LOL, no car phone or alternate reality needed--nor did SK go off to make a cup of coffee and forget. Go back and read the entire passage again. Eddie was referring to the woman in the picture that Dev recovered: his previous wife, aka the "miserable scolding backbiting ****". In the middle of the conversation, Eddie gets sidetracked and talks about his daughter and how she was hit by a car, "like a dog in the street." It wasn't the driver that he said was talking-- it was (again) "that miserable ****"-- his wife. Eddie blamed the little girl's death on her because she was "yakking on the phone instead of watching her." I think the wording makes it pretty clear that it wasn't the driver who was talking on the phone. Which makes sense, given that it took place in the 50's.