Hunted

by T. M. Bledsoe

  Lanie went down to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water and found Aunt Gretchen there, buzzing around like a humming bird trapped in a sack. She was putting groceries away in the cabinets and stuffing things into the fridge, while simultaneously checking on something in the oven and whisking a pot on the stove and making enough racket to alert the neighbors. How had she not even known the woman was in the house!

  Her Aunt Gretchen was her mother’s sister and the spitting image of Angelina. She had long black hair, olive skin, a lovely face with fine features and large brown eyes. There were times when looking at Gretchen made Lanie’s heart ache and her eyes fill with tears. Seeing that mirror image of her mother made it very hard to come to terms with the fact that her mother was gone, even though it had been nearly three years.

  “Hey, Lanie. How ya’ doing?” Gretchen asked as Lanie stopped to survey the goings on.

  Lanie tried not to grimace at her aunt’s sympathetic, sorrowful tone. She didn’t need sympathy! “I’m alright,” she answered, walking across the bright yellow kitchen and sitting down at the center island, which was currently heaped with so many plastic grocery bags the Butcher Block top was barely visible. “What are you doing?” she questioned, keeping her tone light.

  “I’m bringing you some groceries, heating up a lasagna, and making you some hot cocoa,” Gretchen answered, flitting back to the stove and madly whisking the pot there. “I figured you could use some comfort food right now.”

  “You…really don’t have to do this. I’m fine,” she assured her aunt, who really did not need to be doing this. “I don’t need you to make food for me. You should take all this stuff to Mr. and Mrs. Miller.”

  Gretchen shot her a wide eyed, mournful look. “You do need this, honey. And I’ve already taken the family some food, along with nearly every other person in town. They’re kitchen is so full it looks like a five pound bag filled with ten pounds of stuff, so you shouldn’t be worrying about them. You should be worrying about you right now.”

  “But, I’m fine,” Lanie asserted, meaning it. She was not the one who’d had her throat slashed by a maniac! She was not the one who’d lost her daughter. She was absolutely fine!

  “Lanie, you might think you’re fine, but you really aren’t. You just aren’t letting yourself cope with what happened to your friend,” Gretchen stated knowingly, shooting her another mournful look, this one was laced with a touch of pity. “It’ll hit you soon and then you’ll realize that you do need people here for you.”

  Lanie felt like screaming. Clearly, no one was ever going to believe that she was doing fine, so why keep saying it? “Have you heard from Dad?” she asked, trying to shift the subject away from herself.

  “I have. He’s out there…dealing with things, but he said he’d try to be home at a decent hour,” Gretchen answered, going back to stuffing things in the cabinets. “I’ll stay here with you until he gets home.”

  Again, Lanie tried not to flinch. She loved her Aunt Gretchen, but she really was not in the mood for company. Usually, it was only her and her dad around the house. Even though Gretchen lived three streets over, she was busy with her own life and usually only came over on Sundays to have family dinner. Which was how Lanie liked it.

  She liked the peace and the quiet, the time to think and sort out the thoughts in her head, the time to just…be. She was the Sheriff’s daughter, after all, and when she was with her friends or out having a coffee or sitting in The Pub scarfing chili cheese fries, she always had eyes on her, people were always watching her or wanting to talk to her about some thing or other that they were having trouble with—the neighbor’s yipping dog, the stop sign on Fifth Street that was hidden by the shrubs that Mr. Lansbury refused to trim—so that she could then run the complaint to her dad. But, at home she didn’t have to worry about that.

  Lanie pulled in a breath and cast a glance at Gretchen, who was back at the stove whisking madly. She didn’t want to feel annoyed with her aunt. The woman was only trying to help. Everyone was only trying to help. And this would soon pass. Things would go back to normal, life would go back to normal, and she wouldn’t have her aunt hovering around, looking at her with those sorrowful, sympathetic eyes. But, that would mean that Stacy would be laid to rest and…forgotten. Which didn’t exactly sit well with her, either.

  “So, do you have any plans for this evening, Lanie?” Gretchen asked, finishing up putting the groceries away and going back to check the oven.

