by Carl Hamlin
Kara sent a response to Roger to tell him that the next day would be her long-awaited fall foliage drive. As she expected, he responded quickly with concerns that she would be too vulnerable.
Kara responded that she would not be leaving her home at her normal time. She was going to allow herself to sleep in, then get her camera ready and leave her home at her leisure. There would be nothing routine in her day.
Kara was buoyed through the day as she looked forward to the next morning. When she was looking forward to her autumn drive, there was nothing that could put her in a sour mood.
She found her interviews unremarkable, and the case files she reviewed held no surprises or hazards that would warrant any special monitoring. The day breezed by unlike any had recently.
She was able to leave the office along with the rest of the staff, rather than having to stay later as was customary. Her final official act of the day was to check in with the Sheriff’s office to verify that Harlow was still under surveillance. When she was told that all was under control, she smiled to herself as she snapped the phone closed. Roger could be assured that she had checked in, so there was no reason for him to once again visit more hot and stinging chaos upon her backside.
She stopped to pick up a salad, and decided to take some wine home as well. Knowing that she would be free of the office the next day was simply liberating, and she was ready to begin her day off that evening.
Back inside her home, the alarm set and the .38 still on her belt, she felt the most relaxed she had in days. She called Roger simply to chat, and they made plans for the upcoming weekend. They decided to drive to Cedar Rapids, staying a night along the way after leaving after work on Friday. Once in the city, they would stay in a hotel in the downtown, and then stop at a casino on the way home for dinner and some recreational gambling on Sunday.
After finishing her salad, Kara leaned back on the sofa and sipped at a glass of wine. Without even realizing she had reached a decision, she found herself wondering at which point in the trip, and in which setting, she would tell Roger that she was, indeed, ready to marry him.
As she leaned back against some pillows, the wine tasted better than usual. It had been years since she had felt the sensation of an alcohol buzz, but she decided that once would do no harm. As she watched an old movie, she reveled in the wine and the resulting sensations. It felt good to let her guard down.
The movie wore on and the wine was poured. Kara eventually began to doze, and decided to stay on the sofa, staying warm beneath her beloved Bears blanket.
The television remained on, and Kara slumbered until nine o’clock the following morning. She could recall nothing beyond the first half of the movie that had started the previous evening at 9:00, so she knew that she had slept for more hours than she had in years. The feeling of total rest was almost alien to her.
She headed for the shower, and after a quick breakfast, dressed in jeans, heavier socks and her oversized hooded sweatshirt, over a turtleneck sweater that itself covered a tee shirt. She called the Sheriff’s office to inform them that she would be leaving and heading for the countryside, and she was informed in return that all was quiet with Harlow. She placed her Beretta in her purse, and then headed to the garage.
She smiled as she walked toward the Cooper. She found the car immensely fun to drive, but over the past several days had spent her time traveling in the austere department car. Once inside, she pressed the button on her visor-mounted garage door remote control and, out of habit, glanced around rapidly as the door raised. She backed out, and was not on the street for more than thirty seconds before she began to feel yet another plateau of relaxation.
She had slept late enough that she was missing any traffic congestion. In twenty minutes, she had reached the edge of Blanton, and she headed west toward the rural area where she had grown up. Her childhood home was just twenty minutes from Blanton, and from the hospital where her father had performed countless surgeries. It was ten miles from the retirement home where her parents now resided, and she knew that she had been negligent in visiting them. It had been two weeks since she had seen them, and she had called then the previous evening after talking to Roger, and promised that she would spend the entire evening with them the next Wednesday evening, and take them out to dinner. She had also arranged to have them and Susan and her family gather at Susan’s home in two weeks for a Saturday together. In the back of her mind, she was rehearsing an engagement announcement to take place on that day.
After another thirty minutes of driving, she was in the neighboring county where the countryside became hilly and more rugged. She turned onto a rural road pulled over. She got out and lowered the top, then began to cruise leisurely down the hilly, curvy road.
The air was still chilly at that part of the late morning, still much milder than had been the case the previous day. She pulled the hood up on her head and drove on as the hills became bigger and the colors of the trees seemed to explode in front of her.
She turned down one faintly familiar road after another, driving down into creek valleys and up to see vistas bathed in orange, reds, yellows and various shades of brown. Every several minutes she stopped to snap a photo, and some of the pictures would serve as inspirations for future watercolor paintings.
She came to a cluster of homes at a crossroad of the county road and a state highway, and on the edge of the village was a produce stand. She stopped and bought some apples and a pumpkin. She was uncertain as to whether little Michael could yet appreciate a Jack O’ Lantern, but decided it would be fun to spend an evening carving it and presenting it to him.
She turned down the state highway and then onto a gravel road that appeared to go nowhere in particular, and that was inviting to her. The road crested a hill, revealing yet another vista bursting colors, and then descended into a steep downward drive that curved along a scenic stream that glittered as sunlight peeked and darted through the thick woodlands that bordered it. She slowed to watch as two men in a flat-bottomed boat waived to her as they drifted on the water with fishing lines trailing behind them, bobbers revealing where baits floated to tempt the smallmouth bass.
