(AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thankfully, my work hassles are over for now and I'm doing my best to attempt catching up on all the Moon Lake threads.—tmw.}}
The oldest Harper son looked up at the overhead loud speaker as the announcement began.
"Good morning everybody. This is your Captain speaking. We have obtained our cruise altitude and at our present course and speed, should be arriving in Seattle Washington by 8:40 am, Pacific Daylight Time*. The stewardess will be serving a complimentary breakfast with coffee shortly. Thank you."
The drive from the Harper household to the Birmingham Airport was as silent as it was long and uneventful. James Harper Senior's mind was made up that he was bringing his wayward daughter Jennifer home to stay so she could marry Dieter Wilhelm like she was supposed to and "get all that nonsense out of her head once and for all."
His mother Elizabeth tried once, and only once, to talk to her husband, but was immediately shut down.
The man was right. The woman wrong, and that's all that mattered as far as James Senior was concerned.
James Harper Junior knew otherwise, but he had to pick his moment carefully to even attempt, let alone hope to have any success of getting his father to see logic and drag himself into the 21st century.
The family got up at 4 am Eastern Daylight Time, whether they wanted to or not. There were no bags packed. Just get dressed and hop in the family car for the long drive to the airport was the only instructions they were given.
There they were met by the man behind all of this.
The enemy, as far as James Junior was concerned.
Dieter Wilhelm looked wide awake, alert, and immaculate in a freshly pressed business suit. What none of the Harpers knew was that Wilhelm stayed up half the night with another "lady of the evening" who had a passing resemblance to Jenny Harper, when he wasn't making final arrangements to bring "his Jenny" home once and for all.
Right now Wilhelm was running on pure adrenaline and caffeine. Soon Jenny would be "his". The plan was that once they got to this backwater Washington State town called Moon Lake, he would act shocked to hear that Harper's fiance Harold Jenkins was dead, despite the fact that he had arranged the murder himself.
The one regret Wilhelm had was that he couldn't be there in person to pull the trigger himself and see that upstart bastard who tried to steal "his girl" get what was coming to him.
But Dieter Wilhelm had done everything else right, from the public image of the "wronged boyfriend" to footing the entire bill for this excursion to bring Jenny Harper back home where she belonged.
James Harper Junior looked around the passenger cabin of the small, chartered plane. His whole family was there.
His mother Elizabeth sat next to her husband like she had been told a good wife should. James Junior never got a chance to talk to her at length, because he feared she might say something to his father to reveal what his true intentions were for coming along on what otherwise was a "fool's errand", as far as he was concerned.
Sitting across from his parents was Wilhelm, talking to them and making all kinds of grandiose promises about the future once Jenny was back home and Mrs. Dieter Wilhelm.
As if he actually intends to keep any of them, realized James Junior, as he thanked the stewardess for the fast food pancakes, cookie cutter sausage patty, and the instant coffee.
Then the eldest Harper son looked at his two youngest siblings.
His younger brother John was only a 14 year old Sophomore, but looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders.
The last time the Harper boys had the chance to talk privately, John confided in him that he had a serious crush on someone John thought was very special, "but even if I get up the nerve to admit it and they feel the same way about me, there's no way dad will approve if he ever finds out."
While he didn't know who had caught his brother's eye, James Junior knew exactly how he felt, because there was a beautiful African American lady at college who had already won his heart.
What was even better, she had freely given him hers in return!
As soon as he graduated at the end of the Spring semester, the oldest Harper sibling intended to say goodbye to his backwater father once and for all and move with his lady to another state to start their new lives and careers together.
But it was his siblings that James Junior was worried about the most.
Besides John and Jenny, there was also Janice.
The younger Harper daughter was already being given lessons on "how a lady properly behaves in the world".
I'm surprised Dad doesn't already have her brainwashed and engaged to another jerk like Wilhelm, he thought, while looking at his sibling.
Although the youngest, it was easy to see that Janice was already taking after Jenny and his mother, and would be quite a beautiful woman in time.
At least physically. I can't let dad brow beat her into submission like he has mom and tried to with Jenny.
James Junior remembered plenty of long nights when his oldest sister cried herself to sleep after one of their father's "lessons", let alone consoling her behind everyone's back and helping Jenny with her studies so she'd graduate with honors in hopes of winning a full scholarship to "someplace far away from here!" as she put it.
He didn't know where this Moon Lake was either without taking a long look at a very detailed map. It was one of those "blink and you'd miss it while driving" towns out in the proverbial middle of nowhere, despite it being only a little over an hour's drive from Seattle.
But Jenny was ecstatic when she got her diploma and scholarship to Moon Lake College. His father thought she was going there to learn electrical engineering to be a better help mate to Dieter Wilhelm once they got married, yet Jenny confided in him her love of animals and longing to be a vet.
"Mark my words about one thing Big Brother. No matter what happens, I'm NEVER coming back to Alabama unless it's in a coffin!" she swore to him privately.
I'm not going to let it come to that. For any of us, swore James Harper Junior, even as he tried to chew his rubbery sausage patty and stared at the cause of his anger.
With his back to the rest of the Harper clan, Dieter Wilhelm sat comfortably in his seat, regaling Jenny's parents with all his hopes and dreams.
At least the ones he made up to appease them.
The truth of the matter was, as far as he was concerned, the only thing Jennifer Harper was good for was to be a beautiful and doting wife who gave him lots of children when not taking care of their house or being arm candy at social functions.
He was in the middle of telling another whopper of a lie to Jenny's parents when his cellphone chimed receipt of an incoming text.
"Excuse me. Probably business. You know how things are at the electrical plant," said Wilhelm, while taking the phone out of his jacket pocket.
"Of course," said James Senior, who also happened to work for Wilhelm at that plant.
Palming the unit so no one but him could see the screen, Wilhelm read the text message.
VAN RENTED AND LOADED. WAITING FOR YOU AT AIRPORT.
Dieter Wilhelm simply smiled as he looked at the message again.
Considering no one had any luggage, and the only things they would be taking back to Alabama was "his Jenny" and her belongings, LOADED in this case meant the man who would be meeting them and "playing chauffeur" had plenty of weapons ready in case things went south.
Not that Wilhelm expected them to. After all, Harry Jenkins was dead.**
Other than observing the formalities and possibly getting hitched in that hick town of Moon Lake, there was absolutely nothing that could go wrong this day.
With that, Dieter Wilhelm texted a reply to his confederate stating their expected arrival time; not knowing about the opposition that awaited him both at the church and within the chartered jet.
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*With the Congressional extensions to the "season", Daylight Saving Time in 2015 ended over night between Halloween and November 1 that year.
**Or so he thinks.—tmw.