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"Mr. Walton?"
"Yes."
"Is your wife Samantha Sue Walton?"
"Yes. What's this about?"
"I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but you wife was killed in an accident a short time ago."
I stood there stunned as he asked me to accompany them to the hospital.
"Hospital? You said she was killed."
"She was. She died in the hospital emergency room. We need you, as next of kin, to make a positive identification."
It was Samantha. I asked them what had happened.
"She came out of Farrell's Bar and Grill and stepped off the sidewalk in front of a truck. According to the blood work up the hospital did when she was brought in she was well past the limits of being legally drunk. Witnesses said that it didn't look like she knew what she was doing. Was everything all right between you and your wife?"
"Why do you ask that?"
"Two of the witnesses said that it looked like she deliberately stepped out in front of the truck.
++++++++++++++++++
Samantha's father was out of the country on business and her mother broke down and had to be sedated when she heard the news so it fell on me to make the final arrangements. Her dad get home in time for the funeral and Samantha's mother was there, but she was still a little drugged up.
After the funeral my dad reminded me that I needed to stop by his office and fill out the forms.
"What forms?"
"You have to file a claim to collect on the life insurance."
I'd forgotten about that. My dad was an insurance salesman and when Samantha and I had gotten married he had talked us into buying insurance on each other. We had a 125K policy on each other and it paid double indemnity in case of accidental death. That reminded me that I also had a 25K policy on her as part of the benefits package offered by the gas company. It also had a double indemnity clause for accidental death and I remembered Samantha telling me that she had life insurance on us as part of her benefits package.
The next day I went to the old apartment and moved all of Samantha's thinks into storage. I'd wait until her mother was back on her feet and then talk to her about what to do with the stuff. When that was done I headed over to my dad's office and I filed claims for the insurance.
The insurance that I had through the gas company and the insurance that Samantha had through Barrington Industries paid up, but the company that backed the insurance my dad sold us balked at paying. They said that there was cause to doubt that Samantha's death was accidental and that in fact it could have been suicide and the policy had a clause stating suicide was not covered.
I had 50k from my company policy and 30k from Samantha's company policy and I debated just saying to hell with it where the 125k policy was concerned, but my dad wouldn't hear of it.
"You get an attorney and go after those assholes. They have no proof or evidence that it was suicide. All they have is that two witnesses out of the eleven that saw it say that they 'thought' it looked like she stepped in front of the truck deliberately."
I did what my dad suggested and after two months the insurance company paid up. After the lawyer took his cut I got 195K out of the deal, but the lawyer went even farther. He went after the trucking company. It turned out that the driver had a blood/alcohol content of .04 which was well above the legal limit and the company settled and I ended up with another 65K.
Suddenly I wasn't just looking at going to school part time in the evenings. I could afford to quit my job and go to school full time. I went into work and gave two weeks notice. The shift supervisor looked at it and asked why and I told him. He asked what I was going to study and I told him I was looking to get a degree in Civil Engineering. He wished me luck and I left his office to work my shift.
Two days later when I got to work I was called into the shift supervisor's office and he told me that I needed to go upstairs and see Mr. Pearlman.
"About what?"
"Mr. Pearlman will tell you."
Pearlman was Director of Operations and what he had to say floored me. He offered to change my resignation to a leave of absence and told me that if I signed a contract to work for the gas company for three years after my graduation the company would pick up half of my books and tuition and I could work for the company as an intern on my breaks. It was a no brainer and I asked:
"Where do I sign."
To be continued.
