Sampson looked into her face and in that instant, he knew Donatella was right. He also knew they were probably too late to stop whatever this psycho had planned next.
Chapter 10
February 4th – 8:15 p.m.
P enny Hampton drove around the outer loop of I-485 in a hurried patience eager to arrive home. Valentine’s Day was only 10 days away and this was one of her favorite “Hallmark Card” days. Neil, her husband of 21 years, felt she went over the top at times but he secretly loved the attention.
The two started dating when they were freshmen in college and after her standard one month trial run, she knew Neil was the one. She knew he was the one she could pour her love into and that he would be grateful and appreciative. Their first Valentine’s Day together she started off somewhat small to see how he would respond. The response was exactly what she was looking for. The shock and appreciation written over his face was all she needed.
Since that day some 24 years ago, she continued to up the ante. She never wanted to go so far that she didn’t feel she could top herself the next year, but she surely didn’t want to put out a dud as compared to the previous year. To that end, Penny started planning the next Valentine’s Day on the 15th of February each year. She didn’t mind putting forth the effort because even though Neil knew something would be coming, he didn’t have that air of expectation – and to Penny, this made the planning that much more enjoyable.
Penny slowed down and moved over into the fast lane as a tow truck driver was working on the berm rescuing a stranded traveler. Once she passed the scene, she moved back over to the right-hand lane and picked up her speed yet again.
Today, Penny received the notification that the final piece of her masterplan had arrived giving her a few days to now pull it all together. Neil, per usual, beat her home tonight; however, she had one of the neighbors sign for the package and she would pick it up before she went into the house.
The remainder of the drive home went by in a blur as Penny devised plans and contingency plans on how she would unveil the surprise for Neil. Penny pulled into the driveway and waited while the garage door to their three-car garage continued to creep open. She figured she would pull into the garage and then walk next door and retrieve her package from Beatrice. Penny had already given her the heads up that she would be stopping by so her quick jaunt next door should not create suspicion in Neil if he heard the garage door open. She would simply pull into the garage, run next door, press the doorbell for the already waiting Beatrice, obtain the package and rush back to her garage. Easy peasy, she thought.
Penny pulled into the garage and killed the ignition to her late model Ford Escape. As Penny began to exit the car, she noticed the garage door had begun to close, and to her horror, she felt the presence of someone else in her garage.
February 4th – 8:15 p.m.
Terri Buckley drove her rented Mercedes CLA into the Bevel subdivision on the south side of Charlotte. This was a new-build community working midway through their second phase of the development. She had driven through the subdivision several times during the daytime hours familiarizing herself with the traffic patterns and the community layout. During her reconnaissance, she found two properties that would serve her needs – both in different states of development. Tonight, she thought, I’ll take the one furthest away from the target.
She continued her drive toward her destination and mapped out the choreographed sequence in her head once again. Satisfied that she had not missed a step, she pulled the car over and stepped out.
This community was a family friendly community and for the most part all families had grade school aged children. The plus side to this is at this time of night, most families are settling in preparing for school and work tomorrow. Therefore, Terri had the advantage of walking through the neighborhood unseen. She still walked casually in case someone happened upon her, but she knew that was a remote possibility.
Reaching her destination, Terri stepped into the shadows between the two adjacent structures, steadied her breathing, and waited. Her target, Mrs. Penny Hampton, should be arriving home any moment. Terri watched the woman for the last couple of weeks, working out her routines. Without fail, her shift ended at 7 p.m., she wrapped up any outstanding paperwork, and left reliably within an 8-minute window between 7:41 p.m. and 7:49 p.m. If her commute didn’t encounter any traffic alterations, she arrived safely at her dwellings between 8:20 p.m. and 8:26 p.m. She observed Mrs. Penny could have a little bit of a leadfoot at times but nothing that would garner attention from a patrol officer on radar duty.
Distantly, she heard a door open. It sounded a couple of houses away. She focused her attention searching for any additional sounds. After a few seconds the door closed again. Terri listened for another minute before deciding it was nothing to worry about. A moment later, she heard a vehicle on approach and then, the sound of the garage door opening. The car idled in the driveway as the garage door opened slowly emitting screeching sounds the whole time.
She heard the Ford Escape move into the garage and with a practiced motion, she stood, walked around the corner and prepared to enter the garage. Before she did, she lifted the cover to the keypad that control the garage from the outside and entered in the six-digit admin code that had not been changed. As the garage began to close, Terri slipped unnoticed under the door.
By the time Terri stood erect she could see the woman had begun to exit the vehicle – a reality she fully expected. The woman didn’t spend much time in her car once she pulled into the garage. Tracing the route she had mapped she moved silently and quickly staying out of sight of the woman.
“Neil. Is that you?” Penny asked as she closed the SUV door.
Terri nuzzled in closely behind the woman who was still looking at the entrance to the house from the garage. She inserted the needle into the side of her neck and depressed the plunger. Again, a practiced move she had performed on countless occasions.
