Code of Courage by Janice Cantore

Author:Janice Cantore [Cantore, Janice]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FICTION / Christian / Romance / Suspense, FICTION / Romance / Suspense
ISBN: 9781496457585
Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers
Published: 2022-07-19T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

Gabe did stop for lunch after his visit with Hill. He picked a local restaurant where he knew he could spread out the case file and not be disturbed. He ordered a club sandwich with fries and a sparkling water and sorted through the paperwork to decide where to start. D. K. had everything—copies of the original police report, his own investigation, and photos of the scene. He studied the photos of both vehicles and of the scene once the vehicles were removed.

The crash had happened on a clear summer night. According to the initial narrative, written by the responding officers to the scene, the vehicle Curtis was in crossed the centerline and hit the Popes’ head-on. Both vehicles went off the shoulder, but the Pope vehicle rolled several times before landing on its roof.

Having grown up in La Rosa, Gabe was familiar with the area where the crash occurred. It bore no resemblance to the scene at the time of the accident. Wickham Road had been graded and developed into an off-ramp when the freeway was extended past La Rosa. Twenty-seven years ago, the freeway had not come as far, and Wickham had been a winding road, traversing a rise and then curving down toward the beach. To roll off the shoulder back then meant quite a drop.

When officers arrived, Curtis was out of the car sitting on the ground, legs straight in front of him, back against the driver’s door, passed out. The responding officers did something cops were told not to do: they assumed he was the driver and went from there. Monday-morning quarterbacking said the driver was possibly still in the area somewhere, but no one looked for him.

Gabe had expected a straightforward read, but it wasn’t long before he had to stop and go back to the pictures. The officers’ narrative named Curtis driver A and Pope driver B. Under primary collision factor was the sentence, “The vehicle operated by driver A crossed the centerline.” But the pictures didn’t reflect Curtis crossing the line; Pope crossed the line.

Hill’s investigation also contradicted the initial narrative. His diagrams recorded measurements and skid marks confirming Pope crossed the line. Curtis braked and swerved to avoid the collision, but it just wasn’t enough. There were no skid marks associated with Pope’s vehicle.

Gabe sat back frowning and rubbed his chin. Was this what Hill meant when he kept repeating “the car”? Even if the person driving Curtis’s car was a drunk driver, he didn’t cause the crash. Pope did. By all indications, Curtis’s vehicle was traveling at the speed limit in the correct lane when, for an unknown reason, Pope crossed the line and made no attempt to stop before the collision. A felony drunk driving conviction required proof that the drunk driver committed an offense causing the crash resulting in injuries or death. Whoever was driving Curtis’s vehicle would not have been charged with the deaths of the Pope family.

Gabe had to stop and think about this. Three people were dead, and it was possible it was the new father’s fault.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.