Waking Charley Vaughan (17 page)

“The police came and his car is a match for the description of the one that hit Charley.”

“Well, I’m sure there are tons of Volvos, Sara—“ my mom began. I had to cut her off.

“They have a partial plate number from the surveillance video, Mom. It sounds like that might be a match as well….and,” I started to add, hesitantly, “there’s some blood and even a little hair on the car. I don’t know if they can test it or not, but they were interested enough to be on their way to question him…maybe even arrest him if they get the plate information soon.”

There was only silence on my mom’s end of the phone. “Are you sure about this, Sara?” she asked finally.

“I’m pretty sure, mom. The cops just left here a few minutes ago. I don’t know for sure if they will arrest him or just question him, but I know they are looking for him.”

“Oh dear,” my mom said sadly. “Honey, do you think you could come home for a little bit?” To my mom, ‘home’ would always be her house.

“Sure, mom,” I told her. “I’ll be there soon.” I heard her take a deep breath.

“Thank you,” was all she said before hanging up the phone.

I looked at Adam. He was sitting at his desk, trying to reorganize a mess of papers. He saw me watching.

“They kind of got scattered when the cops were looking for the paperwork on the car. I tried to tell him the assho—I mean, the guy—didn’t leave his name. Just gave cash and a phone number.”

“It’s okay,” I told him, “You were right the first time. He’s an asshole alright.” I sat the water bottle down on the counter and put my phone back into my purse. “I’d better get going,” I told him. “I need to go hang out with my mom for a while and make sure she’s okay.”

“Oh, ok,” he said quickly, getting up from his seat at the desk.

“It was…good to meet you,” he said with the same awkwardness form earlier. “I mean, I wish it had been different circumstances, of course,” he added quickly before extending his hand for me to shake.

I took it and tried to smile. “It’s okay,” I told him, “I know what you mean. It was nice to meet you, too. Maybe I’ll see you around.” He smiled at that.

“Bye, Sara,” he said as I headed toward the door. I gave him a wave.

***

It didn’t take me long to get to my parents’ house. When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed that my father was already home. When I walked in the door, they were both sitting at the bar in the kitchen. My mother was sipping tea: something she always did when she was worried or anxious. My father sat next to her, his cell phone in his hand, but not in use. When they heard me approach, they both looked over at me.

“Oh, Sara…honey,” my mom said as she got up to greet me with her arms wide. She engulfed me in a huge hug and began to sob.

“I just don’t know what we’re going to do,” she cried. “Your father and I raised you and Matt to be good, responsible adults. I knew for a long time that it hadn’t sunk in with him as much, but I just didn’t know what to do. And now look at the mess we’re in,” her words were coming out so fast that they were getting jumbled.

“Linda, sweetheart,” my dad said, getting up from the bar to come pry her off of me. “We will do what we can to help him,” he said, holding her in his arms. “Well, we will do what we
should
to help him, rather.”

“What does that mean?” my mother asked him, sounding like she was still crying.

“It means,” my dad explained, “that we will help him get a good lawyer, and we’ll be here to support him.” He saw that I was about to protest and he added, “
Support
, Sara. Not condone. What Matthew seems to have done is unspeakable. But he is family, and we will not abandon him.” My dad’s face was stern. He meant business.

“Okay, Dad “I said, beginning my protest. “But this isn’t the first time Matt has done something stupid, and then waited on you and Mom to bail him out.”

“We are not bailing him out,” my father said, his voice stern. “I told Matthew after the last incident that I would no longer be paying for his foolishness.”

I heard my mother’s sharp intake of breath then. “But, we can’t just abandon him, Scott! You just said--”

My father held up a hand to stop her. “We aren’t abandoning him, either. I will get him set up with the lawyer, and then Matthew can figure out how to pay for it on his own. He’s had some success over the past few years, and I’m sure one of his many investments or so-called businesses can pay the damage he has done.”

My mother and I were both silent as we thought about what he’d just said. I was glad he was taking a tougher approach than he had with Matt’s last run-in with the police.

