You Better Run

by Rowan Hanlon

  “I know, baby,” he said, simmering down. “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” she said. “You’re such a sweetheart to worry so much but I hate that this continues to eat at you. Okay? We need to move past it.”

  “I just love you so much, Hadley,” he said. “And I’ve been worried since you left this morning, chewing my nails.”

  His remark gave her pause. “What did you say?” she asked, not believing her ears.

  “Nail biting,” he said. “Figuratively speaking. I haven’t started biting my nails, but I am going to have to pick up some other bad habit to cope.”

  His comment almost made her laugh, which was the way Huck intended it, but then she remembered Jeremy Clemmons in the courtroom, biting his nails. She could still see him sitting there, chewing away. Then, for some reason, she saw those hands coming at her, in that room, in that old house, and the nails were filed down, almost manicured looking. He must have picked up the habit after he was arrested. But she guessed that’s what the prospect of a death sentence will do to you.

  But then the doubts inevitably starting coming back: What if it wasn’t him? Neither Sloan nor Clara had actually seen his face and Hadley had only seen it once in the dim light. Given this, Sloan had started to doubt right after they captured him. She said he knew we were closing in on him and how could he not? What with the three of them on his tail for at least a solid week? She said something wasn’t adding up, but Hadley just thought she was having trouble coping with the fact that he’d finally been caught, especially after all those years she’d been looking. It had gotten to her.

  “Hadley? You there?” Huck asked.

  “I’m here,” she said, then noticed the exit to Clara’s house coming up. “Honey, I have to go. I’m almost to Clara’s.”

  “Well, say hello to her for me,” he said. “And, oh, by the way, eat some good barbeque for me.”

  Hadley laughed a little. “Want me to bring you some home?”

  “You’re hours away,” he said. “It would be spoiled by the time you got it here.”

  “Tell you what,” she said. “I’ll do a quick lunch with Clara and then I’ll get right on the interstate and drive like a bat out of hell back to Knoxville. That okay?”

  “Well, if it’s not too much trouble,” he said.

  “Not for you,” she said, teasingly. “I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” he said. “And Hadley?”

  “Yes?”

  “Be careful,” he said. “Go the speed limit.”

  “You know I can’t promise that,” she said.

  “Do it for me,” he told her. “Oh, do you have your little knife?”

  “I got it,” she told him. She didn’t know why she still carried the knife he’d given her, she just did. She’d even taken it into the interview with her in the pocket of her black dress pants. She figured it was something she would probably always do. It still made her feel safe.

  “Good,” he replied. “Be careful, love.”

  “I’ll do my best,” she said. “I love you. Bye.”

  “I love you, too,” he said. “Bye.”

  They hung up and in a matter of minutes, Hadley was pulling into Clara’s driveway. She stopped in front of the garage, grabbed her purse and got out, admiring the house. She’d been there a few times before and really liked it. It was so big and inviting.

  Clara threw the front door open and hollered, “Hey, girl!”

  Hadley smiled at her and exclaimed excitedly, “I got the job!”

  “Oh, shit, that’s great!” Clara said excitedly and walked quickly to her, hugging her tightly. “I knew you would!”

  “I’m really happy about it,” Hadley said and pulled back first and stared at Clara, at her cute outfit of cutoff denim shorts and white top. “Damn, you’ve got a great tan!”

  “I know,” she said. “All that riding I’m doing, plus my nieces come over almost daily to swim in the pool. They won’t stay all night with me because Uncle Ray died here, as they tell everyone, but they can’t get enough of that pool.”

  “Well, that’s not macabre at all,” Hadley said, shaking her head a little.

  Clara seemed to think about it for a second, then laughed. “God, I do sound awful. Well, that’s what happened, though. Maybe I’ll find a way to reword it.” She smiled at Hadley. “Come in! Come in! I’ve been peeping out the window for the last hour looking for you!”

  “That doesn’t sound weird at all,” she said and chuckled a little, then paused. “Oh, wait! I want to change clothes.”

