vehicle. It looked like a very large truck. Like a Mack truck without a trailer. All I really saw was the grille in the back window. We swerved into the oncoming lane, but Kalin regained control of the SUV. That’s when the truck hit us again. Really hard this time. Harder than the first time. We skidded off the embankment and down the ledge.”

“Did you happen to get a look at the driver, or a clear picture of the vehicle? A license number?”

“No. No way. It was way too fast. It looked like it was black, but I couldn’t tell. It was too dark. All I could see were its headlights and grille, and when we spun onto the embankment, I could see there was no trailer. That’s all I really saw. It just looked like a diesel truck.”

“Did you see or hear the vehicle accelerating behind you?”

I glance down and caress my arms with my hands. I lift my head up and my face tightens. “We weren’t really expecting a semi-truck to plow into us and run us off the road.”

“Of course. Did you have anything to drink?”

“We had about two glasses of wine for dinner. That was almost three hours ago. We went dancing for two hours after dinner, and walked along the bay, and we didn’t drink anything since then. Kalin was stone cold sober.” I am surprised at the sharpness of my tone.

“Do you have any idea why someone would want to do this?”

“Yes, I do, officer. Money. If you read the police report, you’ll see they were looking for a stock transfer contract. They tried to intimidate my roommate, too. I’m sure it’s the same lowlifes.” Adrenaline and anger rush through my veins.

“Okay, Miss Ried. We will check into it.”

The second ambulance pulls up and one of the paramedics jumps out and walks toward us. “Miss, were you the passenger?”

“Yes.”

“You should be checked out as well. We will need to perform some routine x-rays to make sure you’re okay.”

“Yes, of course. Am I going to Southampton?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you.”

I jump into the ambulance. One of the paramedics takes my blood pressure as I glance out the back window. Two policemen survey the area, and a detective takes pictures of the tire skids on the bank. He scurries down the embankment toward the upside-down SUV.

When we get to the hospital, I am directed to an emergency waiting area. One of the nurses takes me in for some routine x-rays and tests. There is only one abrasion on my face and one on my arm. Otherwise I am completely uninjured.

I walk back into the waiting room. A mother who is disheveled and looks like she has been here all day is given an update on her son, who was in a boating accident. A man, probably her husband, holds her by the shoulders as tears stream down her face. I find myself swept up in their grief for a moment. The hell some people go through. I shake my head and dab my nose with a tissue.

I take a breath in an attempt to calm my nerves, and ask the receptionist for an update. “The doctor will be out soon.” She lifts her eyes from her paperwork long enough to give me a small, consoling smile.

I pace around the waiting room for about ten minutes before the doctor enters the waiting area.

“Mrs. Davis?”

I blush. “Um, no. I am Miss Ried. Kalin and I are just seeing each other.”

“Pardon me. Miss Ried, I’m Dr. Brandt.”

“How is he?” I grimace.

“Mr. Davis suffered a pulmonary laceration. Three of his ribs are broken, and part of his lung is torn and punctured.”