  Shrugging, Lanie made a non-committal sound in her throat. “I dunno. I had a date, but I have to cancel that. I thought about watching practice, but I don’t know if I’ll go or not.”

  Gretchen glanced over her shoulder, her brow furrowed in thought. “I think you should go out. I mean, sitting around the house isn’t good for you. You need to spend time with people who’ll support you.”

  Grrr! She was fine! She did not need support!

  “Maybe I’ll go to the field for a while,” Lanie told her aunt. She would definitely go if Aunt Gretchen intended on staying for very long.

  “I’ll be here when you get back,” Gretchen smiled at her. “We can watch some TV and have some popcorn and talk about things.”

  Yep. She was going to watch football practice.

  “I want you to eat before you go, though. You don’t want to deny yourself food. You’re so thin already it wouldn’t take much to make you sick,” Gretchen warned and Lanie gritted her teeth to keep from making a sound.

  Grrr! She was not denying herself food! She’d eaten two pancakes and some fruit for breakfast! How was that denying herself food!

  “Do you need a ride over to the field?” Gretchen asked, opening the oven and pulling out a pan of bubbling lasagna. “I don’t think you should be driving right now.”

  Grrr! Brady had said the same thing to her! What was with everyone! She was fine! She was not the one who was suffering! And she was the exact same person she had been before her dad had gotten that phone call! She had not suddenly morphed into some weak and helpless little girl who needed everyone to do everything for her!

  “Brady said he’d give me a ride,” she answered, surprised that her voice was steady and even.

  “That was nice of him,” Gretchen smiled, her eyes twinkling. “That Brady is a cute boy! Has he asked you out yet?”

  “No.” And he wouldn’t. She and Brady Fletcher were just friends. End of story.

  “Eh, I’m sure he will. Maybe he’s just working up to it,” Gretchen offered, placing the pan of lasagna on the center island and bending over it to take a whiff.

  Lanie nodded, but said nothing on the issue. Again, she loved her aunt, but she did not want to discuss this sort of thing with her. She was perfectly capable of managing her own social life.

  “Why don’t you pour us some sweet tea and I’ll cut some slices of this bad boy,” Gretchen beamed, straightening up and going for a knife.

  Lanie obeyed, going to the cabinet for a couple of glasses and pouring out some of her famous sweet tea from the pitcher in the fridge. She’d learned how to make it from her Granny and it was as sweet as nectar and smooth as silk and would put about ten pounds on a girl’s thighs if she drank too much of it, but it was worth it.

  Once she had the glasses back on the center island, she pulled her phone from her back pocket and knocked out a text to Brady to tell him to pick her up on his way to the field. He almost immediately texted her back, saying he’d be there at 4:30. Well, what the text actually said was, I”ll b thr arund fur thrity, but she could decipher it. Poor Brady. He was so technologically inept that it was scary.

  Lanie sat with Gretchen and ate a plate of lasagna while listening to Gretchen jabber away about how it was perfectly normal to be emotionally overwrought after losing a close friend, that it was just a part of the stages of grief. Lanie just smiled and nodded and watched the time, waiting for Brady so that she could escape and trying very, very hard not to let her annoyance show on her face.

  She
did not need a talk about the stages of grief. Firstly, she was not emotionally overwrought. She was perfectly clear headed and calm. She was sad and upset, yes, but she was not overwrought. Secondly, she knew all too well about the stages of grief. She’d already lived through losing her mother to a sudden heart attack, so she knew all about sorrow and being distraught. This was not that sort of situation. She was absolutely fine, even though no one wanted to believe her.

  She and Stacy were friends, but they didn’t exactly have sleep overs and do each other’s hair. She liked Stacy Miller, but it wasn’t like when she’d lost her mother. This was hard, but she knew she would get through it with more ease than when her mother had passed away.

