by Karine Green
"You have a Master's degree in Public Administration. Why are you spinning your wheels here?"
"My family and friends are here. My wife has an awesome house here, even if it is half finished. Not only that, but her charitable foundation is based here. My child's cousins live here. I make plenty of money to live comfortably in this town of eight thousand people." Jason shrugged. "The weather only sucks, every four or five years. Why on earth would I want to leave?"
Terry smiled. "You are just like Kathy. That is what the report said, and that is what you just confirmed."
"I just wish she would have moved here sooner."
"Me too. I was so afraid of her working on the police department. I worried every day."
"You never told her." Jason was surprised. Kathy believed Terry had hated her career choice, and he did, but not for the reasons she thought. "You know she opens up, if you just ask a few well timed questions."
"No, I didn't want to upset her. That was why I tried to fix her up with the Carlson kid. If you have heard the story, she probably just called him the Grabby Jerk. I was hoping she would come home, and stop the police work. Secretly, though, I was really proud of her when she graduated the police academy."
Before Jason had the chance to debate whether or not to ask him if hooking her up with an abusive boyfriend was better than law enforcement, he spotted Kathy and Jackie.
"Dad!" Kathy said, entering the room with Jackie from the secret parlor stairs. "Why didn't you say so?"
"Kathy!" Jesus! You scared me!" Terry said, spinning around to face her, and a stunned Jackie.
Kathy ran across the room, and hugged Terry. "Daddy, I am so sorry. I thought you were disappointed in me. That was why I stayed away. I didn't want you to be disappointed."
"Well, I did think you deserved a higher paying job, but I followed your career very closely. You were a good detective. I was proud of the work you did. Proud of how you stepped out and took care of yourself, even though I found it maddening as Hell. Please don't cut us out of your life again."
"I won't, but you have to be nice to Jason. He is not the dude-who-knocked-me-up. He is my husband. Besides, he didn't do anything I didn't start..."
"Got it, don't need any further daughter's sex-life details." Terry made a face like he regretted making the comment and getting too much information in response to it. "And, I wouldn't dream of being mean to the man who made it possible to bring you back to us." Terry let go of Kathy, and walked over to Jason, embracing him carefully.
Jackie took Terry's arm. "You have to come see the guest room! Kathy you come too, tell your dad the story. And don't forget the book deal."
"Book deal?"
Kathy smiled and nodded as she took Jason by the waist. "Let's use the main staircase; the handrails are stronger, so Jason can come."
They toured the rest of the plantation and then settled down for the rest of the night, without incident from the Dark Lady.
She turned the light out, and snuggled in next to him. He smiled, it was good to be loved by someone who wasn't nuts.
****
In the morning, Kathy turned off Jason's alarm, so he wouldn't jolt awake, again. After last night he needed to rest. She also figured the smell of his favorite breakfast cooking would wake him up, gently. She breathed a sigh of relief at the fact that neither one of her parents ran screaming from the guest room during the night.
She turned on the news. There were no new updates on the hunt for Carrie Bell, but then it had been a month, and the media coverage was waining a bit. Mike or the Sheriff called or stopped by every day to update Jason on other matters, but Carrie Bell seemed to be gone. The Sheriff had even sent out a bayou search team in fan boats, who turned up nothing.
She smirked at the thought of Carrie in the bayou. She wouldn't last ten minutes before becoming the main course at a gator barbecue, or perhaps a gator Carrie-Gumbo competition.
"Something funny, Kitty-Kat?" Terry said, walking into the kitchen.
"You haven't called me Kitty-Kat since I was ten."
"Senior in high school." Terry corrected. "Your mother said you were getting too old to be called Kitty-Kat."
"I'll never be too old for that." She smiled. "Scrambled eggs, or would you like to try Jason's bacon pancakes?"
"Egg whites, please. Doctor's orders. He would hunt me down if he thought for one minute I ate bacon pancakes."
