A Strange Little Desert Town - Chapter 12 (3/5)
A Strange Little Desert Town
Chapter Twelve - Accidental Truths
Part Three of Five
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Daniel opened the top drawer of his dresser. Nestled between two piles of folded pants was a small red box with gold trim. The catch on the top caught the light & sparkled, tempting him to open it. He reached for the box & opened the clasp, the two halves of the top breaking apart to reveal a band that glittered with three precious stones set side by side.
The ring itself was white gold, yellow was too common for her. The three diamonds & their placement had meaning. They signified Past, Present & Future. It was the true, traditional engagement ring, one from before the fashion conscious had needed to brag with large solitaire diamonds. This was truth. For in truth, Daniel loved her.
He turned the ring over in his hand, letting the many facets of the jewels create dancing light faeries throughout the room. His thoughts cast back to his twin sister's wedding; to Ash's offhand comment at the end & to Her response. She'd been wrong. Just that once. But then again....
She was gone.
The lights skittered & played across the room. Daniel thought of her teasing smile. The light would twinkle in her eyes. You could easily drown in their hazel depths. He reminisced on the sultry look she would get when they were playing. The way she'd arch on eyebrow & bite her lip. How she'd look at him through her long, black eyelashes.
Daniel Stripe was a ladies man. It was no secret that he had a way with women, or that they seemed to find him charming & sweet. Miranda used to say it was because he had his grandfather's eyes. Mixed with his police officer's uniform, those eyes had women eating from the palms of his hands.
His twin sister, Ash, was closer than any to him. She wasn't just his twin, she was his best friend & the reason he was alive after that incident back when they were sixteen. She was also the only person who knew that Daniel wasn't into monogamy. He had numerous girlfriends who didn't know they weren't his sole love, much to his sister's chagrin.
There had been a knock at the door. Danny had opened it to see his partner, Sam, in uniform. Immediately he'd known that something was wrong.
"Hey Danny," Sam's expression was serious.
"Sam? What's going on?"
"May I come in?"
"Er, yeah?" Daniel had motioned for his friend to come inside & take a seat on the lounge before joining him.
"Why so serious, Sam?" Daniel recalled asking. "What's this about?"
"It's about Bella, Danny," Sam's voice had been leaden.
The colour had drained from Daniel's face.
"She...." Sam trailed off into silence. He'd stood up & started at the candlesticks on the nearby table, a tear trickling down his cheek.
"She's gone, Danny," Sam then finished, trying to hold himself together.
Daniel had sat there in shocked silence as his mind attempted to absorb his friend's words. He couldn't be serious. But Sam never lied. There was no way this could be real. But it wasn't something to joke about. Bella couldn't be gone.
The look on Sam's face had told him it was no joke. Sam wouldn't have even considered joking about something like this. Especially not about Bella.
"Where?" Daniel had managed to croak. "What?"
"There was an accident," Sam explained.
A road train. Bella had been coming back from a meeting in the city & an impatient driver had tried to overtake her over double white lines. Just around the blind bend had been a B-double. The air horns blared & the four wheel drive swerved suddenly back into the left lane; where Bella's hatchback was. Smashing into the drivers side of the hatch, the 4WD pushed her off the road. Bella's car had hit the soft shoulder, dug in & flipped. It rolled five times before finishing with its wheels to the sky in the ditch. The driver of the Road Train had called it in. The 4WD never stopped.
Bella was pronounced dead at the scene. The paramedics who attended believed her to have died at the moment the 4WD impacted.
The funeral was today. Everyone would gather at the lookout above wireless hill. It had been her favourite spot. They used to go there in the late evening & stand at the edge, looking down over their town with its lights twinkling. It was a sheer cliff face, with a drop of 100 metres, but they would stand at its edge for hours, saying nothing. Just his arms around her while they watched life go on below them.
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