Outrunning Villainy

Chapter 7: Run for Your Life!

Chapter 7: Run for your Life!





Engrid and Andrew sat on her gazebo wondering what their future held. Months ago, Andrew arrived in town, a fresh faced young man with a bright, promising and seemingly endless future. Engrid was a retired, elderly widow who’d lived in this town and planned on spending the remainder of her years right there in Deerfield.


“Andrew…it’s really odd…that we’re even having this conversation. All we wanted to do was help a girl get off the streets. She’s homeless and needs help to get her life back. All we wanted to do was help. How, in God’s name, did this get so far out of control?”


“Engrid…I don’t know. I honestly don’t know.”


“I assumed that at this stage of my life, things would stay quiet. I’ve always lived a quiet life. I went to school and got an education. I got married and had kids. I taught mathematics for 36 years. I retired 19 years ago when I was 70. I figured I would live out my years here in this house and then die.


“In a way that was my plan.”


“I guess, in a way, you have more to give up than I do.”


“How so?” Andrew asked.


“You have another 50-60 years to go. I’ve only got a few more years left and then I’m out of here anyway. Plus you’ve got Evan. You’ve got someone you could conceivably spend the rest of your life with…a spouse…of sorts.”


“Nothing says Evan can’t come with us.”


“He might. He’s left before, he might again.”


“I don’t want to go anywhere. I’m hoping this all clears up and we don’t have to leave.”


“That would be ideal. But where would we go?”


“I have an idea.”


“What?”


“Go pack a suitcase.”


Engrid just started at him, her mouth drooped open. “What?”


“Go pack a suitcase. Pack for cold weather.”


Engrid began to sputter a reply, but she gave up and turned towards her house. She had her marching orders…she was to pack a suitcase to go to an as of yet undisclosed location. All she knew at this point was that Andrew had already picked out a spot and it was a cooler location.


Andrew followed Engrid into her house and up the stairs to her bedroom. She opened up her closet and lugged out a large suitcase. She flopped the black Samsonite onto the bed and unzipped it.


“This just all seems so…so…surreal,” Engrid said, staring at the empty suitcase, “I’ve lived in this house since 1946.


“Hurry, we may not have much time.”


Engrid got into motion and packed sweaters, jackets, and several other items.


“Where are we going?”


“Hopefully nowhere.”


Engrid didn’t pursue the topic further at the moment. She only kept adding items to her suitcase. She packed up her curlers and a multitude of grooming items.


Andrew walked over to the window to see if the police had returned. He hoped his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him and he wasn’t about to make the situation infinitely worse by making a run for it. He wasn’t sure how he knew, he just knew that Amanda was going to be found and it wasn’t going to bode well for him. He began to pace as it seemed that it was taking Engrid an inordinately long time to pack her stuff. He ran his stressed fingers through his tousled black hair.


“What’s wrong, Andrew? What aren’t you telling me?”


“I don’t know. I just have a feeling that we need to hurry if we’re going to go through with this.”


“I don’t want to go through with this.”


“I know you don’t. I don’t either…it’s just that I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in prison. Like you said, I’ve got another 50-60 years to go. I’d rather not spend that in a federal facility. Or have it cut short by capital punishment.”


“I’ve never liked capital punishment. Why should we kill people to show people that killing people is wrong? Anyway…it’s not going to come to that.”


“Do you have any books or other things downstairs you want to take with us? I can get them and carry them out to my car.”


“There are some books on the second shelf on the alcove by the fireplace. If you’d take those, I’d like that. It’s a couple of my old books and a few Bibles. The oldest one was given to my grandmother by her father at her wedding in 1891.”


“I’ll go get them.


“Also, there’s a writing desk in the living room by the window. There are some bank papers and whatnot in there. We can’t forget those.”


“Okay. I’ll leave you alone for a few minutes.”


“Thank you,” Engrid smiled wanly and returned to packing up her things.


Once Andrew was out of the room, she couldn’t hold back anymore. She started to tear up, and then they started flowing down her cheeks as she looked around the room she’d shared with her husband for the 53 years they were married. She could still hear her children’s voices out on the landing when they thought she couldn’t hear them. She was flooded with the memories of what had been. She sat down on the bed and sobbed.


