"And I think he's going to try to hit it on the side again so stay here, but I want you to change lanes at the last minute. Maybe we can avoid getting hit again."
"Okay." Haley nodded and muttered, "Not getting hit is good."
The road stretched out for miles in front of them, a small hill in the distance. There were no other cars within sight, but it was both a curse and a blessing. There was no one to call for help, but there was also no one they had to worry about crashing into.
Haley's eyes moved from the road in front of her to her side mirror. She could see the black car advancing on them.
"All right, just stay here and keep it steady. When I say 'go' I want you to swerve to the left and keep going."
"To the left?" Haley asked. "That'll be right into him."
"Yeah I know, but he won't be expecting it. I have a feeling he'll automatically hit the brakes and slow down."
"And if you're wrong?"
"Let's not think about that. Okay?" Lucas put a hand on her shoulder. "All right get ready."
Haley didn't have a second to protest because Lucas suddenly shouted, "Go!"
Without thinking, and cringing the entire time, Haley did what Lucas had told her and jerked the car to the left, swerving across two lanes of traffic and into the empty oncoming lanes. Haley sighed in relief as the driver of the black car had done precisely what Lucas had predicted.
"Now what?" Haley asked him, glancing over to see him messing with the GPS. He looked up several times and then said, "There we go."
"There we go what?"
Lucas looked behind them and said, "Okay, hang on."
In the rearview mirror, Haley could see the car coming at them again. "What now?" she repeated louder, unable to keep the panic from her voice.
"Haley, I'm gonna need you to trust me on this."
"Why? I don't..." Haley began to ask.
"When I tell you, I want you to slam on the brakes."
Haley wanted to look at him to see if he was serious but dared not take her eyes from the road. "Why?"
"He's not going to fall for the swerving thing again. And we’re not going to get away from him with him right on our tail."
Haley blew out a breath. "Okay, yeah, right. Just tell me when."
Haley looked back toward the road, trying to think out all of the different possible outcomes. She checked to make sure her seatbelt was secure and locked up. It wouldn't do either of them any good if she got slammed against the steering wheel. "Lucas, make sure your seatbelt is secure."
"It is, Haley, how about you?"
"I'm good."
"Okay. Get ready. It's going to be close. He might graze us a little bit."
Haley held steady in the lane. Sure enough, the black car pulled up next to them, intent on hitting them before they could make another attempt to swerve from their lane.
With her own eyes, Haley saw the driver wrench the steering wheel toward them.
"Now!" Lucas shouted.
Haley slammed on the brakes, pushing the pedal all the way to the floor with both feet. The sound of metal on metal filled the air as the black car came into contact with them briefly, before its initial speed carried it forward to disappear over the hill.
The car had barely come to a stop when Lucas pointed to the left side of the road. “There’s a small road just on the other side of the trees.”
Haley didn’t even hesitate, accelerating once more. She had no intention of waiting for the car to come back to find them. Lucas was watching for the other car while Haley had found a break in the trees.
“Hang on!” Haley stepped on the gas pedal and left the highway. If they were lucky, they would be long gone from the highway before the black car could get back over the hill.
She hoped there weren’t any rocks hidden by roadside foliage. A few moments and several prayers later, she was on the small road. She continued in the same direction, counting on the black car having doubled back to find them. It was clear that putting distance between them was their only hope of survival.
7
“Hey,” Lucas said. “I think you can slow down a bit now.”
Haley shook her head. “No, we have to keep going.”
“I am not saying that we should stop.” Lucas leaned toward her, his voice soothing. “Haley, you need to slow down. These roads weren’t really made for highway speeds.”
Haley looked down at the speedometer without really seeing the gauge at all, fear and panic clouding her mind to the point that nothing but driving made sense to her. “But…”
“No, we need to slow down.” Lucas rested his hand lightly on her shoulder. “Haley, honey, we won’t get anywhere if we crash into a tree.”
Lucas’s words finally penetrated the haze in her mind. It was Lucas using the silly name, Haley Honey, that Bri had given her in grade school that had halted the flight or fight instinct. She eased her foot off the gas pedal and the car began to slow. She continued to drive down the single lane road, no idea where it would take them but still so wholly intent on putting distance between them and the driver of the black car that she didn’t much care. The wind had picked up and she hoped they could get somewhere safe before the downpour that the store clerk had mentioned started.
"Any sign of the other car?"
Lucas turned in his seat to look out the back window again. "Not yet. It’s possible that he would simply backtrack to follow us, or he could try to find another exit coming up on the highway to cut us off. For all I know, he could have kept on driving thinking that we had called the police."
"I'm just so confused about what is going on. Why is he coming after us in the first place?" Haley asked the question, full well knowing that Lucas wouldn’t know the answer.
"I think the guy is just crazy. There may be no reason for him to be coming after us. He might be schizophrenic or having flashbacks from Vietnam. I don’t know." He turned back to the front as they approached the intersection of another narrow road.
Haley slowed down. "Should we turn here or keep going? What do you think?"
