Chapter 2: Till Death Do We Part

“Valerie, we need you to get down here to St. Mary’s Hospital immediately. Something has happened to Bill, I’ll explain when you get here please hurry.”

It was after 3 in the morning when Valerie got the phone call. She had expected Bill to be home already so they could go through their regular routine of arguing. She had been waiting for him on the couch to come home but he never made it. Quite frankly she found this phone call very frightening. As much as her and Bill fought, she’d never wish any ill upon him. She did love him but he was very difficult to get along with sometimes.

The man on the phone was Sheriff Ryan. She had met him a few times at community gatherings but had never had any run ins with him. He didn’t really say what had happened to Bill only that she should get to the hospital immediately. This made her worry that it was something serious.

She got dressed as fast as she could and hopped into her car and headed down to the hospital. She was in such a panic that she began running stop signs while her mind was preoccupied with what might have happened. She was so exhausted and the only thing really keeping her awake was the adrenaline now running through her body.

The hospital was about 7 miles from the house. She would soon be there to get to the bottom of this mystery. She hoped Bill was okay. Just as this thought crossed her mind something ran across the road in front of her.

She barely had time to react.

She swerved to the right and started to slide on the icy roads. The car quickly fell off road and barreled straight toward a tree. She sat helpless and mortified as she stared through the windshield watching the trees come closer to colliding with her car.

The front of her car ran into a tree, there was a really loud bang, and the windshield spidered and cracked right in front of her eyes. All this happened so fast but to her she was watching it in what seemed like slow motion.

It didn’t even occur to her that she wasn’t wearing a seatbelt until she felt weightless, like she was on a carnival ride, as her body lifted from the seat and flew through the windshield of the car. And then just as quickly as she had that thought, she heard another loud noise, and there were no more thoughts.

“Sheriff Ryan, may I have a moment of your time?” asked Deputy Tim.

“Sure Tim”

As he walked over toward Tim he began to notice the worried and anxious expression on Tim’s face.

“Tim is something wrong? Tell me what’s happened son.”

“Sir, it’s Valerie. She died on the way here in a tragic car accident.”

“What? Is this some kind of sick joke Tim? You’re trying to tell me in the same night that Bill falls through ice and goes into a coma, that his girlfriend dies on the way here?”

“I can not tell you that if you’d like Sheriff, but I returned from the scene of the accident. They found her car in a ditch and it was nearly split in half by a tree. Her body was some twenty feet away, completely shattered. She wasn’t wearing her seatbelt and was ejected from the car. We figure ice had something to do with the accident judging by the skid marks.”

“What a terrific night this is turning out to be. Thanks for the update Tim, go home and get some rest.”

“Yes sir.”

Sheriff Ryan wasn’t exactly sure how to process the events that had transpired tonight. Bill was a long time friend of his. It was only about an hour ago when Farmer Vincent reported a man falling through the ice at Jefferson Pond to 911. Fortunately for Bill they were quick to respond, but unfortunately for Bill, they got there too late. He was half drowned and unconscious when they arrived suffering from hypothermia at the least. They put him in ICU and restored his body temperature but he was in a coma and the doctors didn’t know if he’d come out of it or not.

He didn’t know how he should feel at this particular moment. If and when Bill came to his senses, he would have to break the news that his girlfriend had died while coming to the hospital. This wouldn’t be easy news for anyone to handle and it would be even harder on Bill as he would feel completely responsible for her death. It was quite the dilemma here in Rigley, Minnesota. He was sure that he would have to give several interviews tomorrow and this story would make the national news, drawing a lot of attention to this small town.

The Sheriff was getting ahead of himself, first things first. Farmer Vincent was here at the hospital and he needed to track him down to get a full report of what happened tonight, as well as identify and interview any other witnesses. Judging by the level of intoxication from the blood sampling they had taken from Bill, it had been determined that he was well over the legal limit if he were driving.

This would probably mean that Jim, his regular drinking buddy, might be able to fill in some of the missing details. Bills car was found at the Hotspot Bar and Grille several miles away and there were a few missing pieces that Sheriff Ryan was trying to put together.

He had known that Bill always drove home and never left his car anywhere, so to be on the safe side, he had better interview a few people so the report was accurate for tomorrow before the press got involved.

He found Farmer Vincent in the lobby at the vending machine a few minutes later. “Vince, can I have a few words with you? I just want to get a statement from you on what happened tonight and what you saw.”

“Sure thing Sheriff.”

“Okay start whenever you’re ready”

“Well, I was just laying in bed thinking about what I needed to accomplish the next day and then I heard this yell in the distance. I threw on my boots, grabbed my flashlight and my shotgun, and headed in the direction of the shouting. I noticed the shouts had come from the area by Jefferson pond, when I reached the shoreline I could see a man out in the middle struggling where he had fallen through the ice. I ran back inside and called 911 and then went back out to see if I could save him. Every effort I made to get onto the ice was thwarted by the ice giving way and I just couldn’t get out to him without putting myself at risk. Finally the fire department showed up and threw the man a rope. At this point he was just clinging onto whatever ice he could find for dear life. He was not able to speak or grab the rope. They had inflated a raft and one of the firemen began walking out to where the man was. The ice gave way but the firefighter just grabbed onto the raft and rowed the rest of the way to the man, finally grabbing him and throwing him into the boat and signaling for the other fire fighters to pull the raft by hand to shore with a rope. They took him by ambulance somewhere and that’s all I was able to see. I went back inside shortly after they left.”

