by Crissy Sharp
Jason took a hard right onto another dirt road. He sped down the road until it forked and he took another right, but as they turned, Lotty caught a flash of blue in the distance racing toward them. The dirt road turned into asphalt and two more turns brought them to the main road. It was too rural here to find anywhere to hide. There were no other vehicles to help them conceal themselves, no businesses or houses, but at least the roads were curvy and surrounded by trees.
“I’m calling 9-1-1.” Lotty said with a shaky voice. She lifted off the seat slightly so she could grab her phone out of her pocket. She fumbled with it before dropping it onto the seat.
Jason continued checking his rearview mirror. “Wait, Lotty. I don’t know. Brent filed those missing persons reports on us. If we show up anywhere, it will be news in Walden and we don’t know who to trust.”
“I don’t think that matters now since the people to fear are right behind us.”
“True.” Jason held the gas pedal down to the floor. “Okay, call 9-1-1. Just tell them we’re being followed and shot at.”
Lotty made the call. Though service was spotty and it took three tries, she explained what was happening. The operator told her there was a patrol car about five miles down the road before the call dropped again.
She smacked the phone against her leg in frustration. “I lost her again,” Lotty told him. “We have to make it five miles down the road.”
“Five miles? They’re less than a quarter mile behind me. I don’t know if we can stay ahead that long.” Jason looked from the dash to the rearview mirror.
Lotty craned her neck to look at the speedometer. The needle was holding firm at just over one hundred. Jason barely slowed down as he approached a curve and Lotty’s stomach churned. She took a deep, calming breath that didn’t seem to actually calm. “I’m going to call the Granthams and see if they’re okay.” Her first two calls failed. She watched in her mirror until she saw sunlight reflecting off a windshield in the distance. It did seem like the little car was gaining on them. She tried the call again and this time it rang through, but no one answered. She tried both Nikki’s and Brent’s cells with no luck. “I can’t get them.”
Jason took another corner too fast. Lotty closed her eyes and held her stomach. She wondered if she should unbuckle the boys and have them huddle on the floor, out of the line of any potential bullets. However, with the curves in the road and Jason’s speed, it didn’t seem less dangerous. She glanced back at Ty and Aiden, still sleeping, and terrifying scenarios involving them crowded her mind. She hated that her babies had been brought into this.
“Why don’t you try to call the Walden Police Station and see if Brent’s there?” Jason suggested.
Lotty found the number and pushed send. A secretary answered and told her Brent had been gone for a couple of hours. He’d gone to lunch and hadn’t been back. She relayed the news to Jason, who acknowledged it with a sigh. “That can’t be good,” he said, tightening his grip on the steering wheel with his already white knuckles. “He never skips out on work.”
The wail of the sirens in the distance was the sweetest sound to ever touch Lotty’s ears. However, the time between hearing the sound and actually seeing the patrol car top the hill in front of them seemed an eternity. Jason slowed slightly as the van met the cop car. The cops sped on and flipped a U-turn to wait in the median until the blue Acura raced past. Lotty turned around in her seat so she could see clearly. What if the car didn’t stop for the cops? She had visions of a car chase with several cop cars and helicopters as the Acura continued to pursue their Honda. She heaved a sigh of relief as the blue car slowed down and pulled to the shoulder.
As Jason drove away, Lotty watched the driver get out with his hands up. Before she could process what was happening, a man jumped out of the backseat of the Acura and shot the policeman.
“Go faster, Jason,” Lotty screamed. Please, go faster.” She fidgeted with the lock button, trying to lock all the doors, but her shaking fingers kept missing it.
“I’m going. What is it?”
“Go faster.” She sank down in her seat. “They, that man.” She stopped when she saw a wide-eyed Ty staring at her from the back. “Why won’t the doors lock?” she yelled, pushing the button harder even though she knew it wouldn’t help. Exasperated, she rubbed her hands over her face before turning toward Jason and mouthing, “They shot him.”
“What? Who?” Jason pushed the pedal to the floor again as the blood drained from his face.
