PROLOGUE
Patricia Ann Browning didn’t see
the deer standing in the middle of the road until it was too late, not that it
would have mattered.
She was on her way home from the
annual opening of her art gallery in Keenseville and she was in a great mood.
It was a trip she had made a thousand times before, having spent her whole life
in this area, and one which she was quite comfortable making, even at this late
hour.
She had just hosted the first
showing of the new year and it had been a smashing success. It wasn’t on the
scale of a Manhattan opening, but
everyone on the Adirondack art scene had been there
including some well known art aficionados from the Burlington
area in Vermont . The months of
working long hours, coupled with having to deal with the sensitive feelings of
more than one artist, had finally paid off. She allowed herself the opportunity
to bask in the glow of her triumph. A glow fueled just a little bit more by the
wine she had enjoyed at the end of the evening.
The black sapphire 2012 BMW M6
streaked along the misty thoroughfare like a spectral image highlighted by the
moonlight filtering down through the trees. The vehicle was well suited for its
role in navigating the meandering mountainous back roads of upstate New
York . Maybe it had something to do with its Bavarian
roots.
She had just turned forty-two back
in September but neither felt nor acted her age. She took great pains in taking
care of herself and the endless hours spent running around the gallery and
staging new exhibits served as her impromptu gym.
As she deftly
maneuvered the car along the roadway one of her favorite songs from an 80’s
rock band came on the radio. She reached over and turned the volume up high.
The sound system in the vehicle was impressive, even by an audiophile’s
standard, and it made the occupants feel as if they were actually in a concert
hall. She leaned back comfortably in the leather driver’s seat and began
singing out loud as she gripped the steering wheel tightly.
As the car navigated a particularly
sharp turn in the winding mountain road, the headlights illuminated the ill
fated animal standing in the middle of the roadway. It was literally the
epitome of a deer in the headlights
moment. She opened her mouth as if to scream, but had no time to make an actual
sound. At the same exact moment she instinctively slammed on the brakes and
swerved to avoid hitting it.
While it was a valiant attempt, it
fell just short of the mark. The car struck the animal, which appeared frozen
in abject fear, and launched it into the air.
Had the car had a slightly larger
profile, the animal most likely would have been driven directly through the
windshield and into the passenger compartment causing serious injury if not the
instant death of the driver. However, the German engineers had succeeded in
producing a crisp aerodynamic design which minimized the deer’s impact. The low
profile caused the animal to strike the hood before its lifeless body was
propelled into the upper most edge of the windshield and over the top of the
vehicle where it crashed down on to the wet pavement directly behind the car.
In that same instant the windshield
shattered at the point of impact in that familiar spider web pattern which
further terrified the driver. As a result of this assault on her senses, she
surrendered all control of the car as she desperately attempted to duck down
and away from the perceived danger. It was however futile as her seatbelt
ensured that she didn’t get very far.
The car, operating on its own at
this point, careened wildly until it ran off the road and struck a tree. At
that exact moment, even as her body was pressing against the seat belt, one of
the vehicles crash sensors detected the pressure wave caused by the impact and
sent a signal to the on-board computer. At about the same time other pressure
sensors began to respond to the now crumbling engine compartment and sent their
respective signals in as well. The vehicles computer then began to calculate
the severity of the impact. About a millisecond later the computer determined
that it was a catastrophic event and sent a fire signal to the vehicle’s airbag
system causing them to deploy at nearly 200mph. The force of the airbags
deployment drove Patricia Browning back into the driver’s seat even while they
were already deflating in front of her. While the airbags had done exactly what
they were designed to do, the violence of the initial impact had rendered her
unconscious.
From the moment of the impact with
the tree exactly two-hundred and seventy-six milliseconds had passed, less time
than it takes for the blink of an eye.
Steam rose from the shattered
radiator where it was eerily lit up by the headlights. Somehow in the
collision, the right blinker had also been activated, adding an amber and red
flash to the mix. The car’s radio continued to play the classic rock ballad
which only served to make the whole scene seem even that much more surreal.
If she had been conscious, she
would have noticed the headlights come on from the pickup truck that was parked
approximately fifty feet away on the opposite side of the road. A male figure,
clad in dark clothing and wearing a baseball hat pulled low, exited the truck.
He walked purposely around to the passenger side of the pickup and opened the
door.
From there he moved quickly in the
direction of the hulking wreckage of the automobile. Under the circumstances it
was completely unnecessary as it would be at least two more hours before
another vehicle would venture down the deserted back road.
The man proceeded to walk past the
crumpled remains of the BMW, back to where the lifeless body of the deer lay in
the roadway. It was in fact a young three-point buck and weighed in at only one
hundred and twenty pounds. The man lifted the remains up off the ground and
carried it to the pickup truck where he unceremoniously dumped it into the
back.
When he was done, he switched on
the LED flashlight device that was attached to his baseball hat and moved to
the tree line on each side of the road just behind the BMW. He located the
remnants of the cable wires that were looped around the two large sugar maple
tree trunks. The same wires which had, a few moments earlier, suspended the
deer over the roadway. If anyone had been given the opportunity to examine the
remains of the animal they would have discovered that this particular deer had,
in fact, died twice tonight.
(Continued)
For more information on how you can help me self publish my novel, please check out my Kickstarter campaign blog entry here: Perfect Pawn Kickstarter Campaign.
For more information on how you can help me self publish my novel, please check out my Kickstarter campaign blog entry here: Perfect Pawn Kickstarter Campaign.
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