Fishing……in a couple of years, I’ll have to ask Roger to take little Michael fishing…..
The chime on her phone interrupted her pleasant daydreaming. She pulled over at a wider spot on the gravel road and looked at the screen. It was a call from Bill Germain.
“Kara…..where are you?”
“Somewhere in Sutton County….I think. Why?”
“Harlow blew up. Looks like he got into a fight with his brother-in-law over some drugs. He shot him and he died at the hospital. There’s an APB out, and we think he’s in his brother-in-law’s gray Mazda.”
Kara sat silent for a moment. “Okay…..I’ll be watching.”
“Kara……Harlow’s son saw it all go down. He called it in, in fact. He said that before his father left, he made a reference to finding you.”
Kara felt her veins turn cold. “Okay. I’m pretty remote right now. I can’t imagine he could stumble across me.”
“Well, stay in touch with me. That little red car of yours stands out in traffic.”
“Thanks, Bill.”
Kara snapped the phone shut and took a deep breath to calm herself. She hoped that Harlow would be apprehended soon, and hopefully before evening when she would plan to head back home. She unzipped her purse to enhance access to her gun. She would not cut her day short, as she had so looked forward to it. It would be difficult to enjoy the rest of her day off under the circumstances, but she was safer where she was than in or near Blanton.
Not at all to her surprise, her phone chimed again, and the screen showed that Roger was calling. “Hey Lover…….heard about Harlow, I take it?”
“Yeah…..don’t say where you are…….but are you where you planned to be?”
“Uh, hum. And it’s been spectacular. I think the most beautiful ever, and I’ve done this for the last ten years. Wait until you see my photos.”
“I have an idea for a photo……you in a Bears cap…….just a Bears cap.”
Kara giggled. “How about this weekend you can just have the real thing standing in our room?”
Roger uttered a theatrical growl. “Good. Very good. And you stay safe.”
“I will. Bye, Lover.”
As she drove on and tried to appreciate the foliage, she began to rationalize that either Harlow would certainly be captured or deep in hiding as evening fell. In any case, he would not know that she had taken a day off to enjoy the boondocks. She actually began to relax and enjoy herself again.
She cruised up and down roads she had never seen before, ate apples for lunch and looked forward to more hotel room antics with Roger. As afternoon set in, the sun grew warmer, and she pulled the hood off her head and enjoyed the mild air rushing over her.
There was a special place she parked at sunset each year on her drive to go out and view the colors of autumn. There was a bluff that descended to a horse pasture below, and across the way, the sun would set over a hill featuring a stand of trees that always provided a colorful setting.
Right at the bluff was a curve in the road, and a wide enough berm for her small car to park safely out of the way of the very sporadic traffic on that remote gravel road. It was time for the sunset, and after she parked, she opened her trunk and pulled out her camera tripod stand.
She set the tripod along the roadside and mounted her camera. She spent a couple of minutes insuring that the camera was aimed correctly, and then sat down on the fender of the Cooper to watch and enjoy the colorful show. The chill was back in the air, and it only added to the ambience and her sense of what an autumn day should be like.
As the red ball began to appear to touch the tops of the trees, Kara began snapping pictures. She continued to do so for several minutes while watching the magnificent colors and the drama of the disappearing sun.
As the red orb fell behind the landscape, the temperature dropped a few degrees, and Kara put the top up on the car. It had been a magnificent day, although it had been interrupted by the unwelcome news from Bill Germain.
She took the camera from the tripod, and folded the long legs and placed the stand back in the trunk. She got in the car and heaved a sigh of satisfaction.
It was time for her to go home. She seemed frozen when she went to put the car into gear. She needed to call Bill Germain to check in and tell him that she was heading back into Blanton.
The tension came back as she hit the button to call him. She had been grappling with so long for the same conflicting emotions. She was once again fighting the urge to go back and welcome a move by Harlow. She would give anything to be the one to apprehend him…… or to take him out for good.
When Germain answered, she had to force the words out: “……heading home…….usual route……..edge of Blanton in thirty minutes…….”.
The frustration was overwhelming and sudden. Tears formed in her eyes, and she felt a rage of anger, and resentment toward Roger and everyone else who was pushing her to safety instead of the action she wanted to take against the miscreant who had dared to put her in his sights.
Chapter 6
She began to drive down the road and turned around in the first lane she came to. She was now headed back to Blanton, back to being on high alert.
As she drove, her frustration began to boil over. She was aware from her conversation with Germain that an unmarked car would begin to follow her once she was back in the city. She felt as if she were being treated as a young girl being walked to school by her big brother to protect her from a bully she would give anything to punch.
By the time she was back in Blanton, darkness had fallen, but she was able to spot the blue sedan that pulled out behind her as she passed a carryout. She did a slow burn from irritation, rather than feel the gratitude she knew she should have felt.