She looked at him concerned. "Doctor's orders? Since when?" Although, since her father managed the doctor's accounts he probably really would hunt Terry down.
"Since my cholesterol went through the roof."
"Dad, you have a cook, who cooks fresh for you."
"The doctor says stress and genetics are playing a part." Terry sighed, "Look, Sweetheart, I have missed you. I thought you were never going to accept us back into your life. When you moved away, I was so sad. I thought we might never see you again. Then I hear from my secretary that you were nearly killed. She had seen it on CNN. No one even bothered to call us. Your mother was hysterical, since she was on the phone with you, but couldn't get back through to you. No one even told me you had a boyfriend. I heard everything second-hand."
"I called Mom about getting married, and the baby," Kathy ran over to him flinging her arms around him, "I stayed away, I felt so rejected; so unapproved of. Especially at her initial reaction about being barefoot and pregnant by a hick cop."
He held her tight. "No way. You will always be my maddening baby, Kitty Kat. But your Jason's problem now, Mrs. Rose." He patted her belly, "And if there is such a thing as Karma, this one will be just like you."
She laughed, as she broke away from him. "Egg whites it is, and if you don't mind there is fresh fruit in the fridge." She pointed.
Jackie came in a few minutes later. She chose the bacon pancakes.
Kathy was starting to wonder if she should peek in on Jason, when he wandered in looking very sleepy. "I thought I smelled breakfast. I must have forgotten to set my alarm." He sounded as tired as he looked.
"I can bring it up to you. Go back to bed."
He shook his head. "I need to get up. It's time to start testing some limits. Eating breakfast properly among them. For crying out loud, breakfast doesn't last that long. I can surely last that long."
Terry smiled, "Oh, yeah, two of kind, you two are."
Kathy smiled as she finished cooking, and set his plate down in front of him.
Jackie finished her orange juice. "You said you might need some help with the other rooms?" she asked looking hopeful. "Care for some shopping?"
Kathy smiled, and was about to accept, but then remembered, not only the guards', but Dark Lady's warning, not to leave the house. "There is a killer after me, one who has attacked me in public, and tried to snipe me in private. Jason was nearly killed. I need to give the police time to catch her. She even killed civilians to try to get to me. Let's make sketches, and do some measurements. That will get some of the ground work ready for the shopping."
Jason nodded in agreement. "I can't risk losing her. It's only for a little bit. Carrie can't run forever. By now, everyone in the U.S. knows what she looks like, since she shot everyone with the cameras rolling."
Jackie's eyes widened, "Yes, shooting a reporter in the head with a live feed to the newsroom will make your face internationally recognizable."
"Kathy, Jason, what about your wedding reception? You can't be prisoners in your own house," Terry said, concerned. "You can't go from one extreme to the next. I have guards to escort them. They could go into Baton Rouge. The driver is a retired Marine. No one follows him anywhere. At least get some new furniture that fits in the living room." Terry smiled, and then frowned. He pointed behind Kathy, "What the hell is that?"
"What?" Jackie asked. She didn't see anything. "What are you talking about? You aren't having a stroke, are you?"
"No, she is right there," Terry pointed. "She just swirled into existence, like a hurricane undoing itself." He twirled his finger
around in a circle.
Kathy leaned over and looked at her father's pupils. She could see Dark Lady's reflection in them. "It's Dark Lady!"
Terry stared at Dark Lady. "You are very beautiful...She said ready the rifle. You can dispatch the Angry One from afar, and save one guard from being covered in the red quilt." Terry stared at Dark Lady. "What does red quilt mean?"
"It means killed, she doesn't want them killed," Kathy said, jumping up, over turning her orange juice. She didn't bother to pick it up.
"Kathy! No!" Jason nearly yelled. "Let the guards..."
"Die. I don't think so! You said if anyone needed shooting from afar you would leave me to it. Well, someone needs shooting from afar. I am not going to any more funerals. One of those guards will be going home to his family, especially if I have anything to say about it." She ran all the way upstairs, and pulled out her rifle, and then headed over to the window, her mother in tow.
