The King of Hearts

Gwen Beaudean Thoma EdD

Description

In 1963, Angelina Harper was fifteen and a half years old. She was just entering her sophomore year of high school and was looking forward to driving and beginning to date. Her high school years take a dramatic turn when the king of hearts playing card begin to appear wherever Angelina goes. She slowly begins to realize she is being stalked. Horror fills her life as she discovers that each boy that she goes out with is savagely murdered, and king of hearts playing cards are left at each murder scene. The day after each murder, she receives a sympathy card with a king of hearts playing card in the mail. The police are baffled by these crimes. Clues are few and nonyielding as police try to catch this criminal.
The saga of the king of hearts continues throughout Angelina’s high school days. She lives in fear and realizes that whoever she goes out with will be murdered. Finally, this saga takes a dramatic turn as the killer finally makes a mistake that helps police solve the case and frees Angelina from this serial killer in 1966. I hope that each reader of this exciting thriller enjoys the mystery as it unfolds.

Sujets

• Fiction
• Science Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris US
• Date de parution: 31 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669837640
• Langue: English

Extrait

THE KING OF HEARTS
 
 
 
 
 
 
Gwen Beaudean Thoma, EdD
 
Copyright © 2022 by Gwen Beaudean Thoma, EdD.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2018909054
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-3766-4

Softcover
978-1-6698-3765-7

eBook
978-1-6698-3764-0

 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Rev. date: 07/12/2022
 
 
Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
844587
CONTENTS
Chapter 1The Appearance
Chapter 2Angelina’s Summer
Chapter 3All about Angelina
Chapter 4The King of Hearts Appears Again
Chapter 5School Starts
Chapter 6Angelina’s First Date
Chapter 7What Happened to S teve?
Chapter 8Tragedy
Chapter 9The Holidays Are Coming
Chapter 10Christmas
Chapter 111964
Chapter 12Normal vs. Abnormal
Chapter 13Angelina’s Junior Year
Chapter 14The Summer of 1965
Chapter 15Angelina’s Senior Year
Chapter 16The End of 1965
Chapter 17The Last Semester
Chapter 18Graduation
Chapter 19Angelina’s Last Free Summer
Chapter 20The Unveiling
Chapter 21The Coming of Age
Chapter 22College Starts
Chapter 23The Clues
Chapter 24Moving toward Resolution
Other Books by This Same Authors
About the Author
 
 
 
 
 
