mine took me to her parents' summer house up there once. No one ever uses the place in the winter.' At least, he hoped no one would be using it while he and Elizabeth were there. Tracy Burton Stanton occasionally used her parents' summer cottage during the off-season as a hideaway to take her lovers. She'd taken him there once.
'I'll follow right behind you,' Elizabeth said.
'The place is pretty isolated, so we should be safe there, at least for a few days.' Reece knew Tracy would never tell a soul that her brother-in-law knew where her parents' summer house was located. After all, she'd have to explain why she'd taken him there. 'Don't follow me right away. Just in case. Do you understand?'
Elizabeth nodded her head.
'After I leave, you drive around to the office and tell Flossie who you are. She'll give you directions to the Burtons' summer place. She's been up there a few times herself, entertaining old man Burton and his friends.'
'Can you trust this Flossie?' Elizabeth wondered what sort of woman the former madam was, and why Reece was acting out of character by letting the woman know his whereabouts.
'A man would be a fool to trust Flossie with his money or his heart, but he can trust her not to turn him in to the law.' Reece cradled Elizabeth's chin in the curve of his thumb and index finger. 'We'll need some supplies. Stop at a store on the way and get whatever you think we'll need to last a few days. Once we're safely hidden away, we'll plan our strategy.'
'I'll follow your instructions.' Elizabeth threw her arms around him, hugging him fiercely. 'I'll meet you as soon as I can.'
Reece pulled out of her embrace. 'I've got to go, Lizzie.' He threw his bag over his shoulder, opened the door and walked outside.
'Please be careful.' She stood in the doorway, watching him get into the Jeep and drive away.
Elizabeth closed the motel door behind her, walked out to Sam's vintage T-Bird and put her bag in the trunk. She glanced toward the office, near the main entrance to the motel. Four sheriff's vehicles screeched into the driveway. A man she assumed was the sheriff emerged from the first car and went inside the office. Elizabeth got into her car and drove around toward the office, parking and waiting until the sheriff came out and walked around to the car directly behind him. Elizabeth was too far away to hear what was being said, but she knew they were discussing Reece. She sensed the high tension, the raised level of adrenaline in the officers forming the search party.
She kept hearing the words
The sheriff led the pack as they pulled up outside room nineteen, several men emerging from their vehicles, their guns pulled, as the sheriff lifted his bullhorn and called for Reece Landry to surrender.
Elizabeth's mouth felt dry, her hands damp. Her stomach twisted into knots. Hatred. The sheriff's deputies hated Reece Landry. They hated him not only because he had escaped but because they thought of him as a bad seed, a man capable of murdering his own father.
Clasping the key to number nineteen in her moist hand, Elizabeth marched into the office. The woman behind the desk glanced up at her.
'You checking out, sugar?' the six-foot redhead asked.
'Are you Flossie?' Elizabeth stared at the woman whose striking burgundy red hair had been draped into a French twist.
Flossie eyed Elizabeth, raising her black-lined, thinly tweezed eyebrows. 'Yeah, sugar, I'm Flossie.'
'Then, yes, I'm checking out.' Elizabeth laid the key on the counter and waited for a response from Flossie.
Flossie picked up the key, then dropped it into the waste-basket under the counter. 'What's your name?'
'Elizabeth.'
'Elizabeth, huh? Well, has our friend left yet?'
'Only a few minutes ago.' Elizabeth looked at Flossie, wondering if she dared trust her.
'Are you in a hurry or you got time for a cup of coffee?' Flossie nodded toward the coffee machine sitting at the end of the counter. 'Might be a good idea for us to talk, and you could wait around and see what happens when Sheriff Bates finds out his man has slipped through his fingers.'
'Luanne saw me last night,' Elizabeth said.
'Well, we'll just skip the coffee, but I don't think you have to worry about Luanne telling the sheriff much about you. I don't know what you said or did to her last night, but you convinced her you were a witch. She won't tell anybody but me because she's afraid they'll think she's crazy.' Flossie's wide red lips spread into a big grin.
'Thanks for everything, Flossie.'
'You'd best be leaving, sugar.'
Elizabeth reached out across the counter, taking Flossie's age-spotted, ring-adorned hand into hers. The two women exchanged knowing glances.
'You know he's on his way to the Burtons' summer house by the lake. I need directions so I can go to him after I pick up some supplies.'
Flossie looked past Elizabeth, out the glass front of the office. 'They're busting in room nineteen right now.'
Turning her head, Elizabeth watched as the deputies broke down the door and stormed inside.
'Tell me how to get to Spruce Pine, to the summer house.'
'Take Highway 40 until you get to Midget Creek. There's a four-way stop. Take a left and keep going until you see a sign that says Oden's Bait and Tackle Shop. About a mile past Oden's is a turnoff on the right. Take it and stay on that gravel road until it forks in two different directions. Take another right. It'll turn into a dirt road before you reach the cottage. The house is pretty well hidden in a grove of trees.'
'I'll find it. Thanks.'
Flossie came out from behind the counter, sizing up Elizabeth. 'I hope you love that boy, sugar. I hope to God you love him, 'cause if ever a man needed to be loved, Reece Landry does.'
Did she love him? Elizabeth asked herself. Did she? She cared about him, longed to be with him, was willing to suffer going out into the world to help him, was taking a chance on being arrested for aiding and abetting a criminal.
'I care about him. I care a great deal.' Elizabeth rushed outside into the cold morning air. Glancing toward room nineteen, she saw the sheriff and other officers standing around in a circle, discussing Reece Landry's second escape.
She slipped into the T-Bird, started the engine and drove out onto the highway. Within five minutes she turned onto Highway 40 and began looking for a minimart of some kind, one that had a pay telephone. About two miles up the road she pulled off at Joe's Market, asked the attendant at the full-service pump to fill the T-Bird and went inside to shop for supplies. Only a few customers wandered around, most of them people who'd stopped for gas. Elizabeth filled a hand basket with sandwich fixings, canned soups, milk and cereal and coffee, along with assorted items she thought they could use. She placed the basket on the checkout counter, then retrieved a six- pack of beer and a six-pack of cola from the wall cooler.
The middle-aged woman at the checkout counter smiled as she added up Elizabeth's purchases. 'You new in town or just passing through?'
'Just passing through right now, on my way to meet a friend.' When Elizabeth heard the bell hanging above the door tinkle, she turned to see a highway patrolman entering.
'Hey, there, Pete,' the checker said. 'Are you here for your regular?'
'Just coffee right now, Carolyn.' The patrolman poured himself a cup from one of the two pots behind the counter, handed the checker the correct change and took a sip of the hot liquid. 'I haven't got time for lunch. They've called an all-points bulletin for us to be on the lookout for Reece Landry. The night clerk over at the Sweet Rest thinks a customer who came in yesterday evening was this Landry guy.'
'You mean he's here in Newell?' Carolyn rolled her big brown eyes heavenward. 'Didn't know the man personally, but I can't imagine anybody in his shoes being fool enough to come back here, knowing he'd be recognized.'
