by Lewis, D. C.
Watching the rodent-like tail vanish into the dark, Kiera felt better after her battle with the possum. While it was a one-sided and incredibly ridiculous victory, it was a victory nonetheless and of all days, this was the one in which she could use a small win.
By the time she had pulled the WaveRunner from the water, flushed out the engine, and washed the body off, the sun was at its zenith and she had started to sweat from the work. Heading back to the house, she noticed Officer Randolph's patrol car heading down the road towards her mother's house.
Rushing to the outdoor shower to quickly rinse off, Kiera ran her body underneath the warm water, making sure all the grass and other dirt that has collected on her feet and calves had been washed off, and that the rest of her body had gotten a thorough rinse. She toweled off and ran through the house to her bedroom to throw on some clothes, not wanting to greet Officer Randolph in a bathing suit. By the time she came back down, her mother was greeting him at the door, his large frame filling up the entirety of the entrance.
"Afternoon Katrina," he stated as he was welcomed into the house. Unlike every other person in town, he appeared not to be intimidated by Katrina, which wasn't to say that he didn't treat her with respect, he just wasn't afraid of her. Looking up at the noise of Kiera running down the stairs, he smiled and greeted her in similar fashion.
"Hello, Calvin," Katrina greeted him, being the only person Kiera knew that used Officer Randolph's first name, a subtle way of letting him know that likewise, she was not intimidated by him.
A shallow smile, revealing ivory-white teeth crossed his face.
"Come into the kitchen and I will get you something to drink," Katrina offered. "And then you can tell us what you found out."
With Katrina in the lead, Officer Randolph in the middle, and Kiera bringing up the rear, they headed into the kitchen. Kiera felt dwarfed by the size of the man in front of her. His sleeves looked like they were at their maximum limit and just waiting to burst due to his large arms. Looking at his massive torso, she wondered whether the Police Department was able to find a bulletproof vest big enough to fit him, or if one had to be specially ordered. Not for the first time in her life, she was glad for his presence. He was one of the few people who made her feel safe.
Accepting from Katrina a large glass of water that he seemed to drink in one gigantic sip, Officer Randolph set the glass down on the bar and begins his report.
"We sent three units down to The Point to investigate the blue van. Unfortunately I don't think we found what you were looking for. The occupant was a sixty-two year old Caucasian male. When we questioned him about the van, he stated that he had been living homeless until a few days ago when an attractive woman with long black hair asked him if he would like the van. He told her that he couldn't pay her for it but she told him that was fine, that he would be 'doing her a favor' by taking it off her hands. She also suggested that he park it at The Point since it was free and nobody would bother him. He hopped in, drove it down to the beach, and has been there ever since."
"Did he say what town he was in at the time or where she went after she gave him the van?" Katrina asked.
"No he didn't, he was in an alcohol-induced state at the time and has no idea where he was or what happened to the 'angel', as he refers to her."
Katrina snorted at hearing Larissa being referred to as an angel.
"What would you like us to do?" Officer Randolph continued. "He has no proof of ownership of the vehicle or even a driver's license. We can impound the van and put him in jail if you think he is an accomplice."
"I doubt he had anything to do with the attempted theft," Katrina responded, "All I saw was a black-haired woman speeding away in a blue van after she tried to sneak into my shop."
Kiera was relieved that her mother had concocted a story to tell Officer Randolph about her interest in the blue van.
"There is no reason to punish him for her deceit," Katrina continued. "Let him have the van, he is not hurting anybody, only being a scapegoat for that woman. She planned this all along, letting him take the fall. I do not see any need to further antagonize a man who is only trying to get by. At least the van got him off the street."
Nodding his head in agreement as if pleased by Katrina's answer, Officer Randolph asked her one last question. "Any ideas who this woman is or what she wanted?"
"No, I do not, but trust me, I intend to find out."
