by Jon Mills
Sam cursed then said, “Fine. I’ll be in after nine. Just hurry.”
Before she could say that she couldn’t guarantee she’d make it on time, he’d hung up. She didn’t know what to make of that conversation. He certainly sounded panicked. Kara had already told Goodman to go speak with the Claytons but with him being tied up with a lawyers meeting that likely wasn’t going to happen. However, Sam sounded genuine, and even though she didn’t want him to get into trouble, they were down to the wire and if there was a chance that the Claytons were behind it, it was best Goodman knew about it. She dialed his number.
Chapter 31
It was a touching sign of support. There had to be close to a hundred people gathered together in a park by Pierce Street looking to bring a renewed awareness to the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the four boys. As Kara pushed out of her vehicle and made her way over to the perimeter, she was flooded with memories of Charlie’s vigils. So many had turned out that first year but with each passing year the crowds dwindled as did the offers to hand out flyers and posters which were given out to residents and businesses. Seeing the despair in her mother’s eyes, and watching her father get choked up, rocked Kara to the core. It was the not knowing that crushed them. Her mother had always held out hope that he would come home. She put on a brave face in front of the media, but behind closed doors it was like living with a ghost.
Her gaze washed over the faces searching for Ray Owen but there was no sign of him. One cameraman from a local news crew there but that was it. No doubt the coverage would garner nothing more than a two-minute slot on a local channel, and a few hundred words in the paper. Staying on the fringe she observed Scott Caldwell’s mother talking with others while her daughter went around lighting candles that were cupped in people’s hands. Before them was an area with photos of the boys. Many had already left cards, flowers, balloons and gifts. Kara watched intently looking for anything unusual and out of place. Several cars parked along the sidewalk, and more friends of the family arrived, greeting others with a hug.
Although she was eager to speak to the parents of the other three boys, she chose to wait until the end. Having suffered loss and attended many of the vigils, she knew the mindset the families were in. They heard the same condolences and questions year after year. It was painful, disheartening and soul crushing.
For ten minutes someone led them in song — something to do with “we are not afraid,” that was then followed by a couple of hymns before the event was handed over to different speakers who each took a turn to address the crowd on why they were holding the vigil and what it represented to them.
Eventually Maureen took the microphone. She began by reciting Maya Angelou’s Poem “I Will Rise,” and then there was silence for the four boys that were taken. After she said, “I just want to thank you all for coming out tonight. Every year it gets more and more difficult to hold on to hope but having the support of our community means a lot to us. We want you to know that we are following up on every lead and we are still hoping and praying that we will see justice for Scott, Chris, Dwight and Richard. So please continue to share anything you hear with the police, no matter how trivial it might seem. We are hoping to keep this case in the spotlight until the boys come home or the culprit responsible is brought to justice. Thank you all.”
A young minister stepped forward and led the crowd in a prayer before everyone was welcomed to come and speak with the family, leave a gift or get a cup of coffee from a table that had been set up nearby.
Maureen caught Kara’s eye and she gave a thin smile before heading over and thanking her for coming.
“I really appreciate you coming out. Have you had any luck with the sketches so far?” she asked.
“It’s still early but we are looking into it. That was a lovely poem you shared.”
She dipped her chin. “Thank you.”
Right then her daughter came over and slipped her arm around her mother’s. “Ms. Walker. Thank you for coming. I hope you don’t mind but I need to steal my mother away, I have a few people to introduce her to.”
Kara waved them on. “By all means.”
She watched them walk away before her eyes bounced back to the area where everyone was laying down gifts. She reached into her handbag and pulled out a small bear that she’d picked up earlier that day, along with a card. She wandered over and set it down among the many others.
“Ms. Walker. Kara?”
She turned to find a tall, thin man with hollowed cheeks and salt and pepper hair at the sides of his temples. “Do I know you?” she asked.
“You left a message on our machine. We were out. I’m Ted Peterson. Chris is my son.”
Her mouth widened. “Oh, right. Sorry I didn’t recognize you.”
He nodded giving a warm smile. “Yes, this getting old business is hard. Twenty years seems like a lifetime now.”
“That it does,” she replied.
Chris Peterson had gone missing five years after Charlie. It never quite gained the attention that Charlie’s abduction had because Chris had got into trouble several times and on two occasions had run away from home, throwing doubt into the minds of investigators and drawing less sympathy from the community. Most assumed he would show up at a friend’s but it never happened. Others believed he’d done it simply because he saw the attention that her brother had got from the media. It backfired and besides local media, the gossip surrounding him had caused delays in the investigation.
He fished into a leather bag that he had with him and withdrew a large collection of sketches. “So Maureen said you were interested in any of the charcoal sketches that were left over the years. I took the liberty of gathering the ones that were at ours, and the vigils of the Harrington and Beck families. You’ll have to forgive their lack of desire to talk to you but they haven’t had a good experience with the police.”
“Who has?” she said taking the wad of wrinkled papers and turning them around.
He smiled. “Right. You were the sister of Charlie Walker.”
“For a long time, yes. Now, I rarely hear that unless I return here.”
