Chapter 1

My lights caught a flicker of movement in the road. “Shit, a god damn deer.” I slammed on the brakes and thanked Chuck, my mechanic, for convincing me to get the front brakes done last week. It wasn’t a deer. It was some crazy woman that had stepped out in the road to flag me down in the middle of the night. My car stopped not more than three feet in front of her.

I sat shaking from an adrenalin rush as I gripped the steering wheel white-knuckled. She ran to the side of the road, picked up a suitcase, took a kid’s hand, and led him to my passenger side window. She rapped on the window shouting. “You have to let us in. Please, we need to get away from here.”

I unlocked the doors and figured I would give them a ride to the police station and let them deal with it. The woman opened the back door, and the kid got in. She threw the suitcase in after him, opened the front door, and got in.

She sounded distressed as she pleaded, “Go, please go.”

I checked all my mirrors and didn’t see anything threatening. I started down the road at a moderate speed, not breaking any speed limits. Once the car was moving she seemed to settle down and relax a bit.

She checked the back seat, “You okay back there, Sweetie?”

“Yeah, Mom, I’m fine.”

I figured I had better introduce myself. “Ahem, my name is Robert. I’m as going as far as Barrington. But I can drop you at the Bristol Police station on my way through there. Is that okay with you? Hey son, can you buckle up back there. You too, ma’am.”

I heard two clicks and the passenger not buckled up alarm turned off.

“No, don’t leave us in Bristol or Carterville.” The woman pleaded.

“Okay, the Police station in Barrington then.”

“No. No police, please.” She replied.

“A motel, relatives, friends, the bus station? I want to help, but you need to tell me what you want me to do. You sounded rather frightened back there. Are you sure you don’t want to talk to the police?”

She gave me a half-smile, “You can drop us in Barrington, and we will make our way from there.”

There wasn’t any expressway, so it was a good hour and a half drive to Barrington. We drove through Bristol and Carterville in complete silence. I figured if she wanted to tell me anything more, she would. I was not about to pry or get involved. Hell, she did not even tell me her name.

It was well after midnight when we drove into Barrington. I drove down Main Street and pulled over in a well-lighted area next to the bus station. “Is this okay?”

“Yes, this will be fine. I can’t thank you enough for taking us this far.” She undid her seat belt, opened the door and got out. She went to the back door, opened it, woke up the kid, and took her suitcase. When they were safely on the sidewalk, I pulled away, happy to be rid of them and on my way home to get some sleep.