The Truck Stop Part 3: Ditchwater
Robert Van Dusen
California Highway Patrol Officer Diane Farrow drummed her fingers on the steering wheel of the cruiser. The slender blonde woman swallowed the lump in her throat as she carefully reached across the police cruiser for one of the gallon jugs of water on the floor by the passenger's seat. It was hard to tell which was more disconcerting: the relative silence on the cruiser's radio or the fact that she had yet to come up behind anyone from the truck stop. Then again, if the others were driving as fast as they could, they would probably be in Ditchwater by now. The town wasn't that far down the highway, but they didn't have that big a head start on her. Then again, if whatever had happened back at the truck stop was going on in town... She closed her cool green eyes and shuddered as she hoisted the jug onto the seat, then fought to unscrew the cap with one hand while steering with the other.
The water tasted like it had been left in a hot car for hours, even though it had been a giant block of ice at the start of her shift. Diane grimaced as she forced herself to gulp down big swallows of the nearly hot water. A puzzled expression flitted across her features when she realized that she was feeling the liquid settle into her stomach, where it was being absorbed as if she were a sponge. /=Well, I have been very busy today...=/ Diane thought a little giddily as she reached over and cranked the cruiser's air conditioning. It had been quite hot today, even by Mojave Desert standards, so this shouldn't have been quite so surprising. She sputtered and choked, nearly dropping the jug of water as she fought to keep the cruiser on the road. "Uhh! Goddamn!" Diane gasped as she tried to get the top back on and succeeded only in splashing the front of her shirt.
"Oh man...fuck..." she coughed once she finally managed to get the jug closed and set on the passenger's seat. Diane wiped the water into her face and frowned slightly as she ran her fingers over her hair. /=Where the hell did my hat go?=/ she wondered, looking pensively around the cruiser for a moment. The young policewoman shrugged and then nearly burst out laughing at the idea of being written up for being out of uniform. Everything stopped being quite so funny when she spotted a few fingers of black smoke against the clear blue sky.
Diane leaned over and switched the radio over to the emergency channel as she put the hammer down. The cruiser's engine roared when it responded, pushing her back in her seat, and Diane toyed with the idea of flicking on the lights and sirens. It was a fairly straight shot into Ditchwater, and it didn't look like there was anyone between her and the town limits. A thought struck her which made Diane put both hands firmly on the wheel. /=If those things like noise, the last thing I should do is turn on the siren. =/It didn't look like there was anyone wandering around in the desert, but it didn't seem like the brightest course of action to draw too much attention if it could be helped.
A puzzled expression came to Diane's face after perhaps a quarter mile or so, when something metallic flashed in the sun ahead of her. She shaded her eyes, then frowned when she realized that it was another car coming the other way. It didn't look like one of the vehicles from the truck stop, though it was hard to tell at this distance. She let up on the gas as the two vehicles closed. After a few moments, she could start to make out details. It was a late model green sedan with plenty of chrome, judging by the way sunlight was flashing off it. A real hot rodder if the noise of the vehicle's motor was any indication.
There was a brief notion of a green Chevy Nova as the vehicle blew by her doing at least eighty miles an hour. Diane licked her lips and glanced over her shoulder, watching the car barrel down the highway. She tapped the brake and slowed as she shifted her grip on the steering wheel. If what was going on in Ditchwater was anything like the situation back at the truck stop, she could understand why someone might be speeding. /=Maybe I aught to pull them over?=/ Diane thought, watching the Nova disappear into the middle distance in the cruiser's rearview mirror. At a minimum, the driver would probably have a better idea of what was going on in town...