“One of those men shot the officer.” Lotty opened her eyes wide to try to clear the blurry images from her mind, but it didn’t help. Over and over, she replayed the scene in her head and watched the dark-haired man shoot the approaching policeman and the policeman slump to the ground. She heard Jason speaking, but she felt like she was under water. His words were far off and garbled.
She rubbed her eyes until she saw bright spots and wiped sweat off her forehead before glancing at the mirror again.
“They’re out of view now, but I’m sure they won’t be far behind,” Jason said. “I think our best bet is to take a side road and hope we get out of view before they catch up.”
Lotty pulled her phone back out, and with shaky fingers, called 9-1-1 again. “I just talked to you,” she cried into the phone. “We saw that patrol car, but...” Her voice disappeared as she tried to get the words out. Taking a deep breath, she tried again. “But a man in the Acura shot one the officers.” She tried to explain the location of the cop car and the woman said more help was already on the way.
The tires screeched as Jason threw on the brakes and made a sharp turn onto a small gravel road. The cover the trees provided helped ease Lotty’s fears. The van wound down the road and Jason made several turns. After ten minutes had passed without any sign of the blue car, Jason suggested Lotty use her phone to find the nearest gas station since the gas light was blinking furiously. She spent the next fifteen minutes directing him through the maze of backroads until they reached a row of five buildings, the last one a gas station. They cautiously observed the twenty mile per hour speed limit as they drove through the tiny town. Three men and a small boy stood in front of the building labeled “mercantile” and four sets of eyes watched the van with curiosity. Lotty waved as Jason continued past a church and pulled up next to a gas pump. The outdated pump didn’t have a credit card reader so Jason went inside to pay.
With the engine off, both boys were wide awake and watching Lotty with trepidation, sensing her nervousness. She offered a forced smile and began singing You Are My Sunshine, which was Aiden’s favorite. He beamed and relaxed into his seat.
Jason returned and, with a sense of urgency, began unbuckling Aiden. “I found us a different vehicle. Let’s go.”
“A diff—wait, what?” Lotty took the hen Jason placed in her arms, but stared at him. He motioned for Ty to hurry and then looked at Lotty to see why she hadn’t gotten out yet. “We’re leaving the van?” she asked.
“Yes, but we have to hurry.” He grabbed the backpack they’d had with them on the hike. Everything else was still back at the campsite. “I gave a kid in there my watch and all the cash I had with me, not quite two hundred dollars, and he let us borrow his nineteen-eighty-something Ford pickup. I promised we’d return it by next week.”
Lotty grabbed Princess Sophia, who looked like a statue sitting motionless on the floor, and Bea, who was already in her arms, and hurried out of the van.
Jason led them around back to a rusty truck which looked like it had probably been green in its prime. He strapped Aiden’s car seat into the bench seat.
“There are only three seats?” Lotty asked.
Jason reached into the back and pulled down a jump seat. “No. Ty can sit back here along with the hens.” He helped Ty in and took the hens out of Lotty’s arms. “I have to drive the van somewhere away from here so we don’t get anyone in this town hurt. Then I’ll jump in with you. You can manage a stick shift for a couple of miles, right?”
“Uh,” was her only response as she bit her lip. Jason had taught her how to drive a manual when they were dating, but she hadn’t done it since they’d bought the van.
He grabbed her hand. “You got it,” he said much more positively than she knew he felt. He pointed to the clutch and tried to quickly jog her memory with a thirty second refresher course on driving a stick.
When she felt slightly less nauseated about the idea, he handed her the keys.
“Just follow me. I’ll park the van a few miles from here and then we can all head home tog—” He stopped talking mid-sentence and grew visibly pale. “Lotty, go. Get out of here. I’ll meet you in, ah, how about Kellogg?”
“Kellogg?” That was at least one hundred miles away, probably more. She wasn’t even sure if she could drive this thing two miles. She followed his gaze toward the road and saw a flash of blue in the distance.