  After finishing the lasagna that was foisted upon her, Lanie helped clean up the kitchen and then discreetly slipped out of the house to wait for Brady on the front porch, feeling a sense of relief as she closed the door behind her and dropped into one of the rocking chairs. Maybe she shouldn’t cancel her date with Chase after all. Going out with him would keep her out of the house for a while longer and maybe by the time the date was over, Aunt Gretchen would be gone.

  She actually thought about that for a minute, but that would mean she’d have to be with Chase, who’d probably want to talk about…things, which was exactly what she did not want. Despite what her aunt thought, she didn’t want to have people around to support her. She really just wanted to be left alone for a while. She needed some space and some time to breathe.

  Outside, the afternoon was quiet and peaceful. The world was nodding beneath the pale blue sky, being soothed off to sleep by the soft wind that was whispering through the tree tops and the plaintive sound of a few lonesome birds who had not yet decided to join their friends in a far off land of sunshine and endless waters.

  It almost felt strange that everything seemed…the same. It almost seemed as though things should be different, darker. There should be storm clouds hovering low overhead and thunder should be booming over the tree tops. Nothing should be bright or cheerful or pleasant.

  But, she’d felt this way before, when her mom had passed away. It had seemed as if all the world should look as dark as she felt. But, that feeling had passed. Lanie knew it would pass this time, too. Once everything had been settled and she’d gotten to say goodbye to her friend, that feeling would fade.

  Trying to push the dark thoughts away for a few minutes, Lanie tried to focus on the trees that were barely tinged with color and the powdery blue sky that was swept with wisps of lacy clouds, but her mind began to drift away from those things and toward a ruggedly beautiful face and a mop of perfectly messy wheat colored hair, which instantly filled her with a sense of guilt.

  Her friend was…gone…and she was daydreaming of a cute guy?

  She felt as if she was betraying Stacy somehow, though she tried to push that thought away, too. She knew she really wasn’t being disloyal to her friend by thinking about something else. Stacy wouldn’t want her to obsess over what had happened and let it drag her down into despair. She wouldn’t want Stacy to do that if things were reversed. She’d want Stacy to move on and…live.

  Lanie felt a sudden surge of anger rise up inside her. She couldn’t believe that someone would do something like that to Stacy Miller! Stacy was the sweetest, most innocent girl Lanie knew. She still slept with her stuffed animals, for pity’s sake! She’d never had a boyfriend, she’d never even been kissed! She blushed when someone said a curse word, she always said please and thank you. There was no good reason for someone to want to…do that…to Stacy Miller! She didn’t have an enemy in the world. Not one. Which was unusual for a girl who lived in a small town and who also happened to look like Stacy Miller.

  Stacy was…had been…beautiful. Golden hair, pink cheeks, large hazel eyes, and the svelte figure of a cheerleader. Yet, she had not one adversary. She wasn’t from the most wealthy family and she seemed to know better than to step on the toes of the girls who were higher up on the totem pole, the girls who dated the football players and the popular guys. Though, any of those boys would have dated Stacy if she’d only said yes to them. But, she didn’t. She was beautiful, but also smart enough to know her place in the pecking order at Fells Pointe High.

  Lanie simply could not imagine who would want to hurt her or why. It would have made her feel slightly better to think that it was someone Stacy didn’t know, a shadowy and faceless stranger that had swooped in from out of the darkness to do such an unspeakable thing to such an innocent girl, but she knew that wasn’t all that likely. Other than a few people passing through on their way to someplace else, there were no shadowy strangers in Fells Pointe.

  It could have been someone just driving through town that had spotted the girl and decided she would be their next…victim, so they’d seized the opportunity, had left her in the park, and then driven on their way. However, she was the daughter of the Sheriff and she knew the statistics. Nearly fifty percent of homicides involving females were committed by family members or other acquaintances. Odds were, Stacy was killed by someone she was at least familiar with. And that was the most bothersome thing of all. Someone who lived in Fells Pointe, someone who ate chili fries at The Pub, someone who walked through the Town Square and bought the morning paper from Mr. Wallace’s Newsstand, had killed Stacy.

  And that person, that friend or that neighbor, was still walking around town as if nothing had happened.