Right before he’d met Charley, Matt had gotten his second DUI after crashing his car into a stop sign near his house. Right before he’d purposed, he’d been arrested on a warrant due to not paying the fines related to his second DUI. As I thought about it, I realized that both incidents had been diffused by Charley’s presence. The first time Matt had to face our parents after the second DUI, was the Thanksgiving I’d brought Charley home. The consequent arrest wasn’t even disclosed to them until after he announced that he’d proposed to her.

“Honey,” my mom said, interrupting my thoughts, “has anyone told Charley yet?”

“I don’t know,” I told her. “I came straight here.” I couldn’t imagine how she was going to take this. I hoped she wouldn’t be alone when she found out. I wanted to be with her, but I worried that when she heard the news, I might become more Matt’s sister and less Charley’s best friend…at least in her eyes.

CHAPTER 12 - CHARLEY

I was in my office working on some freelance projects in an attempt to get caught on all that I’d missed in the past few weeks when there was a knock at my door. “Charley,” I heard Brennan say from the other side of the door.

I quickly got up from my place in the chair. “Just a minute!” I yelled. On my way to the door I was quickly positioning my sling back onto my arm. I hadn’t been wearing it, and Brennan and Sara flipped out at me every time they caught me with it off. I stopped at the door to do a quick check in the mirror over my key holder and attempt to smooth down some of the massive curls on my head. A ponytail was out of the question now, so I just tucked what I could behind my ears. When I pulled the door open, Brennan was standing there, looking as tall and beautiful as ever. After taking him in with my eyes, I looked for his. They looked worried.

“What’s wrong?” I said as I stepped aside to invite him in.

“We need to talk,” he said seriously, “It’s about the accident.”

“What about it?” I asked a little surprised. I hadn’t expected that to be our topic of conversation today.

“You might want to sit down,” he suggested. That sounded entirely too dramatic. I just stood there giving him a look that I hope said, ‘really? Just tell me.’  Apparently, it did.

“Ok,” he sighed. “The police are on their way to go question Matt.”

“Huh?” was all I could muster in reply.

“It looks like he may have been the one to hit you.”

“He…did,” I said, feeling more relief than I thought I would at hearing myself say it.

“Take a breath,” Brennan urged me. “It’s ok. I know it’s a shock.”

I shook my head. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “No, you don’t get it. I thought he might have had something to do with it,” I said. “When he never showed up, when he never called, I just kind of felt it. I hoped I’d be wrong.”

Brennan stood in front of me, looking confused and a bit angry. “If you thought he hit you, why didn’t say so?”

“What could I have said?” I asked. “It was just a thought. I had no evidence.”

Just then, my phone rang. I jumped slightly at the sound. Brennan grabbed if off the counter and handed it to me. I didn’t recognize the number. I figured I knew who it would be though. The timing was perfect.

“Hello?” I said softly.

“Yes, is this Charley Vaughan?” came the deep male voice on the other end.

“Yes, this is,” I answered, taking yet another deep breath.

“This is officer Vasquez from the Ft. Collins police department. Ms. Vaughan, we have a suspect in custody. We’d like to get you to come in and give us a statement of anything you might remember from the night of your accident. I know we’ve talked before, but since we
do
have a suspect in custody as I said, I would like to go over anything you may remember now that you’ve had some time to think and remember more about that night.”

“Um, yeah…sure,” I said, still a little flustered. “When would you like me to come in?”

“Well, as soon as possible would be nice,” he replied. “I understand you’re probably busy.”

“I can come in in about an hour,” I told him. I looked at Brennan and mouthed, “Can you come with me?” He nodded and I sighed a little in relief. Not exactly the date I had in mind, but I’d feel better if he was around.

Officer Vasquez said that’d be fine, and we hung up. Brennan called Adam to cover for him at the pub. I overheard Brennan’s portion of the conversation while I was in the bathroom trying to do something with my hair.