He nodded. “Oh I understand. My two other kids struggled after Chris was taken. We had to pull them out of school because… well… kids can be mean.”
“How did they turn out?”
“Surprisingly well actually. My youngest is at the university now, and the other is living in Kansas, working as a teacher. He married a real nice girl.”
Kara furrowed her brow as she looked over the sketches. While there were duplicates like Maureen’s, the sketches were different. One showed a lake, another a mossy tree with a tire hanging from a rope, and the other was of a waterfall.
“Did you ever speak to the person leaving these?”
“I think so, I mean I didn’t go out of my way. We speak to a lot of people and we gather up what is left behind at the end of the night but if you want to speak with him, he’s over there.”
“What?” Kara turned and on the far side of the green walking towards the crowd was Ray Owen. He was holding what appeared to be papers in his hands. At first he looked like he didn’t have a care in the world and then he locked eyes with Kara, slowed his pace, then turned and started walking fast in the opposite direction.
She squeezed past Ted, thanking him for the papers. She caught the tail end of something he asked her but by that point she wasn’t listening. Ray looked back then broke into a jog. Kara elbowed her way through the crowd and gave pursuit. He had a good hundred yards’ head start on her.
“Hey!” Kara yelled. “Ray, hold up!”
He cast another glance over his shoulder and picked up the pace heading for a ’90s-style brown Honda Accord. In his haste to avoid her he dropped the papers in his hands and then bolted. Kara scooped them up once she got closer, and then veered off to the right heading for her SUV. Before she’d even reached it, he’d fired up his engine and torn out of the parking lot.
Several people who were ma
king their way back to their vehicles looked on, confused as to what was unfolding. Kara hopped in the SUV and the tires let out a squeal as she slammed the gear into reverse, spun around and took off after him.
There were several vehicles on the road between her car and Ray’s. She tried to overtake the one ahead of her but had to swerve back into her lane to avoid an oncoming truck. Farther up the road, the lights changed to red, and she knew she had him. All the vehicles had slowed to a crawl and stopped, and after throwing the gearstick into park, she pushed out and started running towards his Honda.
He must have spotted her in his mirror and got scared as even though the lights were red, Ray smashed the accelerator and took off through the intersection causing two cars to swerve, and a third to nearly hit his vehicle.
All she could do was watch him disappear around a bend.
As she was making her way back to her vehicle, drivers behind her honked and told her to hurry up. “Yeah, yeah, go around if you’re in such a hurry!”
Over the next twenty minutes she drove around the streets searching for his vehicle. She circled back to the vigil twice but he wasn’t there. In the end she placed a phone call to Ora Owen in the hopes of getting her to tell her boy to call her as soon as he arrived home. She didn’t answer and there was no voicemail.
Frustrated but determined to find out why he ran, she made the two-hour journey back to Blackmore. Along the way she glanced several times at the charcoal sketches and tried to make sense of them. Why was he leaving these? What sketches had her own mother been given? And why run?
Kara was ten minutes outside of Blackmore when the phone rang. She hit the accept button hoping it was Goodman but the voice she heard made her blood run cold.
Chapter 32
Droplets of rain splattered against the window as the heavens opened. One second she was driving in clear skies, the next powering through a shower, and feeling swallowed by dark clouds. “Hello Kara.” Something about the stranger’s voice sounded familiar.
“Who is this?” She glanced at the number that came up on the SUV’s console. It wasn’t a number she recognized. But the voice, that came back to her like a persistent childhood nightmare. It was deep, raspy and…
“You don’t remember what I said, do you? Because if you did, you wouldn’t have returned to Blackmore.”
Her pulse began to race. A shiver ran up her spine, her mind making the connection. A flash of memory. Running. Tears streaking her cheeks. Her body trembling as fear took hold.
“You turn back, he dies. It was very simple. I don’t think I could have made it much clearer.”
So overcome by the memory of Charlie’s abductor, she veered to the hard shoulder. Gravel kicked up, spitting against the side of the vehicle. Kara could hear the blood rushing in her ears. Several motorcycles shot by, as her windshield blurred, and the inside began to fog up. She twisted on the heat to clear it.
“How did you get this number?”
She ransacked her brain trying to remember those she’d given it out to. Of course there were other ways but… before she could form an idea he continued.
“I would have thought the break-in, and brick would have been enough but obviously not. You don’t listen. Just like your mother. She didn’t listen. Sticking her nose where it didn’t belong.” He continued rambling about all the ways her mother had got under his skin. All these years, Kara had waited for the moment to talk to this man, played it out in her head what she would say, and how in control she would feel and here she was failing — unable to think clearly.
“So this is your last chance. Back off.”
“Where is he?” Kara demanded.
She heard him stifle a laugh. “It doesn’t matter. All that matters now is that you stay out of my business. This can get a whole lot worse for you, or Charlie for that matter. I’m sure you would hate to see Charlie punished.”
Was he alive or was he taunting her with the idea that he was alive?
“Bullshit. He’s not alive.”
“Really? Then why am I looking at him right now?”