Downstairs, Andrew was trying to channel his old spy instincts as he boxed up some things of Engrid’s. He put the Bibles in first, so he wouldn’t forget them. Then he collected pictures, photo albums, mementos, old letters, and all the papers he could find in the antique writing desk. They needed to make a daring escape as the police closed in on them.


He carried everything out to the blue Toyota Camry he’d bought earlier that day. He knew the police would look for his black Pathfinder or Engrid’s Town Car if they took either of those. So, he’s spent a few thousand dollars on a 10 year old Toyota. It was now parked on the gravel access road that ran behind the houses. It ran behind the houses on Maple Avenue and the houses on Oak Avenue. There was a privacy fence in the back of the property that let out onto the gravel road. He placed everything in the trunk and went back in for more. He carried several loads of her things out to the car and neatly arranged everything.


After the fourth trip, he went upstairs to check on Engrid.


Her makeup was a little smeared from crying, but she’d collected herself and was almost finished packing. She’d pack her main suitcase, a cosmetic bag, and another small suitcase. They were sitting on the floor by her feet as she sat staring off into space. She noticed Andrew standing in the doorway.


“I hope it’s okay to bring all this stuff.”


“It’ll be fine, Engrid. We’ll squeeze everything in.”


“Your Pathfinder can hold a lot of stuff. I’m sure it will be fine.”


“Well, we’d better go.” He picked up the large suitcase and rolled it toward the door. Engrid grabbed the small suitcase, her purse, and her cosmetic bag and followed right behind. He led her through the backyard, past the gazebo, past the tool shed, and through the gate in the privacy fence. He approached the car and opened the backdoor.


“Whose car is this?” Engrid asked.


“It’s mine. I bought it this morning…just in case we needed it.”


“I guess they would know to follow either of our cars if we took those.”


“Exactly,” He took her small suitcase and cosmetic bag and placed them on top of the main suitcase in the backseat.


Engrid opened the passenger’s side door and got in, placing her purse on the floor. She sat in the car and waited for Andrew to finish arranging everything. The reality of what they were about to do still seemed a distant reality. Her mind still whirred and turned trying to find a way out of such a bad situation. But in her tired state, her mind just wouldn’t kick into gear. She knew running away from the law was a terrible thing to do, but the only other option she could see on the horizon was going to prison for the few years she had left. Engrid decided that she would rather be on the run and see the country and breathe the fresh air than be trapped in a tiny, musty jail cell. She looked over her shoulder at the back of the car and Andrew tried to arrange the last few things in their hasty attempt at outrunning the police.


She rambled around in her purse to make sure she had everything she might need for the trip to wherever they were going. If she was going to run away, she always assumed that when people ran away, they ran to Mexico. But Andrew specifically said, ‘cold weather’ so he must have some other idea in mind.


“I’m glad we’re not going to Mexico,” she said to the glove box door, “That place has never appealed to me.”


She looked over at the steering wheel and said, “Then I guess the other option is Canada. I suppose that is a little more civilized.”


Andrew opened the driver’s side door, “Who are you talking to?”


“No one.”


“Hand me your cell phone.”


She dug around in her purse and retrieved it. “What do you need this for?”


He sat down in the car and started working with the phone.”


He slid off the back, pulled out the battery and the SIM card.


“What are you doing that for?”


“Our cell phones have GPS trackers in them. I just disabled it.”


“Oh…I would never have thought of that.”


“Hopefully we will help each other. You will think of things that never occurred to me and vice versa.” He took a deep breath, “Are you ready?”


“No, but I guess I’d better be.”


He started up the car, put it in gear and slowly processed down the gravel access road towards the main street. Engrid looked up and watched her home pass out of site, unsure if she would ever see it again.





                                                 #





“Get over to the Garrison place, 3621 Maple Avenue,” Agent Mortar barked into his radio.


“On it.” The scratchy voice crackled back.


