by Linda Nelson
She saw enough of Rod in just the first few minutes to know his condition was dangerous. The way he stood there holding the shovel ready to strike the first attacker and sporadically he would swing at what looked like invisible flying attackers.
Officer Lance watched Cassie drive away only to be replaced by two other cars, an ambulance was on its way just in case. They were going to have to approach this guy with caution. There was no need for anyone to get hurt.
“How do you want to do this?” One of the officers asked Lance.
“I’m not really sure. We could try talking to him first – I mean he only has a shovel.”
Slowly the officers got out of their cars and planned their means of apprehension.
Their plan was to use Taser guns on him. It was probably the only way they were going to be able to get him under control.
As soon as they got out of their cars, Rod charged the officers. It was all he could think of doing. He swung his shovel at them wildly hitting one or two of the officers in the head before the Tasers brought him to the ground.
The electrodes hurt, and his heart went wild. It felt like it was going to burst in his chest and he couldn’t get enough air in his lungs. He felt like he was about to suffocate.
Was this it? Was he going to die just like he had felt he was going to do right from the start?
With his arms bound behind his back the world went dark, and he felt nothing.
Inside the cabin, the officers found Max hiding behind the door to the cabin. The cabin furniture was all busted up and thrown about the room.
They never did find the bag of weed on Max. It had been knocked out of his shirt pocket during the scuffle and had been kicked across the floor, lost in the shadows. This turned out to be a good thing to have happened to Max. If it had been found on him, he would have been looking at a felony charge along with the bad head ache he was going to wake up to.
The ambulance crew immediately could see the swelling taking place from the beating he had taken from Rod. His head was already twice its normal size. He was in bad shape, but they were sure he was going to make it if they were able to get him to the hospital for medical treatment right away.
He had a lot of head trauma, but with emergency surgery they may be able to stop the worst of the brain damage that may be taking place from the internal bleeding. But they had to hurry.
Another Ambulance crew arrived. They were there for Rod. They worked frantically on him as soon as they had arrived to find that his heart had stopped beating, and he had no pulse.
But they had no luck between the CPR and the electric paddles. His heart had grown too weak from his usage of the bath salts. They were unable to revive him.
At the hospital, he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Another life lost to the usage of Bath Salts.
Some would show up as he did with severe heart trauma, and others were victims of horrific suicides. The last suicide they received not more than a week ago had slit his own throat in front of his parents. They stood there watching in horror, unable to retrieve the knife from him, being forced to watch as he bled out on the floor before them. He had cut his main artery, and they were unable to stop the flow of blood from his throat.
It had been his third and final attempt, even after being off the substance for more than six months.
Such was a common sight with those who used the substance Bath Salts, which was why legislation was in dire talks to ban the substance from being sold to the public across the nation. Even the President said they needed to take action against this terribly dangerous drug.
News cast reporters had gone on what was termed “Witch Hunts” to find out why the shop owners felt it was not an issue for them to sell the substance to the public. They kept stating it was not meant for human consumption. But yet, that was what every one of these individuals had done with it that was causing the medical and safety authorities to become concerned.
The substance was not safe to be sold to the public, if only the shop owners would face the facts.
Chapter 17 – Have you seen my Daughter?
Two days passed since Carol’s dad had seen neither hide nor hair of her. This wasn’t like her. Usually Carol would come home at least once or twice on the weekend before taking off again to go to another friend’s house. So far every one of her friends he had called had not seen her either. He had just a couple of names left to call before he was going to notify the police that she was missing.
One could never be too sure in this day and age. He trusted his daughter to know enough to stay out of danger or trouble, but something’s just couldn’t be controlled. There was only one occasion that he knew of where she had gotten into a bit of trouble. That had happened a few months ago. But she did her time doing community service and she had been staying out of trouble since then or at least to his knowledge.
He looked amongst his daughter’s things in her room one more time. He was in search of some kind of clue he might find to know of her whereabouts. It was crucial that he found her, and soon. He needed to tell her about her mother and the condition he had found her in. It was bad.
Her room was a mess as usual, and surprisingly he found her cellphone lying on her bed. He picked it up and opened it up to see if she had received any messages recently. There was none. Her phone was lacking minutes. Now he knew why she hadn’t taken it with her. But there was one good thing about her leaving the phone behind. He had her contact list. Now he would be able to call around her friends and see if any of them had heard from her at all in the past few days.
The first one he called was Darcy. He had no luck with her. She said she hadn’t spoken to Carol since Friday night. That was the last time Carol’s dad had seen his daughter too. Darcy didn’t tell him it was because Carol owed her money. Instead, she just left it as not having had a chance to see her lately.
So he continued to go down the list of names in her contact list. It was strange that none of her friends had spoken to her all weekend. Now he was beginning to worry. What if something had happened to her? He couldn’t lose her too.
