Page 94 of Enemies to Prom Dates
Calm. Cool. Control.
I repeated the mantra silently as I waited for the cop to approach the window.
Most cops in Haddonfield knew me by my car. They knew my dad and mom and so I typically didn’t get a lot of shit. But I also knew never to take chances.
The cop stepped closer and I turned in his direction only to get hit with a beam of light in my face.
Blinking, I asked. “Yes, officer? Did I do something wrong?”
“Fitz Darcy?” the cop asked me. I could see now he was a large man, in his fifties probably, with a buzz cut. His expression was stern, but not menacing.
I nodded, my hands still in plain sight.
“You need my license and registration?” I asked. “It’s in my wallet so I’ll need to reach for it.”
He shook his head. “We’ll get there, but I’m going to need you to step out of the car first.”
“I have to unbuckle my seat belt. To do that I’m going to take my hands off the steering wheel. I’m going to do this very slowly, without any sudden motions. Is that okay, officer?”
I could see him shake his head clearly frustrated, but this was a dance he had to understand.
“Look, I’m not going to shoot you, kid. I know who you are. You can tell your girlfriend she can stop filming.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to do that,” Beth told him.
“You know we’re not all bad guys,” he grumbled.
“Yes, officer, I understand,” I said politely. “This is just how it is.”
“Fuck it. Just get out of car so I can ask you a question about the damage.”
“Damage?” I asked. I still followed my own protocol and slowly unbuckled my seatbelt then did as asked and got out of the car. On the other side, Beth got out, too, phone still in her hand.
I followed the officer to the front of the car, where I could see a pretty significant dent in the front of my bumper. Suddenly, my adrenaline rush from the fear of being pulled over, now shifted to pure annoyance.
“What the fuck,” I muttered, running my hand over the indent. Who had hit my car?
“Are you aware of how your car sustained this damage?” the officer asked.
“No,” I said honestly.
“You’ve been driving this car and you don’t know you have a dent in your front bumper or how it got there.”
“I don’t. Obviously. Or I would tell you.”
I went through the night’s events. The game, heading to The Woods, hanging there before going to pick up Beth. When was the last time I might have noticed a freaking huge dent in my bumper?
“Okay. I’m going to need you to follow us down to the police station.”
“What?” Beth gasped. “Why?”
The officer moved his flashlight over to her face, then back to me. “Look, if you agree to come with us, with no hassle, we can follow you while you drop off your girlfriend first.”
“Can you just be real with me? What is this about?”
“You’ve been named as a suspect in a vehicular assault. A car of this description with this license plate has been reported to us. And now we’ve confirmed your car has sustained damage to its front bumper. We’re going to need you to come down to the station to answer a few questions.”
“This is crazy,” Beth said. “We’ve been here all night.”