Payson and Jimmy were now dispatched. The long time pals and enforcers of the law in Deerfield were on a mission. They had to bring in a couple of kidnappers. They raced through the streets of Deerfield, lights and sirens blazing. There were three other police cars in the processional as they made their hasty way over to Andrew and Engrid’s houses. They failed to notice a small, tan Toyota Camry law abidingly headed in the opposite direction.


They swarmed to a stop in front of the suspect’s domiciles.


Evan was in the kitchen making a snack when he heard the sirens off in the distance growing progressively louder. At first he tried to put out of his mind any ideas that they were headed in his direction. As the sirens grew more earsplitting, it became more undeniable that they were coming to take his lover away. The panic grew in his throat as he heard the tires sliding to a stop on the street out front. He put down his sandwich and poked his head out into the hallway. He heard the loud thudding on the door.


“Open the door, this is the police!” Jimmy shouted.


“I’m coming,” Evan shouted in reply.


Evan opened the door, “Can I help you with something?”


“Yes, we’ve come to get Andrew and Engrid.”


“With all this firepower, you’d think you were chasing the Devil himself.”


“We just may be,” Agent Sørenson stepped onto the porch, his blonde hair and severe expression unmoved.


“They’re not here.” Evan stated.


“Then where are they?” Richard Sørenson asked politely.


“They went for a walk about a half hour ago.”


“Do you know where they went on their walk?”


“No, I know they walked off that way along the street,” he pointed down toward where Engrid and Andrew had departed for their evening constitutional and brainstorming session.


“When do you expect them back?”


“I don’t know. I would think in the next half hour to forty-five minutes. They have a lot to think about and hash out.”


“That they do, Mr. Grayson.”


Payson walked up onto the porch, “They’re not around back and there’s no sign of anyone over at Engrid’s house. Both their cars are parked outside though.”


“Then I guess that Mr. Grayson’s been telling the truth. They’ve gone for a walk.”


“Has there been a development in the case?” Evan asked.


“Let’s sit down and talk,” Agent Sørenson said, ushering Evan toward the living room.


“Okay,” Evan didn’t like that tone…not one bit.


Once seated in the living room, Richard looked at Evan sadly, “As I said, there has been a development in the case.”


“What is it?”


“We found Miss Riverside.”


“That’s fantastic! Why are you sad? Was she hurt…oh no…was she…dead?”


“No, no she is very much alive. And I am not sad as much as concerned.”


“If you found her, then Andrew will soon be exonerated.”


“Not necessarily.”


Evan looked puzzled but didn’t like the implications.


“We found her in a self-storage unit that is rented by your...significant other, Andrew.”


“What!” Evan was clearly shocked and appalled.


“You found her in Andrew’s storage unit? Good God!”


Richard sucked his teeth, “Yes…yes we did.”


Evan looked away. “I can’t believe it. I just cannot believe it.” He shook his head as the horror was revealed to him. Andrew was a monster…just like the SLED agents had said.


“I…” Evan began but stopped.


“I realize this must come as a terrible shock.”


“I realize I haven’t known Andrew that long in the grand scheme of things but he was such a kind, caring person. I can’t believe that he would do something like this.”


“You’ve been acquainted with him for…about six months, correct?”


“Yes.”


“According to your mother, you had a negative reaction towards him when you initially met, is that also correct?”


“Yes. At first…something just seemed,” Evan trailed off for a moment, “off. Something about him seemed off. I couldn’t put my finger on it at the time. Then later I chalked it up to him being attracted to me but unwilling to admit it. I guess what he was really hiding was far darker than anything I ever imagined.”


“Sometimes the people who are closest to a situation are often the last to realize what’s really going on.”


“I guess so. But Engrid I’ve known all my life. I can’t begin to imagine that she would get mixed up in something like this. Unless…do you think Andrew may have coerced her into doing something against her will?”


“It is certainly a possibility we are investigating. Her profile doesn’t fit the type of people who do these sorts of despicable things.”


“Does Andrew?”


“Somewhat. Honestly I didn’t think he did it either until we found her in his self-storage unit and she described her attacker and Andrew fits the description she gave. That’s a pretty good case against him. It doesn’t mean that Engrid wasn’t being coerced against her will, but it pretty much puts Andrew in a pickle.”


