“Where are your license and registration?” This fucking guy was just not going to let up.

“They’re on the visor above this seat. I am going to take one hand off the steering wheel to reach for it.” Patrice was enunciating every word in a clear calm voice, obviously aware of his every move, something that would’ve never occurred to me to do.

I saw him reach up and after a moment, the deputy talked again.

“So you’re from New York City, what are you doing up here?”

“I work for Cornell. Again, is there a point to this?” Patrice could not keep the annoyance out of his voice when he talked, and before the cop even responded I knew things were about to get a lot worse.

“Get out of the vehicle.” The cop’s voice all of a sudden shifted, and he sounded pissed.

“What? Why?” If I didn’t know him the way that I did. If I hadn’t spent the amount of time I had with him in the last few months, I would not have been able to hear the genuine fear in Patrice’s voice.

“I said get out of the car.”

I sat there frozen in terror, praying to every deity I’d ever heard of to please just make him do whatever the deputy was asking him.

“I’d like for you to tell me the reason why I need to get out my car when you stopped me for going five miles over the limit.”

There was muffled sound as though someone was trying to force the car door open, and for what seemed like forever, I could not make out what Patrice was saying. That’s when I panicked, because I could already see Patrice on the ground, shot. I immediately put the phone on mute and dove to get my work one out. I didn’t know what I was doing, or who I was calling, but I needed to stop this right now. On the screen I saw that Patrice was no longer holding the steering wheel. He must’ve gotten out of the car.

Completely out of fucks and shaking with fear for what could happen if I didn’t do something, I called Day.

He picked up after two rings, even though it felt like a century. I spoke over him as soon as he answered.

“Do you know who’s posted on the road to Trumansburg tonight? You have to call him off. He’s got my boyfriend on the side of the road, Whitney, and it’s escalating.”

“What are you talking about?”