Who's Watching by MacKenzie Miko
Amy and Jason Carson moved into a house located in Allegheny county in early September of last year with their two children, Liam and Hayden. Liam was four years old and attended Red Door preschool, while Hayden was six and in first grade at Saucon Valley Elementary. Amy Carson worked in a law office in town, about a twenty-five minute drive from the family’s new home. Jason Carson was a popular psychologist and spent long days at the office with his clients. Amy was headed out the door to drop the boys off at school on her way to work.
“Come on, boys,” she called. “Mommy doesn’t want to be late for work!”
Liam and Hayden came tumbling out of the door with their superhero backpacks and lunch boxes in tow. Both boys sported dark brown hair that was spiked up in the front and bright blue eyes to match their father’s. “We’re coming, Mommy!” they giggled.
The leaves on the trees had just begun to change and the air smelled of apple cider and pumpkin pie. The leaves crunched under her feet and the crisp autumn breeze chilled her face as she walked from the front door of the house to the Honda. Behind her, Jason shut and locked the front door and headed towards the Audi.
“Have a good day at school, guys,” Jason said to the boys. “I’ll see you both later tonight around dinner time.” Jason kissed the tops of their heads and Amy buckled the boys into their carseats and walked around to the front of the car. She kissed Jason goodbye, climbed into the car, and started the engine. The family went their separate ways just as they did every other morning, but had no idea of the events that would occur that afternoon and wreak havoc in their lives for a short time.
After dropping Liam and Hayden off at school, Amy decided that she would need to wait to get gas until she was on her way home from the office to make sure that she would make it there on time. Amy arrived at work at eight o’clock on the dot. The car ride to work had been relatively quiet, with almost no other cars on the road, minus the one that seemed to follow her the whole way from her neighborhood to the office. She strolled into the office, her high heels clicking on the tile and long blonde hair flowing down the back of her tight black Calvin Klein dress.
“Good morning, Heidi,” she called to her secretary on her way past Heidi’s desk.
Heidi Grace was a young intern employed by the law office. She had brown eyes and straight black hair that just brushed the tops of her shoulders, and a bubbly personality to go with it.
“Good morning to you, too, Amy,” Heidi replied, smiling warmly back at Amy from her seat in front of the computer. “Do you want a cup of coffee this morning?”
“I’d love a cup,” Amy smiled. “You can bring it into my office when it’s ready. I have a ton of paperwork to get done today that I need to get started on right away.”
Amy stayed busy with work all morning, answering numerous phone calls and emails. She worked straight through lunch filling out paperwork and researching a case, and before she knew it, it was time to leave to pick Liam and Hayden up from school. Amy left work around three o’clock that afternoon, which is about the same time she usually does. She hurried out of her office.
“See you tomorrow, Heidi,” she called on her way out of the door.
“Have a good night,” Heidi yelled back from inside of the break room.
Quickly, Amy unlocked the car door, settled her purse on the seat beside her, and slipped her phone inside before heading home. Shortly after merging onto the highway, she heard sirens and looked in the mirror to see what all of the commotion was about. An ambulance followed closely behind her, so she pulled over into the right hand lane to let the ambulance pass. Amy looked again in the rearview mirror and spotted a vehicle that looked eerily similar to the one that had been following her to work that morning and hung a couple of cars behind her, as if to remain unnoticed. The black sedan, as if on cue, passed the car in between them and closed in the space behind Amy. She sped up and took the next exit ramp at the last second towards Bethlehem, where the boys’ schools were located.
The way she chose to go was more rural than her normal daily route, but she knew how to get to the schools nonetheless and aimed to lose the black sedan following her for the second time that day in order to shake the uneasy feeling that had settled in the pit of her stomach. Her late exit off of the highway had been enough to lose the driver of the black sedan, or so she thought. A mile or two down the road, her car began to sputter, before completely stalling out. Angling her wheel towards the side of the road, Amy sighed, followed by a strained flow of cursing when she realized what had gone wrong. In all of the commotion at the end of the day as well as her unwanted follower, Amy had forgotten to get gas and failed to notice the light flashing on the dashboard.