  CHAPTER THREE

  The sound of a car horn split the air and Lanie let out a shriek, jumping in her chair. Jerked out of her morbid thoughts, she whipped her gaze toward the piercing noise, feeling more annoyed than frightened, and finding Brady’s black Honda pulling up into the driveway, with Brady waving to her out his window.

  Trying to force her heart out of her throat and back down into her chest, Lanie got out of her chair, put her bag over her shoulder, and headed off the porch. Once she was belted into her seat and they were on their way to the game field, Brady turned his kind blue eyes to Lanie, smiling at her.

  “I didn’t think you’d feel like coming to watch practice today,” he said to her.

  “I wasn’t going to,” she answered with a shrug, noting that Brady seemed to have slapped on a bit more cologne than was necessary. It was actually starting to choke her. Probably he had dabbed it on for Devyn, the poor girl.

  “Well, I’m glad you decided to come,” he told her. “You shouldn’t be sitting at home all depressed. It…it won’t change anything.”

  Lanie nodded, but didn’t feel the surge of annoyance that she had when her aunt had said the same thing. It was just…different coming from Brady.

  “Are you okay?” he asked her, shooting her a quick glance that was filled with worry. “I mean really?”

  “I’m okay,” she answered honestly. “You shouldn’t worry about me. You should be worrying about Stacy’s family.”

  Brady lifted a broad shoulder. “I am worried about them, but I don’t really know them. I didn’t really know Stacy. But, I do know you. We’re all worried about you because…well, you know.”

  Lanie looked at the boy, whose blonde hair was falling about his face in a disarray of sandy curls, feeling confused. “Know what? What do you mean?”

  “I mean…well, your mom…you know, and then your grandma…and now your friend. It just seems like you’ve lost a lot of people and…we’re all just worried about you,” Brady told her, looking highly uncomfortable.

  Lanie considered his words for a moment. He was right. She’d lost her mother and her grandmother both in the past three years. But, as horrible as it had been to lose half her family in such a short time, it was part of living. Bodies were fallible. Bodies grew old and bodies failed for no reason. She’d come to terms with those losses.

  “I’m okay. Really,” Lanie assured Brady. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

  “Eh, that’s what friends are for, right?” Brady said to her.

  “Right,” she agreed easily, smiling.

&
nbsp; “So, let us do our job. I know you’d do the same thing for one of us,” Brady avowed.

  Lanie felt a sudden and unexpected stab of guilt pierce her. She’d been annoyed with Aunt Gretchen for doing her job, which was worrying about her niece, who’d lost two people already and had now lost a third in the most hideous way possible.

  She was an ungrateful snipe.

  There was a space of silence in the car as Brady navigated the streets through town and toward Fells Pointe High, but Lanie didn’t mind. Silences with Brady Cooper weren’t awkward at all, but were instead just…comfortable. Maybe because Brady was just…comfortable.

  “Lanie?” Brady suddenly spoke, turning a quick glance to her.

  “Yeah?” she said, not quite liking the look in his eyes.

  “Do you think someone in town killed…her?” came the question.

  Lanie pulled in a breath. “There’s a big probability that it wasn’t a total stranger who killed her,” she stated.

  “It doesn’t even make sense,” Brady stated, shaking his head. “Who…who would do something like that? Someone that we know…it just doesn’t make any sense.”

  Lanie agreed. It didn’t make any sense. A seventeen year old girl had her throat slashed and it was in all likelihood a friend or an acquaintance. It did not, nor would it ever, make sense.

  “Do you think your dad’ll find them?” Brady questioned seriously.

  “He will,” Lanie answered. She had absolutely no doubt that Sam Bancroft would find the person responsible.

  Brady was silent for another short space. “Do you think it’ll only be Stacy?”

  Something slightly cold went through Lanie. “What do you mean?”

  “Do you think whoever it was…will stop? Do you think they only wanted Stacy?” Brady questioned.

  Lanie hadn’t considered anything like that. It was not a very comforting thought. “I-I…I don’t know. I-I mean…nothing like this has ever happened before, so…I mean…I doubt it will happen again.”