“What about Andrew makes you think he’s the type of person who would do something like this?”


“Just general, vague things like he’s shy, intelligent, loner, not many friends, tends to keep emotions inside things like that- nothing particularly concrete.”


Evan didn’t have a response. He just sat, sadly looking out of his window. What was to become of Andrew and Engrid now? Was she really involved or was she another victim of Andrew’s evil, manipulative ways?


“I guess I didn’t know Andrew as well as I thought I did.”


“I don’t think anyone really knew Andrew.”


“I always seem to end up with psychos.”


“What do you mean?”


“I used to date a guy named Ray who abused me. Then I was with a guy named Grant for years and then moved back here. He went nuts and broke into the house and threatened to kill Andrew, Engrid and me. Andrew killed him with a shotgun blast to the chest.”


“Andrew murdered your ex-lover with a shotgun?”


“It was self defense. He was never even charged with murder. Grant had a gun to my head threatening to kill us both.”


“Andrew owns a shot gun?”


“Yes.”


“Where did he learn about firearms?”


“He was raised by his uncle in the military. Andrew’s been around guns his whole life.”


“Really? I guess the background check we have in progress will reveal those things.”


“It’s all starting to make sense now,” Evan said.


“What do you mean?” Agent Sørenson was clearly intrigued by this bright young man’s theories about what might have happened.


“Andrew has psychological issues- I noticed it when we first met and you gave a pretty accurate description of him a few minutes ago. Andrew is capable of killing people. I saw him blow Grant away with a shotgun. Then my mother takes up with a guy who hates gay people and makes all kinds of accusations about him and me and Dora and Engrid. I guess Andrew could have snapped and hunted down and kidnapped his daughter.”


“We can’t prove that yet, but it’s a reasonable theory,” Richard replied, folding his hands in his lap.


Evan just looked shocked. He couldn’t wrap his head around what his own reasoning skills were telling him was well within the realm of possibility.


“I wonder when Mr. Garrison and Mrs. Matthews will be back.”


“I don’t know,” Evan replied, “If they see all these cars and if they’re guilty, they won’t come back.”


“We’re covering that contingency now. We’ve set up road blocks on the ways out of town. But both their cars are parked outside.”


“Then check the bushes.”


“Does Mr. Garrison or Mrs. Matthews have any other cars?”


“Not that I know about. I clearly don’t know much about them.”


“I guess there could be a third person involved. Who might that be?”


“I don’t know. Obviously not me…I’m sitting right in front of you.”


“Where better to hide than in plain sight?”


Evan looked dejected.


“I’m only teasing,” Agent Sørenson said, “Obviously it was ill-timed and in poor taste.”


“It’s okay. I just hope we’re all wrong about them.”


“I hope so too. It’s looking less and less likely, though.”





                                                 #


Engrid and Andrew left just early enough they were able to evade the roadblocks. Andrew’s insistence that they leave and not wait any longer turned out to be quite the wise thing to do. Andrew drove along, as the glow of Deerfield’s lights faded into the background. Engrid was very quiet, just staring blankly at the passing pine trees.


“Engrid…it’s going to be okay. They’ll find Amanda and get this all sorted out. As soon as that happens, we’ll be able to go back.”


“I hope so. I miss my house already. I’m going to miss Evan and Myrtle and Dora and my church. It’s just all seems so surreal.”


“It feels that way to me and I’ve only lived there a little while, I can’t imagine what it must feel like for you.”


“I wouldn’t wish this feeling of displacement on anyone.”


Andrew drove quickly northwest along Intestate 26.


“We’re out of Deerfield. What’s the rush now?”


“Once they realize we’re missing, they’ll set up roadblocks on all the ways out of the state. They will set up a statewide manhunt.”


“Oh my. Would they really do that to catch us?”


“Yes. We are suspected kidnappers of a teenage girl. They will stop at nothing to catch us until we are exonerated. We need to get out of South Carolina as quickly as possible.”


“Then what are we going to do?”