“Thanks Vince, I’ll make a note of this. The man was our very own Bill, I believe you knew him some. You’re a real hero tonight. If you wouldn’t have called 911 when you did, Bill would have died. I’m not sure he’s in much better condition right now, but at least he has a chance, and it’s because of you Vince. You should go home and get some rest.”

“Thanks Sheriff, I hope Bill comes out of this okay. Poor guy, he used to work on the farm for me when he was a teenager.”

It was now way passed the Sheriffs shift and he was getting tired. He decided to go home for the night and catch a few hours of sleep and continue the interviews in the morning time. He thought he could catch Jim before work and talk to the owner of the bar when it opened, they were closed now.

***************

“Valerie, is that you? I thought I’d lost you, I don’t know what happened. I was walking home…and…hey Valerie, how did I even get here”

Bill paused to look around… “Valerie, where are we? I’ve never seen this place before.”

Bill turned to look around and Valerie was no longer there. “Valerie…where did you go?”

He was standing alone in an abandoned building, no not a building, a warehouse of some type. It extended for hundreds and hundreds of yards in every direction. The floor was perfectly paved and there was nothing inside. He could see forever in every direction he looked. The ceilings were impressively high, they must be at least 50 feet. There were windows all around the top portion of them but below that, it was all solid metal wall. He looked around for a door but could not find one, it was as if he was completely locked in.

“Hellooooo,” he screamed, “Is anyone out there?”

“Anyone?”

“Someone please help me?”

He started in the direction of the closest wall to examine it but before he got there…the darkness…that same darkness that came over him earlier, overtook him again. He collapsed and his mind went blank.

***************

*beep *beep *beep.

Sheriff Ryan opened an eye and looked over at the alarm clock that was now sounding off loud and clear, it read 7:00 right on the dot. By his calculations he had been asleep for just over two hours, not nearly enough time to function in a day, but he had no choice but to get up. Some very serious events unfolded in Rigley last night. Events of such magnitude that it would put this town on the map for at least the next month and these stories would be passed on to many generations.

He got out of bed and jumped in the shower. The hot water felt so good on the skin after such a long and exhausting night. He spaced out and then snapped out of it, realizing he had better get started on his day. He hopped out of the shower, wiped off with a towel, got dressed, and headed down to the kitchen to make some coffee. Coffee was an essential component of his day, he couldn’t do without it, and today it would be a blessing. He would need it if he were going to stay awake and keep focused throughout the day. He poured himself a cup and sat at the table reading this mornings newspaper.

The headline read, “Man Rescued From Icy Waters and Woman Killed in Fatal Car Accident” turn to page 7 for details.

“Son of a bitch, how did they get this story already.” he thought to himself. He quickly turned to page 7 to read what was written.

“Last night was a tragic night for Rigley, Minnesota. A man, who was later identified as Bill Sanderson, a long time local, was listed in critical condition this morning after he was rescued from the icy waters of Jefferson Pond last night. So far, there has been no information provided by the Sheriffs Department as to what happened.

More tragically however, while en-route to the hospital to visit her boyfriend Bill, Valerie Hawkins was pronounced dead after she lost control of her vehicle, hit a tree, and ejected from her car. The driver was assumed to not have been wearing a seat belt. By the time the rescue squad arrived, she was pronounced DOA.

Funeral services for Valerie will be held at 10AM on February 23^rd at Parkinson Funeral Home.”

He let out a sigh of relief. He had thought they had solved the case before him, it turns out he would get to explain to the media what had happened that night in precise detail after he concluded his investigation today.

Speaking of his investigation. He picked up the phone and dialed Jim’s number.

“Hello, this is Jim” said the voice.

“Jim, it’s Sheriff Ryan, I’m assuming you heard what had happened to Bill last night?”

“Bill? No I just got up, is something wrong with Bill?”

“Jim, I hate to be the first one to break this to you, but Bill slipped into a coma last night. He was pulled out of Jefferson Pond where he nearly drowned. He’s in critical condition at the hospital in the Intensive Care Unit.”

“Holy hell, why was he walking by Jefferson Pond?”

“I don’t know Jim, I was hoping you could fill in some of the blanks, they found his car at the Hotspot Bar, apparently he left it there. Do you have time to meet me now so we can talk?”

“Yes, I do Sheriff. Meet me at the Jolene’s Coffee house in 15 minutes.”

“Okay, see you there.”

He hung up the phone and thought to himself that maybe Jim wouldn’t be able to fill in as much of the blanks as he thought he would be able to. Nonetheless, he had better hurry, it would take all of the 15 minutes to get to Jolene’s Coffee house from his house.