Trust

Chapter 1-1

Chapter 1

Thirteen Years Later

Brad Callahan had just forked a bite of chili when the alarm sounded. He shoved the bite in his mouth and scrambled up from the dining table in the fire station. He followed the other men out to the trucks.

“Car accident,” his captain announced. “Off the side of the freeway near the Balboa exit.”

Brad hurried to the paramedic truck and seated himself in the passenger side. His partner Jeff Reeves started the truck and pulled out of the station. The fire engine followed with the rest of the crew.

It had been an unexpectedly wet week with today being the fourth rainy day in a row. January and February were the rainy months in Southern California if there was any rain at all. And no one seemed to know quite how to drive in the rain. Brad had been out at accidents every day since the storms started.

Sirens blaring, Jeff drove onto the freeway and headed in the direction of the accident. Some cars got out of the way, others didn’t really have any place to go. It was jammed.

“This is going to take forever,” Jeff muttered.

This being January, it was dark at six thirty, and with the rain pouring down, it made it difficult for Brad to see far ahead. He estimated they were still about two miles from the accident.

“Goddamn Californians don’t know how to drive,” Jeff said.

Brad smiled a little. Jeff was originally from New York and still had his Bronx accent though he’d been in California for twenty of his thirty-five years. He was a big guy much like Brad himself. They’d both played football in high school and college. Jeff was a little thicker around the middle, which he assured everyone was because of his Mexican wife’s excellent cooking.

Jeff pressed the horn and another car moved, allowing the paramedic truck to just squeeze through. He drove up on the shoulder and managed to find a clear path to the overturned sedan.

Brad grabbed their equipment and headed for the car. He crouched next to the driver’s side to see a young blond man of perhaps twenty-five wearing a seat belt. The airbag had deployed and there was a large gash across the man’s forehead. Brad checked his vital signs.

The engine had pulled up behind their truck and the captain rushed over and bent down next to Brad. “How is he?”

“DOA.” Brad shook his head and stood to go to the other side of the car where Jeff had gone.

“Passengers?” the captain called.

“Just one,” Jeff said. “He’s alive, Cap, but he’s pretty jammed in. May need the jaws.”

“Got it.”

Brad crouched down next to him. The passenger had likewise been wearing his seat belt and the airbag had been deployed. A large bruise was already forming on his cheek and a cut above his eye was gushing blood. The man’s sun-streaked light brown hair was matted with blood.

Brad’s heart squeezed in his chest. It…it couldn’t be, but it was. He nearly stopped breathing.

Jeff frowned. “Hey, Callahan, isn’t that the mystery writer guy you read? He looks like the photo on the back covers.”

Somehow Brad found his voice, though it came out weak. “Yeah, that’s him. Justin Lowe.”