Coaster (16 page)

The plane dipped again and she held her glass. The earlier flight had been a good idea. Getting home before dinner meant she could make
Joseph's favorite pork chops. Another small dip and the captain came on the intercom to confirm their descent into LAX. Clara looked out the window seeing the familiar landmarks below her and smiled.

                                                                      ****

Joseph was sitting in his car as the police officer walked up to the window.

"Sir, I need you to turn off the car and hand the keys to me, please."

Joseph turned the engine off and took the keys out. But he paused.

"Sir..." The officer
's voice was deeper and stronger this time. "You need to hand me the keys now, sir."

Joseph looked out the window. "Officer, what did I do wrong?"

"Sir, I am not going to say this again. Hand the car keys out to me, NOW!"

Joseph handed them to the officer. The officer opened the car door, "You need to step
out slowly from the vehicle."

Joseph slid off the seat and got out
. The officer took his arm and pulled him towards the back of the truck. He told Joseph to turn around. "Sir, have you been drinking?"

Joseph shook his head no.

"Are you sure? You swerved several times. I'm going to give you a breathalyzer test, okay?"

Joseph leaned against the truck. "Okay."

The officer went back to his car and came back with the breathalyzer equipment. He held it up to Joseph and told him to breathe. It beeped and the officer frowned. He did the test one more time and then set the machine on the hood of his squad car. He took out his cuffs and said, "Sir, I'm going to have to put you under arrest. You are way above the legal limit. I need you to turn around so I can cuff you."

Joseph turned around and felt the cuffs dig into his wrists. He vaguely heard the officer reading him his rights. He assented at the end and then said, "I was going to pick up my wife at the airport. Who's going to get her now?"

"You can make a call at the station once they process you. I need you to come with me now."

The officer walked him to the back of the squad car, opened the door, and Joseph got inside. His arms hurt from being pulled behind his back. He repeated. "I need to call my wife."

The officer talked into his radio and called to tow the truck. Joseph looked out the window at cars passing. He could see people looking at him and the question in their eyes. He started to cry.
What did I do? Clara is going to be so mad.

                                                                      ****

Diana was called down to the hospital. Legally she wasn't liable for James any longer
, but she'd left her contact information. The doctor, who had an atrocious bedside manner, had called to say he needed to talk about James. She was sitting in his office waiting for him to come in. The room was sterile looking with not much personal influence. The door opened and the doctor entered.

He was tall and awkward which surprised Diana.
"Hello, thank you for coming down. I just wanted to run through what's going on with Mr. Richfield. We have determined that the trauma to his brain was extensive. Essentially he has lost a vast quantity of his mental capacity and we feel unsure that he will ever wake from the coma. The brain activity is quite limited and so we need to talk about options. Do you know if he wished to be an organ donor?"

Diana's mouth was dry. "Um...
sorry? What?"

"Mrs. Richfield, I know this is hard to hear. But it is our consensus that your husband..
.."

"Ex-husband.
I mean we're separated and getting divorced."

"I'm sorry
. Well, his injuries are not...well he probably won't ever recover. We would like you to consider organ donation. Many organs are viable and there are many individuals who would benefit from receiving...."

"Yes, I understand.
" Diana paused for a few moments. "Is it even right that I make this decision? I mean, we are legally separated."

"T
hat's true, but you are his closest family. His parents are deceased, correct?"

"Yes
, they died a few years ago."

"And he has no siblings?"

"Only a brother who lives in China. I believe he does some work with the poor and is mostly unreachable. I guess I'm all he has...or had. So, when do I need to make the decision? Right now?"

"Well, of course we don't want to rush this. It'
s a hard decision. However, the sooner we have the organs the better it is for those waiting. There are several people in very dire circumstances on the donor lists. Of course time is always of the essence. Yet, if you need more time to consider what you want to do, I can give you data and even have you talk to someone on the donation board if you wish."

Diana shook her head. "No, I don't need time. I understand what you're s
aying. James will not wake up, and if he did he wouldn't be able to do anything, right?"

"Yes, that's
true."

"T
hen the course is clear. I give you authorization to use the organs. Do I need to sign papers or something?"

"Splendid.
I mean, I'm sorry. Not to be unfeeling. His organs will be a wonderful gift to many very sick individuals who have been waiting a long time. But I am sorry for your loss. I'll have the nurse come in with the paperwork. Our legal attaché will run through some guidelines and other things you need to know. Can you give me a moment? I need to pop out and put the paperwork in order."

Diana sat in the austere office. Her whole family was gone. The children. James. It was all gone. She alone survived. It seemed surreal and ludicrous. She laughed. How could life change that drastically? If someone had ever told her...well she wouldn't have listened before
. The door opened again and three people came in. The nurse and legal attaché wore grave faces while the doctor had a sort of spring in his step. The paper was set in front of her and the doctor asked if she'd like to say goodbye to Mr. Richfield.

"No, I said goodbye a while ago. Just make sure he receives the proper respect and then let me know when I can have the funeral arrangements move forward. "

The attaché nodded and said, "Of course. Mr. Richfield is doing a wonderful, brave, and generous thing."