After calling about ten of her friends with no luck, he was about to give up. But he didn’t. He had to tell Carol about her mom. She probably wouldn’t make it through the night. Rod’s name was next on the list. He wasn’t familiar with this guy. It was funny that Carol had never mentioned it to him once. Who was this guy, he wondered.
He dialed the number.
A woman’s voice answered the phone with a, “Hello.”
“Hi, my name is Doug Bower, I’m Carol Bower’s dad. I’m calling around to see if any of her friends have heard from her recently.” He asked the person on the other end of the line. “I was wondering if Rod has seen or heard from her recently.”
“No, Rod has not been here all weekend. In fact, he has taken my car without my permission, and I would really like it back. I don’t know where he is or when he took off with my car. I’m not the only one looking for him either. The police are looking for him. They have more questions that they need to ask him in regards to the accident at the gas station where he was working.”
“Oh…,” Carol’s dad paused before adding, “Do you think my daughter could be with him?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t know what to tell you.”
“What kind of car is it?”
“It is a 1997 Ford Taurus.”
“Have you notified the police about your missing car?”
“No, not yet, I figured he is probably in enough trouble knowing him.”
“Great…” Carol’s dad said sarcastically. “That’s all she needs, to be in more trouble.”
“So your daughter gets into trouble too?”
“Nothing serious just was busted about a couple of months ago for underage drinking.”
“Oh, that’s all?” Rod’s mom said, “Rod spent a month in rehab for drug use.”
“Carol is almost seventeen. All she had to do was community service since it wa
s her first offense.
Look it has been nice talking to you, but I really need to continue calling around. I have to find Carol as soon as I can.”
“Well good luck with that. I know what it is like. Rod is always disappearing on me. Last time he was gone for almost a month. For all, I know he may have been sitting in jail then. I never did find out where he had gone.”
“That’s all I need to hear,” replied Carol’s dad, once again he was sarcastic. “Well, if you should happen to hear from your son, will you let him know I’m looking for Carol?”
Carol’s dad then hung up the call. He had no luck, and now it was getting late. He truly needed to get back to the hospital. There was no telling whether his wife was going to wake up at all. Before he left the hospital, they had told him that the prognosis did not look promising for her after overdosing on the bad cocaine. For the grace of God, he wondered where she had gotten it in the first place. She had promised him she wouldn’t do the stuff ever again. Now look at her. He hoped whomever she had gotten the stuff from would hang for this.
On the other side of town, Mr. Centon and his wife were busy arguing over the fact that neither of them had seen their daughter since Friday night. It was now Sunday. Neither of them had any idea as to where she could be. Neither of them wanted to believe that maybe she could be missing, a run-away, or something possibly worse.
Instead, they were both busy playing the blame game for the disappearance of their daughter.
“If you didn’t let her hang out with those thugs she would be home right now where she belongs,” Mrs. Centon stated bluntly. A drink sloshed around in her hand with every movement threatening to spill it all over the floor.
“Me?
It’s not my fault that she isn’t here,” Mr. Centon stated and pointed to the glass in his wife’s hand. “It’s because you are nothing but a lousy mother and you’re drunk all the time.”
“I am not drunk all the time.”
“Yes you are – look at you – your drunk right now.”
“I am not. I am perfectly fine and sober,” his wife said angrily. “See I can walk a straight line.”
She took a couple of steps across the floor to prove her point with some difficulty. She had to do two do overs before finally taking a couple of steps in a straight line. This she internally blamed on the thickness of the carpet saying it made her look like she was drunker than she was. Of course, she had a buzz on who wouldn’t after having three gin and tonics, but she was still straight enough to walk a straight line, she had just proved it.
Mr. Centon had it with his wife. This game had gotten old. Karla was missing, and he didn’t want to stay in this house another day with his drunk wife. Where the hell he was going to go, he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to stay here with her anymore. He was only here for Karla, and that’s all.
His wife followed him to the bedroom and watched him take a bag from their closet.
“Where are you going,” she demanded.
“Laurette, I’ve had it with you and your drinking. I’m leaving.”
“Oh, so that’s it, you’re gonna walk out on me and your daughter just like that? How could you?”
“Easily, just watch me. I have had it up to here,” he demonstrated with a wave of his hand toward his throat. “Enough is enough. Don’t bother to call me either. My lawyer will be in touch with you.”
“Lawyer – what Lawyer?”
Mr. Centon tossed a manila envelope onto the bed. It was addressed to his wife. “Divorce papers – You have ten days to sign them and return them to the court.”
He picked up his packed bag with as much clothing he could squeeze into it and lugged it out the doorway behind him, with his wife in tow. She clutched the envelope in her hand and waved it at him angrily.
“You can’t be serious. What about Karla? How do you think this will affect her?”
