LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter 4

      Shakedown

      Jenene was still in a daze as she left the post office with the letter. Where to go, whom to see, what to do about this were all questions dancing about her mind so fast that she couldn’t begin to think straight. Although a sense of exhilaration surged through her at the thought of finally finding out the truth of her parents’ death, almost simultaneously, apprehension bordering on pure alarm was quickly surfacing. Who sent her this note? What did they want? Blackmail money? Maybe they thought she knew something that needed to be kept a secret? And why should this surface now after all this time? The clandestine way of getting a message to her was scary.

      Almost running from the post office, she quickly got into her car and started driving. She had to go somewhere to think, to plan what to do. She could go home. Dan wouldn’t be home for hours yet. Although Dan was, of course, aware of how her parents supposedly died, Jenene had not let him know her obsession of finding their true killers. Even though Dan had not actually discussed with her his political ambitions, Jenene was acutely aware of them, and she knew that bringing this out would not, to say the least, help him climb the political ladder. Maybe home was not the best place at the moment.

      She found herself turning to the highway, heading for their cabin in the mountains. This was where she often went when she was seeking the solution to a problem. The higher she climbed, the worse the rain poured, and visibility was almost zero. Cars were few, and most of them on the road were headed back to the city.

      One car approaching her was traveling at a much-greater speed than was warranted under the storm conditions, and just as that car started by her, it went into a skid and almost collided, but the car just kept on going. Shaken, but unhurt, Jenene turned off the highway onto the unpaved stretch of road to the cabin. As she made the turn, her headlights reflected momentarily upon a set of tire tracks on the rain-soaked road, and she wondered who might have been on this road to their cabin in this kind of weather. Assuming it was someone who made the wrong turn, she kept on driving, concentrating at this point on simply keeping the car on the road.

      Finally, she spotted the cabin, and with a fervent prayer that the storm had not knocked out the electrical power, she pulled into the drive, grabbed a flashlight, and made a quick dash to the cabin door. Fumbling in her purse for the cabin key, she dropped the flashlight. As she picked it up from the entryway, she saw an envelope sticking out from under the door, and her heart started pounding and pounding. No one knew she was here! Who would know to leave a message under the door? Had she been followed? No, that couldn’t be. They would have had to be here first since the envelope was already under the doorway. This was getting too scary.

      With trembling hands, she opened the envelope and, shining the flashlight on the paper, read for the second time that day six very scary words: “Watch your back or you’re next.”

      Scared and wet, she ran stumbling back to her car. Making a quick U-turn, she careened back down the unpaved road toward the highway, slipping and sliding all the way. Once on the highway again, her pounding heart began to subside, and she began to think more rationally.

      I must get home, she thought, whether Dan is home or not. I must get someplace where I am safe so I can think this through.

      She grabbed her cell phone and tried to call Dan, but the interference from the storm was too severe to make the connection. As she pressed on the accelerator, now driving too fast for the wet highway, she suddenly remembered the car nearly sideswiping her on her way up to the cabin, and began now to wonder if that was really just a coincidence. As she descended the mountain and started coming into the outer limits of the city, her cell phone rang. It was Dan, frantic as to where she was.

      “I’m almost home,” she said to Dan, “we’ll talk when I get there.”

      As she finished the call, the tears began. She didn’t know if it was from being scared or from being relieved from talking to Dan, or both; regardless, she was ready for home. She knew that the time had come to tell Dan about her search for the truth about her parents and her obsession for the same, even though it might put a stumbling block in Dan’s climb up the political ladder. Someone must want something from her, or maybe even Dan. Her mind was becoming a jumbled chaos, and nothing was making any sense. Could it simply be a shakedown?