Coming Home (Norris Lake Series)

  Leaving the doctor’s office, Caitlyn paused looking out the entrance door at the sun as it started to fade in the western sky, marveling at the way the orange and yellow rippled across the blue and white clouds.

  Driving through the curves following the Clinch River in the early evening, Caitlyn day dreamed not paying attention to other cars on the road until she noticed a rapidly approaching pair of headlights in her rearview mirror because it had turned to dusk. She tapped her brakes to show the car behind her the speed of her own truck, but the headlights kept coming. She started to slow and pull to the right shoulder of the road to allow the other car to pass only to see the other car swerve to stay directly behind her. The vehicle’s headlights and grill were higher than her own so she guessed it was a truck much larger than hers.

  “Wham!” The other vehicle bashed into her bumper shoving the dually forward and slamming her hard into the steering wheel. The truck behind her slowed and then roared forward slamming again into her bumper throwing her forward once again. Caitlyn grabbed her steering wheel hard swearing to herself. Heart beating wildly, she pressed hard on the gas pedal, her truck jumping forward before the other vehicle could ram her again. As she gained speed, the gap widened. She fled frantically the truck swerving as it rounded each turn, trees passing dangerously close to her passenger window.

  The lights in the rear view mirror appeared again pulsing white as the other vehicle bumped and swerved behind her as if it were a predator chasing its prey. She could see the other vehicle pull closer and though it was past twilight she could see it was a dark Ford 250 truck, but she couldn’t make out the driver’s face. The Ford pulled next to her on the left in the oncoming lane and then swerved hard right into the back panel of her own truck.

  She shrieked as the steering wheel was jerked from her hands. The front tires of her truck were forced into the oncoming lane and toward the steep embankment of the river that ran down the left side of the road. Suddenly, she had a choice, the water or the trees. Neither was an option as she pressed even harder on the gas trying to stay ahead of her pursuer. She could hear the roar of her truck its engine overloading. The dually was designed for torque not speed and it handled like a tank rather than a sports car.

  Yelling in frustration, tears streamed down Caitlyn’s face. All her mind could think of to do was scream. It wouldn’t even form cohesive words. Terror filled her heart making it pound hard in her chest. She wasn’t thinking but rather acting on impulse and instinct to keep the truck on the road between the trees and the river. The larger, faster black 250 roared behind her and to the left of her own white and silver dually. Somehow Cat remembered something special ahead, she knew there was a single lane stone railroad trestle with a short tunnel for the road. Both trucks wouldn’t fit in the tunnel together. On either side of the trestle was solid rock. She knew she had to get through the tunnel before the other truck or take the chances of it forcing her into the stone wall.

  Barreling down the road at 70 miles per hour on a twisting, dark tree-lined road, Caitlyn felt her chances wane as the light dwindled and night fell around her. The bright lights blared behind her stabbing her in the eyes with a blinding whiteness as the other driver hit his high beams. To the right of the dually a large figure jumped out in front of her truck, its antlers outlined; silhouetted in black and its frightened eyes freezing it solidly still in her headlights. Without thinking, Caitlyn jerked the truck to the right to avoid hitting the buck. The front tires dropped off the pavement and onto the soft gravel digging hard first into the embankment of the road and then the soft dirt. The tire grabbed the ground yanking the steering wheel hard.

  As the front end stopped, the back end of her truck maintained its forward speed and then accelerated as the F250 hit the right back fender. She could feel the truck start to spin. As it came sideways the left back tire took hold and the truck started to flip. The heavy duty tires were not enough to hold the truck to the ground. Caitlyn straightened her arms, gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as she lost control of the truck. The cab tilted to the left and seconds later her driver side window slammed the ground exploding the window pieces in a shower of glass. The airbags in the steering wheel and dashboard erupted filling the cab and pinning her against the seat. Her shoulder harness held as she felt the truck go on over upside down then sliding down the hill.

