‘Yeah,’ I answered Derik through my car phone.
‘Dude! I’m following Morgan!’ Derik practically screamed.”
Oh, my god. He’s talking about the day I wrecked.
“Feeling my heart pick up a few extra beats, I asked, ‘What do you mean, you’re following Morgan?’ No way. He couldn’t be following Morgan. There was no way she was in Vegas the whole time.
‘I’m following her. I was just getting ready to walk into the airport when I saw her. She took off running and sped away. She’s two cars in front of me.’
‘You’re sure its Morgan?’
‘One hundred percent sure.’
‘Where are you? Don’t let her out of your sight.’
‘I’m following her up Connector. She’s just shot across Tropicana to Paradise.’
‘Stay on her. I’m heading your way,’ I shouted excitedly, shifting to a lower gear and spinning my sports car around on the road. My heart was racing to an unhealthy beat as my mind flooded with adrenaline.
‘Fuck!’ Derik yelled.”
I gasped. Hearing it played out in Drew’s mind dramatized it like reading a mystery.
“I immediately demanded, ‘What?’
‘She just missed getting hit head on. She’s flying in and out of traffic, heading towards the strip.’
‘What the hell is she going there for?’
‘She’s just trying to get away, stay ahead of me. She’s darting in and out of every street she can.’
‘Derik?’
‘DERIK!!!!’ I screamed to the silenced phone. The line was dead quiet. I had no idea where to go. Turning down 1st street, I took a shortcut down an alley, constantly dialing Derik back. I was going to fucking kill him. Ten minutes later I was in the crazy downtown traffic, having no clue where to go while Derik wouldn’t answer his phone.
‘What the fuck, you ass!’ I answered my ringing phone.
‘Drew,’ Derik spoke with a new tone. He wasn’t speaking in the excited tone anymore. Something was wrong.
‘What? If you tell me she got away, I’m going to fucking slice your throat.’
‘She didn’t get away. She wrecked.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Her car drove right under the front of a bus. It’s bad, Drew.’
‘She’s dead?’ I asked, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me.
‘I don’t know. The bus driver got the fire out with an extinguisher, but I heard the paramedics call for the jaws of life.’
‘Where the fuck are you?’ I knew I was close. I could hear sirens.
‘North end of the boulevard, just south of East Lake.’
‘I’m almost there.’ I hung up. This was what I wanted all along. I always wanted Morgan to die. Morgan dying would solve all my problems. Callaway couldn’t blame me. I wasn’t even with her. This was what I wanted. Why the hell did I feel like I’d just lost a vital organ?”
I wanted to interrupt. I was the vital organ. Drew was talking about me.
“The only thing showing in the little red Honda was maybe two feet of the trunk,” Drew continued, staring blankly out the window, ignoring me. “There was no way she survived. I slammed on the breaks, shut the car off, and ran down the middle of the stopped traffic. I ignored the call from the police officer, telling me to stay in my car.
Running right up to the rubbish, I was held back by two more cops. ‘That’s my wife!’ I screamed, trying to get to her. Why was I so adamant about getting to her? I didn’t care. Or so I kept telling myself.
‘You can’t go any closer. Let the paramedics do their job.’
I watched as the car was cut in two, knowing for sure she was dead when I saw the blood. There was so much blood. Nobody could survive that. The two police officers asked me a million questions that I didn’t know the answer to.
I hadn’t seen her in almost two years. I couldn’t answer anything. Luckily, they took it as I was too shook up to comply. I really couldn’t answer the questions. Why did she have a rental car? Was she just visiting? She wouldn’t come back there to visit. She wasn’t that stupid. I had just as many questions that I wanted answers to.
Morgan was in surgery for nine straight hours. I still had my doubts that she’d pull through, and if she did she couldn’t be right. There was no way. I saw the car. I saw the blood, and I wasn’t extremely hopeful that she’d even pull through surgery.” Drew paused and swallowed heavily. “I should have let you go. I shouldn’t have told Derik to chase you,” Drew said with a shaky voice. He was really shook up by all this.