Jason gingerly got up to follow, but Terry motioned him to sit down. "Why don't we just call 911 and let them know what it is going on. Please just the basics, don't mention ghosts. I don't want them thinking I am nuts. I'll lose all my clients if they think I have gone around the bend."
Jason nodded and hobbled over to get his phone off the charger.
****
Kathy went over the rifle and press checked that it was properly loaded, and then looked out the window. It was too open. She needed to hide, where she could see, but not be seen. She ran through the library and up the stairs to the attic, and set up to scan the guards' area across the backyard toward the subdivision.
"Kathy! You aren't going to shoot someone, are you?" Jackie's voice was full of fear.
"If that psycho gets in my cross-hairs I am blowing her brains out. She tried to kill Jason, me, and the baby. She did kill friends, and innocent townspeople. My family won't be safe until she is either behind bars, or dead. Personally, I no longer care which." She didn't see anything. She knew there were also guards across the street, so she carried the rifle over to the front to look out into the edge of the bayou.
She shouldered the rifle and scanned the edge of the bayou from behind the shutter's edge. Had she been over there this whole time? Right across the street! She had to have been.
"Can you see anything? Do you want me to open the window" Jackie asked, sounding a bit whiny. She had never seen the law enforcement side of her daughter. It was scary, to watch her shoulder that rifle with the intent of taking someone out. The look on her daughter's face was one she had never seen before.
"No, she will see the open window and catch on to me. I hate to shoot through the old glass, but I need her out of the way. The glass is easier to replace than Jason is. I can’t see anything yet. Some areas are too thick with vegetation. I don't want to take a shot, until I can take a clear one." She scanned the area with more desperation this time. Then she saw Carrie. "Found her. She looks like a bush-woman! That hair! It's matted with mud, and she is wearing a ballistic helmet. She is also wearing a military style ballistic vest; probably stolen from the gun shop car-jacking."
A text came through on Kathy's phone. "You don't get to keep it!"
She smiled and typed, “Its only bullet resistant, not bullet proof. You seem to have forgotten something very important. I am a sniper, and I can see you." She pressed send.
"What are you waiting for?" Jackie asked. She was scared of watching someone get shot, but terrified of what might happen if Kathy didn't shoot her.
"That," Kathy said, watching Carrie through the scope as she read the text. Carries eyes widened as she looked toward the house. She fired one round into the ground at Carrie's feet. "You text her with my phone, tell her to give up now, or I am blowing her brains out. One and only chance. Make it sound like it's from me."
Jackie did as she was told.
Carrie turned to run, but Kathy fired two rounds into her lower back. Carrie never read the text. She just lay there, screaming so loud that Kathy could hear her from inside the attic.
"Damnit! She moved, the rounds went low." She continued to watch through the scope.
The troopers and security guards came running over to Carrie, and handcuffed her behind her back.
She sighed loudly, "I am not going to get another shot. The guards are in the way now. Let's go downstairs."
Kathy and Jackie went downstairs, and out the front. Terry and Jason following, only much slower.
"Did you get her?" Jason said, cursing under his breath that he couldn't keep up. "Let's just take the Jeep. It's right there." He grabbed the keys hanging by the door.
"Yes," Kathy said returning. "Give me those." She took the keys. She and Terry helped Jason to the Jeep. She drove across the street. Sirens were coming from every direction in the distance.
Carrie was moaning and crying, "You shot me! I can't feel my legs."
"Bitch! You shot my husband. You're lucky I missed! I was aiming to give you a Remington face lift. But I'll settle for paralysis. That should make life fun in the prison yard."
Jackie leaned over Carrie, "Looks like she does get to keep it! If you had asked me, I would have warned you that somehow Kathy always comes out on top. She is too much like her father."
****
Two months later Kathy's parents were back down for the Friday Fish Fry reception.