“Meet me at that Olive Garden we saw there,” he said, slamming her door shut. He leaned through the open window and kissed her. Too quickly, he pulled away. “If I’m not there in three hours, leave without me. Find Nikki and Brent. Oh, and shut off your phone.” He slapped the side of the truck and yelled, “Go,” before he sprinted around the side of the gas station and out of sight.
Lotty prayed the front of the gas station and the van were hidden from the blue car for at least another minute so Jason could get the van away from this place. She knew those men would shoot anyone they thought was standing in their way. Every part of her ached to follow Jason, to be with him even if it meant putting herself in danger. But he was trusting her to keep the boys safe.
Hands shaking, she powered down her phone. Is that how those men had found them? Tracking phones? If so, why hadn’t they tracked them the first day when they’d hiked up to the waterfall and checked their messages?
She turned the key in the ignition as her hands shook and her heart punched against her ribs. She wanted to race out of there, but was afraid she would draw unwanted attention to the old truck. A worn gray baseball cap in the passenger seat caught her attention. She tucked her hair up inside of it and placed it on her head and pulled her sunglasses over her eyes. Easing slowly off the clutch, she eked forward.
Resisting the urge to slam down the gas pedal, she inched toward the front of the gas station, so slowly that she killed the engine to the truck. As she turned the key again, a blur of blue sped through the otherwise quiet town. Her heart in her throat, she forgot what she was doing and stared. A slight celebratory feeling rose in her chest as the car turned away from the gas station and down a side road. The feeling passed as quickly as it had come when she realized Jason and the van were headed down the same road.
Chapter 23
Her first instinct was to follow. Jason was on that road, but she knew he was trying to draw the men away from her and the kids. He was putting himself in danger for them. Hesitantly, she lifted her foot off the clutch and headed in the opposite direction.
When her mind finally quit replaying the scene of the Acura racing toward the van, Lotty and the boys passed a sign showing they were forty miles from Kellogg. Without even thinking about it, she’d driven the truck flawlessly. However, now that she was aware and focusing on the fact that she was in charge of a stick shift, the truck seemed to sense her uneasiness. It made a few funny noises and backfired before it continued on noisily.
There was no air conditioning in the truck and drops of sweat ran down Lotty’s face. Aiden’s cheeks were red and little drops of moisture beaded across Ty’s forehead. She rolled her window down. The passenger side window was too far away to reach, but there was enough air movement to give a slight reprieve from the heat. Though it wasn’t her van, with its cool air and automatic windows, the truck was doing its job.
She spent the rest of the way singing songs with the boys to try to ease the tension. The last thing she needed was for them to be worried. Unfortunately, it did nothing to lessen her worry. While she pasted on a smile and sang her heart out, her mind reeled. What if Jason didn’t show up? What if those men had caught up to him? She tried not to let her mind think of the worst possibilities, but still, her stomach churned as they made their way through Kellogg and toward the Olive Garden.
There were only a few cars in the parking lot, which wasn’t surprising at 3:21 on a weekday. The warm June air engulfed her the moment the truck stopped moving. The hens were tired of their cramped quarters and began to flap around. The boys whined. “Mom, it’s hot,” Ty said. “See?” He wiped his forehead and showed her the sweat. “When is Dad coming back?”
“Soon, bud. I’m sure we’ll see him soon.” Her cracking voice betrayed her confident mask. She tried to open her door, but couldn’t. She grabbed the handle and pulled harder. Nothing. She groaned and, without warning, tears sprang to her eyes. Dumb truck. This old hunk of metal with its archaic windows and broken door was the reason she didn’t know where Jason was or what was happening to him. She kicked at the floor and somehow felt better. Wiping her eyes, she moved across the bench seat to the passenger side.
The door opened on her first attempt. Okay, maybe the truck wasn’t so bad. Maybe it was time for her to quit taking out her anger on inanimate objects. Maybe. She climbed out and helped the boys out of their seats. The hens still had their makeshift leashes attached to their collars so she led her little crew toward a small, grassy area.
