Chapter 14 fourteen

Things didn't stabilize until 4 p.m. that day, when Lewis and Richard, the chief of campus security, issued a statement to the press.Pascoe, a young man, was running with two friends, one of whom was his fiancée. Vissels, 23, was driving at breakneck speed from the Ranger Women's Gymnasium toward the center of campus when he hit Pascoe, who hit his head on a tree.His friend and two passers-by took him to the campus hospital on a blanket, where he died minutes later.Withers was placed in custody and he will be charged with careless driving, causing death by driving. The editor of the school newspaper asked if it could be said that Pascoe died of a brain injury.Thinking of Pascoe's slit like a broken window through which the brain could be seen, Lewis said let the county coroner release Pascoe's cause of death.The editor asked if the four young men who brought Pascoe to the school hospital in blankets had inadvertently caused his death?Lewis replied: "No, not at all. In my opinion, Mr. Pascoe was unfortunate. He was fatally injured when he was hit."

There were other questions, but Louis's final answer did end the press interview.Louis sat in his office, trying to make sense of, or rather bury, the day's events.He and Charlton are checking the classification of the students' diseases. There are 23 diabetics, 15 epileptics, 14 paraplegics, leukemia, stroke, muscular dystrophy, a blind student, Two dumb students, and one with sickle cell anemia, a case Louis had never seen. Perhaps the worst part of the afternoon came after Steve was gone.Charlton walked in and put a pink note on Louis's desk reading: Rugs from Bangor to be delivered at 9am tomorrow.

Louis asked puzzledly, "What carpet?" Charlton replied with apology: "The original green carpet must be replaced, doctor, the blood stains cannot be washed out." Of course it can't be washed out.Louis went to the pharmacy to get some sedatives, he needed them, especially the note about the carpet that he could see as soon as he looked up, he needed to calm himself down.While he was continuing to check the sickness of the students, Mrs. Bellings, a nurse on the night shift, poked her head in and said, "Dr. Creed, your wife's phone number is number one." Louis glanced at his watch and saw that it was almost 5:30 Well, he should have left here an hour and a half ago.

"Yes, Bellings, thank you." Louis picked up the phone, pressed the button on line one, and said, "Hi, honey, I was just at—" "Louis, are you okay?" "Yes, very good." "Louise, I heard that on the news. It's a pity." The wife paused, then added, "It was on the radio news. They played your answers to the questions, and you sounded pretty good." "Really? That's not bad." "Are you sure you're all right?" "Yes, Rachel, I'm fine." "Then go home." "Okay." Louis put down the phone.Home sounded really good to him.