Paradise

Chapter 7

        Two days later, after school on Monday, Caleb and I met back at the waterfall. He was dressed in nice casual clothes: New jeans, a button down shirt, nice shoes. He had instructed me to dress nicely too, so I was in my black slacks and a cute top. We started heading in the direction of Tronic Advertising Agency, and he began to tell his plan. Basically he had decided that we were helping plan a memorial at the intersection for the fifteenth anniversary of the accident, and we were in charge of advertising. I gave him a strange look as we walked along. "Do you honestly believe that he's going to believe that? It's a little far-fetched."

        Caleb glanced over at me. "Do you have another idea? Just act older than you are. And if he asks, tell him that you're twenty." I sighed. When we got to Tronic, Caleb held the door open for me, and we approached the lady at the front desk. "Hello, we have a meeting with Jonathon Carter," Caleb greeted.

        The lady looked up and smiled. "Of course. What time was your meeting and what was the name it was under?"

        "Four o'clock for Parkinson."

        She typed a few keys on her computer, then looked up and smiled again. "If you'll just have a seat, Mr. Carter will be with you shortly." She gestured to the chairs along the wall.

        "Thank you." Caleb directed me over to the chairs. As we sat down, he said, "This is it. We're going to catch a killer."

        "Something doesn't feel right about it. Maybe it was someone else." I couldn't believe the words when they came out of my mouth, and neither could Caleb.

        After a few moments, the lady said to us, "Mr. Carter will see you now. Right this way please." We followed her back into a very nice and tidy office. The man with scars covering his face was typing at a computer. "Mr. Carter, your four o'clock is here."

        He looked up and smiled. "Welcome, please have a seat." We walked over and sat in the chairs in front of his desk as he finished was he was doing and closed his laptop. He held out his hand to me. "Jonathon Carter, it's a pleasure."

        I shook his outstretched hand. "Avery Parkinson."

        Caleb did the same. "Joseph Parker."

        The man leaned back in his chair. "So I hear you're helping plan a memorial for the accident on State and Main, is that right? I remember that accident well, that's why I chose to take you on."

        Caleb leaned forward in his chair. "You remember it? What can you tell us about it?"

        Mr. Carter's smile faded slightly. "I was fourteen years old. I went out for the night with my buddies. We went to a movie and hung out at Arcadia, which was pretty big in those days. I remember we were getting ready to leave and heard a loud crash. We ran outside to see what had happened. There was glass and metal everywhere. Three cars totaled. The original person who caused the accident was never found. It was as though the car had been driving itself. One of the other cars, all of the passengers were okay, but the middle car, everyone was gone."

        "Not everyone. A two year old girl survived. Both of her parents died though. Her mom was pregnant, and the baby died too," I jumped in. Caleb lightly kicked my foot, but I ignored him.

        "Is that so? I didn't know that part." Mr. Carter hesitated. "It's a real shame they never found the killer. He deserves a life sentence." He chuckled slightly. "My friends and I tried to find him. Can you imagine a bunch of fourteen year olds hunting down a man who killed a family? Obviously we had no luck. And it's been so long now, I'm sure he got away with it."

        Just then, the door opened, and the other man he had been with walked in the door. "I'm so sorry I'm late!"

        Mr. Carter grinned. "Don't worry about it, Pete, you aren't too late." We all stood up. "This is Peter Jacobs, my business partner. We will be working together to help advertise for your cause."

        After we shook his hand and introduced ourselves, we sat back down. "I'm not sure if John here has told you yet, but you should feel special about this. We don't usually take up people trying to get publicity for an event. We're in advertising. We advertise for products and companies. But when we heard what you're doing, it spoke out to us so much that we wanted to take it," Mr. Jacobs told us. He smiled, and seemed to be staring at Caleb a lot as though trying to figure something out.

        "Pete here actually has a much greater impact about the accident than I do," Mr. Carter told us.

        Mr. Jacobs looked down. "The father of the family that died, his name was Daniel Parkinson. He was my business partner back then. Unfortunately I'm quite a bit older than John. That night we'd had a business family night at the creamery there. I had just met his wife and his daughter. His wife was pregnant. They were a beautiful family."

        "Did you know that the two year old survived?" Mr. Carter asked him.

        Mr. Jacobs looked up. "I did. My wife and I talked about taking her in as our own, but it didn't work out. I occasionally wonder what happened to her. I hope she found a family who truly loves her."

        I coughed, not wanting to be rude, but wanting to change the subject before I said anything. "I'm sorry to hear about your connections. That's always a hard thing. I don't mean to bring back painful memories."

        "It's quite alright, Ms. Parkinson. It's not a problem." Mr. Carter smiled. At the sound of my name, Mr. Jacobs looked up sharply.

        "Parkinson? You have the same name as... There's no possible way that..." He looked closely at my face. "Are you the girl?"

        Caleb jumped in, knowing that I would have a hard time making something up quickly. "If she was the girl, she would be seventeen and still in high school. This is a different Avery Parkinson. They wouldn't have let us join in and help plan this event if we were still minors."

        Mr. Jacobs nodded, obviously unconvinced. "I'm sorry, this is just... Anyway, what ideas did you have for us? Let's get started on working on the event."