Kathleen Johns

From Zodiac paperback

     Kathleen Johns, from Vallejo, was going to Travis Air Force Base when she noticed an older white Chevrolet was trailing her closely. The driver of the Chevrolet watched her and started blinking his lights and blowing his horn, trying to get her to stop.

     She sped ahead and got away from the Chevrolet. In her car she had her ten-month old daughter. She made her way up Interstate 5 and onto Highway 99 just before Bakersfield, through Fresno, Merced, and Modesto, where she swung left onto Highway 132, a rarely used road. Again she noticed a car in her rear view mirror picking up her tail in Modesto. It was junky and probably older than 1967 or 1968. Close to midnight she slowed down to let the car pass. Suddenly the driver started blinking his lights and honking his horn. When she ignored this the older car accelerated and pulled into the lane next to her 1957 maroon and white station wagon. The man yelled through the right hand window that her left rear wheel was wobbling. Seven months pregnant Kathleen was very shy about stopping on a lightly traveled road with a stranger. The road was only two lanes wide and the stranger started flashing his lights off and on. She thought her car was old and she figured something was wrong with it. She didn't stop because it was too dangerous out there. She waited till she got to the freeway and then stopped by 5. Kathleen pulled to the edge of Maze Road near Interstate 5, and the light colored car parked on the shoulder in back of her. A very neat man got out with a lug wrench in his hand and approached her, gesturing toward the rear of the station wagon. He was about thirty years old she thought. He seemed like a reliable person and he almost looked like a service man or something. He was clean cut. He carried the tire iron when he got out. He said that her left wheel was wobbling while he was leaning on her door and looking down into her car. He said he would tighten her lugs if she didn't mind. Kathleen reached over and pulled the blanket over her sleeping baby and then tried to see out the window in the dark where the man pointed. He said he'd be glad to fix it for her. He was out of view but she could hear him working on the wheel.