“As far as Karla is concerned – I am doing her a favor. In fact, I should have done this a long time ago.”
Laurette watched her husband walk out the door. He’d be back she was sure of it.
Now where was that daughter of hers? Only one answer came to mind, that Carol again. There had to be a phone number for her somewhere in Karla’s room.
Chapter 18 – Booked
Officer Cassie drove straight to her precinct with the girls. There she led both girls into a large room with a wooden table and never offered to remove their handcuffs. She left them sitting there for about fifteen minutes before returning with another officer to assist her and a folder with paperwork and forms for the girls to sign.
Carol was interviewed first.
“What is your name – address – date of birth – social security number…?”
Karla sat there horrified by having to wear handcuffs. The feel of them kept making her try to twist her hands back and forth inside them causing them to pinch at her skin.
“What is your name,” the other officer asked Karla.
Karla was so focused on the handcuffs she never heard the officer ask her the question.
Officer Cassie slammed her hand down on the table before Karla making both girls jump, but it did get Karla’s attention.
“What?”
“What is your name,” repeated the other officer.
This time Karla answered him in a timely fashion. “Karla Centon.”
“Karla, what is your address,” he continued to ask.
“879 Range Wood Drive, Brantwood, Massachusetts,” she answered.
“And, your date of birth…?”
“Month, day, and year….”
“Your social security number…?”
“I don’t know it, what do you want that for anyway. I didn’t do anything.”
The officer made a note of her lack of knowledge and the comment she made to him about it.
“Okay,” said Officer Cassie, “Since you didn’t do anything, then what were you doing in that stolen car?”
“I didn’t steal it, and we were just trying to get help for my boyfriend.”
“So you figured you would just borrow the car without asking the owner even though the owner was in the next town. If you didn’t steal it then how did the car get into your possession then?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t take it, and we were just trying to get someone to help Max before Rod killed him.”
The officer made another note of Karla’s statement.
“So you didn’t take the car, but you were in it when you were found.”
“Karla, don’t say anymore. We want a lawyer.”
“Carol, what do we need a lawyer for, we didn’t do anything?”
“Karla, just shut up already.” Carol looked directly at Officer Cassie and said, “We are not saying anymore. We want our lawyer.”
The two officers left the room without another word. Karla sat and glared at Carol. She was still miffed by the mess she had gotten into with this girl once again. How could Carol have done this to her over and over again?
Last time Karla overdosed and was raped. This time she was looking at jail time. How could this have happened, not once, but twice in a row?
Officer Cassie returned once more. This time she was accompanied by two other female officers. They were there to assist with the processing of the prisoners.
“Do I need to remind you of your rights,” Officer Cassie asked.
Carol shook her head. She knew they were being arrested and there was no way of getting out of this one. She looked toward Karla one more time before replying, “You may want to remind Karla though.”
Karla shot Carol another glare. It was a good thing the cuffs were still on. She wanted to ring her neck.
The look did not go unnoticed by Officer Cassie. She reminded Karla of her rights as she led her from the room and toward the back of the building where booking and processing was located. Once there she made sure to separate the two girls into two different cell blocks.
They were merely oversized cells wit
h ten sets of bunk beds to house about twenty prisoners, all of which were girls ranging from ages fourteen to eighteen.
Karla dragged her feet as best as she could to slow the whole process down, but it didn’t work. Officer Cassie threatened to add charges of resisting arrest to her other charges if she didn’t cut it out.
When the door shut behind her, Karla was finally inside the cell with the other girls, all who were dressed in a green prison uniform just as she was, her heart sunk to her feet. She was sure she was going to puke and ran to the toilet fixture hanging off the wall.
“Yo, Baby Girl that isn’t gonna make them feel sorry for you. Everyone tries that the first time and nothing happens. So don’t go making yourself sicker than you really are, ‘cause we don’t want to be sick with you either.”
Karla turned to see who was addressing her and found it was a tough looking eighteen year old black girl with three missing teeth and bushy black hair. Never having grown up being exposed to other nationalities Karla immediately became reserved and defensive. She could see that this girl could whoop her butt in a pinch.
After a quick look about the room Karla spotted an empty bed, but something told her that maybe she needed to ask permission before taking it. So she asked the girl who had spoken to her.
“Baby Girl, it’s all right, you can have that one there and make sure we don’t hear you crying your eyes out. We all been there and done that, and it don’t work.”
Karla didn’t say another word. She gingerly climbed up onto the top bunk and rolled over on her side so no one would be able to see her tears begin to flow.
How could she have gotten into this mess so easily with Carol? Her dad was going to kill her, and Karla didn’t even want to consider what her mother was going to do to her when she found out that she was in jail.
A few hours passed before Karla gave any thought as to calling home. After asking around she learned when and where she could do this. She got three free calls before she would have to resort to collect calls.