Reaching for her purse, she pulled out her cell phone and attempted to make a phone call to Jason to have him pick her up, but realized that she didn’t have cell phone service. She looked up and down both sides of the road for help, and after seeing nothing, leaned against the hood of the car to wait for another passing driver. After ten minutes, she heard the faint sound of an engine in the distance that seemed to be getting closer. Amy stood up and waved her arms, and from around the bend appeared the black sedan that had followed her to and from work. Amy looked around for a place to run, but saw only empty fields surrounding her. The driver slowed the vehicle and rolled down the window.
“Are you having some car trouble, ma’am?” he asked in a deep, raspy voice. His dirty hands and fingernails rested on the edge of the window. He looked at Amy while waiting for a response, and ran his free hand through his greasy auburn hair. His teeth were crooked and displayed evidence of his lunch. The scent that traveled out through the window was a repulsive mixture of stale laundry and body odor. Amy finally found her voice after releasing the breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“Actually my husband is on his way. I just ran out of gas and his office is right up the road,” Amy’s voice shook as she made up her answer.
“Hmm, that’s funny,” the man in the car replied, “because I don’t seem to have any cell phone reception right here so I’m not sure how you managed to call him for help.”
Amy silently cursed herself for her less than perfect excuse.
The man piped up again, “Why don’t you hop in my car and I can take you to the gas station? It’s too far to walk there.”
“No thanks,” Amy exhaled. “I’m alright, really. My husband drives home this way and should be getting off work any minute.”
“Then I guess we should make this fast,” the man muttered, almost under his breath but audible enough for Amy to hear.
“Excuse me?” Amy exclaimed, concerned by the man’s statement and hoping she had heard him wrong.
She made the bad decision of turning away from the man to head back to her car and retrieve her cell phone. The events that happened next occurred in a blur. Before she had even taken two steps, the man had flung open the back door of the sedan and grabbed her, one arm securing her arms by her sides and the other cupping over her mouth and preventing her from screaming and drawing attention to the scene. She kicked and wriggled as much as she could against the man’s slimy, scrawny body. The kidnapper threw Amy into the back of his sedan and secured her ankles and wrists together as well as taped over her mouth to ensure she couldn’t escape. He walked up to the front of the vehicle to get in the driver’s seat. As he opened the door an Audi appeared around the bend of the road and came to a screeching stop, blocking both sides of the road. The driver of the Audi was out of the car within milliseconds.
“That’s my wife!” the driver roared. “What do you think you are doing?”
“I...uh...we were…” the kidnapper struggled to find words.
Jason Carson approached the kidnapper quickly and grabbed him by the shirt, wasting no time before starting a stream of punches to the man’s face. Jason was much bigger and more muscular than the other man, so it didn’t take more than three hard hits to the head and a knee to the groin to knock the man unconscious. Jason threw open the back door of the sedan and made quick work of the ties around his wife’s ankles and wrists and the tape covering her mouth. He quickly helped her to her feet and ushered her towards his car, leaving the man unconscious and bleeding on the road.
“Are you okay?” Jason inquired his wife. “Are you hurt? What happened?”
“That man followed me from work and I ran out of gas and he tried to kidnap me,” Amy blubbered through her tears.
“Shh, it’s okay, you’re okay now,” Jason soothed his wife with an embrace. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
“No, I’m just a little shaken up,” Amy replied.
“Good, let’s go get the boys and report this to the police station as soon as we get home,” Jason said.
After recording the license plate number from the black sedan, the Carson couple headed towards Bethlehem to pick Liam and Carter up from school. Once they arrived home, Jason called the local police station and filled out a police report. A few days later the family received a phone call from the Allegheny County Police Department.
“Hello, you’ve reached the Carson residency, may I ask who’s calling?” Jason asked.
“Hi, this is Officer Carter with the ACPD. I have some information regarding your case that I would like to share with you,” said the police officer. “The man who you filed assault and attempted kidnapping against is being held in our facility. His record displayed several previous assault charges and reported felonies. He won’t be giving you a problem anytime soon.”
Jason let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks so much for investigating and calling, Officer Carter. We greatly appreciate it,” he said.
“It’s my pleasure, sir,” the officer answered. “You two enjoy your night.”
“Will do, officer. Goodnight,” Jason replied before hanging up the phone.
Amy and Jason had decided not to tell the boys about what happened to their mother that day to keep them from worrying and being scared. In the weeks following the incident, the family’s lives slowly returned to normal. Amy had no injuries from the attempted kidnapping, and once she learned that the kidnapper had been captured and was being held at the police department, she was able to relax and stop worrying that the man was always waiting just around the corner. As of today, Amy chooses not to think about what could have happened if Jason had never showed up to save her from that horrible man, and instead thanks God every day for her life and her beautiful family.