To the Central High School class of 1966.
CHAPTER 1 The Appearance
Angelina Harper was sitting on her front-porch steps as she often did in the evening after having supper with her parents. A cool evening breeze was blowing through the trees. It was the early fall of 1963. Angelina was fifteen and a half years old and about to enter her sophomore year of high school. She was thinking back over her freshman year and was curious about what this new school year might bring her way. Her freshman year was traumatizing because she was new to the class, having come from a parochial school with only thirty-five other students. She entered the freshman class of 350-plus students, which was the largest class ever at Central High School. Needless to say, Angelina was lost in the crowd. It took her the entire year to get to know a few people. It didn’t help that she was an only child and was shy. Angelina said to herself, “This year is going to be be tter.”
As she watched the cars traveling up and down her street, she noticed a playing card dangling by a red string on the wrought-iron railing on her porch. The red string was woven through a hole punched at the top of the card. The card gently twisted and turned whenever the breeze picked up. Angelina was puzzled and called for her mom.
“Mom, look at this. Why do you think this is here? Who could have put it here?”
Angelina’s mom went down the porch steps, untied the bow, and brought the card up to Angelina so they could look at it together. It was a king of he arts.
“How strange,” said Angelina’s mom.
“What do you think it means?” asked Ange lina.
“Oh, I just think it’s a p rank.”
Angelina’s mom handed her the card and the red string as Angelina as she went back into the house. Angelina looked at it and thought about the possibilities. Was it just a prank? Who could have put it there and why? Why was her house chosen? Angelina was intrigued. She always did like a good mystery. Would more king-of-heart cards appear in the future? Or was this just a onetime event? Could it be a secret admirer? That would be a thrill because Angelina was hoping for a boyfriend this year.
Angelina’s imagination sent her thoughts in many directions. Whoever placed this card on her porch had to know where she lived and that she would discover it because she always sat on the porch steps in the evenings. Was this person watching her? As dusk neared, Angelina went into her house, taking the card and red string with her. She brought it to her room and placed it on her mirror so that she could gaze at it from time to time. Angelina needed a little excitement and intrigue in her life.
As Angelina lay in her bed that night, she tried to figure out who this stranger might be. She had lived in this neighborhood all her life. She knew everyone within a two-block radius. There were two boys who lived next door, but they were just friends. There was a boy one block down who was in her high school class. He was a little weird, and he never even spoke to her. There was another boy in her class at high school who lived the next block over. He was strange also. Angelina started to become a little frightened thinking about these guys. The person who put the king of hearts on her porch could be a weirdo stalking her. She didn’t like the idea of someone always watching her, especially a weirdo. Angelina finally relaxed enough to put all these thoughts out of her mind, and she drifted off to s leep.
CHAPTER 2 Angelina’s Summer
The next morning, Angelina was awakened by her mom, who said it was time to get ready for her driver’s-education class at the high school. Angelina always looked forward to this class because it was preparing her to get her driver’s permit. She could get her driver’s permit by the end of August. That would allow her to continue to practice her driving skills with her mom and dad over the next six months. She would be eligible to take her driving test by the end of February at the age of sixteen. She was looking forward to being able to drive as most teenagers did.
As Angelina arose, she noticed the king-of-hearts playing card on her mirror. She didn’t have a lot of time to consider it though since she had to dress and eat some breakfast before going to the high school. She did decide not to tell any of her friends about the card because she was certain they would think it was strange and might make fun of her. However, she did decide to become more observant of her surroundings and of who might be watching her. Surely, the prankster would give himself away eventually. Then again, this could have been a onetime event, and she might not hear another word from this pe rson.
Angelina’s mom dropped her off at the high school at 8:00 a.m. and, as usual, told her to have a good time. The class was a four-hour class, and today she thought she might get the chance to drive a little while. The instructor had spent the first week of class going over the book and the parts of a car. They had also covered the rules of driving. That had been a little boring, but Angelina decided it was a necessity since she knew absolutely nothing about cars. Now the students were each taking turns driving. That was great. Angelina just hoped she wouldn’t make a fool of herself or hit somet hing.
After driver’s-education class, Angelina went home, ate a little lunch, and decided to go outside into the backyard and work on her suntan. Angelina had a fair complexion even though she had black hair. She stood five feet seven and was a willowy beauty. Her brilliant-green eyes set her apart from others. She wanted a suntan but had to take care not to burn. She changed into her red two-piece bathing suit and took her suntan lotion and a blanket outside with her. She tied her beautiful long black hair up so it wouldn’t get in the way of the suntan lotion or the sun. She always sunbathed in the backyard, hiding herself behind the red wooden picnic table. She laid down her blanket and sat on it to apply her lotion. Angelina decided to lie on her stomach first so she could tan her back first. She closed her eyes, hoping to tan on that side for about thirty min utes.
Angelina heard a door slam and opened her eyes to see the two boys next door leaving their house. They waved and yelled hello to her as they left. Then suddenly, Angelina gasped as she saw it. Hanging from the wooden picnic-table seat was another king-of-hearts playing card. Angelina sat up and was startled at the sight of this second card. She looked around to see what she could see. There was no one around. From this vantage point, she could only see the neighbor’s house, the little neighborhood store behind her house, and the house across the street from the store. She knew the people who lived in that house. It was an old couple with no children. Angelina moved over to where the card was dangling in the breeze, untied it, and took it in her hand to examine it. It was the same type of card with the same design on the back. A hole was punched again in the top of the card so that the red string could be put through it and it could be tied to the table. How strange. There was most certainly someone watching her and knew her movements. It all seemed innocent enough, but it also frightened Angelina. She thought it had to just be a secret admirer, and that possibility excited her. Angelina decided she wasn’t going to let this interrupt her suntan. She had plenty of time to think about it later. Angelina decided not to tell her mom about this second card’s