“The black car that tried to run us off the road,” Lucas confirmed.
Haley stared at the camera before looking up at Lucas. “All of this is tied to the missing woman?”
“I think you may have seen something you weren’t supposed to see.”
Haley sat back heavily in her seat. “Oh, oh.”
8
“What do we do now?” Haley asked, her voice sounding overly loud. They had been sitting in the car for nearly half an hour. Silence had fallen over them as they contemplated the idea that they might be somehow indirectly involved in a high-profile kidnapping.
“I’m not sure,” Lucas said. “The storm seems to be calming for now, although I would be lying if I said that I thought it was over.”
“You think we’re in for more? Storms, I mean?”
Lucas ducked down, pointing through the passenger window. “You can see the clouds stacking up over there. Won’t be long before they’re headed our way.”
“It’s likely that we might be here for a while then, huh?”
“Yeah.” Lucas looked out the back window and then out towards the road. “What do you think about getting out and walking around for a little bit? Maybe there’s a house or cabin nearby with a phone. Or maybe if we walk out a little bit we can see a fire tower, anything that might get us some help.”
"Yeah, I suppose.” Haley sighed and looked out the window. “I guess anything is better than just sitting here doing nothing.”
Lucas got out of the car and opened the back door to pull on his windbreaker. “Do you have anything rain proof?”
Haley held up a blue jacket. “I use this for hiking so it should be fine.” She pulled on the jacket and then leaned back into the car reaching for her backpack.
“Do you hike a lot?” Lucas asked.
“When I can find the time, yes.” Haley dug around the back, finding her bag from the general store, and begin packing the snacks and the extra bottles of water into the backpack.
Lucas waved at her. “Throw some of those over here. I can throw a few in my backpack too.”
“You bet.” Haley was relieved that she didn’t need to argue with him about taking the snacks and water with them. It was probably an unnecessary step, but she’d rather be safe than sorry.
Lucas stood near the break in the trees, looking farther down the gravel road. “How about we walk down that way? We haven’t been down there yet.”
“Why not? Seems like pretty much anywhere is a good place to start.”
Haley fell into step next to him, and they fell into a companionable silence as they walked farther down the road. It was quite obvious to Haley that Lucas had been more reserved since she had made her earlier comments. She hadn’t meant to say anything at all and certainly not to Lucas. It was the stress of their current situation, coupled with her anxiety, that had made her blurt it out in front of Lucas. Haley had known for a long time that even something as simple as being stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire would be a problem. She literally had no one to call to help her. It had been weighing on her for some time and had become so much clearer after Bri had moved away.
This road trip had served to remind her not only of how alone she often felt, but also of how completely Lucas had broken her heart years ago. She hadn’t thought about what had happened in a long time. Even seeing Lucas at family events, she had been able to push most of the memories aside. Being forced to be so close to him, Haley was having a hard time not remembering what had happened.
It was almost four years ago, at Bri’s twenty-third birthday party. Lucas and Bri had been goofing around and Haley had run and taken his hat, running off through the house with it. Lucas had chased after her, only catching up with her as she ran outside. He had caught her rounding a corner and they fell to the ground wrestling for the hat. Haley had her arms stretched over her head to keep the hat away from Lucas. One minute they were both laughing and wrestling for the hat, and then suddenly she realized that Lucas had stopped reaching for the hat. Their faces were inches apart and she had barely registered the thought that he was going to kiss her when he actually did. It was so unexpected, and wonderful, that she could barely contain her giddiness.
They had spent the rest of the party together, trying hard to not act like anything had changed between them. It was Bri’s birthday, after all; the focus should be on her. After the party, they stayed up until nearly sunrise talking, and if she were remembering correctly, more than a few kisses. Lucas had told her that he had never felt that way about anyone and she admitted that she felt the same way.
When Lucas left in the morning, he had seemed a little shell-shocked, but Haley had thought it was the combined effect of no sleep and the sudden change in their relationship. He had promised to call her but he never did. A few days later, Bri told her that Lucas had been offered a job as a photographer for a magazine and had left early in the morning for South America. Haley had been shocked and hurt and entirely heartbroken.
“Haley,” Lucas said loudly.
She turned to him, surprised by the tone in his voice. “What?”
“I asked if you thought we should turn back.” Lucas stepped closer and said, “Are you okay? You looked like you were a million miles away.”
Haley started walking in the other direction. “Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about something."
Haley wasn’t sure if he believed her or not but he followed her just the same. “I thought for sure we’d catch sight of a fire tower or something.”
Haley stopped and looked at the tall pine trees that dominated the landscape. “There are so many trees that I doubt we would catch sight of anything unless it was right next to us.”
“You’re probably right.” Lucas gestured toward the tree line in the distance. “I was hoping that with the way the road curves, we might see something over the tree line from a distance.”
“It was a good idea. The low clouds are not helping much with that either.” Haley looked up at the clouds, wondering when the rain would start again. She had never been bothered by rain having always found it to be calm and soothing. Although she was quite sure if they stayed out in it much longer, they would start getting very cold.
