Bob Capran was an ordinary man. He had a wife a house a mortgage everything that a man in his thirties could want. His little girl was going to be eight years old in two weeks and his wife Nora and he had been planning a birthday party for the past month.
Sally was the gem of his eye. She was smart well mannered and cute as a button. She had long black curly hair with large hazel eyes. Someday, he thought she might be a beauty queen.
Nora was a happy wife and mother of a little girl that she loved more than anything. Her little girl was the most important thing in her life. She had a good job working for the local phone company and her life was wonderful.
But that life was about to be changed in an instant. The three of them would not be able to be a family again because of the stupidity of one man. He was an ordinary man. He had an ordinary job with a family of his own. But he was drinking and this is their story.
Luke James lived in the suburbs. He had three children and a wife who worked at a local school. Their marriage was good, but sometimes Luke liked to have a few beers. Laura had begged him on several occasions to call her and not drive but he thought he was all right this night.
He had started drinking when he went out with a client to a local restaurant. Once the meeting was over he had stayed and had two more drinks for the road. He looked normal and did not walk crooked or anything but he knew that he had four drinks in the past hour and a half. He got in his car and started driving home. His home was just a few miles down the street.
But as he started the drive home, he did not realize just how tired he was. He turned on the air conditioner in the car and reached over to put something in the cd player. His eyes were off the road for maybe ten seconds, but it was enough. He swerved into the other lane without warning.
The sounds of the crash would remain in his mind for the rest of his life. The shattering of the windshield the piercing of the air bags as they threw out towards his chest. The pain, his neck hurt from it being thrown around. But when all was done he got out of the car and looked at the damage. 'Darn Laura is going to kill me' he thought to himself.
Luke looked around at the large crowd that was gathering and saw the car that he had hit. It was a small compact and his large jeep had done a number on it. He glanced at the occupants, a woman and a man. He thought of nothing, but calling his wife and letting her know what had happened.
Laura was at home making dinner for the kids when she got the call. It was Luke and he had wrecked another car. Yes she would go over and pick him up.
The police and the ambulance came to the scene. They talked to Luke and could smell the alcohol on him from ten feet away. They gave him a field sobriety test and arrested him for dui right there on the spot. As he sat in the car he watched as the ambulance workers worked on the couple who had been in the other car. In the back seat was a little girl who was crying, but seemed to be all right.
The man and the woman were not moving and Luke thought they were unconscious. But this was not to be the case Nora and Bob Capran had died at the scene. Sally was now an orphan. And Luke was going to be charged with double vehicle homicide.
Sally was crying as she was brought to the hospital. She knew that her parents had died. She had felt the crash and had seen all of the blood. The people at the hospital were kind to her, but she could not help it. She had to cry. Sally wanted to act like an adult but her mommy and daddy had died.
When the hospital had called the next of kin Sally's aunt Mary came right over to the hospital. Mary was a good woman, but she already had two children of her own and had just married a man with three children. They were both struggling to make ends meet. She did not know what she was going to do. Sally was just a child that she did not want or could afford.
Mary called her brother to tell him what had happened. Brian loved his brother Bob very much and was devastated to hear that he had been killed in an accident. Sally was such a sweet child, but he was a single man who lived in a one bedroom apartment. He did not want to move into his brother's house and raise a child.
But he knew that Mary could not take care of her, so he took Sally in. Brian was a partier, though, and was all of twenty-three. He was not a good influence at the very least, for Sally. Sally would wake up to find a new girl in the kitchen nearly every morning. Some of the girls were nice, but some were not.
Within three months it was clear that Brian was not going to work out as a parent and little Sally was sent to live at another aunt's house. This aunt was an older woman who had raised her children, and had been enjoying a semi retired life. She loved Sally, but she did not want to be saddled with the little girl until she was eighteen. That was another ten years. Michelle started looking for someone else to care for Sally almost the day that Sally came to live with her.
It had now been six moths since that fateful day and Luke was finally in court on the charges of vehicular homicide. For his family their life had been changed that day also. They were involved in a large law suit and there was a real possibility that their father could go to jail. Their dad had already lost his license.
It was at the courthouse that Della met the little girl Sally. She had been with one of the court matrons waiting to testify about the accident where she had seen her mom and dad die. Sally was such a sweet girl, but so sad. The lady that was with her was so short and kept telling her to be quiet, be still watch what you are doing. The poor little girl could not do anything.
Della looked down at her belly that was now growing by leaps and bounds. She was going to see the doctor tomorrow morning to find out what she was having. She thought of how much her baby was wanted and how sad it was that Sally had no one that cared.
But Michelle Jones, had noticed Della. She was a kind lady and she knew that she was married to that famous lawyer Perry Mason. Michelle had used him a long time ago, when he was not a famous attorney for a minor legal issue. Della had not worked for him yet. She had followed him for the past few years and knew that she would have to see him. Sally was not going to work out at her house, and she was really the last relative the little girl had. She was going to need to talk to Perry Mason.