The woman fell limp into Terri’s left arm, already out on her feet. She didn’t know how much time she had but she knew it was not infinite. She pulled the woman by her shoulders toward the service door on the side of the garage. Once she was in place, she pulled a remote detonator from her pocket, pulled back the cover, and pressed the button. A mile down the road, a distribution transformer received an unexpected surge in electricity causing that transformer to blow. The Bevel subdivision, along with several other adjacent subdivisions, were cast into complete darkness.
Terri opened the service door, pulled Penny through and laid her on the ground. She reached back into the garage, turned the lock and pulled the door closed. She hefted the woman into the wheel barrel the Hampton’s left on the side of the house and with all the speed she could muster, wheeled the woman to her waiting car. She popped the trunk on her approach and quickly transported the woman from the wheel barrel to the trunk. A moment of decision – did she take the wheel barrel back to the house or did she leave it and hop in the car.
If she took the wheel barrel back to the house, nothing would seem out of place and the speed in which they could start to narrow down clues would be extended. If she left the wheel barrel, there was a high probability someone would notice the wheel barrel even, in the darkness, and questions would surface. She decided the risk of going back to the house was too great, so she hopped into the driver’s seat and headed for the vacant house at the end of a cul-de-sac toward the back of the subdivision.
Chapter 11
February 5th – 10:20 a.m.
J asmyn Thompson sat motionless in her car staring off into the far distance. She pulled into the parking lot of the practice and took one of the four spots that read, “For Expecting Mothers or those with small children”. She could get used to this pampering, but she couldn’t get use to the anxiety that she felt.
Five months into her pregnancy and she had consumed as much knowledge as possible about being a new mom. Yet she still felt there was more she needed to learn. She learned the
two-finger method of burping a newborn right after they ate. She learned that swaddling a baby as snug as possible was comforting to a baby, though as an adult she couldn’t imagine being wrapped like that.
She heard from different mothers how different each baby can be. One woman mentioned her baby slept through the night at six weeks old, while another stated how her baby had colic and she didn’t get a full night’s rest until he was nearly two. Another woman talked about how the doctor was worried the baby wasn’t gaining the proper weight between well visits and how nervous that had made her.
She had a 30-minute conversation with a woman in the grocery store who stood outside her car bawling. When Jasmyn stepped over to see if she could help the woman, the woman brightened up and put on a happy face. She had noticed Jasmyn was pregnant and stated this was the first time she had went anywhere without her newborn. Her house was only around the corner and she left their daughter with her husband. She knew her daughter was in good hands with him; however, she couldn’t help the feeling of dread that had overcome her for leaving her daughter alone. She should have brought her to the store with her. Her husband convinced her to take a day away and all she had done was come over to the grocery store and cried.
While Jasmyn didn’t know the feeling, she felt a maternal connection to the woman. By the end of the conversation, the woman was talking about all of the positive things that came from having her baby girl. She was able to talk about how much she loved her and how having her was the light she needed in her life. When they prepared to part, the woman gave Jasmyn a sincere embrace. Jasmyn could feel the transfer of power she had given to the woman to carry on with her day and that made her feel good.
However, as Jasmyn sat in this car, recalling all of the positive interactions she had, she was now worried. She began to worry if she was going to be as strong as many of the women that she had talked to over the past few months. She worried what she would do if their son, or daughter, became sick in the middle of the night and there was no doctor around to assist. More than anything, she worried that she would not be a good mother.
There would be a life totally dependent on her and Marcellous for all of their needs. The fear had begun to grip her, and she couldn’t explain why. She and Marcellous had a love that could endure anything – but was that enough? Was that enough when it came to raising a child? She wasn’t sure and that caused her anxiety.
Still sitting in her car at Dr. Prince’s office, she continued to stare out of the window. Should she tell her doctor how she was feeling? Was this a normal feeling? The thought of telling Dr. Prince and then finding out it was not normal would devastate her. She didn’t think she could handle it and that added to her anxiety.
A knock on the driver’s side window startled her causing an involuntary jump. She turned and noticed the woman from the waiting room the last time she visited Dr. Prince. She rolled down the window.
“I’m soooo sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you,” came the voice from the woman. “We met a few months ago in Dr. Prince’s office. I’m Bethany Evans.”
“Yes, I remember you. How can I help you?”
“I noticed you sitting in the car and I wanted to make sure you were ok. I just left my appointment. Are you here for one as well?”
The sad reality was, Jasmyn didn’t have an appointment. She hadn’t worked out a plan other than just appearing at the office. The woman looked over Jasmyn again and interjected.
“How do you feel about going to get a coffee – well maybe some tea in our case?”
“I’d like that very much,” Jasmyn said grasping firmly on the olive branch.
“Are you familiar with Brent’s Coffee Shop? I hear they have some killer pastries and I sure could go for one.”
“Yes,” came her voice with more strength behind it.
“Good. Why don’t we meet over there and that’ll give us a chance to catch up.”
“Sure, I’ll see you there in about 10 minutes.”
She watched as the woman, Bethany, made her way toward her car. Jasmyn once again fired up her engine and drove off.
