Chapter 15
The two fishermen were untying their skiffs, preparing to leave, when a white sedan dove from the top of the Snow’s Cut Bridge. The smaller skiff was almost struck in the aft by the falling Ford Focus; the other one nearly capsized by the ensuing splash wake. The two fishermen couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed. Holy shit! / Did I just see what I thought I saw?
“Holy cow!” the youngest one in the beach hat screamed.
“I’ve seen everything now,” the older, bearded one said.
“What should we do now?” The younger fisherman’s face had a look of pure shock.
“Well, we can’t dive down there. We don’t have any lights. The water is pitch-dark.”
The older one called 911. A New Hanover County Water Rescue boat arrived fourteen minutes later. A Coast Guard vessel was just behind them. The boats huddled together. Information about what was observed was shared.
The white Ford Focus had sunk thirteen feet to the sandy channel’s bottom, coming to rest on its four tires in only fifty-four seconds. A large eel peered in the window, not sure whether to proceed or back up and flee.
A pair of divers with underwater lights dropped below the surface. They found and extricated Mark’s body. He was obviously dead. His skull was cracked. Severely cracked. Some of Mark’s gray matter was hanging out, quickly becoming grouper snack.
Mark had died on impact with the concrete bridge railing. Blunt head trauma. His seat belt was still fastened. The thirty-eight pounds of golden fillets were still secured under the spare tire in the trunk.
The Coast Guard placed buoys above the sunken car as it was still too dark to float the car to the surface. Also, they didn’t want any deep-draw vessel to hit the car. Mark’s car had reduced the channel depth to eight feet on the north side of the dredged trench. Quite a few of the vessels that used the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway drew over eight feet. The Coast Guard didn’t want this accident compounded.
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At 8:32 AM the smashed 2011 white Ford Focus was up on a barge. It was transported eleven miles up the Cape Fear River to the Port of Wilmington, where it was unloaded into a secure fenced area.
A routine examination of the destroyed front end was performed. The car was a total loss. The trunk was opened and a cursory inspection was performed, but the spare tire was never removed.
Exceptional Rent-A-Car in Charlotte was then contacted. The rep then called a corporate higher-up to decide what to do with the totaled automobile. Twenty-four hours later they had a plan for disposition.
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The cause of Mark’s death was later listed as alcohol-related even though he only had .03% alcohol in his bloodstream when tested, way below the legal limit of .08%. It just became another motor vehicle death to be recorded with a check mark in the box after the question: Was alcohol involved in the fatality?
They never tested for the active ingredients in the SleepPhast product. Fred had warned Mark over a year ago not to drink on it. Mark learned why the hard way.