SHEEP’S_CLOTHING

BOOK DESCRIPTION:

Beware. The intruder is already in your house. Waiting. Watching. He’s been learning about your child for some time now, even having private conversations with them. Conversations you know nothing about—just the way he planned it.

***

Six children keep Kate and Brad Thompson busy all day, every day. Between work, school, and church activities there isn’t much time for anything else. Having baby number seven might disrupt the family routine, but Kate isn’t worried about that. She is worried, however, about her oldest daughter, Jess, who has been more secretive of late. More distant. Kate’s hopes it’s just a phase. Fifteen is a tricky age, after all.

For Jess, being fifteen isn’t just tricky, sometimes it feels downright impossible. Between baby-sitting all the time, hating the gymnastics class Mom won’t let her quit, and trying to hold onto her best friend now that high school is pulling them in different directions, Jess feels totally overwhelmed, continually misunderstood, and completely alone. Until she meets Emily online.

Emily listens, understands, and gives Jess confidence. Best of all, Emily introduces Jess to her cousin, Colt. Jess can’t date yet, but she and Colt can send long, personal e-mails to each other and he understands her better than anyone else in her life

However, when Jess disappears it only takes one e-mail for everyone in the Thompson family to discover that when it comes to the Internet, things aren’t always what they seem. . . .

Sheep's Clothing is a compelling, frighteningly close-to-home novel that realistically portrays the risks of online chatting and the threat of Internet predators.

Prologue

January 21st

The invincibility and insecurity of adolescence had made everything so easy. They had met through an internet social networking website used mostly by teens, mybulletinbored.com. So many young girls—looking, searching—for someone to make them feel special.

If only Terrezza hadn’t led him on. He’d been so careful, building her trust, and assuring himself that she was the one. And then she’d betrayed him just when he thought she finally understood. She’d tried to leave after he’d worked so hard for them to be together. She wouldn’t even give them a chance to make things work and he’d known from the beginning that he could never let her go home. If she just would have accepted his love, and loved him in return, they could have been so happy.

He parked the car, then went around to the trunk, scanning the area to make sure he was alone. But January in Alberta Canada kept very few people from coming this far out of town. Plus, night was gathering fast. After opening the trunk he hefted his load onto one shoulder. Though not an official landfill, that detail hadn’t stopped the residents of Jasper from using this place for years. Old appliances peaked out of the snow and the corners of black garbage sacks fluttered in the wind. He navigated the unsavory and uneven ground cover in order to reach the middle. He wouldn’t risk leaving her on the outside edges where she could be easily discovered.

An old stove sat at an odd angle toward the middle of the area and in the gathering grayness of evening it looked like a tombstone silhouetted against the sky. That’s where he would leave her. When he reached the stove, he hefted the body, wrapped in a blanket he’d bought at a second hand store this morning, and laid it on the ground.

“It could have been different,” he whispered, his words carried away on the wind. He wanted to see her again, look at her face, but he resisted. She was dead, he needed no more reminders of what could have been. Obviously, she wasn’t the one.

Turning around, he headed back toward the car. It was forecasted to snow tonight and all day tomorrow. He was counting on the snow to take the place of her burial. As he walked he reflected on the years that had led up to this, all the girls he’d met online, all the opportunities he’d been afraid to pursue in person. But now he needed someone to share his life with. It wasn’t about the thrills anymore, the explicit online chats he’d been having with girls for years—it was about love and having a life with that special someone. He’d been wrong about Terrezza, but he wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

Back at the cabin, he packed his things and circled the day March 21 in his planner. That would be exactly two months from today—plenty of time to make a new game plan, plenty of time to analyze what had gone wrong and mourn Terrezza properly. After all, he loved her.

It was hard not to be discouraged. It’s okay, he told himself as Canada disappeared through his rear view window. You’ll love again, and this time everything will be perfect.

CHAPTER ONE

----- Original Message -----

From:.emjenkins000@yahoo.com

To: jjk_hollywood@hotmail.com

Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 9:03 PM

Subject: Hi

Jess—

i just ran across your bored on mybullitinbored.com and thought i’d say hi. my name is Emily and i live in pennsylvania—go flyers! do u like hockey? i play the piano too and also love the mountains like u do. just thought i’d pop in and say hi. i’d love to be e-pals. tell me more about yourself.

Emily

*****

With all the children finally down for the night and the dishwasher started, Kate dried her hands on a dishtowel and scanned the now-clean kitchen. With six kids, a clean kitchen was a rare enough event to deserve the notice, and since overcoming a nasty bout with Bronchitis last week, Kate was still catching up around the house. Laying in bed, and having life go on around her had been absolutely miserable.

Kate turned off lights on her way to her bedroom, then shut the door, and the day, behind her. As she crossed the room to her jewelry box, she took out her earrings, glad she’d felt well enough to go to Enrichment tonight even if the presentation hadn’t been one of the better ones. Rather than being inspiring, it made her feel guilty for all the things she didn’t do right. She hated that.

Brad was brushing his teeth in the adjoining bathroom and winked as she began getting undressed. She smiled and modestly turned her back to him. After seventeen years and six children, she no longer had the confidence in his seeing her body that she’d once had. He always said she was beautiful, of course, but what else could he say? And even if he had made peace with the differences—thirty five pounds in all the wrong places—she hadn’t.

“How are you feeling?” Brad asked after spitting into the sink.

“Tired,” Kate answered. “But good—thanks for coming home early enough to run the kids around. I was glad I got to go.”

“Did you get that note from Caitlyn’s dance teacher?” Brad asked while rinsing his toothbrush. Kate had been home for almost an hour, but with family prayer and scriptures, bedtime, and half a dozen end-of-day necessities, they hadn’t had a chance to talk much.

