the white mini
the young man lay on his back on the pedestrian crossing“
in the middle’ of the road. Burden got out of the police car and looked round. He saw an ambulance, and he saw the white Mini at the side of the road with its front light smashed. ' A doctor was standing next to the young man lying on the crossing.
‘lt’s very bad,’ the doctor told Burden. ‘I think his back’s broken and there are internal injuries.’
Burden looked across at the car. He recognized that Mini. A girl was sitting in the front seat, leaning forward with her head in her hands. Her hair was short and black and she had pushed her fingers through it. He could see her long red fingernails.
‘Don’t worry about her,’ the doctor said angrily. ‘She’s not
hurt.’ Burden turned towards the small crowd of people at the side
of the road. ‘What happened? Did anybody see it?’ he asked. A man with a dog looked down at the young man lying in the road. ‘He looked right and left,’ he said, ‘but there was nothing coming. He started to walk across the road when that white car .’He shook his head ‘The driver, that girl, she was going like a crazy thing. .sixty miles an hour, perhaps more. The car h1t him, threw him up in the air, and... ’thats all’ A woman touched Burden’s arm. ‘He wants a vicar, ’she ;aid, pointing at the young man. ‘He keeps asking for Father
Chiverton. I think he knows that he’s dying.’ ‘Chiverton is the vicar here,’ said the doctor. ‘But he’s away 3n holiday.’ Burden walked over to a police constable. ‘Gates, he said,
go into Stowerton and get a vicar.’