"Turn here," Lucas said, pointing away from the highway. "I figure our best bet is getting as far away from the highway as we can. If he is looking for us, he won't know which way we've gone and it will take him that much longer to track us down."
"I like that idea," Haley said turning down the road. "I want as little to do with that guy as possible."
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure he does not want to ask us to brunch."
Haley tried not to think of all the possibilities of what might happen to them if the guy actually caught up with them. "I think I'll pass on all of the above."
"Yeah, me too." Lucas looked behind them again and then picked up the GPS.
"Any idea on where we are?" Haley asked. They were still driving into the mountains, forests of tall pine trees surrounding them. Unlike the first road, which ran parallel to the highway, the forest road seemed to be an unending series of twists and turns with the occasional smaller road branching off every so often.
"Not really. The GPS doesn't even have these roads on their maps."
Haley glanced over at him. "How did you know about the small road off the highway then?" She had not been able to see it from the highway, but of course, she had been focused on not being hit or run off the road by the black car.
Lucas gestured back towards the road. "The road off the highway was actually listed on the GPS, but anything beyond that is not listed. I guess they are not added since they are mostly just forest roads."
Haley had not been prepared for Lucas to tell her that the GPS was not working either. Although, she reminded herself, technically the GPS was still working. It would still show their position on the map but without having the proper roads listed, they could drive around for hours and hours without having any idea how to get back to the highway.
Each forest road looked like the last, and she worried that they might never find their way back to the highway. Haley began to reach for her pho
ne and then stopped, wishing she could turn on one of the apps on her phone that would track her movement like she used on her hiking trips. If she ever got lost, she could just trace her footsteps back to her car. With her phone most likely shattered beyond repair, she had no choice but to just count on her own mental notes and the GPS to get them back to the highway.
"We’ll be lucky if we can find the highway again," Haley muttered. “Why are there so many of these little roads everywhere?”
"They are likely forest roads the forest rangers use to patrol these areas. I am sure they get increased traffic during the dry season."
"Dry season? Do we need to worry about forest fires too?"
"No, luckily the storms have been rolling through in the afternoons. This area has gotten a lot of rain over the last week or so."
Haley sighed in relief. The thought of dealing with a forest fire on top of everything else would have been too much to even comprehend.
Lucas reached over to cover Hayley's hand as it rested on the center console. "I know this all seems like too much, especially with no working phones and now the GPS is not exactly helpful anymore. I have traveled all over the world and I've been in a lot of different kinds of situations. We will get out of this too."
Haley gave him a grateful smile. "It's just so nerve-racking having so many things go wrong. I'm trying not to completely freak out but it isn’t easy."
"I understand you being worried. I totally get that but trust me when I say that I will get us out of this. I promise."
"I don't need you to get me out of this.” Haley straightened her shoulders. “We can work together and get us both out of it."
"Okay,” he said hesitantly. “What does that mean?”
Haley was quiet for a minute and then said, "I can take care of myself. I don't need you to try to do it for me."
Before either of them could say a word, the rain that had been a light sprinkle opened up into a huge downpour. Haley flipped the lever to make windshield wipers go faster. They were going as fast as they could and yet she could barely see more than a few feet in front of them. “I can’t drive in this; I can hardly see the road.”
Lucas rolled down the window to peer through the rain. “There’s a road coming up. Turn right.”
“A road? I can’t see anything.” Haley had begun to slow the car down.
“It’s not too far now.”
Haley squinted through the rain, not seeing the road as much as a break in the trees. She came to nearly a stop. “Okay, I think I can see it. Is this it?”
“Yes, turn here,” Lucas answered. “Go slowly though it looks like it’s a dirt road.”
“Oh geez,” Haley said with a groan. She turned carefully turned onto the road, not wanting to get stuck in the mud. The tires crunched on the road. “Sounds like it might be a gravel road.”
The rain lessened and they peered around as Haley drove slowly down the road. They hadn’t gone far when Lucas pointed to the side of the road. “Pull in over there.”
Haley looked over to where Lucas was pointing. There was a small opening in the trees with a larger area beyond it. She frowned. “Are you sure?”
“Yeah, there are so many trees along the road that anyone driving by wouldn't be able to see us back there.” Lucas looked up at the still darkening clouds. “I think it might shield us from the storm too.”
“I guess it’s better than sitting out here,” Haley drove a little further, stopping at the edge of the road. “Do you think it’s okay to pull off the road? I don’t want to get stuck in the mud.”
“Hang on, let me check,” Lucas said and jumped out of the car.
“Wait! Where are you going?” Haley called out but he was already gone. His figure was just barely visible through the falling rain as he ran across the road.
Just as quickly, Lucas jumped back into the car, his dark blonde hair damp from the rain. Haley could barely keep from yelling at him. “What was that?”
“I was checking the road and the area beyond the trees,” Lucas told her. “It looks like the area has been used in the past, maybe by the forest rangers. It’s a good thing too because the gravel goes off the road and covers that whole area. Most of it’s covered with pine needles though so it’s not noticeable.”
