FORTY-SIX
CARA
The name says it all: Quiet Car. Why is there always someone who can’t understand I have no interest in talking to them?
—@introverted414
Cara settled back in her seat, feeling almost relaxed as moonlit fields rolled past outside her window.
At the opposite end of the Amtrak quiet car, two women were defying the posted no-talking policy by maintaining a murmured conversation, but everyone else was minding their own business in silence and no one had given her a second look. Cara had an untraceable smart phone and a strong internet signal. She slipped in the cheap, wired earbuds that had come with the phone and got ready for a deep dive.
The first thing she found when she googled her name was that the search for her was centering on Oakhurst—Oakhurst.Yet another too close call. From a video of Sheriff Burke’s afternoon press conference, she learned just how unnervingly close they’d been to catching her. The proceedings were brieflyinterrupted by a loud billboard truck, after which some douche in a black felt Stetson and rhinestone-studded western shirt pressed the sheriff into admitting that “sometimes they get away.” The line had already become a meme, and it was showing up in headlines, too.
She almost felt sorry for him.
The US Marshals Fugitive Task Force had announced a $25,000 reward only an hour ago. More evidence Sheriff Burke had no plans to quit searching for her.
Cara plugged in her phone to save the battery and began clicking and scrolling in earnest. She found a Pinterest board where someone had compiled a list of likely placesfor Cara C. to hide out,refuel, and restaround Fresno. She saw that Trey and Jessica Worhle of Newport Beach had described their lakeside encounter withthe dangerous fugitiveastruly chilling.There was video of Sanjay and Devin talking about her, too, but for some reason the sound didn’t work. Although she couldn’t quite read their lips, their expressions were incredulous but kind. Thankfully, Cara found no mentions of Fisk or Rae. She hated to think she’d drawn a bull’s-eye on their backs.
After craning her neck and confirming the woman seated behind her was snoozing, Cara clicked on anLA Timesop-ed by Althea Plemons, professor of media and communications at a university she’d never heard of. The essay decried the attention and resources devoted to recapturingthe white lady so bored with her wealth, privilege, and free fillers that she bashed in her plastic surgeon husband’s head. One can only wonder, weren’t her glamping accommodations quite posh enough?
Cara’s fingers froze when she saw a familiar name a couple of paragraphs down.
It comes as no surprise that LaDonna Williams, a woman of color with a history of drug convictions, was recaptured almost immediately following the van accident. She remains barely afootnote. Meanwhile, Ms. Campbell somehow slipped through authorities’ fingers and her celebrity grows exponentially with each passing day—as do the resources being squandered to locate the quintessentially attractive, blond, White fugitive.
One Lawrence Bonner, Esq., who claimed to have law enforcement experience, responded with a chilling comment:Black or White, they’re both going to have the book thrown at them for leaving the scene.
Cara knew she was doomed if she didn’t figure out who killed Karl—and maybe even if she did—but the accident had been so bloody and traumatic, surely the authorities had to have mercy on LaDonna.
Didn’t they?
Users on both X and Threads had an endless stream of hot takes. Cara had already proven wrong a wilderness expert named Sebastian Sala who gave herthree days outside and she’s deaddue to herprofound lack of skills. Meatless12309 dissed her for being a fake vegan even though she’d never professed to be even vegetarian. Someone named searchguruOK claimed to have it on good authoritythat Cara joined a Sierra-based cult.(And maybe she had, she thought with a smile:Fiskism.)I Found Cara Campbellwas trending on Instagram with her face Photoshopped into people’s vacation pics: on a yacht in the South of France, peering out from behind the Sphinx, and waterskiing on Loch Ness, pulled by Nessie herself.
She definitely found herself in monster-infested waters when she discovered a clip of Roy Abel—a man incapable of crying—pretending to fight back tears while talking to Anderson Cooper.
Her voice was strong, and her spirit is unbroken,he proclaimed as though he actually knew. I plan to work with both Cara and the authorities to negotiate her safe surrender.
Cara should have known Roy’s reaction to her call—asking repeatedly where she was and how to get a hold of her—hadless to do with surprise or relief she was alive, and a lot more with making himself the center of the media blitz. Since she retained him, he’d spent more time giving TV interviews than meeting with her to strategize the case for her innocence. She wanted badly to call Aunt Evelyn, but didn’t dare put her plans, or Evelyn, at risk. Nauseated, Cara put down her phone and took deep, silent breaths, inhaling through her nose and blowing out of her mouth, until the feeling passed.
Feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to look next, Cara logged onto Instagram. Without bothering to check her own feed or DMs, she typed in myfriendisinnocent, the account her oldest—and now only—friend, Stephanie van der Lind, had set up to support Cara’s doomed bid for justice.
The pinned post was a photo of Cara looking like Bigfoot on the grocery store security camera. Stephanie’s caption read:I’m beyond relieved you’re alive. Stay safe my misunderstood, falsely convicted bestie!
Fat tears rolled down Cara’s face, and she smiled when she saw the arrows pointing to the Golden Goose shoes and the Under Armor shirt with links for purchase. That Stephanie had negotiated a brand ambassadorship was comfortingly true to form. Swiping the picture revealed an ad for Winsome Natural Weaves. The Go-to Choice for Women on the Go!
Her next post was a repost fromCalifornia Death Trip, urging people to listen.
The host, Dylan Danvers, was originally known for being the child of Los Angeles Rams quarterback Nico Danvers and French supermodel Daphne Boulet, although Cara seemed to remember he’d dabbled in acting and was often in the tabloids during his high-profile romance with model Finola Moore, now his wife.
He’d hit his stride as a true-crime podcaster, one of the very few who’d maintained his belief in Cara’s innocence. She felta warm flush of gratitude as she remembered listening to his season about her, the case, and the initial days of the trial during her house arrest, wishing Roy had allowed her to do an interview on the show. Was he still on her side?
As the woman behind her began to snore, Cara downloaded the most recent episode.
Hey crime fam, it’s Dylan, and things just get crazier and crazier in the search for Cara Campbell. Authorities aren’t telling me much, but with help from a couple of sources, I learned that this morning they surrounded a house on the outskirts of Yosemite, expecting to find her inside. But she... wasn’t there. The search moved to Oakhurst but she... got away. The APB has been broadened to include the entire Golden State, which tells you something right there. And there’s now a big reward for information leading to her recapture. But Cara Campbell is nowhere to be found.
And I say, YOU GO GIRL!
Cara was now buzzing with hope. She had completely given up on the possibility that anyone beside Stephanie and Evelyn could possibly be pulling for her. But Dylan Danvers was fully Team Cara, even after the verdict and her escape.
