Behind the Eight Ball

Daniel’s eyes were glued to the clock as he sat restlessly at his desk. Twelve minutes to 6PM. Twelve more minutes and he would be free to leave. He thought about sneaking out earlier, but he was already on his boss’ radar for other minor offenses, so he thought it best not to attract any more attention to himself. 

“Excited to go home?” one of his colleagues asked after noticing his fixation on the clock, “Got anything fun planned?”

“No, I’m just tired so I’ll go home and relax”, Daniel lied.

He knew that it would be impossible to relax given the circumstances. He had been replaying the previous night in his head all day like a recurring nightmare haunting his waking hours. Every recollection dug up new missing bits and pieces from the fog of his memory. Once more, he reviewed the events of the night before in his head. However painful it was, every detail needed to be accounted for.

The night had started out like most; around 9PM at the Green Carpet pub with the usual crowd playing billiards. Daniel held his own pretty well at the pool table and was usually able to make a bit of profit, but last night had been a losing streak. There is a theory at the Green Carpet that suggests that a sweet spot exists between the second and the fifth pint of beer which guarantees peak performance. The right amount of alcohol makes you more daring and confident with your shots, while too much alcohol impairs your decision-making abilities and motor skills.

Why that foolproof theory hadn’t worked that night, Daniel could not tell exactly. Had he miscounted the number of drinks he had at the pub? Or was it that luck just hadn’t been on his side that night? Whatever it was, it had caused him to drastically alter his routine. 

After cutting his losses, Daniel sat in a corner of the pub sullenly sipping on a few double whiskeys. It must have been around 11PM or 12AM when he decided to leave and try his luck somewhere else. By that time, he would normally drive back home or take a cab if he felt like he had a bit too much to drink. 

He paid his tab, left the pub by foot, and wandered around for a while until the neon signs of a different bar caught his eye. The name of the bar was pretty unmemorable, but the atmosphere could be recalled distinctly. It was the kind of place he hadn’t been to since before he met his now ex-wife. Compared to his usual pub this place was busier, and the music was louder. The multi-colored ceiling lights mixed with the atmospheric smoke gave the place a dream-like quality. It was just the kind of bar he needed to redeem his night, he thought.

While not being one to usually flirt with strangers in bars, or talk to women in general for that matter, Daniel felt adventurous that night and in desperate need of a win. A few more cocktails in, he started walking up to women. His slurred romantic advances were rejected by most until, at last, one of the other patrons reciprocated. She seemed as drunk as he was and had silky brown hair – or she might have had strawberry-blond hair, he couldn’t remember exactly.

What happened after that? Daniel closed his eyes and tried to focus. 

Only hazy glimpses of the next part of the night sporadically appeared to him. An indistinct conversation at the bar. Complaints about the volume of the music. The making out session on the backseat of his car. Clothes coming off. Her voice asking, “Let’s go to your place. Are you okay to drive?”

Although he couldn’t recall exactly what he had replied, he remembered the girl’s hand stroking his thigh as he turned the key into the ignition. 

The next thing he remembered was her scream as he opened his eyes and saw the towering pine tree rapidly getting closer. After a brief moment of disorientation, he saw the cracks and the blood on the windshield and stared in dismay at his passenger lying inert over the deflated airbag, her bloodied forehead pressed on top of the glove compartment. He checked her pulse and tried to wake her up but in vain. Her seatbelt was unfastened. She had instantly broken her neck on the windshield. 

Stupid, stupid girl, he thought, Why hadn’t she worn her seatbelt?

He could recall the next two hours very clearly. Daniel’s heart was pounding in his chest as he realized what would happen to him if he got caught. Because of his DUI history, he would definitely be put away for a very long time. In his drunken panic, he had come up with a plan.  

Luckily, he had sustained almost no injury and the car had also withstood the collision relatively well. The windshield was cracked at the point of impact, and there was a dent and a shattered headlight on the passenger side of the bumper. He carefully drove off on the dead-quiet road with his window rolled down and the dead woman still next to him. After only a few kilometers, he stopped again when he heard a nearby river. He knew that the strong current would erase any traces of his victim. If she was ever recovered, the many ramifications would make it very difficult to pinpoint the exact location where the body was disposed of. Trying to stay as collected as he could, he carried the corpse out of the car and to the riverbed and watched her disappear into the darkness of the river. 

Daniel then returned home and carefully washed off any traces of blood from the inside of the windshield, the passenger seat, and the dashboard. He then proceeded to hammer away at his windshield and hood to make it look like the damage to his car was caused during a collision with a large animal. Deer were pretty common in the area so his story would be plausible. He would also wait a few weeks before reporting it so they wouldn’t associate the crash site with him. Satisfied, Daniel mechanically made his way to his bedroom and crashed onto his bed falling asleep almost instantly. After a few hours of sleep, he woke up, took a cab to work, and sat at his desk entering data into his computer as he had for the last 5 years. 

It was not until this last reminiscence that his brain started fixating on all the flaws in his plan. What if they ask the bartender? He will definitely remember seeing us leave together. The back seat! Did I check the back seat? What if I left her bag or her coat in the car?

This last thought brought him back to reality. He looked up and saw it was now 5:58 PM. He turned off his laptop, grabbed his jacket, and left his desk without a word. Surely even his stingy boss wouldn’t bat an eye at him for leaving two minutes early. As he was walking past the reception desk, his boss hollered at him.

“Daniel! I’m glad I caught you. There are two police officers in the conference room who want to talk to you about a missing girl.”

Unable to answer, his heart skipped a beat.