Crimson Harvest

Two emotions blazed within Kevin’s brain as he drove as fast as he dared to the street on which the Harvest Club operated. The first was a fierce anger over the mysterious person or persons responsible for hurting his sister’s family. They were kind and humble people, and the very idea that anyone could have plotted to harm them and maybe worse so antagonized him that nearly all his thoughts were actually visions of what he would do to anybody who might have harmed her.

Most of the rest of his thoughts were directed at restraining the other emotion with which he was now struggling: fear. His fear for Heather gave him a desperate feeling that he did not enjoy in the least. Kevin, throughout his whole life, had a consuming passion to be in control of his situation.

Even his problems with Lynn revolved around his determination to be in control. But Lynn had her own view on things as well as her own ambitions and dreams. Being an independent person, she tended to buck against Kevin’s need not only to know what was going on but also compulsively to direct things according to what he thought was best.

He had left to get away from that “out of control” feeling, but here he was drawn into a crisis that he could never have imagined and that was more out of control than he had ever been. Jeanne, Jake, and especially Heather were all counting on him now, and he was not about to let them down.

His knuckles were white as he turned the corner and approached the mysterious Harvest Club. There were no cars in front of it, but about a dozen were parked near the rear of a parking lot that flanked it. He slowed as he passed by the large building, but then, on impulse, sped up and continued up the street, parking at last three-fourths of a block away in front of a string of small shops.

“I don’t want to scare anybody off before I even get inside,” he muttered to himself. He climbed out of his car, slipped some coins into the parking meter, casually looked around, and then walked down the block to the club.