  Clara nodded and watched as Hadley opened the hatch and pulled out her overnight bag. Then she followed her into the house and looked around Clara’s massive foyer, with its tall ceiling and wainscoting. It was so beautiful. She shut the front door behind her then followed Clara into the kitchen, tossing her purse and overnight bag onto the island.

  Clara pointed at a cheesecake on the counter. “Just got this at the grocery store. Delicious. Want a piece now or after barbeque?”

  Hadley eyed the cheesecake, feeling tempted, then said, “After. If I fill up on that, I might miss out on some good ribs.”

  “Yeah, you wouldn’t want to do that,” Clara said and put the cheesecake into the refrigerator.

  “No, I would not,” she said and smiled, looking around. “This is such a great kitchen. I have a good one, but my house is old, you know, Huck had it remodeled but there was only so much you can do with that small amount of square footage.”

  “Yeah,” Clara said and nodded. “I love your little house, though. Love it, love it, love it. It’s so cute!”

  “You are in such a good mood today,” Hadley said, eying her. “It’s almost like you’re in love.”

  “Well, I can tell you that’s not it,” Clara said and leaned against the island. “It’s just I love having people over. I do. But I can’t get a lot of people to stay with me because of Ray, you know, the way he died here, so violently.”

  “I know,” Hadley said and laid a hand on her shoulder. “I am so sorry about that. He seemed like such a good man.”

  Clara nodded and patted her hand. “Oh, he was,” she said. “He was a good man.” She paused and sighed, then added, “And they get superstitious and think he haunts the house.”

  “Do you think that?” Hadley asked, eying her.

  “I wish he was,” Clara said. “I’d give anything for him to be here haunting me! But, no. He’s not here. He’s up there in heaven, playing a damned guitar, I can assure you.”

  “He sounded like such a cool person,” Hadley said.

  “He was,” she said. “He could charm the pants off a snake. But then, I wonder, why would a snake have pants on?”

  Hadley laughed. “That is a crazy metaphor. Who knows where that comes from?”

  “I know, right?” she said. “Hey, the powder room is over there, if you need it and I need to go upstairs and get a new bag. The strap broke on this one.” She held up a brown leather bag and shook it. “Be right back.”

  Hadley nodded, grabbed her bag and went the powder room and quickly changed into some summer clothes—black tank-top and cutoff jeans shorts, much like the ones Clara had on. She bent over and pulled her favorite white Chuck Taylor’s out of the bag and slipped them on then took her little knife out of the pants she’d worn to the job interview and slipped it into the pocket of her shorts. She felt it and sighed, wondering if she should stop carrying it. Jeremy Clemmons was dead, so there was no need.

  But what if he wasn’t dead?

  All of a sudden, she felt herself freeze with panic at the thought. This still happened occasionally. She took a deep breath and waited for it to subside and it did, almost as soon as it came. She breathed a sigh of relief and shook her head. She was doing too much, she knew. She was pushing herself a little too hard. But she felt as though she had to. She needed to drive by herself and get a job and be more independent. The panic, she reasone
d, was just a growing pain. And she’d have to suffer through it until she got to the other side.

  She checked herself in the mirror and nodded with approval. Then she went back into the kitchen and sat at the island, swiveling in her stool as she waited for Clara. She glanced out the window and saw an older car drive slowly by the house. It seemed so out of place with the fancy neighborhood, that she was about to get up and check it out when Clara came back in.

  “Oh, did you get a hold of Sloan?” Hadley asked.

  “I didn’t,” she said. “It went straight into voicemail.”

  “I’ll try her again,” she said, standing. She dug into her purse and found her phone, then dialed Sloan’s number, which went right into voicemail. She left a message, “Hey, girl, it’s me. I’ve over at Clara’s. We’d love to have you join us. Get over here! Or just call me back.” She hung up. “Let’s go eat. I’m starving.”