“Get out of North Carolina as quickly as possible.”


“Why?”


“If they can’t find us, they will cast a wider net and notify neighboring states to be on the lookout for us. We are so different that we would be pretty conspicuous.”


“Why? It’s just a young man driving his grandmother around. What’s conspicuous about that? It seems perfectly normal to me.”


“But people will be looking for a young man and an elderly woman driving together.”


Up ahead, Engrid saw a large sign. It stated simply, “Welcome to North Carolina.” She’d driven over the state line before but wondered if they really were welcomed in North Carolina. They drove uneventfully over the state line and into the great state of North Carolina in their run from the law.


“You know…now that I think about it, this is rather exciting.”


Andrew looked over at her. He hadn’t expected that comment. “What do you mean?”


“I’m trying to stay positive so I don’t completely lose it.”


“That’s a good thing. I hope we don’t have to stay gone very long.”


“Where are we going?”


“We are going to head north.”


“Where to?”


“We were just getting out of South Carolina. Now, we’re going to turn west and go partway through Tennessee, then up, up and away.”


“To…why won’t you just tell me where we’re going?”


“Winnipeg.”


“Manitoba?”


“Yes. We are going through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota and into Manitoba.”


“Can we make it?”


“I don’t see why not. Since we’re leaving from South Carolina, they’ll be expecting us to go to Mexico. I have a card that is attached to an overseas account in the Cayman Islands. That way they can’t track it. It’s under the name of a limited liability company I set up.”


“You planned this?”


“Not running away under the cover of darkness, no. It was planned as a tax haven for my parents’ estate. But it works in this situation too. The investigators won’t know it exists. I hid the papers. They won’t know to look for the paper trail. So, we can spend money with the card and they won’t know about it.”


“Hmmm. It sounds suspicious but if you really think it’s the best way.”


“It’s the safest way.”


Engrid remained quiet, as the little Toyota moved northward through the mountains of western North Carolina towards the Tennessee state line.





                                                 #





Agent Sørenson sat quietly in Evan’s living room, his large, masculine hands folded neatly in his lap.


Dora appeared in the doorway looking worried.


“What on earth is going on here?” She asked, looking at all the strangers piled in the room, “What’s happened?”


“They found Amanda.”


“That’s terrific!” Dora looked surprised, “So this is just wrapping things up?”


“Not exactly, Dora,” Evan stated, “Unfortunately, things took a turn for the worse.”


“What does that mean?”


“They found Amanda in Andrew’s storage unit out on Route 5.”


“Oh!” she gasped and took a step back, “Where’s Andrew?”


“That’s what we’re trying to figure out,” Richard broke in, “You wouldn’t have any suggestions where we should look, do you?”


Dora pondered the question for a moment, “No. I’m sure you’ve already checked everywhere I would think of.”


“You don’t think they’ve…made a run for it, do you?” Evan asked.


“It’s possible. We’re putting tracing on all his bank accounts and credit cards. If he tries to make any purchases or withdrawals, we’ll know about it immediately.”


“Then he’s probably not going to do that,” Dora shook her head, “He’s much too smart.”


“His intelligence is part of what makes him dangerous. Plus he has a military background. He might have a few tricks up his sleeve that none of us knows about.”


“If we haven’t gotten any hits in a couple of days, then chances are they’re holed up here in town somewhere. We’ve set up roadblocks, but we may have been too late,” Agent Sørenson stated to the assembly.


Dora turned to Evan, “You don’t think Andrew actually kidnapped that girl, do you?”


“I don’t know. I didn’t think so, but Dora, they found her in his storage unit. He went looking for her the other night after her dad made accusations against us and then he came in here and pulled a gun on mom and me. I really didn’t think Andrew had anything to do with it, but even I can’t deny that this doesn’t look good.”


“Mrs. Murchison, Mr. Grayson,” Agent Sørenson said, “If Mr. Garrison or Mrs. Matthews were to leave town, do you have any suggestions where they might go?”


The two thought for a moment.


Evan stated, “The only family Andrew has is his uncle in San Diego. But that’s a long way to go.”