They had been walking for a few minutes when Haley looked at Lucas. She could hear a low rumble and thought it might be thunder off in the distance. Lucas looked behind them and she froze in the middle of the road. Hearing it before they saw it made it even more ominous. The black car was coming around the curve in the road about half a mile behind them. They were back on the paved road, having just passed the area where the car was parked. Haley began to turn back towards it.
“No, this way. We don’t want him to find the car.” Lucas grabbed her hand and they began to run across the road.
“I don’t like this,” Haley complained.
“It’s better this way.” Lucas let go of her hand to jump across a shallow ditch, taking her hand again when she joined him. “We can run through the trees and he’ll have to stick to the road. There is no way he can drive through the forest.”
“Yeah, okay.” Haley let go of Lucas’s hand as the forest grew denser with trees.
They kept up their pace as they heard the car roar past on the road, only to turn around and come back. Without other noise around, they could clearly hear a car door open and then footsteps on the pavement.
“Do think he will come after us on foot?”
“I don’t think so.” Lucas glanced over his shoulder and then shook his head. “I couldn’t say for sure though.”
They had been at near a full run for several minutes when the rain began to fall again. Haley fought to keep herself together, fearing that the black car would come roaring up or that someone would suddenly step out from behind a tree.
Lucas appeared calmer than Haley. He paused next to a large tree to say, “I think we’re safe to slow down. Doesn’t look like he’s going to come after us, but I don’t want to go back to the car. He may backtrack
to where he saw us to start looking again.”
“What are we going to do if we can’t go back to the car?” Haley looked up at the sky. “It’s not as though we can just wander around for hours.”
“I know. Right now, I’m focused on keeping distance between us and that black car." Lucas scrubbed his hand over his face. It was the first time that Haley had seen him actually looking worried. “Once I feel we’ve put enough distance between us, I will figure the other stuff out.”
“We can both figure it out,” Haley told him. She pointed off to the left from where they were standing. “Does that look like a path over there to you?”
Lucas squinted into the shadows caused by the late afternoon cloud cover. “Yes! Good eye.”
They followed the path through the trees finally coming upon a cabin surrounded by tall pine trees.
“Yes!” Lucas said as he accelerated into a jog toward the cabin.
“Are you kidding?” Haley moved much slower. “It looks like a cabin from a creepy horror movie.”
Lucas shook his head. “It does not.”
“There’s a reason someone abandoned it,” she muttered to herself. “I really don’t want to die here.”
“It doesn’t look abandoned,” Lucas said cupping his hands to peer in a window. "It just looks closed up. It has real walls and no animal heads decorating the room.”
“Well I am glad that it sounds like it’s somebody’s vacation home, but how do you intend to get in?”
“That’s a very good question.” Lucas stepped back from the window with a perplexed look on his face. He turned toward the front of the house, tripping over something under the window. “I don’t want to have to break in but I’ll do it if I have to.”
Haley leaned over, looking at the rock that Lucas had tripped over. It looked odd and she picked it up, surprised that it was extremely light in weight. She turned the rock over and saw a small compartment. “Hey, this rock is a hide-a-key.”
Lucas turned back to her. “Hey, that’s great. How did you find that?”
“You tripped over it,” Haley said with a laugh.
“I did that on purpose." Lucas grinned at her.
“Just to see if I was paying attention?” she asked.
“Exactly,” Lucas paused at the front door with the key in hand. Haley stood on the small front porch while Lucas unlocked the door. “Do you want to stay out here while I check out things inside?”
“Okay,” Haley answered. He disappeared through the door and it wasn’t long before she started feeling nervous about being left alone. With a quick look around, Haley went into the house to join him. The house was nearly dark, as the afternoon sun was hidden behind a thick layer of clouds.
Lucas noticed her and said, “Sick of the view already?”
“Nah,” Haley said casually. “I was looking for the jacuzzi.”
“"Well, the house looks fine. There’s no jacuzzi that I have seen, and unfortunately, no electricity. I’m guessing there’s a generator somewhere that needs to be turned on." Lucas shrugged. “I don’t really want to use the homeowner’s fuel. Even without the electricity, I think we will be fine for the night without it.”
“The night? As in overnight?” Haley asked.
“I’m afraid so. There’s no way we’re getting out with that storm blowing and the black car roaming around.”
“I suppose not." Haley conceded. “Not that I like it though.”
The cabin was at least neat and clean with family pictures scattered here and there. Haley set her backpack on the kitchen counter, thankful that she had brought all their food and the water bottles with them.
“Do you think the black car will find this house?"
Lucas looked out the large window near the table. “I doubt it. This cabin has probably been in this family for generations. It’s not likely anyone really knows about it.”
Lucas left to check the rest of the house. He came back a few minutes later pointing a finger over his shoulder. “The bathroom works fine and has running water if you want to freshen up."
Haley nearly ran Lucas down in her quest to find the bathroom. “Thank God for little favors.”