  * * * * *

  Lunch went well and they were joined by Clara’s friend, Rowdy McCloud, who Hadley took an immediate liking to. She really livened up the lunch by telling stories about the music business, asking Hadley a few, pointed personal questions, then switching subjects again, telling them where she was going to vacation—Hawaii, with her two daughters, who’d never been before. She laughed and said she’d have to keep them away from those “handsome surfers,” then added, “And the Mai Tais.”

  As they drove back, Hadley told Clara she really liked Rowdy and Clara smiled.

  “You know, everyone told me she was so supportive when I disappeared,” she said. “She got everyone together and had a huge benefit concert, which raised money as a reward for any information about my disappearance and Ray’s killer. And she raised a lot—a lot! Well over a million. She helped put out posters and went on news shows, did everything she could to help find me. And she got everyone involved, too. That’s why those men who found me knew who I was. They’d seen me and, even though all the caked-on dirt and grime, they knew who I was, mainly because of Rowdy.”

  “That’s so cool,” Hadley said. “She seems so nice.”

  “She is,” Clara said, then paused, furrowing her brow a little as if she’d thought of something else. Then she said, “And, you know, we were friends, mostly through my husband, but I never knew what a good friend she was to me until all this. People are good, Hadley, they can be so good and you don’t even know it.”

  Hadley smiled at her and said, “It’s true, they can be. They can surprise you.”

  “They do,” Clara said. “You will always be surprised by who your real friends are.”

  Hadley liked that and smiled at Clara. “It’s true. People can be good, so good.”

  “They can,” she said and smiled, looking around the car. “I just love this little car! It’s so cute!”

  Hadley laughed a little. “Thanks, I love my Mini.”

  “I got that new car, you know, because my other car was getting so old and everyone told me to trade it in,” she said. “Now I wished I’d gotten something like this. I really like it.”

  “You can always trade,” Hadley told her.

  “Eh, I probably won’t,” she said, staring at her sideways. “Sometimes I have to pick up my nieces at school and cart them around here and there, mostly to the mall. Sometimes to soccer practice.”

  “You ever think about having kids?” Hadley asked.

  “Oh, no, I won’t, not ever,” Clara said. “Besides, you need a man for that and what man wants to deal with all my baggage?”

  “Plenty,” Hadley said.

  “Maybe and maybe not,” she replied. “But I don’t think about it too much. I got so lucky with Ray, I know there’s not another one of him out there. You’re lucky with Huck, though. Hang onto him.”

  “I hope to,” she said. “If he doesn’t get too pissed at me for making him move here. He loves Knoxville.”

  “I am so glad you got that job!” she exclaimed. “It will be so cool to have you close.”

  “I’m looking forward to it,” Hadley said and pulled into Clara’s driveway.

  “Oh, pull to the side in case I need to get my car out later,” Clara said. “We might need to make a run to town or something.” She paused, then laughed. “That’s what we used to say when I was growing up in the country, going to town. Now I’m in town, more or less, and I still say it. That’s funny, huh?”

  “It is,” Hadley said and pulled her car to the other side of the drive, then put it in park. She turned the engine off and said, “It’s not that late, so I think I might head on home.”

  “Oh, don’t you dare do that to me,” Clara said.

  “It’s just that Huck gets so worried,” Hadley said.

  “Well, at least come in and have a piece of that cheesecake,” she said. “You can do that, can’t you?”

  Hadley nodded. “Yeah, I guess I could do that.”

  Clara got out of the car and, before she closed the door, leaned down and said, “Well, get your butt in here.”

  Before she could reply, Hadley’s phone rang. She turned around in her seat and grabbed her purse from the backseat, found the phone and stared at the number. It was Huck, of course. She told Clara, “I’ll be right in.”

  Clara nodded and slammed the door shut, then started into the house.

  Hadley swiped the screen and said, “Hey, what’s up?”

  “Just checking on you,” he said.

  “Dude, you really need to get a life,” she said and watched as Clara unlocked and then opened the front door, then stepped inside. She sighed and got out of the car and walked around it, leaning against the passenger side. “So, what’s up?”

