Chapter 5 - Call an Uber
Caroline’s car continued down the hill.
She pressed the brake again, then shifted into a lower gear. The steering wheel shook beneath her hands.
Traffic waited at the intersection below.
Caroline turned sharply toward an empty service road and guided the car into a row of protective barriers.
The impact was violent but brief.
The airbag deployed. Glass cracked. The vehicle stopped against a concrete divider.
For several moments, Caroline heard nothing except the rain striking the damaged roof.
Then the dashboard began to smoke.
Her door would not open.
Her wrist throbbed, and every breath became painful. She found her phone beneath the passenger seat, but the screen was broken.
Voice commands still worked.
She tried calling emergency services.
The call failed.
She tried again.
No signal.
The system displayed one available contact through the car’s emergency connection.
Dad.
Caroline sent a voice message.
“Dad, I’ve been in an accident. The door is stuck. Something is smoking, and I can’t breathe. Please call emergency services. I’m near Harbor Service Road.”
She waited.
A minute later, a response appeared.
Call an Uber, Caroline. I’m in a meeting.
She stared at the words.
At first, she assumed Tyler had misunderstood.
She sent another message.
“I am trapped in the car.”
There was no response.
Caroline began striking the window with the metal end of her seat-belt latch. Her injured wrist weakened with every attempt.
A delivery driver named Rosa Martinez noticed the damaged barrier and stopped nearby. She ran toward the vehicle while calling emergency services.
Officer Lena Hayes arrived minutes later with firefighters.
They pulled Caroline from the passenger side.
As paramedics placed her on a stretcher, Caroline held Officer Hayes’s sleeve.
“My coat,” she whispered. “There is a drive inside.”
Hayes found the encrypted drive and sealed it with Caroline’s personal belongings.
At the hospital, doctors treated Caroline’s injuries and smoke exposure. They told her she had been fortunate.
The police inspected the vehicle.
The brake system had not failed naturally.
A critical connection had been deliberately loosened.
Officer Hayes returned to Caroline’s room the following morning.
“Do you know anyone who had access to your car?”
“The company garage.”
“Who scheduled the service?”
Caroline closed her eyes.
“Charlotte.”
Hayes placed Caroline’s damaged phone inside an evidence bag.
“We recovered your messages.”
Caroline looked at the bag.
“Did my father call emergency services?”
“No.”
“Did he call me?”
“No.”
The truth hurt more than the bandages around her ribs.
May you like
Tyler had not simply dismissed her message.
He had chosen not to check whether his daughter survived.
