CHAPTER 1

Carolyn Collides was barely twenty-two when shespotted the poor creature limping across the highwayand she yelled out to her parents from the back of their Fordstation wagon. It was a freaky type of yell that sounded likeshe was in agony. Her mother jumped from the passengerseat and turned to look at her daughter as her husbandslowly attempted to pull over the shoulder of the road.It was not easy on Route 287 during those days in MorrisCounty. The newly constructed road had wetted the appetiteof thousands of commuters who had until then endured thehard and uncomfortable rides on the county roads. Trafficwas heavy on this new highway and drivers were impatientwith slow moving vehicles. Carolyn's father got a few beepinghorns behind him as he finally was able to slide onto theshoulder. By then he expected the animal to have died,crushed by one of the fast moving cars whose drivers wouldstop at nothing. There was no chance for a dog to make itacross the road at this hour. It was suicide, pure suicide. If itsowner had wanted to make the animal disappear he sure hadpicked the right way to do it. Just drop him in the middleof the highway among a beehive of cars. Is that what hadhappened? Mr. Fred Collides wondered. If so, the assholedeserved to be thrown in jail.

"Carolyn, what is it? You scared me. I thought somethinghappened."

"Mom, it's a dog. Look! He's hurt, he's hurt! He's right infront of us. He got hit by a car."

"I saw him," Fred said. "I saw him."

"Dad, we can't leave him here."

There was the cracking sound of the door being openedand then it was Fred who jumped off his seat.

"Carolyn, don't you dare go out there!" he said, turningto his daughter. "You wanna get run down by a car?"

"But Dad, you can't leave him on the side of the road.He'll die. He'll only try to cross the road again and he'll getkilled by a car. Let's help him."

"Honey, calm down," her mother told her. "Let's seewhat we can do for him. There's so much traffic though. It'shorrible at this time."

She knew her daughter's fondness for animals andher extreme compassion towards them. As a little girl, shehad always had an entourage of cats following her in theircountry home and it was rather common for her to bringstray pets into the house occasionally, pets she'd run into onthe road or at other neighbors' property.

Fred had pulled the station wagon onto the shoulder ofthe road and was doing his best to gain the dog's attentionby snapping his left thumb over the open driver's windowbut the animal just sat on its hind legs in the middle of theslow lane of the highway, having made it almost all the wayacross, staring towards their car, apparently attracted byFred's attempts to gain its attention but not enough to makeit move over.

Fred and his wife Stacey heard the rear passenger doorsnap open and before they could say anything, Carolyn wasoutside, walking resolutely towards the front of the stationwagon. Stacey was the first one to jump out to follow her,alarmed that her daughter could be hurt by a car.

"Carolyn, stop! Get back!"

Carolyn was clapping her hands, standing audaciouslyat the edge of the road, to gain the dog's attention. Theyheard the screeching noise of a coming vehicle that could notmake the switch to the next lane because of other oncomingtraffic. Just then the dog stood up and walked into Carolyn'sarms. The car was a mid-size Oldsmobile Cutlass and it wasweaving from the pressure of the brakes as it tried desperatelyto stop. Carolyn moved back immediately with the dog in herarms and the driver of the vehicle, realizing that they werenow out of the way, sped up, yelling profanities at them as itpassed by. Carolyn seemed totally oblivious to the dangeroussituation and the near miss, concentrating only on the animalshe carried in her arms back to her father's station wagon.

"She's hurt, Mom," she said. "She's bleeding from her rearleg. I think it's broken."

"Carolyn, do you realize you almost gave me a heartattack? You almost got run over out there! What is thematter with you?"

Stacey followed her into the car, still scolding her as theygot in.

"Dad, we have to take her to an animal hospital. She'shurt bad."

"She?" her mother asked, turning from the front seat."How do you know it's a female?"

"Because I looked, Mom. She's a girl."

"All right, all right," Fred Collides said as he tried to puthis vehicle in motion. "First I gotta worry about getting backon this highway which is not easy. Everyone is moving atninety miles an hour, even in the slow lane. How am I gonnaget back in?"

"Take your time, honey," Stacey said. "Don't try untilyou get enough of a stretch. Remember, objects may seemfar away but when they're traveling fast they can creep upon you. I don't see any chance right now. Wait," she warned,looking back into the road to help him.

"Oh, my God, poor girl," Carolyn kept lamenting. "Mom,she's bleeding. I've got to try to stop her bleeding."

Stacey leaned over the seat to look.

"She's not that bad Carolyn. Gee, maybe we ought towrap something around her leg. Let's see."

She grabbed her purse and looked inside.

"Mom, I've got it," Carolyn said.

She had pulled her red bandanna from her backpocket and carefully began wrapping it around the animal'swounded leg. The dog did not resist but began moaning,clearly in pain.

"See what I mean, Mom. We've got to get her to ahospital. She's hurt."

Just then the station wagon pulled into the highway andsped up. Fred had managed to find some empty stretch onthe road and quickly took advantage of it.

"Carolyn," Fred said. "Let's not get overly dramaticabout this. Let's get the dog home and wash her up and giveher something to eat, okay? Then we will see. If she needsmedical treatment, we'll take her to a vet."

"Dad, she's hurt bad. I think her leg is broken. She needsa hospital."

"We'll see," her father said. "Let's get her home first.That's enough for now. Come on."

CHAPTER 2

The Collides house was in western New Jersey, acountry home near the city of Belvidere. Fred Collideswas an accountant and worked for a firm in Hackettstownwhere he drew a healthy salary that allowed him to providea comfortable living for his family. His daughter Carolyn hadfinished high school and had gone on to college but suddenlychanged her mind and took a job as a waitress in CentralJersey where her brother kept an apartment. She nowdivided her time between Edison and the family house inBelvidere. His daughter's decision not to follow up with hereducation had been more hurtful to him than his own faultyheart that now kept him on a load of daily medication anda diminished sexual drive that bothered him psychologically.But his daughter had been his life's agonizing concern. Hecould handle his son's refusal to go on to college and take ajob at a local motorcycle parts store. He was a strong boy.But Carolyn was a different story. He knew her characterbetter than her mother, or understood how life's intolerantways would unmercifully penetrate her ways. She was a softhearted young girl who now at twenty-two thought with thenaivety of a teen. Education would have shielded her fromharm and prepared her for the ruthlessness that lay ahead.There was perhaps still a chance.

The station wagon pulled into the long driveway fromthe main road, all five hundred feet of it guarded by a row ofwild shrubbery on both sides that gave the house a buffer ofprivacy. Fred brought the vehicle right up to the...