After a few more minutes of small talk, Officer Randolph left to go investigate another call he received while at the Hemming home. Walking him to the door, Katrina and Kiera wished him off, and he promised to inform them as soon as he found out any new information.
Closing the front door and shutting themselves off from the outside world, Katrina turned to her daughter.
"Now then," she began, "until we know what is going on, I will be staying here at the house and you will be staying with me." Raising her hand to stall any argument from Kiera, not noticing that one wasn't forthcoming, Katrina finished her speech. "We need to know if that was in fact Larissa or some decoy. You are not safe until we find out."
Kiera had no rebuttal, in fact she agreed completely with Katrina. It would be a relief to have Katrina around for the next few days, as it would alleviate her having to worry about another attack from Larissa. Katrina could provide a level of safety that would allow Kiera actually to be able to relax and, hopefully, take her mind off her predicament for a few days.
"Besides," Katrina added, "we have an appointment tomorrow."
"Appointment?" Kiera asked perplexed.
"Yes," Katrina said as she walks away, heading to her bedroom.
"Would you like to tell me what it is?" Kiera asked with an impatience-riddled voice.
Katrina stopped in her tracks and looks over her shoulder, a rare grin marring the typical solemnity of her face. "Yes, tomorrow we are going to go get you a new car," she replied, disappearing behind her bedroom door.
Twenty-Six
It took Kiera three days to decide on what kind of car she wanted. She and Katrina spent those three days traveling to different dealerships, test driving different cars, and spending the nights in different hotel suites. The trip wasn't as bad as Kiera had initially thought it was going to be. Spending any amount of one on one time with Katrina wasn't really how Kiera wanted to spend her days but the trip had proved to be not so painful, almost pleasurable. The conversations while driving from place to place weren't forced, but very genuine, and not once did Kiera have to hear anything about her birthright. It was as if Katrina had dropped the whole issue, but Kiera wasn't naive enough to believe that it wouldn't come up again at some point.
There was a slight confrontation when Kiera told her mother about the group of friends she had coming down for the camping trip. Katrina did not believe it to be a good idea and was very vehement in her denunciation of the trip, that it was reckless and dangerous since Larissa still hadn't been found. Further investigation by the pack revealed that Larissa had washed the inside of the van down with bleach in order to cover her scent which is one of the reasons why it was able to come back into town undetected. As to why one of Katrina's subordinates hadn't actually seen it driving back into town, that question still hadn't been answered to Katrina's satisfaction but would be attended to once she returned home. She hoped her suspicion that there were still members loyal to Larissa implanted in her pack proved to be untrue. But she had to take it into consideration though she didn't share this thought with her daughter.
Kiera listened to her mother's reasons for wanting her to cancel the trip, knowing the entire time that she had the upper hand. When Katrina had finished her argument, Kiera was ready, being armed with something her mother had said numerous times since she had been attacked.
"I thought you said I would be safe, that I would be protected at all times regardless of where I was, that there was nothing to me to worry about. Does this mean I'm not?"
Kiera had backed Katrina into a corner, since t
hese were the reassurances that Katrina had been giving her in order to ease her anxiety about being attacked again. Kiera had used her mother's own words against her and Katrina was powerless to provide a counterargument, elected to let the matter drop, visibly annoyed at the turn of events but emotionally pleased that her daughter was able to find a way to get what she wanted. Once again she was proving her natural ability to be a leader.
Kiera secretly believed that there was more to her mother's displeasure over the trip than her safety. She believed Katrina didn't want her to interact with her friends from college, that seeing them would further encourage Kiera to denounce her place as Alpha female and solidify her desire to return to school. Though the subject of her return to school hadn't worked its way into conversation over the past three days, Kiera had seen multiple opportunities for Katrina to bring it up. Yet she had refrained. Her mother's seeming acceptance made Kiera very nervous, as if Katrina were waiting to drop a bombshell on Kiera that would explode, taking her dreams with it.