“Put him on the phone,” she said in a calm voice.
He made a tutting noise. “No, no. You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“Then how do I know you’re not bluffing?”
“You don’t. But do you want to take that risk?
“Fuck you.”
He snorted. “I kinda guessed you’d go that route.”
Right then she heard him lay the phone down, walk a short distance away. Then there was a thump and an ear-piercing scream echoed over the receiver. “No!” she bellowed.
A few seconds, then he returned and picked up the phone. “Now that I’ve got your attention. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’ll return to your father’s, pack your bags, phone that detective friend of yours and tell him that you have got it all wrong and you’re going home to New York. Then you don’t come back again. Ever.” His breathing sounded labored as if he was out of breath. “And Charlie. He’ll get to live another year. Have I made myself clear?”
Her hand was trembling. She was gripping the steering wheel so tight, that her knuckles went white. “HAVE I MADE MYSELF CLEAR!” he bellowed.
“Yes,” she said not wanting to take the risk of her actions causing Charlie any more pain than what he’d gone through already. If that was him at all.
“Good. Now I must say it’s a pity you’ve spoken to Sam and Bobby. Especially Sam. I was really hoping he’d focus on his pitiful life.” He snorted. “Then again I doubt the police or anyone will miss him when an explosion happens at that shitty trailer park.”
Kara’s pulse sped up. “No. No. He hasn’t done anything. I haven’t told him anything.”
“It doesn’t matter now.”
Click. He hung up.
Fear shot through Kara. She smashed the accelerator and the SUV tore away from the hard shoulder leaving tire tracks in the gravel and mud. She immediately dialed Sam’s number. “C’mon, pick up, pick up!”
It rang several times but no one answered.
The forest flashed by in her peripheral vision, just a blur. Kara swerved, nearly losing control of the SUV as she slalomed around vehicles, reaching speeds of ninety miles an hour. Her windshield wipers were on full blast sloshing water. The glow of the town’s lights came into view and she tried again to reach Sam.
No one picked up.
She hoped to God that she wasn’t too late.
The SUV burst over a rise in the road, and weaved around the narrow roads that led up to Sunrise Trailer Park. Just as it came into view at the far end of the road, the phone was answered. It was Sam’s girlfriend.
“Hello?”
“It’s Kara. Get Sam out of there.”
“What?” she asked.
In the background she could hear Sam asking who it was.
“It’s gonna blow,” Kara screamed.
“Who are you? And why are you calling here?” She must have got the wrong end of the stick as she turned and started yelling at Sam. “Is this the bitch you’ve been sleeping with?”
“Mindy, what the hell are you on about?” Sam replied. It sounded as if he got up and approached her and she wouldn’t give him the phone.
“Don’t call back!” Mindy screamed.
“No, don’t hang up,” Kara shouted before the line went dead. Kara sped up and veered into the trailer park. She tried dialing back but there was no answer. Just as she came around the corner and had the trailer in her sights, an enormous explosion erupted. Sam’s trailer disappeared in a cloud of dark smoke and an inferno of flames. Fireballs of debris rained down, large chunks of metal and melted plastic nearly hit the front of Kara’s windshield as she yanked the steering wheel hard to the left. From inside the safety of the vehicle she squinted, looking at the carnage. Flames licked up into the night, a smoldering mess beneath them, nothing but the remains of a frame.
Kara pushed out of the vehicle as neighbors from all over the trailer pa
rk emerged to stare. She heard a few screams, and saw several people get on their phones to call the police. Within minutes the park would be swarming with cops.
As she stood there in utter disbelief her father’s face came to mind.
If this man had broken into her parents’ home, what was to stop him from harming her father? Not giving another thought to the devastation before her she hopped back into her SUV and slammed into reverse and tore out of the park. Her mind was racing. Thoughts of her brother, Sam, Bobby and Goodman, all of them were a target. The SUV powered through the streets of Blackmore until she made it home. The street was empty and the streetlights were circled with glowing halos. She drove up the driveway and was relieved to see her father’s vehicle parked outside, and him beyond the window. Satisfied that he was safe, Kara killed the engine and hopped out, and placed a phone call to Bobby. Standing in the driveway she focused on her father, not taking him out of her line of sight for even a second. The call went straight to voicemail.
“Bobby, listen, it’s Kara. Sam’s dead. The same guy that took Charlie did it. He mentioned you. I think you’re next. When you get this message —“
Before she finished she heard a rustle in the bushes behind her and just as she turned to see what it was, a hand clamped over her mouth. She dropped her phone and keys, and was dragged down. She let out a squeal but her attacker was too strong, and the person’s hand was clamped so tight over her nose and mouth, her words didn’t escape. Within seconds, darkness closed in and everything turned to black.
Part III
Chapter 33
Freezing cold water splashed against her face. Kara gasped, snapping awake. Daylight stabbed her eyes making her squint. The silhouette of several figures moving before her came into view. It took a few seconds for her eyes to adjust but the world soon came into focus. Before she could make out where she was or who had taken her, a familiar voice was heard off to the right of her.