  Wham! The momentum stopped abruptly against an unmoving wall of ancient fir and maple. The F250 stopped briefly, as if assessing the damage to the dually, then sped off in the darkness. Upside down, Caitlyn put one hand to her forehead and felt the warm stickiness of blood on her palm. Pushing the airbag away she reached her left arm across her chest and unsnapped the seat belt falling on the upper side of her back on to the roof of the truck. The passenger door lay wedged against a copse of trees but her driver side door was free. She put her shoulder to the door and pushed. It creaked open. She gave it a second shove and she climbed out onto the cold grass hugging the ground as if it were her own warm bed at home.

  A pair of headlight appeared over the edge of the embankment. It was him, she thought to herself. He’s come back to finish the job. Caitlyn staggered first to her knees a grabbed a nearby tree to struggle to her feet. The whole world swayed around her as if she was on a crazy tilta-whirl ride and the ground rose up to grab her once more. She lay on her side eyes closed hoping that the maniac in the truck would make the end quick. Laying there in the cold, wet grass with the light from the full moon and the smell of gasoline, a pair of warm hands gathered into familiar arms.

  “Cat, wake up, it’s me Ben. Can you hear me?” he cried as the ambulance pulled up behind his patrol car.

  “Ben?” Caitlyn said slowly opening her eyes and regaining her senses. “I’m okay just a little shook up. I need to tell you what happened. It was a big dark truck. It tried to run me off the road. I couldn’t out run it and he just kept ramming me. A deer jumped out in front of me and I swerved to miss it. Oh, God, I could have been killed.” She started shaking and as the shocking events caught up to her, unchecked her tears began to flow. She couldn’t help herself. She couldn’t even speak the fear as so overpowering.

  Ben pulled a rag out of his back pocket and wiped the blood from her forehead. It was a cut that might require a few stitches but all-in-all she looked like she’d been lucky.

  “It’s okay,” he said leaning into the Bronco to hold her. After a few minutes, she stopped shivering.

  “I want you to go get checked out at the hospital.”

  “My truck?”

  “It’s gone. Totaled. Don’t worry about the damn truck he groaned. I’ll get it towed into town and find you a decent loaner. No more protests, Cat. I meant it. I’ll call your Dad to meet you. Stay with him tonight. It may not be safe to be on your own. I’ll stop by and pick up your dog and bring her over to your Dad’s house later this evening.”

  A siren whined shrilly in the distance coming ever closer. They loaded her into the ambulance and sped away lights flashing.

  Ben called for a tow truck examining her vehicle while he waited. That bastard, Ben thought to himself. If her husband did this he was going to make him wish he were dead.

  Hours later, Robert Tarlington inquired of his daughter just after dropping her at the lake house. “Caitlyn, how are you doing?”

  She held the phone close to her ear gingerly. Then switched it to the other side of her head because it hurt so bad. “I am fine Dad, just a little banged up and bruised,” she replied lowering herself carefully into one of the brown easy chairs next to the fireplace. She set a hot cup of dark chocolate cappuccino on the end table to her right and leaned back into the soft cushion with a sigh of relief. Then she adjusted an icepack so it balanced on her forehead and arranged another one on her left knee.

  “You know you can stay with me. You’re being pigheaded by staying there alone. We don’t know if it was that crazy husband of yours that is doing this or maybe it has to do with the threats to the condo project
,” her father worried fuming as he thought twice about his decision to take her back home.

  “Dad, I know it’s not Dominic. He may be a little wild and more than a little scary but he wouldn’t do this to me. His bark is much worse than his bite.”

  “It had better not be that son-in-law of mine. I’ll kill him.”

  “If it’s the condo project, I won’t let them scare me off. Whoever it is….if they think I am going to be scared enough to drop the project, then we won’t make the deadline and you’ll lose the contract. We can’t let that happen.”

  “Caitlyn, I can’t let you manage that project anymore. It’s too dangerous.”

  “You don’t have a choice Dad. Who else is available?”

