Murder on the Mountain
by Maddie James


In the two long years since her Tennessee state trooper husband's murder, Kate Carpenter thinks she's coped with his death, although everyone in Legend, Tennessee keeps telling her she hasn't. She can't see what the problem is, really. She has her parents, and her best friend Patti Jo, and her students. What else could a twenty-nine year old woman need?

A man, Patti Jo keeps telling her. A thought that Kara quickly puts aside.

All is fine until one hot August afternoon when Trooper Mike Lehman invades her classroom, and her life. When she can't get out of working with the trooper, assigned to teach drug abuse prevention classes, she bites the bullet and tells herself it's for the good of her students. Inside, she's fighting demons she hasn't fought in a while.

Sent to Kate's classroom on a investigation, Mike uses his drug prevention training as his cover. His mission, however, is to find out what Kate knows, if anything, about Rob Carpenter’s supposed death. Recent reports indicate he is alive and that he faked his death because of his involvement in a drug-running operation. Mike's task is to expose Carpenter, and if she's involved, Kate.

And he’ll stop at nothing, to get the answers he wants.

From the opening...

Tennessee Trooper Killed in Line of Duty

The Knoxville News Sentinel
August 17, 2006

Associated Press

Legend, TN – A Tennessee State Police Trooper was killed in the line of duty Thursday morning, presumably while answering a motorist’s distress call on Legend Mountain, in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains outside of Legend, Tennessee. Legend is approximately one hour east of Knoxville.

Trooper Robert T. Carpenter, a four-year veteran of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, responded to a *847 call from a motorist around two a.m. while working his routine shift. The female caller indicated to dispatch that her car had stalled on a secluded mountain road and that she was frightened and needed help.

Records show Carpenter radioed his arrival at the stranded motorist’s vehicle at 2:18 a.m. No further radio contact was established.

Approximately one hour later, a passing motorist discovered Carpenter’s burning body lying in the road beside his cruiser, lights flashing against the hillside, the driver’s side door open, and the engine running. Carpenter died at the scene.

A native of Florida, Trooper Carpenter relocated to Tennessee five years earlier, and was currently residing in the community of Legend, Tennessee, with his wife of one year.

An investigation is in process.

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