Trevor knew his goose was cooked when he saw the flashing red and blue lights in his mirror.
"Damn, I'm screwed!" he swore. He stepped on his brakes but it was too late. The cruiser had already pulled up behind Trevor's black Celica while the cars around him were moving discreetly into other lanes and going around.
State troopers are so damned sneaky
, thought Trevor.
They go out of their way to nail you during holidays.
This one had been hiding on the side of the highway behind some trees on a bluff, invisible after sundown. As far as Mike could tell, he had been going about 75 miles per hour. Unfortunately, the posted speed limit was only sixty.
Just stay calm
, he told himself.
Act surprised and maybe you'll get off with a warning
. But he had a bad feeling as he steered his car onto the berm.
The trooper, wearing a dark, olive-green uniform and a Smokey-the-Bear hat, emerged from his cruiser and ambled slowly up to Trevor's door. "Can I see your driver's license, please?" the officer said, , shining his flashlight at Trevor's chest.
"Yes, of course, sir," said Trevor. Ordinarily he didn't call anyone "sir," but it seemed a prudent thing to do now. Awkwardly he retrieved his wallet from his rear pocket and started to hand his license out through the window. But just then he looked at the officer's blond hair and cleanly-shaven face, and his jaw dropped. In fact, a small laugh escaped his lips.
"Holy shit! Mike, is that you?"
The trooper, who was well over six feet tall and well built, stepped closer and peered down through the window. His eyes widened a little. "Well, who have we here?" he asked. "Trevor Andrews, right? It's been a long time, Trevor."
Several years earlier, the two young men had graduated from high school together in Norwich, Connecticut. They hadn't exactly been best friends, but they had spent four years attending many classes together as well as playing on the varsity baseball team. Mike had the reputation in school of being the class clown, so Trevor was surprised to see him in a police uniform with a black leather gun holster. But under the circumstances, he was glad to see him again.
"I'm doin' great, dude, how about you? I heard you applied to the police academy but I didn't know you were, like, a real cop."
"I was lucky. I was accepted into the accelerated training program and I passed the state peace officer's certification exam in August," he said. "So things are going okay,I guess. Are you still in college? "
"Yeah, third year at Brown. It's tough, but I like it. I'm majoring in political science."
"You going into politics? I always figured you would go to some big-deal ivy league school. You seemed like the type," said Mike. "Traveling home for Thanksgiving?"
"You bet," said Trevor. "Long weekend."
"Yeah, lot's of vehicles on the road tonight. Can I see your license now?"
"Huh? Oh, sure--here it is. Standard procedure, right?" said Trevor, grinning.
"Yeah, standard procedure, " said Mike. "By the way, do you know why I pulled you over?"
The smile dropped from Trevor's face. Policemen were always asking stupid, officious questions like that when they pulled people over, probably trying to trick them into making a confession. Was that in their training manuals? "Heh-heh," said Trevor. "I'm not sure, was I going too fast? We're having this family get-together tonight, see, and my mom is making dinner and she gets pretty pissed if you're late. You know how it is."
"Yeah, I remember your Mom. Nice lady," said Mike. "Let's see, ah, seventy-eight point two. That was your vehicle speed. We have these new Z-band radar units that can clock your speed within zero-point-two miles per hour now."
"Oh, no kidding." said Trevor.