“Engrid has children scattered around, but she’d be too embarrassed to go to any of them for help. She has a bit of a prideful streak.”


“So, where are her children located?”


“I’ll go back over to my house. I have their addresses and telephone numbers written down. You can have them if you need to call her kids to see if they know of anything. Two are here in South Carolina, one is in Florida, and one is in Texas.”


“Andrew also has a lot of friends in the New York City area. They might head that way.”


“Engrid’s originally from Oregon and she lived in Idaho for a while, but that was many, many years ago. But she might have some distant relatives there.”


“So, we have New York, California, Oregon, Texas, Florida, and Idaho as options. I sure wish we could narrow the list down a bit.” Agent Sørenson said.


“Unless…what if they went somewhere they thought we’d never look for them?”


“Like where?”


“That’s the problem.”


“So,” Dora said, “Applying our logic, we would rule out the northeast, the southeast, the southwest and the northwest…what else is left?”


“Where’s the farthest you can get from any of those places?” Dora asked.


Evan, Richard and Dora looked at each other for a moment.


Dora shrugged her shoulders. Evan spoke up, “The intermountain west or the great plains might be a possibility.”


They looked quizzical.


“The intermountain west,” Evan repeated, “You know…Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming…or the great plains- Kansas, Nebraska and so on.”


“What if, they left the country?” Dora suggested.


Agent Sørenson looked crestfallen, “That’s the worst possible scenario. If they left the country, we would have to have them extradited, which is a massive pain in the neck.”


“What’s the quickest way out of the country?” Dora asked.


“It doesn’t matter. Neither Engrid’s nor Andrew’s bank account show recent activity or major cash withdrawals in the last couple of days. So, he can’t afford the gas to get far enough to leave the country. Plus both their cars are sitting right outside. It’s most likely that he’s right under our noses.”


“Engrid knows a lot of people, but again she’s not likely to turn to any of them for help. She’d be too embarrassed that she’d gotten herself into trouble.”


“What about Andrew?”


“I doubt it. He’s new in town so I don’t know anyone who’d take on the law to protect him. Other than Engrid, Dora and me, he doesn’t really have any friends in town.”


“Does he have friends anywhere that might take on the law to protect him?”


Evan thought about it for a few moments. Only one I can think of. He has a friend named David McGregor. But I don’t know where he lives. I think in New York somewhere.”


“We’re currently decrypting Andrew’s computer so we might be able to get an address.”


“Where is Amanda?” Dora asked, “I hope she’s okay.”


“She’s in the hospital. It’s just a precaution…they’re running some tests to make sure she’s okay. Then we’re going to release her to her grandmother since her dad’s in jail.”


“Poor thing. Her father in jail and she’s been kidnapped and held in a storage locker for who knows how long. Plus being out on the streets like that.”


“Streets?” Agent Sørenson looked at Dora.


Dora returned his puzzled look, “The streets. Dylan didn’t tell you? Part of what happened at the ill-fated dinner party at Myrtle’s the other night is that he told us that he threw her out of the house for being a lesbian.”


Richard turned over this new piece of information in his mind. He wasn’t quite sure what to make of it. Dylan had played the frightened father card earlier but in reality, he’d done something pretty terrible to his daughter himself.


“In the interviews, no one mentioned that little factoid.”


“Yes. It was part of the yelling and screaming about me and Engrid being a lesbian couple. Dylan really went off the deep end a little bit that night. Also, that night the rest of us went looking for Amanda. It was purely out of concern for her safety. We drove to Columbia together in Engrid’s car and tried to find her.”


“Who is ‘the rest of us’?”


“Andrew, Engrid, Evan, Myrtle and me- we all piled in Engrid’s Town Car and drove.”


“Where did you look?”


“We went to a soup kitchen/homeless shelter called…what was the name of that place?”


Evan filled in, “Hospitality House. Andrew said that they talked to a women there named Joyce Elliott. She told them where Amanda might be.”


“But,” Dora broke in, “She told them not to go that night because it was too dark and it might be dangerous to go to that part of town at night.”


Agent Sørenson looked thunderstruck though he tried to hide it.