  “I can get Michael to take over the project”.

  “You can’t Dad. If it is the condo project, then we can’t put him in danger. I won’t let you do that. And by the way, I like the lake house and being on my own. It’s the first time I’ve been on my own since I got married. It’s makes me feel strong and independent to be on my own and making my own decisions.” Caitlyn stated strongly in her determination to get her own way. She tucked her feet up under her and opened her arms for the little dog to jump up and join her in the large chair.

  “I don’t want you involved any more. It’s too dangerous,” her father restated resolute too in his determination not to lose his authority entirely.

  “Dad, I am fine. Who knows? It could have been just a couple of rednecks out drunk having some fun. We don’t know they tried to force me off the road on purpose,” Caitlyn countered.

  “I will have Bubba take over the project, Caitlyn or I can do it.” His resolution failing in the light of her pragmatic argument.

  “Dad, you can’t do that. You are in no shape to be up and about. If it is dangerous, Bubba has a wife and four kids to think about. I don’t want to be responsible for anything happening to Bubba. He’s as much like a father to me as you.”

  “I will be fine. I can take care of myself. I swear,” she finalized knowing the argument was over and she’d won.

  “We’ll this isn’t the last of this discussion. I would feel safer if you were here at the house. But since you are going to be hard headed about it, you’d better be careful or I’ll tan your hide. You’re a grown woman but not so grown that I can’t put you over my knee,” his voice stringent in the authoritative voice she remembered from her youth.

  “I love you too, Dad,” Caitlyn cooed warm in knowing she was still precious to the first man in her life.

  “Yeah, me too, Caitlyn,” he softly said once he heard the click of the receiver. “Take care. I love you, baby girl.”

  Knock. Knock. She stood up from the computer and limped toward the door, peaking through the side window before opening it.

  “I thought I told you to stay at your father’s house tonight? You shouldn’t be alone,” Ben declared sternly.

  “You want to come in or would you rather argue on the porch?”

  “I don’t have time to come in. There’s a junior high football game tonight and it’s bound to be a busy evening.”

  “Thanks for caring about me, but I would rather be here at home. I have some work to do.”

  “What would that be? I thought you were on break.”

  “I might as well tell you. I received a threatening email a few days ago and have been trying to locate the sender.”

  “What? You received a threat and didn’t take it seriously enough to report it?”

  “I have received threats before. Sometimes the kids in my Cyberforensics classes send them to me just to see if I am smart enough to catch them doing it. It doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with what’s happened.”

  “Well it might. Have you had any luck?”

  “No. I can trace it back to a non-existent account. Whoever sent it is very smart and technologically astute.”

  “Is there any way I can talk you into going to your father’s? Or maybe having someone come stay with you? How about Jesse?”

  “Ben, I will be safe enough here. I can’t spend my time worrying about what might happen. I can’t let myself be a victim any more. It’s making me old before my time.”

  “Okay you hard headed woman. You irritate me more than I ever thought possible. Whether you like it or now I am going to have a black and white drive by a couple of times tonight and check on you.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “Well it might not be for you, but it is for me, because you are making me grow old before my time too.”

  The Sheriff’s radio kicked on an alert. I have got to go. “Call the station if you see or hear anything suspicious or track down the sender of that email.”

  “Yes, sir,” she said with a little salute.

  He shook his head and walked down the steps to his car.

  Chapter 19

  Whack! The door to the apartment slammed behind him. The air around him sizzled with electricity as the anger rolled off of him like steam off Old Faithful.

  He logged on to his computer and with a few expert finger strokes entered the forum’s site. He was full of energy and felt so powerful he imagined that he could do anything.

  That bitch. He sat in the darkness of his own abode thinking of the perfect vengeance, the perfect crime. He would be the author of such an event and no one would ever know it was him. He’d done it before and he could do it again. He’d become part of the darkness rather than the light, thus his handle, Warlock.

