Calamity in America Read Online Free Page B

home?”
    “Yes.”
    “I’m on my way.  Hang on until I get there.”
    I hang up the phone and ran to my truck and that old thing had never been driven so fast all the while I had owned it that’s for sure.  The brakes and tires squealed when I came to a stop in front of Beth’s house.  I ran up the steps and burst through the front door without even a knock.  Only then I thought maybe I should have brought a weapon of some kind.  But none was needed.  I ran through the house and found Beth just outside the back door.
    Beth was on her knees and holding her mom who was lying on the ground covered in blood.  I checked her mom for a pulse but never expected to find one.  There was just so much blood.  Beth was softly sobbing.  I ran back into the house and pulled the big afghan off the back of the couch and went back out. 
    Gently I got Beth to stand up and holding her with one arm I covered her mom with the afghan.  I led Beth to the bench on the back porch and I sat down with her.  She just buried her face in my shoulder and started crying harder again.  I just held her.
    After a few minutes she quieted down and I asked if she had called the police.  She said she had called them just before she had called me.  It had been some time by then and they still had not yet shown up. 
    I held Beth for a very long time and when the police still had not shown up I called them just in case they had not gotten the address correctly.  I was informed when I finally got through that yes officers were on their way but it still might be some time yet before they arrived.  I asked if they had been informed that there had been a violent death here and they answered yes they had that information.
    I could hardly believe that it must have been at the very least an hour and a half and more likely two or more hours since Beth had called them and they still were not here.
    It was maybe another forty five minutes or so when I heard someone announce their presence at the front door.  It was one police officer.  He had not used the siren on his car or I would have certainly heard it.  I took him out the back door and pointed at the covered body on the ground.
    “What happened here?”
    “I don’t know.  The young lady called me just after she called the police about three hours ago.  The woman on the ground is her mother.  That is all I know other than the young woman seems to be unhurt.”
    He walked over and lifted the afghan to look at the body.  Then he walked over and started to question Beth.  First he got full names for both her and her mom and verified that indeed the woman was her natural mother and that they lived at this address together.  When asked what exactly happened Beth said she had left to walk up to the grocery store to pick up a few things and when she got back she found her mom where she was now.  No one else lived here and Beth said she saw no one when she got back.
    The policemen looked again at the back yard and seemed to notice that it was all garden.  Then he walked all around the low fence that enclosed the back yard before coming back.
    “Likely someone came over the fence to steal some of your garden produce.  That is happening daily here in the city.  Your mom must have surprised them or maybe tried to stop them and was struck at that point.  I’ll put that in my report.  Do you have a funeral home picked out?  If so I will call the one of your choice for the pick up.  If not I will call the closest one.”
    I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
    “Won’t the coroner come for the body?  What about an investigation?  Will a forensic crew come and look for evidence?  Will there be an autopsy?”
    “Things are handled differently now.  There have been some cut backs.  I will file a report when I get back to the station.  I will have the coroner write up the death certificate and a certified copy of that can be picked up at the station for a small fee.  The funeral