She went into the small bathroom. There was a toilet, a sink, and a tiny shower stall in the corner. She turned on both faucets to the sink, washed her hands, and splashed water on her face. There was a dark blue hand towel hanging over a towel rack and she ran it under the cool water. She used the wet towel to wash off her arms and her neck. Finally, she pulled the elastic band out of her hair, letting it fall to her shoulders.
When Haley came out of the bathroom, she found that Lucas had set up a sort of candlelit dinner with their snacks and some canned sodas that he had found in the pantry.
“Wow. You didn’t have to do that,” Haley told him.
Lucas shrugged. “It was getting dark, and as you can imagine, I’m getting hungry already."
“I’m so surprised,” Haley said with a chuckle and sat down.
Haley looked across the table at Lucas. "You said before you've been in a lot of situations during your travels. Anything you want to share?"
Lucas chuckled. "I don't know; there's too many to count. I don't know which one to choose."
"How about the weirdest one?"
"Hmmm." Lucas sat back in his chair, clearly thinking about his answer. "This one time we were in South America; I'm not even sure what country. We had to move back-and-forth across the border as we were trying to avoid some local fighting that was going on."
"Wow, how scary."
"It wasn't that bad. You just didn't want to get stopped by either side as they might take all your food, maybe your money too. I didn't want to lose another camera.”
“Anyway, we got to this town and most people seemed pretty friendly. We found a place to stay, near a restaurant. It's not the Ritz-Carlton, but it was clean and the owner didn't care that we were Americans. The fact that we did have a Frenchman and an Australian with us probably didn't hurt."
Haley stayed silent waiting for him to go on.
"So the second morning there, I was literally dragged out of bed at like four in the morning."
"No!"
"Yeah. It was the son of the mayor from the next town over, and he was convinced that we stole his chickens."
"His chickens?" Haley asked, not able to keep the disbelief from her voice.
"Yes, chickens. Because that's apparently what Americans do when we go to South America, steal people's chickens."
Haley covered her mouth as she started to giggle.
"The local sheriff or whatever took us down to his office so we could be interrogated about the missing chickens," Lucas starts to laugh too. “After about two hours, even the sheriff is getting annoyed. The mayor's son has no proof that we did it. He just heard that visitors had come to the town so he went after us."
"What happened?" Haley asked. “Why aren’t you in a South American jail?”
"Disappointed?”
“A little bit,” she admitted in mock seriousness.
“It wasn’t long after the sheriff started getting annoyed that a man came into the office. It was the mayor from the other town, and it turns out that his older son has been stealing chickens from the younger son as part of a long feud."
"Huh? Some sort of family chicken-feud?" Haley managed to say with a serious face.
Lucas nodded and then said, "I think the real story had something to do with the younger son marrying his brother's girlfriend."
"Wow.” Haley shook her head. “Yeah, that would do it."
"This was nice. I have missed talking to you like this."
Haley was surprised, and all she said was, "Oh?"
"Every time I came home for a family event or whatever, we never got a chance to talk."
Haley couldn't help but wonder if he was being serious or not, and she didn't know how she felt about it either. If he was joking, then it just seemed in poor taste and a little callous on his part. And if he
was serious, it just made him look really clueless about things.
Haley decided to play it cool. "I hadn't really noticed but I guess you're right. Honestly, for the most part, I kind of held back because your family was excited to see you with you being gone so much. I didn't want to take away from their time with you."
"I can see that."
"It's been a long time since we have hung out like this," Haley admitted. Then in the spirit of being nice, she added, "Now that you've moved back to Fairview, maybe we could hang out sometime."
"Yeah, I would like that." Lucas looked at her for a moment and then said, "Maybe we could get dinner at Garibaldi's?"
Did he mean like a date? Haley couldn’t remember anyone going to Garibaldi’s when they weren't on a date. "Sure, I haven’t been to Garibaldi's in a long time."
Lucas stepped away from the table towards the small living room. “Maybe we should try to get some sleep. You can take the couch and I’ll sleep on the floor.”
“Okay,” Haley said tentatively.
Lucas took a step toward her. “Things will be better tomorrow. I promise.” He wrapped his arms around her in a hug that made her feel warm, protected, and cherished. He looked down at her and suddenly Haley thought “Is he going to kiss me?” She could have counted to three before he stepped back.
He took another step back. “I saw some blankets and pillows in the closet.”
Haley watched him disappear to the hallway near the bathroom and she dropped down onto the couch with an exasperated groan.
9
Haley opened her eyes confused, not understanding why the sun was shining on her from the mirror over her dresser. It took her nearly a minute to realize that she wasn't in her apartment but at the cabin where she and Lucas had found shelter the previous night. Even more disconcerting was the fact that Lucas was nowhere to be seen. Thinking he might be in the bathroom, Haley got up and padded down the hall but she found the door open and the bathroom empty.
The Road to Sampson's Quarry (A Sampson's Quarry Mystery - Book One) Page 6