  He was a man broken and then reborn under a new identity, more powerful than before. Even his looks had changed over the years. It was a romantic notion, he thought, smiling to himself.

  But back to the issue at hand. The condo project was going forward as planned. He’d already tried to stop the project and to deter Caitlyn but unsuccessfully. Now what? She had to fail and he’d make sure the old man fell off that high horse of his too. He’d lived with this burden long enough. Day after day every time he looked in the mirror he heard a voice speaking to him as if it were a ghost standing by his side and whispering softly into his ear. The ghost drove him night and day as she had since the day she’d died. Vengeance, retribution, failure, death, disappointment, murder, shame, disgrace, the words repeated over and over in an endless litany.

  Even when he was working, shopping or doing any other normal daily task, the voice was still there as an undercurrent in a river with an otherwise peaceful facade. He not only heard the voice but also could smell the moldy wet fishy stench associated with the backwash of a lake. It wasn’t just any lake but rather a distinctful smell from a long ago. It was the smell of a cove at Norris lake. Sometimes, but not often over the years, he heard the ghost standing at his side. He knew she was there. She was just out of sight but within his peripheral vision, but when he turned around to look at her, she would be gone. Who haunted his conscience? He thought he knew.

  Leaning back in his chair, he propped his feet up on the desk and looked out his 2nd story window at the night. There was no moon so the only light was the stars. They were like pinpricks of light showing through a heavy black blanket. The only other light was one from the small outdoor light next to the sliding glass doors of his back porch which glowed a ghastly yellow.

  In one hand he held a clear blue tumbler filled with Bookers fine bourbon and on the table sat what was left of the bottle. He’d worked his way through half of it finding his mind was more creative when he was aided by spirits. Laughing to himself, he said “Aided by spirits.” Hell he was always flanked by spirits whether he wanted to be or not. He looked down at the glass swirling the liquid around the ice cubes and held it once again to his lips, the both sweet and sour smell of hops filled his nostrils. With one move, he finished the glass and reached for the bottle again.

  He would have to make her more than frightened, he said to himself, but how to do that without getting involved or bringing focus on himself? He’d already been the target of police scrutiny and didn’t want to
be under that microscope. He’d have to think about it some more.

  Putting down the glass, he flipped on the monitor for his computer and waited for the signature Windows sound. He logged on to the internet, humming softly. He started a program in the background and within minutes had hacked into the Norris town hall database. With a few more deft moves, he was in the police records.

  He spent a few hours looking through the history of murders, suicides and missing persons. He then switched to the Norris paper’s archives and proceeded to research the same topics.

  After hours of research, he had an idea. He could tie the disappearances that had taken place during the town’s history and the recent murders into a viable means to achieving his goals. It was brilliant. Tie them all together with some planted data and misinformation. It would lead the police and anyone else to the wrong conclusions and away from him. He’d just start planting some seeds around town. He’d lead that bumbling Sheriff down the right road. Yeah, right to the wrong guy but away from him. He leaned back in his chair once again, poured the rest of the bottle in the tumbler and finished it in one gulp. Smiling he pushed himself away from the computer and closed his eyes. Yes, this was going to work perfectly.

  Chapter 20

  Ben opened the door of the Sheriff’s office and walked out into the cool sunshine of the autumn day. He breathed in the smells of the small city holding every contented moment deep within. There was the aroma of warm rolls and other pastries baking at the Corner Café Eatery and leaves burning in a large pile in a metal barrel at the edge of the park that ran along one side of the town square.

  The park surrounded the town on two sides boasting quaint turn of the century houses of which half were now commercial establishments. On the far side of the park was a railroad line now obsolete with an old passenger cars and a red caboose used as part of a children’s playground. In the middle of the park was a tall Grecian fountain with five gravel paths radiating outwards beneath tall oak and maple trees like warped spokes on a wheel. It reminded him of the old style labyrinths of England. The Stout’s carriage horses were penned in a large lot a block away which added sweet cedar shavings, straw and manure to the town’s perfume.