Diana nodded. "Probably for the first time." Then she got up, took her coat and purse and left the office.

             
                                                        ****

Roger was toasted. He'd had about six beers and no food. Not a good combination. It had happened, what he'd been afraid of was real now. The corporation was going to sacrifice him for the rollercoaster explosion. He would be mad if the beer wasn't numbing him. Fernando had called multiple times. He was keeping Roger in the loop. But the basics were they were charging Roger with criminally negligent manslaughter because that was the only charge that might stick. This trial was being driven by money, business, and power. Poor Roger didn't have much of a chance.

Roger felt his phone vibrating again."Hello?"

"Roger, it's Fernando again. Listen, we're moving forward. We're going to start investigating the claims and going through the discovery once it's delivered to my office. For now you need to sit tight. My guess is the press will be on this and you'll be hounded. Keep a very low profile. Understand?"

"Yes,
I do. I haven't left the house since I got served."

"Good. That's perfect. Let people bring stuff to you. Don't go out until I put everything in place and we start working through this
all. Don't worry, I'm on it. I'm sure their case is going to have holes a mile wide. So...that's what we'll focus on. Okay?"

"Sure. Thanks, Fernando."

"No problem. I'll be in touch." The phone clicked.

Roger opened another beer.

             
                                                        ****

Chapter Twenty-One

The man had made himself get out of bed. He was thrilled when he turned on the tel
evision and saw the lead story was the upcoming trial of the mechanic, Roger Merit. He was going to be the fall guy.

The man clapped his hands and did a dance. It was the best he'd felt in a week. The story was back. The press was all over it. It was an ongoing success as the corporation tried to
vindicate themselves. Of course they would find some poor schmuck to take the fall. It was just their way to walk all over the little guy. Maybe after this horrible public relations nightmare they would change. That was the point of it all and why he had done it. Well, sort of. If he was honest, it was mostly revenge on his part, and they always said it was sweet. He pushed the remote buttons quickly through channels. The story was on every channel. He spent the day going through all the news networks watching the analysts talking about the trial and the mechanics chances. Criminally negligent manslaughter was what they were going to try to get him on.

The ma
n couldn't stop smiling. He didn't think of the mechanic or what his life was like. All he cared about was the story and that the corporation was in the media. It kept the problem in the corporation's face. It was like a fly buzzing around them that wouldn't go away.

                                                                      ****

Roger had sobered up and decided that he needed to get smart. He went through all his papers and was organizing them for Tori and Trish. They'd need to have access to everything so they could keep his life either running or put it all in storage if he went to jail. He was outlining everything for Trish and then wrote a letter to Tori in case this went badly.

Tori, I'm so sorry for everything that has ha
ppened. I know that you know I'm sorry for not finding the bomb. For not saving those people. But mostly, I'm sorry that I'm not here now, especially since you know I didn't kill those people. I don't know how long I'll be gone, or if I'll be able to get out of this mess. What you need to always remember is how much I love you and how proud I am of who you are. Never forget that. And never let anything someone says affect you. You are your own person and my actions don't reflect on that. Always stay smart and make fair and wise decisions. That's a great place to live from. I love you, Dad.

Roger felt his eyes watering and stood up. "Damn it, I can't fall apart now."

His cell phone rang and he saw it was Detective La Rosa.

He cleared his throat before saying,
"Hey."

La Rosa breathed out slowly. "Hey yourself. How you holding up?"

"You know, just wearing all my striped shirts so I'll get used to the wardrobe."

L
a Rosa chuckled. "Stop it. You're not going to jail. Look, I called because I think we got something and I'm heading out with the FBI to check it out so you might not hear from me for few days. And I know you have an arraignment in a week. I just didn't want you to think...."

"I get it. G
o and do what you got to do. Hopefully what you find won't be a dead end. I'll keep my fingers crossed."

"Okay, good. I'll call you when I know anything.
"

Roger
shrugged. "Yeah, I know you will. Hey, Detective La Rosa?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

"For what?"

"Doing your job."

                                                                      ****

La Rosa hung up the phone and
felt rage run through her. The corporation was crazy to think that they could get away with this. But then reality set in when she faced the fact that she knew, better than most people, that money talked in this game. She closed the door to her car and headed to the airport. She'd meet Agent Gordon at the FBI hangar and they'd be heading to three locations to check out the best leads they'd found on the list she'd compiled. They had to find something. Roger had to be saved.

                                                                      ****

Clara had stood at the arrival
terminal for an hour waiting for Joseph. After calling the house and his cell phone too many times, she decided to head home. Could be he was just passed out and forgot to come and get her. When she arrived to an eerily dark home and the truck missing, she knew something bad had happened. She checked the phone messages and found the one from Joseph saying he was at the police department.

She called the number he'
d left and found out he'd been taken in for drunk driving. Clara sprung into action. It felt good to have something to do and even better to be able to rescue someone. Being angry was postponed as she called their attorney and a cab to take her to the precinct where he was being held. Their attorney had sent his associate to help with Joseph's paperwork. He was released with a suspended license and a plethora of paperwork about first offense drunk driving.