Bill turned his car in the direction of the sound of the crash. He remembered1 there being some railroad tracks nearby and it was probable that the car was crossing the tracks on the street that had no warning lights. That would be the only logical answer since the driver of the car would surely have heard and seen the warnings posted at the other crossings.
He arrived at the scene is less than five minutes and saw that his assumption was correct. This was the crossing where the accident had occurred. He could hear sirens in the distance signaling their impending arrival.
He was the first one at the scene. He turned off the ignition and took out the key. He got out and lost his footing when he stepped on a large object that appeared to be part of a car. It resembled a door but was so badly crushed that he couldn't be sure. He grabbed the top of his car and straightened himself up and began to walk. He saw car parts scattered about 100 yards that led to where both the train and the car had eventually come to a halt.
He ran around the minefield of scattered car remains and saw someone walking around the scene. He noticed upon his arrival, that it was the engineer of the train that had hit the ill-fated car. He was very shaken as he paced in front of what was left of the car.
"Are you hurt?" Bill asked the man who hadn't yet seen him arrive.
The engineer, a man who appeared to be in his fifties, looked up at him and shook his head as his answer.
"What happened?" Bill said realizing what a stupid question it was the second it made it's way out of his mouth.
"He came out of nowhere" the man said distantly. The man looked so pale that Bill was beginning to get worried that he would go into shock. "He just pulled out on the tracks. I tried to blow my whistle. I tried to warn him......." he said his voice barely above a whisper.
Bill knew the passenger in the car hadn't survived. The sound that the vehicle had made upon impact had told him that. He could see their arm hanging out of the driver's side and the person appeared to be African American judging by the color of his arm. It was hard to tell however, since his arm was covered in blood so completely that he couldn't really say for sure what race the driver had been or what sex for that matter.
He would see if he had something to cover the deceased person with. They deserved to have some dignity even though their spirit had already left it's earthly dwelling place. He checked on the conductor once more to make sure he was alright and when it appeared that he was, he made his way back to the car to get his jacket that he had in the back.
He encountered the same obstacle course of scattered debris on his was back to his car. The sirens were getting closer with each second and he calculated that they should arrive with the next two to three minutes. Perhaps he should just wait and not cover the person up since the accident investigation team would want to have things left untouched.
He turned back around and walked towards the accident site again. He trippedon some of the smaller parts that had become dislodged in the impact. He fell to his knees, ripping his khaki slacks.
He pushed himself up but not before noticing the large amount of paper strewn about. He picked up one of the pieces and saw some names on them. It appeared to be some sort of address book. He recognized some of the names but they all had some sequence of numbers by their name that didn't appear to be phone numbers.
He saw his Aunt Reva's name on the piece of paper but not his Uncle Josh. He saw Blake Marler but not Ross Marler. He saw some other names that he recognized from Springfield University and some he recognized from the country club. They each had a one or two digit number next to their name. Bill couldn't decipher what that meant.
His curiosity was piqued even more when he picked up some more of the papers that were laying about cluttering the ground. Some more names that he recognized popped up but none that he actually associated with. This was getting more peculiar by the minute. What were the names of all of these people doing on these pages and what did they have in common. Why were they scattered around littering the grass on the side of the railroad tracks?
He picked up a few more pages, hoping to find some answers to this curious puzzle. He found more numbers but no names. What did the numbers mean? Why were they scribbled on a separate page? Where they some sort of index or legend?
He picked up the remaining pieces of paper that he located and began to shuffle through them. The first of the rescue vehicles were arriving at the scene. He pocketed the papers and waved his arms to signal their location.
The rescue workers were going to have to come to the car and get the victim out since they couldn't maneuver their vehicle through the sea of car parts. He stepped back and let the workers do their job. One of the medical personnel was questioning the engineer who had appeared to come out of his semi catatonic state. He was telling the paramedic what had happened while his blood pressure was being taken on the side of the tracks.
Bill remained to the side and said nothing as he watched the events unfold before him. The deceased person was being prepared to be removed from the wreckage and Bill found himself unable to take his eyes off of what was happening.
Soon, the person had been removed and was being placed on a stretcher. Bill could see then that it was indeed a male by the slacks and shoes that the victim had been wearing. Actually the victim only had one shoe on, the other one appearing to be still in the car.
He tried to avert his eyes as the victim was being wheeled by him out of respect for the deceased person, but his head seemed to be frozen in place. He was completely unable to tear his gaze away from the stretcher, as it was about to pass in front of him.
The police cars had now arrived and soon the scene was going to be crawling with people from the accident investigators to the curious onlookers. Not wanting to be labeled one of the latter, he decided there was nothing he could do here since he hadn't actually witnessed anything. He would tell the police officer what he heard and then be on his way and back to his search for Pilar.
He was just getting ready to retreat back to his car when he saw him. The person on the stretcher was David Grant. He knew him. He was a police officer here in Springfield. He had been in the car when it had collided with that train.
He should have known about this railroad crossing. Why hadn't he stopped at the crossing? Had he been in pursuit of someone? He didn't remember hearing any sirens before the warning whistle from the train sounded.
Let it go Bill, he thought to himself. He was only borrowing trouble that he did not need right now. He couldn't solve this puzzle and it wasn't his place to do so. He had to find Pilar, get things straightened out with her and then he needed to return home to his wife and son.