“Yeah, man,” Brennan said in response to Adam’s unheard question. “I just don’t know if it’s a good idea to call her right now. I’d give it some time.”

There was a pause where I assume Adam gave his rebuttal.

“Okay, I’ll give you the number. I’m just asking you to not be a dick, and at least give it a few days. Her brother was arrested today. I don’t think she’s thinking about dates, dude.”

This must have pacified his brother because the next words out of Brennan’s mouth were, “OK. Thank you. I’ll text it to you later…now can I ask
you
a favor…?”  It sounded like Adam had met Sara. And Sara had left an impression. Sara.

“Oh my God!” I said out loud, feeling like an ass for not thinking of it sooner. “Sara!” I yelled. I grabbed my phone off of the counter and pressed Sara’s speed dial number.

She picked up on the first ring, “Midge, I was going to call you, but then I didn’t think you’d want to hear that from me, and you certainly wouldn’t want to hear it over the phone, and I was on my way to my parents’ house. I just didn’t know what to do. Are you OK?”

“ I will be,” I told her. “Wait, how did you know that’s why I was calling? Are
you
okay? How are your parents?”

“We will be OK, too,” she said. “There’s just a lot to sort out right now I guess. I was at Adam’s shop shortly after he figured it out and called Brennan I guess. I just know I was talking to Brennan and he told me they’d found the car. I showed up at the shop, and recognized it was Matt’s.”

“Oh,” I said. Even though I had suspected something was up when Matt never called, and I knew what the police had said, there was something about Sara confirming it that made it feel more real.

I added, “Sara, I’m so--”

“Don’t you dare apologize, Charley,” she said sternly. “This is in no way your fault. Whether Matt meant to hit you or not, he made the choice to drive off,” she sounded angry.

“I know,” I told her. “I’m just sorry about the whole stupid situation,” I explained. “Tell your parents that for me, OK? Tell your mom I love her, and please let me know if you need
anything.
Any of you.”

“You, too Midge,” she said. “Do you need someone to go with you? I assume you’re going to have to talk to the police? Eventually someone is going to have to clear up the whole fiancé mess, too, I guess.”

“Oh yeah,” I said, “I’d completely forgotten about that. Do you think Brennan will be in any trouble?”

“No idea,” Sara said. “But I hope not.”

“Brennan’s going to go with me. You stay with your parents. Give them my love,” I said, and promised several times that I would call her after my interview.

I hung up the phone and went back to the mirror and trying to make myself presentable. I didn’t see much point to it. The truth was, it was just something to busy myself with until I had to go and tell some police officers that I couldn’t remember my ex-fiancé hitting me with his car, despite all the evidence pointing to that conclusion.

It was no wonder he hadn’t called or tried to get in touch until I’d dropped the ring off. What I didn’t get was why he got so indignant when I ended the engagement. Had he thought he’d gotten away with it by then? Would he really have married me knowing he’d almost killed me? What was wrong with him that he could be so selfish? What was wrong with me that I could be so stupid?

My eyes were beginning to fill up with tears, more out of frustration than sadness. Just then I saw Brennan’s figure in the door way.

“You OK, Charley?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” I sniffed. “This crying isn’t over Matt. It’s frustration over the whole situation.”

Brennan nodded. “I understand. This is a lot to take in,” he said, putting his hands on my shoulders. Without thinking, I leaned into him, putting my head in his chest. It was so natural to be close to him. He felt safe. I let him wrap his arms around me and hold me as I cried my angry tears.

“That jerk!” I sobbed. “He would have married me anyway,
knowing
that he almost killed me!”

“I know,” Brennan said. “At least you didn’t make the mistake of marrying him,” he tried to reassure me.

“He had the
nerve,
” I began. “The
audacity,
” I continued. “
…
he was angry at
me.
What kind of person hits another person with their car and then gets mad at the person they hit?!”

Brennan just stood there, holding me in his arms, and letting me yell out every angry word I felt. After about five minutes of this, I pulled myself together, and we headed out of the apartment, and down to Brennan’s truck.

