Providence Ch. 02

Liza spotted her first. "There she is!" she said, prompting Don to easily overtake her in the hallway.

Both of them saw Mari, slumped on the floor with her head in her arms, sitting next to one of the sheriffs. The sheriff looked up at them and stood up, offering her hand to Mari.

"Uh, Officer Greene, these are my friends Don and Liza Pate. They, uh, I called them for help." Mari said by way of introduction.

"Mari, what happened?" Don asked.

Mari looked at Officer Greene, then at Liza, then back to Don. "I, uh, I don't know, honestly. They came to my door and told me there's been an accident, and I, uh, I didn't know what else to do so I went with them here," said Mari, with sobs threatening her sentence.

Don turned to the sheriff and asked, "Officer Greene, would you please tell all of us what happened?"

The female officer, looking worse for wear, radioed for her partner to join her.

The male officer stepped through the metal swinging doors and joined her. "I'm Officer Hadley. You folks best sit down right here," he said, motioning for them to move to a metal bench in front of the morgue doors.

"Officer Greene and I responded to an emergency dispatch at 7:57 pm, and we got to the scene at around 8:13 pm. There was a black SUV turned over, and it looked like it had flipped several times before it landed on the ditch next to some cow fields. Across from it was a red sports car with a busted hood.

The driver of that car was trying to make their way to the SUV but it looked like they couldn't, come to find out after a breathalyzer that he wasn't hurt at all, just too drunk to take a step. We rushed to the SUV and found three passengers inside, still held in by their seatbelts, but all were unconscious.

At that point, more emergency crews arrived and they started to work to free the passengers. We're not sure how long they were there before we arrived, but the medical examiner should be able to give us more information after they investigate. We finally got them out but it was too late.

The EMTs performed CPR and checked vitals, but the impact and multiple flips of the car indicated blunt force trauma on the driver and the two passengers in the rear. The car seats helped to keep them in place, but the amount of metal and broken glass, plus all the stuff in the car rolling around, it didn't do them any favors at all.

All three of them were declared dead on arrival here. We need Mrs. Foster to identify them so we can start a proper investigation," Officer Hadley said.

Don just stared at him. Liza had placed a hand over her mouth.

Mari stared, unblinking, at both officers, as if she were in a trance. Then she said in a soft voice, "Take me to them."

Don grabbed Liza's hand and squeezed it, whispering in her ear as they followed Mari through the swinging doors. "Call Rachel. I'll talk to Kevin and inform the pastors. This is going to be bad."

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SEPTEMBER 2022

It was a summer afternoon after service when Mari first met Isaac. He'd come in and joined their Sunday school class for lunch and had been talking with Kenzo and other men at a table when Mari joined them.

They both saw each other and she barely acknowledged the newcomer, choosing instead to tell Kenzo, "Hey, I need your help with the diaper bag; the kids are running around and I can't keep up with them." They'd stayed for thirty more minutes and socialized until they decided to load up and go home.

"Babe, I think I just made a friend, and I don't know how I feel about him," Kenzo said.

"What? What do you mean by that?" asked Mari.

"Well, he's just really forward and super friendly," he said.

"What's wrong with that?" she asked.

"Nothing really, I guess I'm just not used to someone who wants to make friends that badly," he said.

"What's his name? Did he tell you anything about him?" she asked, distractedly pushing away a stray lock of hair from her face.

"His name's Isaac, he's planning on moving here and he wants his kids with him. He's a banker, he's divorced and he's got three kids, but I'm not sure what their names are. I think he told me but I've forgotten it," he said, shrugging.

"Well, babe, if you're gonna be friends with him, you're gonna need to remember his kids' names," Mari chuckled.

"He lives in Regier, but he's actively looking to find a house here. He said he wants to be near the church and wants to be there every time the doors are open. His ex-wife has custody of the kids and he's gonna fight it," Kenzo finished.

"Aww. What a shame. I hate that for him," said Mari, absentmindedly. Her mind was elsewhere already, thinking about the dinner prep when they got home.