Stories from the Road: Shock and Fear
I haven't told anyone what I am about to tell you all, not even my wife.
One morning a couple of winters ago, I had to be in very early for work on a Saturday morning. I left the house at about 2:30AM and went out of my way to get a fresh cup of coffee. It was pretty cold. I remember seeing a sign that said it was 20 degrees. I was bundled up in my car with my coffee and I turned the vehicle toward work.
As I was driving down a city street, I saw a young man standing on a corner who was wearing nothing but a t-shirt and jeans out there in the cold. He appeared to be about 25. He looked sort of odd in his demeanor. He just stood there with his head hanging down and his arms to his side. The whole deal just didn't look right. I stopped the car and asked him if he was okay and if he needed a ride. It's a small town and I had a little time.
He looked up as if he was surprised to see me. I asked him again if he needed a ride. I knew something wasn't quite right, but I didn't feel alarmed. I just imagined that he must be very cold. At worst, I thought he was just drunk and had lost his way. He said he would like a ride and I let him into my car. I asked him where he needed to go and it was just a couple of miles away.
On the way there, he got a phone call. I could hear the woman on the other end. She was giving him nine kinds of hell. He told her to shut up and that just angered her more. Then he yelled, "Shut the fuck up, bitch!" That was the end of the call.
At that point, I became uneasy. I got to the corner of the area where he said he needed to be and told him that we had arrived. He sat there for a moment as if he didn't want to get out of the car. Alarm bells were firing off in my head. I was ready to defend myself if I had to. I didn't think that he was armed with a weapon. I told him he needed to get out of the car. With that, he stepped out of the vehicle and walked to the south. I didn't watch where he went. I was just happy to have him out of the car and I continued on to work.
My mother-in-law has a scanner and keeps up with the local police and fire department. When I got home from work later that day, my wife told me that a young woman had been sexually assaulted and killed earlier that morning. My mother-in-law had informed my wife from what she had heard on the scanner. She told me where the woman was found. It was three houses south of where I had dropped the young man earlier that morning. I'm sure I turned white as a ghost, but I didn't say anything.
Knowing what I knew, I knew I would have to speak to the authorities if what had been related to my wife was true. It turned out that what my wife and mother-in-law had learned was not accurate. A young woman had died, that much was true, but it was shown to be an accidental death. There were actually no signs of foul play when the police examined the scene. The young woman was found by her father that morning. She was around the side of her house with her pants around her knees and dead. He just assumed that she had been sexually assaulted and murdered because of the way he found her.
What had actually happened was that she had been out drinking heavily the night before. Her blood alcohol content was very high. Some friends had told the police that they dropped her by her place and that was the last they had seen of her. From there, she had gone around to the side of the house to relieve herself and had passed out. Then she froze to death.
I don't know if that young man knew the woman who had died, or if it was just some strange coincidence. However, as bad as it might sound, I was very relieved when I got the correct information. I had been thinking that I'd taken a murderer to his victim.
= new reply since forum marked as read
But you know, even if you had taken him to his victim, you couldn't have been blamed for doing that. There was no way you could have known where he was going or what he was up to.
Still, I too am relieved about the correct information.
We live in a strange world where it seems that nothing happens a lot of the time, but anything can happen sometimes. It looks like I was caught in that "anything can happen" time zone back then. I think that's one of the few times that's happened to me when I was sober. 