During the short trip to the police station, we somehow landed on the subject of my family.

“Do you think you’d feel any better if you confronted your mom?” Brennan asked me.

“It won’t do any good. She’s not going to budge.”

“That’s not what I asked. Would it make you feel better to get things off your chest?”

I just shrugged.

“Well, the way I see it, if you have nothing to lose, then why not at least talk to her? It can’t make the bakery situation any worse, and it might help you.”

“Help me?” I asked him. “You think I’m pretty  messed up don’t you?”

‘No, Charley,” he said, dismissing the idea. “It’s not that. I do recognize that she’s hurt you though. You have every right to tell her as much. In fact, I think you owe it to yourself to tell her.”

I thought about that for a while. Maybe he was right. He was certainly right about the part where I had nothing to lose. Then he added, “You know, you
do
have something to gain from confronting your mom.”

“Yeah?” I asked him, “What’s that?”

“Your sisters,” he said simply, offering no further explanation. We both knew that no more explanation was needed though. He knew the situation between Casey, Codey, and myself. I thought that maybe he was right in that respect, too.

“How the Hell did you get so wise, Yoda?” I asked him playfully.

“Wise beyond my years am I,” Brennan said in a horrible impression of the Star Wars character. Despite the tone of the day, I couldn’t help laughing out loud.

“That was
awful
,” I chuckled. “Worst Yoda ever.”

He laughed with me, and the sound of it filled the small space of his truck. For a moment, I was surrounded by the sound of happiness, and I loved it. For the first time in what felt like years, but was actually weeks, there was no ex-fiancé to worry about, no family, no accidents, and no drama. Inside the cab of Brennan’s truck, for that moment, there was just us and our laughter. I wanted that to last forever. I wanted us to sit inside his truck and be safe from all of the horrible things that could happen to you outside of it.

By the time we pulled up to the police station, I had surrendered to the fact that horrible things could not be avoided, and if I tried to avoid them by staying in the truck, it was likely that an anvil or piano would just fall on it instead. The bad stuff was unavoidable. I took a few minutes to gather my thoughts before going inside for my interview.

***

The interview itself wasn’t as long as I’d feared. It also wasn’t as short or simple as I had hoped. Instead of meeting with officer Vasquez, I met with a detective named Schmidt.  Only minutes into the interview, it became clear that I was going to have to reveal Brennan’s lie. I hadn’t wanted to, and I had even toyed around with different ways I could avoid having to tell the Detective that Matt was my fiancé. None of the scenarios that I played in my head went well, and I figured that was a sign that I needed to just come out with the truth, and hope Brennan didn’t get into trouble.

              After I finished spilling the beans on Brennan in a very high-speed, Sara-like fashion, detective Schmidt gave me a slight smile.

“Thank you for being honest,” he said in a kind voice. “But, your friend Brennan beat you to it earlier today when he walked me out of his brother’s shop. I already told him it isn’t likely that any charges will be pressed against him.” My relief must have shown on my face when he said this because he added sternly, “Although, it could be argued that his lie prevented us from investigating someone who should have been a key suspect. He also, ultimately lead to the capture of the individual. Charges against him are a very low priority at the moment.”

Hearing about Matt’s confession made any hope I’d been holding onto vanish. Not hope for him and I, but hope that I hadn’t been engaged to a total sleaze ball. Hope that I hadn’t meant that little to someone I had been months away from promising my life to. Hearing his confession made me question whether I’d ever really gotten to know Matt, or myself. All the evidence before me pointed to “no”. It was scary to think of how close I’d come to throwing my life away by giving it to someone like him.

As I was leaving the interview room, Detective Vasquez gave me one last fun fact to chew on. “Matt has expressed an interest in talking to you. He wanted to see you face to face. Given the fact that he has confessed and will be pleading guilty, you would be
allowed
to see him. It’s really just going to be up to you. No one will blame you for not allowing contact, but if you need the closure, I would take advantage of the opportunity now so you can move on.”