Free Almost Trailside: A True Story by Kathy Rocco Page B

State Park past the ranger station toward the main road for the drive home. Upon entering the highway, we heard sirens. We didn’t see any police cars or emergency vehicles but the sirens sounded close by.
    The gently winding roads and highways in the Santa Cruz Mountains appeared damp in the early evening light. We took our time driving. The ride was mostly down hill through lush green forest land.
    Because Henry Cowell Park wasn’t very far away, we were home within the hour. We slowly rounded the corner of our cul-de-sac. Tommy angled the car and travel trailer so he could back up into our driveway. This time, he did a good job and only needed me to tell him when he was close enough to the garage door to stop. It was much smoother than the first back upparking attempt at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park on Saturday night.
    Tommy unhooked the station wagon and leveled the travel trailer in our driveway. We all took our clothes and other belongings into the house and put them away. Right away I started a load of laundry. Usually, being gone on the weekend would put me behind on things I needed to get done around the house. But because the Park was so close and we were home early, this gave us plenty of time to get everything ready for the upcoming week, take our baths and showers, and finish in time to watch our favorite Sunday evening television programs. It was the best of both worlds.
    On Monday morning we were right on schedule. Tommy was off to work at his usual time. The boys were out of the house and walking to school a few short blocks away with their group of friends and a couple of neighborhood parents who walked with them. I was able to leave the house on time and arrived at my job at the school a few minutes early. By all accounts, it was a normal busy Monday.
    At 5:30 p.m. I had dinner ready and the table set. The boys were washed up and eagerly waiting. I made one of their favorite dinners; sloppy Joes, French fries, green beans, and a fruited jello salad. We waited for Tommy to come through the door from his long drive home. He entered right on time, with lunch box in hand, gave me a hug and a kiss, and placed his empty lunch box on the kitchen counter. Then he headed for the bathroom to wash up before joining us at the table. Star Trek was on television. We usually watched it whilewe ate dinner. Tommy and the boys enjoyed it…me, not so much, but it was okay since there wasn’t anything good on television at that time. During commercials we visited. Conversation was all about our great camping trip and how much fun it was.
    Tommy said that his friend at work was talking about what happened in Henry Cowell Park over the weekend and asked Tommy if we saw anything. Tommy told him he didn’t know what he was talking about. His friend said he “thought someone was killed” but he didn’t have any details. We decided that maybe something about it would be on the 10:00 p.m. news, which we watched every night before we went to bed. We didn’t take the newspaper because we didn’t have time to read it, but we did make it a point to watch the 10:00 p.m. news. If we weren’t too tired after the news, we liked to watch the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and his pal, Ed McMahon.
    The boys were fast asleep. We were ready for bed, under the covers, and nestled against our bed rests just in time for the 10:00 p.m. news to begin. This was our nightly routine. We had a television in our bedroom set on the shelf of our sturdy armoire.
    Right away at the top of the news was the story we were waiting for. “The Trailside Killer takes another victim.” A young woman had been killed and her boyfriend seriously wounded and left for dead over the weekend at Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The killer was still at large. They were asking anyone who saw this man to come forward with information. Then they showed a good sketch of the man, a detailed map of the hiking trail, andpinpointed the