“Yeah,” Kate said as she fastened the last button on her pajama top and turned to face him again. “I kept telling her she’d get in trouble if she didn’t follow the dress code—hopefully she will now.”

“What was enrichment about?” Brad asked, surprising her. He didn’t usually ask about those kind of details.

“Womanhood,” Kate said. “Being a good woman, a good member of the church and a good mother. It was good, but the kind of presentation that makes you feel like you’re not doing nearly enough.”

Brad laughed and filled up a paper cup with water. “Well, it sounds like of all the enrichments you could have missed, this one would have been it. You’ve got that whole womanhood thing down.”

Kate smiled at the compliment. “Except I can’t seem to get my teenager daughter to say four words to me most of the time and Keith’s teacher sent home yet another note about him talking too much and not turning in assignments. He might just flunk out of the second grade.”

“Everyone deals with that stuff. Jess is quiet—she always has been, and Keith is the class clown—like he always has been.” Brad swished his mouth out one final time. “There’s no such thing as a perfect parent.”

Kate nodded, she knew that, but still, she wanted to be perfect. Overall she was happy with her mothering, but there was always something she felt she should be doing better. Maybe everyone felt that way.

She passed Brad in the doorway of the bathroom and he wrapped an arm around her waist and stole a kiss. She wriggled away, shaking her head at him. “Stop it,” she said with a laugh.

Brad got into bed, but she could see his reflection in the mirror as she wiped the mascara from her eyes. His dark hair and brown eyes both contrasted and complimented her fair complexion, blue eyes, and red hair. Their children were a grab bag of features and coloring from the two of them and with each pregnancy they had wondered what this newest addition would look like.

“By the way, your mom called again,” Brad said, watching her.

Kate felt her smile fade, but she quickly pasted it back on and continued her skin care regime. She’d heard it said that every person has two chances at having a family—the one you’re born into, which is beyond your control, and the one you create, which is entirely up to you. She was very proud of the family she had created. Glad to have a second chance. The reminder of that first family, if you could call it that, was not necessarily a welcome one. Brad continued. “She was wondering why you didn’t call her back last week.”

Kate shrugged. “The message didn’t sound all that important.” But she did feel bad. She could be hard on her mother, but was she any better when she ignored Mom’s efforts, trite and lacking as they were?

“It’s been months since you talked to her.”

Kate looked at him in the mirror. “I know, did you tell her I’d been sick?”

“Yeah,” Brad said.

Kate let out a sigh that led to a cough.

“You okay?” Brad asked.

“Yeah, just the dregs. I’ll call Mom back tomorrow.” The irony, however, was that she and her mother really had nothing to talk about. Two very different women, with different lives, different ambitions. It was hard to believe they were even related sometimes and the conversations always felt choppy and strained. She was glad Brad said nothing more, letting the subject drop.

When her face was slathered with moisturizer, Kate shook one of her antibiotics from the prescription bottle before popping open her case of birth control pills. She noticed she was on her last one and made a mental note to pick up her next round from the pharmacy in the morning. She filled a paper cup with water, swallowed the pills and found herself wondering if she wanted to start another month of birth control? She glanced at Brad in the mirror. Was he was ready to discuss Thompson number seven?

After five perfect pregnancies, her last one had been different. She’d been put on bed-rest for her blood pressure, then hospitalized, and even with that intervention, Chris was born a month early. Luckily, the complications were only on her side—Chris had been fine. However, the doctor had said the same problems could arise if she got pregnant again, but he’d said it as if the idea of having seven children wasn’t a consideration anyway. For most people, it wasn’t. Even Brad was willing to stop. But Kate had spent her childhood dreaming of siblings, of dinners at the table, and being a part of a real family.

When she met Brad—who was one of seven children, Kate determined that though she couldn’t have it for herself, she desperately wanted a family like that for her children. His siblings were his best friends and his parents were amazing people. Brad’s mom was more of a mother to Kate than her own mother had ever been. Being a part of them had been like coming home for the first time in her life. They both wanted that sense of family, that knowledge of belonging to so many people, for their own children.

They had Jess right away and Kate loved being a mom. But she had to work while Brad finished school, and it was heart breaking to take Jess to Brad’s mom every day. They decided to put their family on hold until Kate could be a stay-at-home mom. When Brad graduated with his CPA three years later, they made up for lost time by having 5 kids in 10 years. With Brad’s mom to mentor her through it, Kate absolutely loved being a mom.

Jess would be sixteen in a couple months—a young woman, soon to be an adult. The baby of the family, Chris, was eighteen months, more and more independent, and less and less the little boy for whom she was the center of his universe. Possible complications or not, the kids weren’t getting any younger, and neither was Kate. She’d also felt sure for months now that they were ready to invite one more spirit into their home. She wouldn’t feel this strongly if she wasn’t meant to have just one more child? Would she?

She looked at Brad’s reflection again, he was laid against the pillows, his eyes closed and his face relaxed. He let out a breath, the kind of breath that testified of the long hours he was working, with it being tax season, and the evening he’d just spent alone with the kids. Probably not the best time to bring up the idea of having another one. She’d need the right moment, and until then she’d pray that his fears of what might or might not happen wouldn’t overshadow the family they’d always planned on.

She flipped off the lights. They were so busy these days that the time to just be together, be a couple, seemed to slip away from them more often than not. Nights when they actually went to bed at the same time seemed few and far between. But she was feeling better and didn’t have a science project to help with tonight. Brad wasn’t at the office getting just “one more thing” taken care of.

“It’s dark,” Brad said as she made her way toward the bed, using his voice as a compass.

Kate smiled to herself, glad that even after seventeen years the world could still stop just long enough for the two of them.

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