“Come on, boys,” she called. “Mommy doesn’t want to be late for work!”
Liam and Hayden came tumbling out of the door with their superhero backpacks and lunch boxes in tow. Both boys sported dark brown hair that was spiked up in the front and bright blue eyes to match their father’s. “We’re coming, Mommy!” they giggled.
The leaves on the trees had just begun to change and the air smelled of apple cider and pumpkin pie. The leaves crunched under her feet and the crisp autumn breeze chilled her face as she walked from the front door of the house to the Honda. Behind her, Jason shut and locked the front door and headed towards the Audi.
“Have a good day at school, guys,” Jason said to the boys. “I’ll see you both later tonight around dinner time.” Jason kissed the tops of their heads and Amy buckled the boys into their carseats and walked around to the front of the car. She kissed Jason goodbye, climbed into the car, and started the engine. The family went their separate ways just as they did every other morning, but had no idea of the events that would occur that afternoon and wreak havoc in their lives for a short time.
After dropping Liam and Hayden off at school, Amy decided that she would need to wait to get gas until she was on her way home from the office to make sure that she would make it there on time. Amy arrived at work at eight o’clock on the dot. The car ride to work had been relatively quiet, with almost no other cars on the road, minus the one that seemed to follow her the whole way from her neighborhood to the office. She strolled into the office, her high heels clicking on the tile and long blonde hair flowing down the back of her tight black Calvin Klein dress.
“Good morning, Heidi,” she called to her secretary on her way past Heidi’s desk.
Heidi Grace was a young intern employed by the law office. She had brown eyes and straight black hair that just brushed the tops of her shoulders, and a bubbly personality to go with it.
“Good morning to you, too, Amy,” Heidi replied, smiling warmly back at Amy from her seat in front of the computer. “Do you want a cup of coffee this morning?”
“I’d love a cup,” Amy smiled. “You can bring it into my office when it’s ready. I have a ton of paperwork to get done today that I need to get started on right away.”
Amy stayed busy with work all morning, answering numerous phone calls and emails. She worked straight through lunch filling out paperwork and researching a case, and before she knew it, it was time to leave to pick Liam and Hayden up from school. Amy left work around three o’clock that afternoon, which is about the same time she usually does. She hurried out of her office.
“See you tomorrow, Heidi,” she called on her way out of the door.
“Have a good night,” Heidi yelled back from inside of the break room.
Quickly, Amy unlocked the car door, settled her purse on the seat beside her, and slipped her phone inside before heading home. Shortly after merging onto the highway, she heard sirens and looked in the mirror to see what all of the commotion was about. An ambulance followed closely behind her, so she pulled over into the right hand lane to let the ambulance pass. Amy looked again in the rearview mirror and spotted a vehicle that looked eerily similar to the one that had been following her to work that morning and hung a couple of cars behind her, as if to remain unnoticed. The black sedan, as if on cue, passed the car in between them and closed in the space behind Amy. She sped up and took the next exit ramp at the last second towards Bethlehem, where the boys’ schools were located.
The way she chose to go was more rural than her normal daily route, but she knew how to get to the schools nonetheless and aimed to lose the black sedan following her for the second time that day in order to shake the uneasy feeling that had settled in the pit of her stomach. Her late exit off of the highway had been enough to lose the driver of the black sedan, or so she thought. A mile or two down the road, her car began to sputter, before completely stalling out. Angling her wheel towards the side of the road, Amy sighed, followed by a strained flow of cursing when she realized what had gone wrong. In all of the commotion at the end of the day as well as her unwanted follower, Amy had forgotten to get gas and failed to notice the light flashing on the dashboard.
Reaching for her purse, she pulled out her cell phone and attempted to make a phone call to Jason to have him pick her up, but realized that she didn’t have cell phone service. She looked up and down both sides of the road for help, and after seeing nothing, leaned against the hood of the car to wait for another passing driver. After ten minutes, she heard the faint sound of an engine in the distance that seemed to be getting closer. Amy stood up and waved her arms, and from around the bend appeared the black sedan that had followed her to and from work. Amy looked around for a place to run, but saw only empty fields surrounding her. The driver slowed the vehicle and rolled down the window.