Regardless, it was too late to cancel the trip anyway since her friends would be here in two days. They had all been looking forward to it, Kiera most of all. Even with the lack of knowledge of Larissa's whereabouts, Kiera wasn't going to allow it to impede her plans with her friends. She admitted to herself that she was nervous about being out at night in the open, even with a group of people, but she decided she would not become a victim, living her life in fear and not wanting to go out and live life. She felt if she did that, then Larissa had won, and she wasn't about to let that happen.
Besides, she had already bought a brand new bunch of camping gear weeks ago for this trip - a large tent, lanterns, cooking equipment, air mattresses, extra sleeping bags for those that forgot to get one (she was sure a few of her friends would have forgotten to get one), and other camping essentials. She had spent over two hours in the store browsing and buying, spending more money than she had anticipated, but it was for a good cause. And since she did all her purchasing at one of the small town shops she loved so much, she didn't mind spending the extra money as long as it helped a local business.
Looking at the digital clock in her new car, the blue numbers showed the time to be 9:47 at night. She had been in her new car for over three hours, having driven it home straight from the dealership.
She was pleased with her new mode of transportation, a brand new supercharged Range Rover Sport in Stornoway Grey. Kiera had never given any thought to getting an SUV, always considering herself a car chick and that is what had taken her three days to decide. It was on a whim that she and Katrina had gone to the Range Rover Dealership Kiera had been looking at new BMWs and Mercedeses and it was while she was taking a break that the Range Rover caught her eye. Kiera had always thought SUVs to be sluggish and hard to handle, but was more than pleasantly surprised when she test drove her soon-to-be car.
It handled incredibly well for a close to six-thousand pound vehicle, taking corners as well as her car had, and it was fast, the supercharged engine easily picking up speed and sending her rocketing down the highway. The entire interior was covered in Ebony color premium leather, releasing that smell that Kiera had loved so much in her last car. The instrument panel was awash with information, LCD screens flashing all types of data that Kiera couldn't decipher. More features than she needed, likely, but it was fun to have all those little gadgets and she promised herself to learn each and every one of them, and not to be one of those women who barely knew how to put gas in the car. She wanted to know everything about it.
But the best part about her new SUV wasn't all the bells and whistles, or the extra room she now had for luggage and passengers, it was her new vantage point in seeing the world. The Range Rover sat much higher than her BMW, and she loved it. Being up high, she could see so much more than she thought possible. Envisioning her new car as a tank, she felt much safer in it than she did her previous vehicle and had already started to wonder if she could ever go back to having to sit low in a car again.
Looking in her rearview mirror, she could see the blue tint of her mother's incredibly bright lights behind her. Katrina had insisted on following Kiera home from the dealership, which had greatly impeded the speed at which Kiera could travel. Her mother didn't speed, barely did the speed limit, and it drove Kiera crazy. She had flirted with the idea of pushing the pedal to the floor to see if Katrina would try to keep up, but the resulting lecture she was sure to receive just wasn't worth it. The trip had been a good one, it would be a shame to end it on a bad note.
Knowing that she had at least another two hours in the car before she got home, Kiera let her mind wander and it immediately settled upon Brandon. She hadn't talked to him in days, maybe weeks, she really couldn't remember, her life being such a cacophony of events recently that she had needed time to sort through everything. The only people she had any contact with since the attack were her mother and Officer Randolph. She hadn't answered phone calls, emails, or any other type of electronic communication. She felt bad about leaving her friends, especially Brandon, on the sideline like she had but it seemed necessary since she needed to focus just on herself for a time. She knew that Brandon would be understanding regardless of what she did or didn't do but still it made her feel bad and she swore to make amends. And she would start those amends right now.
Using the integrated phone system in her new car for the first time, she used voice commands to dial Brandon's number, humming to herself as she listened to the phone ring over the speakers. When Brandon's voicemail picked up, she was somewhat surprised. She couldn't recall any other instance where she has called him at this time of night and he hadn't answered.