He made his way to his car and was stopped and briefly questioned by one of the police officers and then released to go about his business.
He got in his car and put the key in the ignition and paused. He still had those papers stuffed in his pockets. Were they evidence? Had David Grant had them in his possession when he had been struck?
Suddenly he felt like he should not be in possession of these pages with the names of Springfield residents and their cryptic numbers next to them. On the same token though, he felt like he was supposed to be in possession of them. He didn't know which feeling to believe.
Going with his gut feeling, he kept the papers with him and put his car in gear and went back to his search of Springfield's alleys to find Pilar.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Pilar let herself into the house through the servant's quarters. She didn't want to see anyone and she didn't want to be seen by anyone. She just wanted to find somewhere to hide.
What had happened tonight? Why was she feeling like this? Bill's revelation that he had wanted to marry her had thrown her for a loop. All of the misery that she had felt the last couple of years could have been avoided were it not for Carmen's interference. It was a good thing that she had already taken care of Carmen, Pilar told herself, otherwise she would have had to do something about this.
Why had Carmen told Bill all of those lies? Carmen knew how much she had loved Bill and how hurt she was that he was leaving for college without her. She had known that nothing on this earth meant as much to her as being with Bill.
She could have gotten through the rest of her life just fine if she hadn't had been made aware of those things tonight. She had managed to put him out of her mind and her life. She had to have help from the pills but she was surviving nonetheless.
Why had he come back? Why had he told her all of those things? She was so confused. She wanted so much to believe that he had been telling the truth and that their lives had turned out the way they had due to one huge misunderstanding.
There was nothing that could be done about it now anyway so no use to dwell on it. She still had the rest of her life to get through and it appeared as though nothing had really changed. Her first priority still remained to retrieve that book from David and getting rid of Dietz. She had to continue with her plan. She couldn't allow the feelings that had resurfaced for Bill Lewis to get in her way. She just couldn't.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Danny woke up in a different room than he had fallen asleep in. Susan must have transported him to his room. He turned his head and saw Michelle lying in the bed next to him. She appeared to still be asleep.
He drank in the sight of her and felt relief wash over his body as he saw for himself that she was indeed okay. Her face was bruised and her eyes were blackened but it looked like she was going to be all right.
He reached his hand out to see if he could touch her. The beds appeared to be too far apart for him to make contact with her. He needed to touch her so badly, just feel her warmth to reassure himself that she was indeed okay. He had never felt so helpless in all his life.
He remembered Susan saying that she would be their nurse. He reached for the call button and pushed it. Within seconds, Susan appeared in the doorway.
"Susan, will you move our beds closer?" Danny asked and Susan smiled and said she would go and get an orderly to position the beds closer together.
Soon, the orderly had the beds close enough that Danny could hold Michelle's hand, which seemed to calm him greatly. He was still under the affects of the medicine and was still a little incoherent but Susan knew that his mind was finally at ease and he could finally get the rest his body needed. She smiled at the sight of Danny holding Michelle's hand as he fell back into blissful unconsciousness and she turned off the light as she left their room and closed the door.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Bill had resumed his search for Pilar with no luck. She had simply vanished. His retreat to the accident scene had given her enough time to get away from him. He wondered briefly if she had gone home and then realized it didn't really matter where she had gone. There was no future at all left for he and Pilar and it would probably be best for him to turn his car around and head for home. He had done enough damage by coming here. He would probably just make things worse if he did find her.
He turned his car into the parking lot of the diner that he had first seen Pilar in just to see if she had returned here. He just wanted one last look at her before he left her life forever.
He could see in the restaurant and it appeared that she was not there so he began to pull his car back onto the road.
He was reminded then about the sheets of paper that he had removed from the accident scene. He parked the car and retrieved them from his pocket and began to try and put the pieces of the puzzle together. Some of the pages weren't torn very badly, so he should be able to fit them together. Maybe he would be able to figure out what the numbers meant and why they were next to the people listed in the book's names.
Some of the pieces fit rather easily since they were torn into only two pieces but some of them seemed to be ripped into three or more pieces. Those were going to be more difficult to decipher.
Soon, he was putting the pages back together. The numbers were being corresponded with words and he was soon realizing that they were some sort of codes for medicines or narcotics. He recognized some of the names of the drugs.
What had he stumbled onto? Had David had a book about drugs and some of Springfield's citizens? Was his Aunt Reva's name in the book due to drugs? He didn't understand.
He finished putting the book together and suddenly it all made sense. It was a book that held the names of some of Springfield's finest residents and the drugs that they had bought from the person that owned this book. His name was Gino something but he couldn't make out the last name since that page was ripped into too many pieces.
His Aunt Reva had been buying illegal drugs off the street and David Grant had known about it. Had all these people been buying drugs from this man? He began to correspond all the numbers with the names and was astonished to see the destructive nature of the book unfold. Blake Marler was into Cocaine and his Aunt Reva was into Amphetamines.
He looked at the pages in shock. He began to read the pages that he had managed to connect and was more and more astonished by each name he read and the drug that that person had been buying. He thought he couldn't be any more shocked that he was until he saw the name that knocked the very breath out of him.
There on the last page of this ill gotten book was the name that he had never expected to see in a drug suppliers book. There in black and white was the name of his beloved. Pilar Santos.