Fifteen minutes later, they sat in the oversized chairs at Brent’s Coffee Shop with their teas and pastries. Bethany took a large bite from her cheese Danish and in exaltation stated, “This is exactly what I needed” as she fell into the chairs comforting embrace.
Jasmyn rattled the ice in her cup before extracting the last drink of tea through her straw. “Ahh!” She exclaimed, finishing the drink and placing the cup back on the table. “Thanks for suggesting we come here. It has been a welcome distraction.”
“No problem. I make way for a treat once a month and there was no need to sit alone and enjoy this delectable, culinary creation,” she said this placing the last piece in her mouth and chewing with reckless abandon. A curl touched the edge of her lips bringing her face into a full-on smile, “Who am I kidding? I had one of these last week too.”
The women burst into laughter causing the other patrons to look around for the joke they had missed.
Bethany didn’t want to ask Jasmyn if anything was wrong because she figured she knew. “I remember when Troy and I were pregnant the first time, I was scared out of my mind. I felt I was just trying to figure out life and we were preparing to bring another life into this world. We didn’t live by any family members, still don’t, so I worried constantly about how we would make it.”
She could see Jasmyn nodding, so she carried on.
“I think as first-time parents, we jump to the worst possible outcome and feel that will be me. Then I ran into this old, sage woman and she said, ‘As a parent, you are going to make mistakes, the question is, do you give up when you make one? Any parent who tells you they were perfect is lying through their teeth and should be struck down by lightning.’”
Again, the women shared a laugh but a little more tamed than the last.
“And you know what, the old woman was right. I thought back to my childhood and realized my parents weren’t perfect. They did the best they could to raise me and at the end of the day, that’s our job as parents. I guess what I’m trying to say is, if you ever begin to doubt your skills as a parent think back to the words of the old woman. Continue to fight the fight and do the best you can.”
Jasmyn, whose eyes were now filling with tears, walked over to Bethany and gave her a huge hug “Thank you,” came her trembling voice, “Thank you.” As Jasmyn made her way back to her seat, she wiped away the tears. Clearing her throat, she asked, “Have you and Troy settled on a place to live? We still have an opening in our community and I know you guys will fit right in with the neighborhood.”
“Nope not yet, why don’t you tell me more about it. I’d like to be settled into our new home before the baby arrives.”
February 5th – 12:45 p.m.
Sal Grandson sat in his favorite kitchen chair staring at the blank word-processing document. He sat there, prepared to write an article for his website, The Sal Report, but he felt sapped of creativity. Instead of placing his fingers to the keyboard and spinning a masterpiece, he pressed his fingers to his temples fighting off a headache.
He believed two factors were affecting his current mood. The first factor was there hadn’t been any interesting news lately. He had reached out to his police contacts and they didn’t have anything for him. One of their detectives was following up on a missing woman from the Bevel subdivision on the south side but he didn’t hear anything of interest in that story. His contacts on the street hadn’t heard anything either. The only news they had were a couple of store break-ins after a brief power outage. Nothing high-end was stolen as the outage only lasted an hour. Nonetheless, some cops had a day full of paperwork in front of them.
The second factor affecting Sal’s mood was that his routine was shot. Ever since Jane moved in with him, he slowly felt himself losing control of his environment. It started with her putting a few pictures on the wall. Sal liked the blank wall because he always thought of it as a bla
nk canvas for creative thought. Jane on the other hand agreed it was a blank canvas, one that had potential and she was the one to showcase that potential.
The pictures were one thing, but then she bought this oversized roman numeral clock. The clock design was aesthetically pleasing; however, the constant tick of the second hand was driving Sal mad. He enjoyed ambient noise when he wrote because when it was too quiet his mind would wonder. But he didn’t like a noise that was consistent and evenly paced. His mind started to focus on the rhythm and that became a major distraction. He told Jane and her response was, “It’s like white noise. After a few weeks you won’t notice it anymore.”
She was wrong. He did notice and he couldn’t do anything but notice. The tic – tic – tic was ever present and, on several occasions, he thought about smashing the clock. However, he knew that would not end well. Still, the clock wasn’t his biggest problem. His biggest issue came from his workout routine – or lack thereof.
Sal woke up every morning at 4:00 a.m. for his five-mile run. However, his morning run had been sabotaged by Jane wrapping her body around him making it nearly impossible to disentangle without waking her. He tried, on several occasions, but each time he managed to extract himself, she woke up. She gave him those perfect, pouty lips and would ask him to come back to bed to keep her warm, and each time, he did as she requested. He could have denied her request but Jane believed in an eye for an eye and she would certainly deny his request later.
This morning, just like yesterday, and the day before Sal missed his five-mile run. He could literally feel himself out of sorts and he would need to do something about it – and soon. Two nights ago, Jane made a passing comment about updating more of the décor. She said this while they sat at his kitchen table eating dinner. He could tell by the look in her face that the décor she was referring to was the dinette set.
Hour of Reckoning (Donatella Book 2) Page 14