“Are you having some car trouble, ma’am?” he asked in a deep, raspy voice. His dirty hands and fingernails rested on the edge of the window. He looked at Amy while waiting for a response, and ran his free hand through his greasy auburn hair. His teeth were crooked and displayed evidence of his lunch. The scent that traveled out through the window was a repulsive mixture of stale laundry and body odor. Amy finally found her voice after releasing the breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“Actually my husband is on his way. I just ran out of gas and his office is right up the road,” Amy’s voice shook as she made up her answer.
“Hmm, that’s funny,” the man in the car replied, “because I don’t seem to have any cell phone reception right here so I’m not sure how you managed to call him for help.”
Amy silently cursed herself for her less than perfect excuse.
The man piped up again, “Why don’t you hop in my car and I can take you to the gas station? It’s too far to walk there.”
“No thanks,” Amy exhaled. “I’m alright, really. My husband drives home this way and should be getting off work any minute.”
“Then I guess we should make this fast,” the man muttered, almost under his breath but audible enough for Amy to hear.
“Excuse me?” Amy exclaimed, concerned by the man’s statement and hoping she had heard him wrong.
She made the bad decision of turning away from the man to head back to her car and retrieve her cell phone. The events that happened next occurred in a blur. Before she had even taken two steps, the man had flung open the back door of the sedan and grabbed her, one arm securing her arms by her sides and the other cupping over her mouth and preventing her from screaming and drawing attention to the scene. She kicked and wriggled as much as she could against the man’s slimy, scrawny body. The kidnapper threw Amy into the back of his sedan and secured her ankles and wrists together as well as taped over her mouth to ensure she couldn’t escape. He walked up to the front of the vehicle to get in the driver’s seat. As he opened the door an Audi appeared around the bend of the road and came to a screeching stop, blocking both sides of the road. The driver of the Audi was out of the car within milliseconds.
“That’s my wife!” the driver roared. “What do you think you are doing?”
“I...uh...we were…” the kidnapper struggled to find words.
Jason Carson approached the kidnapper quickly and grabbed him by the shirt, wasting no time before starting a stream of punches to the man’s face. Jason was much bigger and more muscular than the other man, so it didn’t take more than three hard hits to the head and a knee to the groin to knock the man unconscious. Jason threw open the back door of the sedan and made quick work of the ties around his wife’s ankles and wrists and the tape covering her mouth. He quickly helped her to her feet and ushered her towards his car, leaving the man unconscious and bleeding on the road.
“Are you okay?” Jason inquired his wife. “Are you hurt? What happened?”
“That man followed me from work and I ran out of gas and he tried to kidnap me,” Amy blubbered through her tears.
“Shh, it’s okay, you’re okay now,” Jason soothed his wife with an embrace. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
“No, I’m just a little shaken up,” Amy replied.
“Good, let’s go get the boys and report this to the police station as soon as we get home,” Jason said.
After recording the license plate number from the black sedan, the Carson couple headed towards Bethlehem to pick Liam and Carter up from school. Once they arrived home, Jason called the local police station and filled out a police report. A few days later the family received a phone call from the Allegheny County Police Department.
“Hello, you’ve reached the Carson residency, may I ask who’s calling?” Jason asked.
“Hi, this is Officer Carter with the ACPD. I have some information regarding your case that I would like to share with you,” said the police officer. “The man who you filed assault and attempted kidnapping against is being held in our facility. His record displayed several previous assault charges and reported felonies. He won’t be giving you a problem anytime soon.”
Jason let out a sigh of relief. “Thanks so much for investigating and calling, Officer Carter. We greatly appreciate it,” he said.
“It’s my pleasure, sir,” the officer answered. “You two enjoy your night.”
“Will do, officer. Goodnight,” Jason replied before hanging up the phone.
Amy and Jason had decided not to tell the boys about what happened to their mother that day to keep them from worrying and being scared. In the weeks following the incident, the family’s lives slowly returned to normal. Amy had no injuries from the attempted kidnapping, and once she learned that the kidnapper had been captured and was being held at the police department, she was able to relax and stop worrying that the man was always waiting just around the corner. As of today, Amy chooses not to think about what could have happened if Jason had never showed up to save her from that horrible man, and instead thanks God every day for her life and her beautiful family.