"This is strange," she thought to herself. "He hardly even comes out of his cave with me, much less by himself." Knowing that she was his only friend, the odds of Brandon being out with somebody else were slim to none, so she figured that he was probably in the bathroom or otherwise away from his phone. Even this was strange since he took his phone everywhere, but she decided not to put too much worry in it right now and to call again in a few minutes.
The long ride was starting to become monotonous. Having spent so much time in a car the past few days, and this with her mother, all Kiera wanted right now was some time to herself to unwind. Even back at school she wasn't always surrounded by somebody and would spend hours alone either at a coffee shop or in the library, reading or working on a paper. She always managed to find time to go to a yoga class, the gym, or to go running. When engaged in the latter two she would keep her headphones in her ears and live in her own little world for a time, listening to her favorite music while doing some toning exercises with weights or running on the cross-city trail. As a matter of fact, she couldn't recall a period at school that she hadn't had daily time for herself. As much as she was enjoying her new vehicle, she was definitely ready to be out of it and engaged in some physical activity.
Always the case when driving on a highway in the summer in the South, Kiera's car was being assaulted by tiny insects crashing into the grill. A particularly large and engorged blood sucker of some kind had seen fit to splatter on her windshield right in her line of vision, its recently sucked blood exploding over the clear glass making a sticky mess. Even driving in her car at seventy miles an hour with the windows up, she could still smell traces of the red substance, enough to know that it was human. Her attempt to clean the spot using the windshield wipers succeeded only in smearing the bug corpse and associated liquids across the entire range of her left wiper, making visibility worse than before. This was the one thing she hated about the summer, the multitude of bugs that were present each and every night to wreak havoc on flesh and metal alike.
It was getting time to fuel up anyway so Kiera started looking for a gas station. She debated calling Katrina to let her know what was going on, but didn't feel like it at the moment. Besides, it wouldn't be hard for Katrina to figure it out anyway.
Seeing a sign for gas, food, and restrooms at the upcoming exit ramp
, Kiera turned on her signal and veered over to the farthest right lane, looking in her rearview to make sure Katrina followed suit. As her mother's car assumed its place right behind her, Kiera went back to looking at the smear on her windshield, vowing to be rid of that as soon as she stopped, and dreading to see the bodies of tiny insects that would most likely litter the front of her new ride. Not a second passed that she didn't hear the tiny ping of a bug in flight coming into contact with the front of her new car. Even though there was nothing she could do about it, it annoyed her tremendously.
Pulling into the gas station, she was relieved when she saw a long-handled squeegee readily accessible for her. In a spell of luck, it also looked like the reservoir that held the window cleaning solution had been filled recently, soapy bubbles spilling over the black container to fall harmlessly to the ground.
Grabbing her purse and swiping her ATM card, she looked over to see her mother doing likewise, before she went to attack the spot on her windshield. Clicking the trigger on the handle of the pump to keep it depressed, she grabbed the squeegee and started to clean her windshield. Putting both hands around the long wooden handle, she scrubbed vigorously back and forth on the spot of concern, each pass of the soft cloth scrubber taking away tiny bits of the offending smear. Even in the short time since it had happened, the liquids had managed to dry, making it much harder to clean, but Kiera was determined and scrubbed till the spot came off.
Flipping the tool around, she went about squeegeeing her now-clean windshield, starting from the top and working down to the bottom, making sure that she didn't miss any of the dirty water. When she was done she went to clean the passenger side. Passing in front of her car, her worst fears were realized as she saw bug remains scattered all over, tiny pinpoints of red marking the bloodsuckers.
By the time she finished, Katrina had walked over to see if she wanted anything from the store. She asked for a bottle of water and maybe some Robertson's Beef Jerky if they carried it, and she went to put the squeegee back and remove the fuel nozzle from her car.