Their wedding table had attracted the highest attendance since the 1976 Bicentennial celebration. They offered congratulations, and of course wanted to know about the case. The wedding was good business for the foundation. They raised an additional two hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars from the media exposure alone, and Kathy's parent's donated one million dollars to it.
Jason was happy to be going back to work on Monday. He smiled at Kathy, knowing the tight smile on her face was one that suggested she was sick of being patted on the belly. "Come on, let's dance."
"I am not even that big yet. Only sixteen weeks." She complained. Then she offered a more genuine smile, before turning serious, "I am sorry I brought all this on you. You didn't deserve any of this."
He smiled back at her. "Are you kidding? I get the girl. I get the family. I get to live in the mansion, with luxury all around me. I am the one who got to keep it all. Thank you for marrying me, and being my best friend." He kissed her and held her tightly by the waste. A clapping and cheering went through the crowd.
He smiled, keeping his attention on her. "Carrie's attorney indicated she was going to take a life in prison deal, in exchange for not seeking the death penalty, but it will be another two months at least before she is released from the hospital. They said her spinal cord was completely severed by the bullet."
"Good, so the Bell situation is finally over and we can start our life." She leaned her head on his shoulder and gently swayed with him.
"Tired?"
She nodded, "Just a worn out city girl."
Epilogue
Nearly six years later, Daniel Rose used his mother's office chair to reach the top shelf of the bookcase behind her desk. Today was the first day of school, and he needed to find something. He thought, for sure, it was here in the library.
"Child, what are you doing?" A gentle voice came from behind him.
"I can't find my book. I think it's called Handwriting for Little Hands." He was getting frustrated. He had searched everywhere.
"Handwriting for Young Hands? A special man came and took it away, before you were born."
"Then why do I remember it being important?" He propped his hands on hips.
"It was once, but not anymore."
"Granny, I need to find it. The teacher will expect me to have my books." He climbed down out of the chair, and turning to face Dark Lady. "Can he bring it back?"
"I love you dearly, young Master Rose, but I am no longer Granny. How can you remember that?"
He shrugged, and fiddled with the Shakespeare Reader. "Was I around before?"
"Before what?"
He shrugged again, pulling the book s
trap tighter.
"Here, let me put these away for you. I am sure there will be up dated books for you to learn from. Meanwhile, your mother hid a treat in the bottom drawer of the side table in the downstairs foyer. I am sure you will find it much more interesting than these dusty old things."
"Really, Thank you Granny," he said, stepping away from his little stack of old books.
"You are welcome child, and you can let that treat serve to remind you that you have a perfectly good like to live as Daniel Alan Rose. There is no need to hang on to that which cannot be relived. I can no longer be Granny to anyone, my Stable Boy is gone. You are a whole new person. Go on now, scat, before I change mind and help your mother hide it."
He nodded, ran down the stairs and dug in the side table drawer, pulling out a flyer for Fall Peewee football. His eyes widened. Sign up was the first day of school...Today!
"Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" He clutched the flyer, and ran up the stairs to his parent's room.
Dad was zipping Mom's dress up for her. "Whatcha got, Dan?" he asked.
"Peewee Football! Can I sign up! Please!" he ran all the way to his father and jumped into his arms, waving the flyer around wildly. "You look very pretty Mom."
"Whoa, you are getting big," Dad said, spinning him around. "What do you think, Mom?"
"I think, I should have hidden it better." She smiled, but her hands were placed tightly on her hips.
"Please Momma! Can I sign up!" He let go of Dad's neck, and reached for her. She took him. Even when disappointed, she had never refused him when he reached for her. And, calling her momma was better than using please and thank you. Otherwise, he usually called her Mom. His parents' love and devotion for him was unquestioned.
"You are getting too heavy for me." She let him slide to the floor, and again, accepted his embrace around her waist.
"Please. You can sit with the other mommas and cheer for me. I might even find some pom-poms for you." He could feel her sigh. She wasn't the cheerleader type, unless of course, it involved him. He was the sole exception to her taking up cheering.