“Great. That was worth scaring the crap out of me for.” Haley grumbled before driving slowly off the road.
Lucas smirked at her. “What? Did you think I was just going to run off and not come back?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” Haley replied.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Haley couldn’t believe she had said anything. Annoyed with herself, she finally said, “Just forget it.”
“Forget it? That’s the second time you have made a comment like that,” Lucas pointed out.
Haley ignored him as she drove into the corner, taking care to park so that if they had to make a quick escape, the car would be facing in the right direction. Once the car was off, she reached in the back for her bottle of water and a bag of snacks she had bought at the small general store.
"Any chance you want to explain what you were saying before?" Lucas asked still watching her.
Haley took a bite of jerky, chewing for a short while, thinking of what she should say. "Look, I didn't mean anything by it really. It's just that most people in my life don't tend to stick around."
“Okay,” Lucas said, sounding a little wary.
"It's just easier if I do things on my own.” Haley drank some water before going on. “It took me a while, but I finally figured out that if I don’t count on other people, then there’s a lesser chance that I’ll be disappointed.”
Lucas sat back in his seat, seemingly perplexed by her comments. “That seems a bit extreme.”
“I don’t expect you to understand.” Lucas opened his mouth to say something, but she wasn’t finished. “And I am certainly not asking for your approval or validation. It’s simply the way I feel.”
Lucas held up his hands in surrender. “I don’t want to argue with you about it. I just don’t understand it. Your family has always been…”
“Always been what? My father died during my senior year of college. I almost didn’t finish my degree because my mother was so devastated by the loss. Never mind that I had lost my father, everyone was focused on my mother. And speaking of my mother, she was so devastated that when I moved home after graduation, she didn’t want to be in the house alone so she started traveling all over the country visiting her friends.”
“I’m sure the house held a lot of memories,” Lucas offered.
“It did. I know because I had to stay in the house while my mother got to travel around. I gave up an important internship to move back to Fairview because she needed me. I had been home less than a week when she told me that she was going to go visit her friend from college for a little while.” Haley could not believe she was telling Lucas about this, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself. “Her two-week trip turned into nearly two months.”
“Oh, Haley.”
“Stop!” Haley said more sharply than she intended. “I don’t want your sympathy either.”
“Okay,” Lucas sounded placating. “How is your mother doing now? Is she back in Fairview?”
“No, thank you for asking though.” Haley gave him a sarcastic thumbs up. “After that first trip, she decided that she enjoyed traveling and has been gone on and off since. I talked to my mother at the end of last week and she has decided to move to Florida.”
“Oh,” Lucas said. “What about…”
“Other family? I don’t really know anyone from my dad’s side and my mother was an only child.” Haley blew out a frustrated breath. “The only person that knew any of this was Bri. She knew my mother was a wacko but still treated her with kindness and respect.”
“And then Bri moved away,” Lucas added.
“Yup,” Haley said, angry that she had been pushed to explain herself.
“And I
moved away too,” he admitted.
“I really don’t want to talk about this anymore.” To further make her point she turned the radio on.
Alexa Hamilton, the wife of wealthy financier, Brooks Hamilton, has not been seen for several days. Authorities have reported that her car was found this afternoon near Jefferson’s Mill at a rest stop off the highway. The vintage car, a yellow convertible Kharman Ghia, was located behind the store, and there was no sign of Mrs. Hamilton or that a struggle had taken place in or near the car.
“Isn’t that where we stopped this morning?” Lucas asked, picking a piece of jerky from the bag. “The one with the great bacon cheeseburger?”
“Oh my, yes, it is.” Haley turned around, leaning between the seats to dig through the back seat. “I saw that yellow car.”
“You saw the car? When?”
“While you were in the store, I decided I would try out my new camera. We were close to the scenic overlook so I took a walk. Out behind the store, there was a picnic area with tables next to a small meadow. The wildflowers were in full bloom.” Haley held up the screen of her camera to show him the shots she had taken. She scrolled through a few photos, stopping when she came to the yellow car. “There it is.”
“Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“I didn’t really know I had seen anything,” Haley explained. “I don’t think I heard the description of the car, did you?”
“No, you’re right we only came in at the tail end of the news report. It was just the basic contact police if you have any info on the missing person or car sort of thing.”
Haley moved through the last photos and then gasped. “Do you think that’s her?”
Lucas took the camera. “It might be. There really wasn’t a description of the missing woman. I mean, they made it sound like she is someone famous and we should all know what she looks like. Do you know who she is?”
Haley shrugged. “Just that she is the wife of some rich guy. We don’t really travel in the same circles.”
“Son of a … Capricorn!”
“What?” Haley leaned toward him as he turned the small screen on the camera toward her. It was one of the shots she had taken of the picnic area as she left the meadow. The parking lot was in the background, the black car conspicuous in that it was parked alone, far from the store. She looked back at him. “Is that…”
The Road to Sampson's Quarry (A Sampson's Quarry Mystery - Book One) Page 5