The boys jumped around and played with the hens while the hens tried to ignore them and scratch in the dirt. Slowly, the minutes ticked by. At 3:37, the boys were tired of the small, grassy area and, instead, wanted to play in the truck bed. Next it was the far corner of the parking lot.
After what felt like hours of fighting with herself to not check the time, she gave in. 4:56. They’d been in Kellogg for over an hour and a half, which meant it had been nearly three and a half hours since they’d separated from Jason. He’d told her to leave after three hours. She couldn’t go to Walden without him. It would be giving up on him, and she wasn’t going to give up. He was fine. He was just a little behind schedule.
Another ten minutes crawled by. If she did leave, Jason could meet her in Walden. He wouldn’t be expecting her to wait here any longer. But, could she do it on her own? What would she do once she got to Walden? She couldn’t go back to the house. Jason had told her to find Brent and Nikki, but she wasn’t sure where to start. And still, she had the nagging voice in the back of her mind. What if he couldn’t drive to Walden? What if he was lying in a ditch somewhere in northern Idaho? She shook her head, trying to get rid of the thought. He was fine. Totally fine. She decided to go inside and use their phone to try and call him.
Taking the leashes in one hand and holding Aiden with the other, she instructed Ty to hold onto her arm. She marched through the front door of the restaurant. Expressions ranging from slight amusement to complete horror adorned the faces of those waiting inside. Whoops. She hadn’t thought this through. Why hadn’t she put the hens back in the truck? Lotty waited for the hostess with a long, light brown braid to look up. After what seemed an eternity, Lotty cleared her throat. “Is there a phone I can use?”
The hostess took several seconds to take in the scene. Lotty wondered if the hens were even the worst of it. She hadn’t fixed her hair in days, was wearing unwashed clothes, and the boys were covered in the dirt they’d just been playing in.
“Um, no, Ma’am. Our phone is for employees only.” She hesitantly glanced at Lotty again before quietly wincing.
Lotty sighed. “Please. This is an emergency.”
The girl looked at Aiden and Ty and back to Lotty. She slowly nodded before bending down and getting something out of the podium in front of her. She shoved a cell phone into Lotty’s hands. “Here, use mine.” Then she looked at the couple standing behind Lotty. The woman was staring at the hens wide-eyed and the man was trying to pet them. “A table for two?” the hostess asked.
Lotty mouthed, “thank you,” and led the boys and hens outside the f
ront doors. This was a long shot. Jason’s phone was most likely off, but she had to try. She dialed his number and held her breath. Straight to voicemail. She tried once more just in case. When she got his voicemail a second time, she left a short message saying they were worried so to please call her phone and leave her a message when he had the chance. Then she dialed her cell number to check her messages just in case he’d already left one. The only message was from her mother, which she deleted before listening to.
She darted back inside and returned the cell phone to the overwhelmed hostess.
“Mom, where’s Dad,” Ty asked, pulling on Lotty’s arm.
“I think he’s going to meet us at home,” Lotty said, forcing strength into her voice. She squeezed his hand and led him and the rest of her crew back to the dilapidated truck. It was already well past five and they were at least four hours from home. She needed to get to Walden and the police, or more specifically Brent. She couldn’t afford to wait for Jason any longer. He was fine. He was probably just planning on meeting them in Walden now. They loaded in and she drove back to the interstate.
By the time the edge of Strawberry Lake came into view, the sun had tucked itself behind the mountains, shining only a hint of light across the peaks. The beautiful sunset made her feel at home. It reminded her of why she’d fallen in love with this place six years ago.
She slowed down as they drove past the town square and the beach. Music filled the air. Tourists dotted the deck of The Anchor Restaurant, which overlooked the lake. Lotty tried not to be jealous of them. She longed to be sitting there with her family instead of wondering where she could go to be safe for the night. She pulled the truck into the first parking spot and debated what to do. Jason had told her to leave her phone off, but what did it matter now? She needed to see if he’d called and to try to find Brent and Nikki.