The Guardian

mother coming back around the corner. Checking his watch, he made note of the time, watched the woman enter the house and he slowly drove past the house.
    What he didn’t notice was that the woman was peeking through her curtains at him as he drove away. When she was walking back to her house, she had noticed that the same car was parked up and across the street from her house. She was feeling very creepy about this guy. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t trust him at all. Something was not right about him, she didn’t know what it was, but she didn’t like the feeling. She had recognized him as the man from the mall. Was it purely coincidence that he had shown up at her house like that? She didn’t think so. She seriously considered calling the police but he was driving away. Even though he was driving slowly past her house, she couldn’t see well enough to get a license number. Instead, she wrote down the information of the car as best she could. It was for just in case. Perhaps it was just by chance. Well, she definitely would have to be very cautious from now on. If she saw the car again she would know it wasn’t just coincidence.
    Later that afternoon, Jack was back by the school. This time he was parked at the far corner, just close enough so that he could watch the kids as they came out of the school.
    He waited for some time and finally he saw the little girl, walking with a girlfriend. That wasn’t good. He couldn’t control two of them. Then, just as he was having that thought, the other girl turned the corner heading the opposite direction, waving, looking back over her shoulder, shouting something at the little girl. Jack just smiled, that was a good sign.
    Pulling out, driving the 15 mph through the school zone, he followed the little girl, and instead of turning on to her street and following her, as the house was right there, he drove past.
    He noticed that the mother was standing at the front door waiting for her; saw her wave at her daughter, the little girl breaking into a run waving back.
    The lady couldn’t help but notice that same car, driving by going the opposite direction, as it was earlier. She hurried her daughter into the house. She would have to call the police. That was her gut feeling, and she didn’t like it.
    This was going to be a bit of a problem. It wasn’t offering him very much opportunity. For one thing, she lived very close to the school; secondly, mommy was very protective. He’d figure out a way. There was always a way. It still hadn’t dawned on him that the mother had made the car. Jack was getting careless and he wasn’t even aware of it. He couldn’t help himself though. It was like an addiction to some drug, or chemical. Most times, he couldn’t control himself. This uncontrollable urge took over. He lost all sense of rational or reasoning. His mind would tell him it was worth the risk. This one was special. She was better than the other two. She would be his number one. His reasoning was irrational as well. His mind would talk him into anything.
    He drove around the block, parking in his same spot and decided to watch the house. If he couldn’t grab the girl coming from school, perhaps she would be out playing, or going to a friends house, or in some other way be alone without mommy’s watchful eye.
    Sitting there for what seemed like hours, he watched as the little girl came out once or twice, played in the drive way and went back in. The mother had come out once, unlocked and opened the garage door, went inside, got what she needed came back out and locked it back again. All in all it was pretty boring. However, he had to have patience. This one was worth the wait and he wasn’t going to mess it up.
    Chapter 72
    The Guardian had gone home and had gotten a good night sleep. He was up early and was going back over on SR160 to check out those houses. He had a good feeling about it and he wanted to double check everything.
    Traffic was light and he made good time getting there. Sometimes coming over the damn was a pain in the ass. On days when he knew he had to be careful or the traffic was heavy, he would take the extra time to go through Laughlin to get in. It added time, but he didn’t have to worry about security checks or slow traffic. It was worth it and actually saved time in the end more often than not.
    Recently, a bad windstorm had blown over two cranes they were using for work on the new bypass. The damn access was closed for three