She could not help but repeatedly glance at her rearview mirror as she drove to her home, seeing the protective cocoon she had not desired was still in place. As she pulled into her driveway and opened the garage door, the anonymous guard pulled over until she was safely inside.
She was still steaming from the imposition of the escort as she entered her kitchen and reset her alarm. She went to her cupboard, poured a glass of wine, and went into her living room. She turned on the television and sat down on her sofa, trying to decide what to have for dinner.
In an attempt to regain the good mood she had felt throughout the day, she got up and retrieved the camera she had placed on the kitchen counter. She went back to the sofa, turned on the camera, and began looking back over the images from the day. Minka the cat decided to join her, and she petted the Persian while reviewing her pictures.
Dan Harlow crept along a tall hedge forty feet from the brownstone where Kara rested on the sofa, rubbing the stomach of the cat that was purring in appreciation as she lay on her back next to her. He had abandoned the Mazda hours before, and had broken into a garage and stolen another car that the elderly owner did not even yet realize was missing. In fact, he had made his way into four garages in another neighborhood before he found a vehicle with the keys in it. Finding such an arrangement, he climbed on top of the car to remove the light bulb from the garage opener, so that his getaway would be accomplished in darkness.
Two blocks from Kara’s home, he pulled that second stolen car into the driveway of an empty home that had a “For Sale” sign in front. He reached up with his gun and smashed the bulbs in the interior roof lights, and then got out and quickly headed down the nearby alley.
Kara’s phone chimed, and she saw that it was Bill Germain calling. She muted the television and answered. “Kara……we don’t have a track on him yet. Just wanted you to know.”
“Okay……I’m inside.”
“Kara……don’t leave without calling me first.”
“Yeah….okay. Thanks.”
She closed her phone and sighed, then turned the sound back on to watch a program on legendary National Football League games. She wanted to go out and be part of the action.
She continued watching the program, and then noticed that Minka suddenly perked her ears straight up and turned toward the back of the home. Kara turned the volume off once again, and then realized her gun was not with her. She got up slowly and walked to the chair where she had put her purse, and turned the room lights off. She reached into her purse, pulled out the Beretta, and flipped the safety to “Off”.
Kara walked into the dining room that was the back room of the duplex. She then noticed that the motion-detector light had been activated, bathing the small back yard in light. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a branch on a shrub move sideways, and detected a tiny glint of metal.
She knew where he was. She knew how to exit the front of her home in silence and darkness, because she had thought through that scenario many times. She would have the drop on him.
Beads of perspiration formed on her forehead, not from fear, but from the tension and angst of indecision. She began to reach for her first lock to undo, the first step in going outside to confront and capture Harlow. She pulled the latch in silence, and then reached for the first deadbolt. It was always kept oiled and silent, and it turned with not a whisper of a click. She reached for the second deadbolt, and once it was unlocked, she would need to only turn off her lights, turn the knob and go outside to take care of business.
Her fingers froze on the deadbolt handle. She closed her eyes and gritted her teeth in indecision. She began to turn the handle, then let go as tears began to run down her face. She reached to her side and pulled out her phone. She called Germain, and told him in a halting voice that Harlow was right outside her home.
Kara knelt down in the darkness and silence and listened. She could hear a scratching sound from the side of her house, and thought of the basement window. She crept closer to the wall that was above it, and could hear the distinct sound of something being used to pry the window open.
&nb
sp; Three unmarked cars from the Sherriff’s office and the Blanton Police Department were converging on the neighborhood. Calls were going out to tactical team members to be on standby in case a hostage situation developed.
A green SUV turned onto the street where Kara lived. Susan cruised up to pull over to the curb in front of the duplex in which she had grown up, and where her mother still lived. She had gone to the drug store after an extra-long day at work to have the latest batch of pictures of Michael printed, and she could not wait until the next planned gathering to give them to the proud grandmother.
She turned on the interior light and began to sort the photos, as one set of the duplicates was for Kara, and the other was to be given to the paternal grandparents.
Harlow watched from his crouch next to the house, in awe at the good fortune that had just been presented to him. He knew that the other half of the duplex was silent and dark, so whoever this pretty woman was, she must be someone who was dear to Kara Wulling.
A younger version of Kara opened the vehicle’s door and hopped down, her shoulder length blonde hair swaying as she stepped up onto the curb and began walking toward the house.
Just as Harlow stood to apprehend his prey, Germain and another detective tackled and disarmed him. Suddenly the home and immediate neighborhood was bathed in headlights, and blue and red lights joined the scene.
Kara, Susan, Germain and Roger sat at the dining room table sharing some wine to settle their nerves. Kara was still shaking, but Susan had calmed down within a few minutes after her near-abduction. Still, Kara had called her son-in-law to come and get Susan.
All were praising Kara for her actions, intuition and decisions, but they could not comprehend the torment inside her. None could ever have understood the mixed emotions she was experiencing.
It was nearly 10:30 when the final police car had departed and Kara and Roger were left alone. He had asked Kara if she wanted him to stay the night. Unable to speak at the time, she simply nodded her head up and down slowly.