  “Are you coming home or are you staying the night?” he asked.

  “I’m coming home and, just so you’ll know, this is a very long drive for me. I will be very tired. And probably grumpy.”

  “And pleased to know that I’ve got some fried chicken waiting on you,” he said.

  “Huck, I just ate barbeque,” she said. “I can’t eat chicken, too. I’m too full.”

  “Well, you can have it tomorrow,” he said. “So, what time are you heading out?”

  “I’m at Clara’s now and she bought a cheesecake,” she said. “After I have a piece of that, I’ll hit the road. So, I probably won’t be home until after dark.” She thought of that and got a sick feeling in her stomach. She would be so tired. “You know what? I think I will stay the night. It’s getting late and by the time I get on the road, it will be too much for me. I’m really tired.”

  “I know,” he said. “It would be too hard on you. But get up bright and early and head home, okay?”

  “Will do,” she said. “I gotta go.”

  “Call me later,” he said.

  “Well, okay,” she said. “But I think she’s got some slumber party activities planned and who knows what that will entail. I’ll try and call you before I go to sleep, okay? But if you don’t hear from me, that means I conked out.”

  “Well, you do it every night on the couch,” he said.

  “I know,” she replied. “I’m like an old man. I can’t stay awake past nine now.”

  He laughed. “You are like an old man. Up early and to bed early.”

  “Sorry,” she said and sighed. “I guess my internal alarm clock wants me up with the chickens.”

  “Maybe,” he said. “Anyway, have a good time. I love you.”

  “I love you, too,” she said and hung up, slipped the phone into her purse, then walked up the sidewalk and opened the front door. As she entered the house, she called out to Clara, “Hey! I think I will stay the night after all! Where are you?”

  When she didn’t respond, Hadley started walking towards the kitchen, leaning over to peer into it, looking for Clara. She didn’t see her.

  Hadley felt someone behind her then. Right then, she felt his presence. She could sense him and she could tell who it was. Before she could turn around, he had grabbed her
around the neck and put her in a sleeper hold. He held on tight and didn’t let go until she passed out, a few seconds later, slipping unconscious from his arms and to the floor.

  * * * * *

  When she came to, Hadley saw that she and Clara were bound and gagged in two of Clara’s dining chairs. They were in the living room and when her eyes blinked open, all she could see was his back to her. He was flipping channels on the television. Her first thought was Huck’s worst-case scenario—that he was a copycat killer.

  Just then, her cell rang. She looked around for her purse, then realized it was still in the foyer where he’d had attacked her. He casually tossed the remote onto the sofa, then walked out of the room. The phone stopped ringing. A minute or so later, he walked back into the room, carrying her purse and holding the phone and retrieving the message. He paused in the doorway, leaning against the frame and listened as the message played out: “Hey, girl, it’s me. It’s Sloan. Anyway, I have some really big news to tell you. But I don’t want to do it over the phone. Call me when you get this. Oh! Sorry I missed your call. My phone died. I had to get another one. Call me.”

  He sighed heavily and tossed the cell phone into the purse, then set it on a side table against the wall. Then he walked behind them and around to the sofa, where he plopped down and put one leg on top of the other. Hadley stared at him from the corner of her eye. He was wearing his usual uniform of all black with a hoodie and black jeans. As usual, he had the lower part of his face covered with a mask so the only thing she could see was his eyes, which were being obscured by a pair of sunglasses.

  He saw that she was awake and he nodded, as if this pleased him. All of a sudden, Clara jerked awake with a loud gasp and looked around wildly. Her eyes settled on him sitting on her couch and the look on her face was that of a frightened animal that’s been cornered.

  “Oh, there she is,” he said. “Rise and shine, pretty.”

  Clara turned to Hadley and shook her head. Hadley didn’t know what she was trying to communicate and shook her head back. Then they both turned to stare at him. Was he a copycat killer? Who was he?