Heart on Fire | Noah Sebastian

Chapter 15

I sat at my desk for what felt like hours, going over the same paperwork over and over again until I could make sense of it all. I scrutinised every piece of evidence I could; the speed of the collision, the impact marks and injuries sustained, time of day, the toxicology reports and everything in between. This was well out of the scope of my job, but I have friends in the Forensics department and I want to ensure I know all the facts to be able to put this bastard away for good.

The entire crash and the events that led up to it and after it astounded me and made me angry. Angry at the offender, angry at the police influence or lack thereof but more so angry at how life could be so god dam fucking cruel. I don't believe there is a god, because a god wouldn't kill an innocent four year old boy and a god would not make me face a near mirror perfect reenactment of my own god dam fucking car crash.

"Belle?" Toby knocked on my door.

"What!" I screamed before I realised who it was. "I'm sorry, come in," I gestured.

Toby took a seat on the other side of my desk and looked at me with worried eyes. I always appreciated the friend I had in Toby. He genuinely cared for me. "You've been held in here for hours, you should go home and get some rest, or at least eat something" he offered.

I shook my head and sighed, "You and I both know I'm not going to". Toby reached out for my hand but I declined and sat back in my chair. "I'm getting justice for this little boy".

Toby's eyes bowed in disappointment but resolved to be understanding of my situation. He understood better than anyone else how stubborn I can be in certain situations but also understood exactly why this case meant so much to me. "Don't you think you're a little too close to this case?"

"Daniel died in my arms Toby!" I began to yell as emotions took over my body. "He should never have died whilst his poor excuse of a father sits in custody with nothing more than a fucking headache" i cried out. "No one else understands..."

Toby sighed at me and offered a tissue to wipe away my tears. I could feel the weight of the emotion course through my body and begin to weigh down like an anvil. I understand that I've given way too much time and energy into this case and I have been through the process a hundred times before, but this one was different.

My pager sounded from my belt as we received a third call for a motor vehicle accident in less than 36 hours. I was exhausted, trying to sleep in my office when the call came through. I shouldn't have responded but something drove me to go. Some eerie presence coerced me into going, telling me I needed to be there.

I called up our dispatch centre who informed us there was a multi vehicle crash on the Western Road (again) and police and ambulance had already been dispatched to the scene. I briefed our team in the truck and readied myself to pull another poor soul from an avoidable accident. I love my job but the last few days have really taken a toll on me. Once we arrived on scene my crew got to work on fire protection whilst the police briefed me on the situation, informing me they have already detained the driver of the offending vehicle but there were a number of other cars with occupants still trapped inside. More crews eventually arrived and worked on each vehicle whilst I took a look at the offending vehicle in an attempt to understand the situation. Police had told me the driver was a man in his early thirties who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol careered into oncoming traffic. He was being assessed by paramedics as we spoke. I took a look at the offending vehicle.

"How did the driver get out? Was he ejected from the vehicle?" I asked.

"No, he crawled out of the driver's side window when we got here, why?" The officer asked.

"The windscreen has an ejection break in it on the passenger side. There was another passenger!" I alerted the police who immediately ran to the driver to ask about secondary passengers and instructed my crews to listen and look out for a secondary passenger whilst I took it upon myself to search for them. I ran to the side of the embankment and began to call out.