A tall story

"Its all my fault, I should have stopped her, I should have tried
harder".

The tears were flowing freely now and the sobbing growing louder. The
cops were embarrassed and feeling awkward but they had seen this often
enough, just another tragic road death to add to the statistics. The
infamous "Burbury Bends" had claimed another life and no doubt soon the
local paper would feature the usual letters from several campaign
groups, it was only a year since a local family had collided with an
on-coming Heavy Goods Vehicle wiping out two generations in one cruel
act. The man was kneeling by the open driver's door and was holding his
wife's hand. Her hand was still warm but in the open countryside it
would soon cool and stiffen,

"I knew she had been drinking, but she was wild and aggressive, I tried
to stop her, but you don't know what she's like."

"Do you mean you had an argument then, sir ?", the Sergeant asked in
his most sympathetic tone.

"We were always arguing, but lately it's been worse, what with the
drinking"

"Is that what she normally drinks ?", the Sergeant asked, indicating
the Vodka bottle laying in the foot well of the car and forming a
puddle of vodka on the carpet.

"That and gin, or whatever else she can find, god this is just not
real."

The other officers looked on, they were happy for the Sergeant to
continue his dialogue after all it wasn't often that he actually got
out of the station and did any real work. They might as well make the
most of it even if most of them thought him "past it".

The tears resumed and the shoulders began to shake. The younger
officers were looking uncomfortable now, but the ambulance was here at
last to take the body away, maybe then her husband would leave the
scene as well. To be honest the whole scene was slightly unreal, 1am in
the pitch darkness, save for the lights from the police cars, the
wife's car half-way down a ditch and embedded in a tree with her still
in the driving seat and her head badly deformed where it had apparently
struck the windscreen. The Sergeant had already reminded himself to put
a tick in the "no" box of the form that asks if the seat belt was worn
at the time of the accident. What was really weird was the presence of
the husband in the middle of nowhere, kneeling by his wife's body and
talking about her drinking habits.

The ambulance crew was clambering down the steep ditch with their
stretcher and body bag, it wasn't the first time they had been called
here and most likely it wouldn't be the last. The Sergeant gently
pulled the grief stricken husband a few feet away from the car to
create some space,

"Best we let the ambulance boys do their job now, sir"

"Yes, of course", the man allowed himself to be led away and turned his
back as his wife's tiny body was sealed in black plastic for her
untimely journey to the morgue. The Sergeant took note of the terrible
injuries and bruising to the side of her head, visible in the car
lights before the zip was closed. He shook his head and thought of the
paperwork.

"How did you come to find your wife sir, I can't see your car"

A sniffle, a shudder and finally a choked reply, " I walked here, we
only live a mile away",

"What made you come looking here ?",

"She was gone for hours, I got worried and I know what these bends are
like, they're famous for crashes"

The Sergeant nodded slowly, no argument there.

"Do you only have the one car then, sir", the Sergeant said pointing at
the badly dented Ford Fiesta. The radiator was gone and the front would
need some work, but surprisingly not all that much by the look of
it.

"No, I have an estate car, my wife doesn't drive it, she only recently
passed her test and likes small cars. I hate them as you can see they
don't give much protection", more tears.

"Did you not think to call the Police if you were worried about your
wife sir ?",

"I couldn't, I knew that she had been drinking, I didn't want to get
her in trouble"

"But why did you not go out in your car to look, you would cover much
more ground, I can't smell any drink on your breath"

"I don't know, I guess I just panicked"

" I understand sir", the Sergeant leaned forward and patted the newly
made widower softly on the shoulder.

"I'd better go home now and start making some 'phone calls to her
family".

The man stood up straight as if to steel himself for the task ahead
and offered out his hand to the friendly Police Sergeant,

"thanks for all your kindness",

The policeman took the hand and noticed for the first time that he had
to look up at the tearful man, at six foot two inches himself, the
sergeant didn't have to do that very often.

"Go and take a seat in my car sir, as soon as I get your wife's car
towed out I will give you a lift home", a small wave of acknowledgement
was the only reply as the dejected figure made its way back up the
ditch.

A small light car presents no difficulty for hydraulic winches and a
towrope was soon applied to the rear axle,

"Get in and steer it straight guv'nor and I'll give it a yank
out",

The recovery man was working alone tonight and the Sergeant was happy
to be doing something useful. He got into the car and pulled the seat
forward so that he could reach the brakes, the car was damaged enough
he didn't want to see it pulled into another tree. In a few minutes the
battered Fiesta was on the back of the recovery truck and apart from a
few cuts on the bark of the offending tree and some flattened grass,
no-one would suspect that anything had ever occurred.

By the time the Sergeant got back into his patrol car the tears had
dried up and the poor man was staring silently out of the side window.
The police car pulled away smoothly and drove back into the night, the
miles passing in silence each lost in their own thoughts. Several miles
had passed before the silence was broken,

"Officer, we're heading into town, we're going the wrong way",

"We're going to the police station, I expect you know why", there was
no readable expression on the Sergeant's face, he was known as a
formidable poker player.

"What the hell are you talking about, my wife has just been killed and
you're playing games",

"You're under arrest for murder, I know you killed her, I know that she
was dead before she got in the car, I know that you drove the car there
and faked her death ,tell me what did you hit her with to cause those
injuries ?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, this is a nightmare"

"You said that your wife had been missing for hours, her body was still
warm when we found her only a mile from your home"

"I don't remember how long she had been gone, it might have only been
an hour or so, it proves nothing"

"The car was also still warm, even though it's a cold night"

"You can't be serious, that engine runs warm, it would take ages to
cool down"

"Then there's the weak excuse of why you didn't drive your own car to
find her"

"I told you I panicked"

"No you didn't panic, sir. You drove the Fiesta to the scene of the
crash and put your wife's body in the driver's seat"

"That's ridiculous, you've got no reason for saying that"

"Tell me sir, how tall is your wife ?"

"about five foot one, what's that to do with anything"

"How did she manage to drive a car with the seat that was adjusted for
someone over six foot in height?",

There was a long and tense silence, a moment of self-doubt
perhaps.

"I- I don't understand"

The Sergeant pulled over and looked straight into his prisoner's
eyes,

"You were doing well until you forgot to put the seat back to your
wife's height after you drove the car there. I have no doubt that when
we examine your wife that the impact mark on your wife's head will not
match the windscreen."

"That-that doesn't mean I killed her"

"Then we will look at the rest of the car, we will match the fibres of
her clothes to other seats in the car and your fibres to the driver's
seat. We will examine your wife's head for glass fragments and won't
find nearly as many as there should be for an impact like that"

"THAT'S ENOUGH !!"

"After that we will roll a similar car down that ditch to match the
damage to the her car and no doubt find that it was no way fast enough
to cause those injuries. After all, it wouldn't do for you to have an
injury would it ?, the story wouldn't work then", the Sergeant shook
his head thoughtfully, "Yes, there's no doubt about it, you should have
moved the seat back, very sloppy sir, very sloppy indeed"

The prisoner sat in silence, the colour draining rapidly. When he
finally spoke it was in the smallest of voices,

"how long do you think I'll get?"

The Sergeant smiled.