At eleven thirty p.m., after the evening routines were all finished and Lilly had gone to bed-in our room again-I asked Caroline to sit down at the kitchen table. I told her about my conversation with Sam Wiseman and that the police weren’t going to help. Finally, I took a deep breath.
”I’m going down there,” I said.
”Where?” Caroline said.
”To Newport. To find Junior.”
”When?”
”Tonight. Now.”
”No, you’re not.”
”Yes. I am.”
”No, you’re not. No way.”
”I’m going, Caroline. You can’t stop me.”
”And just what do you propose to do when you find him?” Her voice took on some intensity, and she stood up. Neither was a good sign.
”I’m not sure, but I can’t just sit around here. The police aren’t going to do anything, so I have to take care of this myself. Sit back down and talk to me.
Try to be rational.”
”Rational? Did I just hear you say rational? You’re talking about going out in the middle of the night to an insane man’s house to do God knows what and you’re telling me to be rational? You’re as crazy as he is!”
I stood up and started towards the bedroom with Caroline right on my heels.
”He’s a police officer, Joe,” she said. ”He’s going to have a gun, you know.” The words were staccato and her voice had a tone I’d only heard a couple of times during all the years we’d been together.
”Keep your voice down. Lilly’s sleeping.”
”Don’t tell me to keep my voice down. Wake up, Lilly! Your dad’s about to do something insane! You better kiss him goodbye, because you might never see him again!”
Lilly stirred and groaned, but she could sleep through a hurricane.
”Leave her out of this,” I said. I walked into my closet and grabbed up a pair of black jeans, a navy blue hooded sweatshirt, a pair of old combat boots, and a black stocking cap. Then I hurried back out to the kitchen and started to change clothes. Caroline was hovering like an attack helicopter.
”I have to do something to this guy,” I said as I pulled off my shirt. ”If I don’t, we’re all going to spend our lives looking over our shoulders. I mean, for God’s sake, Caroline, think about what he did.
He staked us out. He stalked you. He followed me and ran my truck into the lake. He tried to kill me.
What do you want me to do? Sit back and give him another chance, because I guarantee you he’ll try again as soon as he finds out I’m still breathing. Or maybe he’ll try to kill you next time. Or Lilly. Hell, maybe he’ll wait until he gets a shot at all of us at the same time. Three for the price of one.”
”I don’t care, Joe. I-”
”Yes, you do. You care. You care about me and you care about Lilly and you care about living. And as much as you want to think we should be civilized right now, as much as you want to deal with this rationally, there comes a time, Caroline. There comes a time when meeting violence with violence is the best way, the only way.”
”So you’re going to hurt him?”
”I’m not planning to kill him, but I’m not going to give him a hug, either. I have to let him know if he comes after any of us, there’ll be consequences. I have to show him that I’m willing to cross the same line he crossed.”
”I’m going with you.”
”No. You have to stay here with Lilly. We can’t leave her here alone. I promise I’ll stay in touch.
I’ll-”
”No, Joe. This is too weird.”
I looked her in the eye. ”You know I love you, and you know I respect you, but-”
”Don’t patronize me.”
”I’m not patronizing you, but I’m telling you I’m going. You can yell and scream all you want. You can call the damn cops for all I care. I’ve made up my mind, Caroline. I’m going.”
She took a long, slow breath. ”Have you thought this through?”
”Of course I’ve thought it through.” I sat down in one of the chairs at the table and started lacing my boots. ”I’ve thought about it all day, and to be honest, I have no clue what’s going to happen when I get down there. Maybe nothing will happen.”
”I’m too young to be a widow.”
”And I’m too young to make you one.”
I got up and grabbed a lighter out of a drawer and a bottle of water from the refrigerator. I opened the bottle, poured the water into the sink, screwed the cap back on, and headed for the garage. Leaning against the wall was an old hickory walking stick I’d bought during a trip to Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, a few years ago. It was four feet long and hard as steel. I picked it up and looked at it. Caroline was standing in the doorway, eyeing me.
”I need your cell phone,” I said.
”Why?”
”Because mine’s at the bottom of Boone Lake. Just get it. Please?”
She disappeared for a second, came back to the doorway, and tossed me her phone.
”You’re taking a walking stick to a gunfight?”
she said.
”If things go right, he won’t get a chance to shoot at me.”
”Sometimes things don’t go the way you plan them. And speaking of plans, do you have one?”
”Sort of.”
”What is it?”
”You don’t want to know.”
”Yes, I do.”
”Trust me, you don’t.”
I walked over to the five-gallon container that held gasoline for the lawn mowers and filled the water bottle with gas.
”Are you going to throw a Molotov cocktail at him?” Caroline said.
”Not exactly.”
”Then what’s the bottle of gas for?”
”Diversion, if I need it. Or maybe bait.”
The last thing I picked up was a small flashlight off the shelf in the garage. Rio was following me every step of the way, whimpering. He knew I was going somewhere and didn’t want to miss out on the fun. I tossed the stick, the plastic bottle of gas, and the flashlight into the passenger side of Caroline’s Honda and shut the door.
”Keep Rio close while I’m gone,” I said. Caroline was still standing in the doorway with her arms folded. ”The shotgun’s locked and loaded behind the door in the bedroom. You know how to use it.”
She started chewing on her fist. I could see tears welling in her eyes. ”I want to go,” she said. ”I can’t stand the thought of sitting here waiting. By the time you get back, I’ll be insane.”
”I’ll be fine,” I said. ”Try not to worry.”
”Yeah, sure.”
”I have to do this.”
”No, you don’t.”
”I can handle myself, Caroline.” I walked up to the door and took her in my arms. ”I’ll call you on the house phone when it’s done. Don’t call me, please. I don’t want to worry about the cell phone ringing.”
”You be back here by four,” she said, ”and you better be in one piece.”
”You sound like my mother.” I kissed her and got in the car.
Junior’s place was almost seventy miles away. As I drove down Interstate 81 towards Newport, I ran through the possibilities. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Caroline was right. I was doing something crazy and dangerous. I had a vague plan in mind, but I wasn’t sure how I was going to get close to him, if he was home. It was after midnight, so I couldn’t just waltz up to the front door and knock. Junior would have to be paranoid after what he’d done to me. If I went to the door after midnight, he’d be sure to answer it with a gun in his hand. And to make matters worse, I didn’t know anything about his house, his neighborhood, whether he had a dog. . Shit, I didn’t know a thing. When I was a Ranger, I went on several recon missions.
During the missions, my job was to make accurate assessments of enemy strengths and positions so the commanders would know what they were up