Kane is sitting in his car inside the entrance to the park listening to the radio. On the seat beside him are two boxes with Barbie dolls in them he bought for Zoe and Amaya. He picks one up and looks at it intensely.
Paul pulls up beside Kane in his silver Toyota Avalon and gets out. Kane gets out of his car too.
Paul: I'd thought I'd find you here.
Kane: I'll bet you're really pissed off at me.
Paul: To be honest, just a little. You were really out of line with Mom today.
Kane: I know Paul, and I'm so sorry.
Paul: She's very worried about you Dad, and so am I. (Pause) That's why I wrote a letter to your parents asking them to tell me everything.
Kane (incensed): You what?
Paul: Dad---
Kane (angrily): How could you do this? I was planning to tell you myself! Now you go behind my back and contact my mother and father, whom I haven't spoken to since I was twenty years old?
Paul (remaining calm): That's exactly why I did it Dad. I know so little about my real family, especially my grandparents. Mom's parents are gone, but I can still get to know yours.
Kane (coldly): You don't want to know them.
Paul (a little irritated): Look Dad, you can spare us all this misery if you just tell me what you and Ingrid are hiding.
Kane (with steel in his voice): I think you should go home to Tess now.
Paul (taken aback): This isn't like you! And I'm not leaving until you tell me what happened!
Kane: There's nothing more to say. (He gets back into his car and angrily speeds off, ignoring Paul's cries to come back).
Deanna and her friends arrive back at her house to find Eliza gone, and Roark's brother Lance and Rosamond Tucker looking after baby Melissa.
Deanna: I hope Mom gets back soon.
Lance: She wanted to go to the TV station to talk to Suzanne about Janet.
Deanna (her interest piqued): Janet? But that's why we're here!
Lance: I don't understand.
Roark: Lance, Janet might be Brody's mother.
Lance: His mother?
Roark: Remember when I told you about Brody being abandoned when he was a baby?
Lance (nodding): Yeah.
Roark: Well, Janet went to see Brody in the hospital today and when she left, he woke up and said his mother was there.
Lance: That could have been a dream though.
Rosamond: It does make sense Lance. Remember Eliza saying to us the station was wondering why Janet decided to come here from L.A. instead of another major news market?
Lance: Okay, that does make sense. So she was married to Victor?
Roark: Apparently.
Deanna: And she's come back to make things right I'm guessing.
Larry: We'd better get down to the TV station then.
On a dimly lit street, a dark clothed figure gets out of a car parked in a vacant lot. The person has a long, shiny butcher knife in their hand and slips it inside the pocket of their black leather coat. The figure begins walking slowly through the lot making sure nobody's around, then stops and removes a Barbie doll from the other pocket that's been bent in half. With black gloved hands, the doll is straightened and held by its wildly chopped hair. The killer begins walking again.
Killer (thinking): Tonight, the madness begins. Tonight the summer of terror starts, and revenge will soon be mine!
Paul has arrived home, angry and frustrated over his father's attitude. He finds a note from Tess on the coffee table saying she's gone out to the mini market to pickup a few groceries. Then he checks his answering machine, and it has these messages:
Hi Paul, it's Dorothy. I won't be coming over tonight after I get off at the diner, I'm going to Russell's. I'll see ya tomorrow.
Paul, this is Aunt Ingrid. I want you to come to the mansion tomorrow and we'll talk about things. I know I haven't been honest with you. Have a good night.
Paul, it's your mother. Kane isn't answering his cell phone or his phone at the condo. Your sisters and I are really worried about him. Please call me and tell me if you've found him. If I don't hear from you or him by tomorrow I'm calling the police.
There were no more messages. Paul decided to search for his father again, and he left the house.
Tess Harper is stalled on a dark back road just off Main Street. She left the mini market and her car died on her. She is trying to call Paul on her cell phone, but his cell phone is busy.
Tess: Come on Paul, who are you talking to? We're supposed to use these phones for emergencies only.
She turns off the phone and sits back in her seat.
Tess: I can't believe this happening! I'm so dumb for not getting this car fixed sooner---(she hears a shuffling noise) What was that?
She looks out the window and sees a dark figure approach her, but it doesn't look friendly. Tess' eyes widen in fear and she grabs her cell phone and calls Paul again, but it's still busy. Scared and panicked, she slides down in her seat as the figure gets closer...
The killer looks at her face, widened with fear, the butcher knife in the black gloved hand.
Killer (thinking): This is all too easy, like taking candy from a baby. I can't believe how simple it is. And so much fun. The pathetic look on her face! I wonder if they'll all look like that before they die?
The demented murderer looms over the body of Suzanne Haines lying on the floor, blood running down the sides of her slit throat and out of the open wound on her chest like a tiny stream. Her beautiful blonde hair has been cruelly chopped up. The mutilated Barbie doll lay on her stomach...
Next on Come Nightfall:
The town reacts to Suzanne's brutal murder as the killer plans for the next slaying.
Russell gets even more disturbing news.
THIS HAS BEEN COME NIGHTFALL
BY BREE PERRY
COPYRIGHT 2001