“So, Engrid and Andrew went back the next afternoon without us. We waited here by the phone in case something happened.”


“Did anything happen?”


“After Andrew got home that night, he told me that Amanda fell into the river from the bridge and he’d rescued her. Then the paramedics came and took her away to the county detoxification center. Then it was so late, once the paramedics took her away, Engrid and Andrew returned home. Andrew came in about 1:00 in the morning.”


“How dare you!” Agent Mortar bellowed from behind. He’s overheard the entire conversation and he was livid. “I should have both of you hauled off for obstruction of justice. Why did a single one of you not bother to tell us this?”


Mortar’s venous forehead bulged with anger that these two miscreants were messing up his investigation.


“We were afraid,” Dora stated, “I’m 93 and I have no intention of going to jail.”


“I’m 27 and I have no intention of going to jail.” Evan stammered.


“In the interviews, why didn’t you say anything about your involvement in this?”


“I don’t know about Evan, but you intimidate the living daylights out of me. Agent Sørenson here is much less imposing. I guess he made us feel like we were part of the investigative team rather than suspects.”


“You are NOT part of the investigative team…you ARE suspects!” Agent Mortar threw up his hands and stormed out of the living room and back out onto the porch.


Agent Sørenson looked embarrassed. “He can be a bit overbearing at times. I don’t think of you as suspects. I think of you as sources of information. I think you’ve both had your trust violated by Andrew’s malfeasance and that makes you victims, in a way.”


Dora and Evan just looked stunned. They hadn’t heard Agent Mortar come in and so were taken completely by surprise by his outburst.


“But, Carl was right about one thing, though, you should have spoken up earlier. Now your credibility is at risk. Is there anything else you can think of that might help us find them?”


“No,” both agreed.


“If you think of anything or remember anything about what happened the night you went to Columbia or the following night, please let us know.”


“We will.”


Dora sat down on the sofa and looked out of the window. This had all become such a colossal mess very quickly. She’d known Engrid for over 60 years and she knew, without a shred of doubt, that Engrid was innocent. There was no way in the conceivable universe that Engrid would willingly participate in kidnapping anyone or hurt anyone in any way. Dora couldn’t vouch for Andrew as strongly as she could vouch for Engrid, but nonetheless, he didn’t seem like the type of person who could not only kidnap and confine someone, but could coerce a harmless old woman into the nefarious plot to do such unthinkable things. It took a truly sick person to do that. Andrew hadn’t seemed like a sick, demented man; but, as Evan said, none of them knew Andrew as well as they thought they did.


Dora looked up as a uniformed officer came in the room. He approached Agent Sørenson, who was standing by the window staring out into the darkened town. Dora strained her ears to hear the whispered conversation.


“Only three sets of fingerprints were recovered from the scene…Andrew’s, Engrid’s and Amanda’s. There is something odd, though. The chair, Amanda’s person, the door, nor the door lock had fingerprints on them. ”


“What’s odd about that? Engrid and Andrew were in there at other times, but used gloves when they were bringing Amanda in. So, what you’ve told me doesn’t help the case.”


“This might.”


“What’s that Jimmy?”


“We showed Amanda a picture of Andrew and a picture of Engrid. She swears that it wasn’t them. She says it was one man. There was no woman involved. And she says that the man who kidnapped her is not the man in the photograph.”


Agent Sørenson looked more thunderstruck than before.


“Are you absolutely sure?”


Jimmy Behr scowled, “Of course I’m sure. We had a licensed child psychologist show her the picture and the psychologist insisted that Amanda’s reaction was genuine and truthful.”


“So that means they didn’t have anything to do with it?” Dora said. It was her turn to sneak up behind someone. “It means Engrid and Andrew are innocent, doesn’t it.”


Richard turned quickly, “Possibly. Unless Amanda didn’t get a good look at the perpetrator or is confused somehow, it does mean that it wasn’t Andrew and Engrid.”


Dora hurried over and sat down next to Evan who was looking more and more dejected and sad. “I’ve got good news!”


“What’s that?”


Dora proceeded to explain what she’d overheard and what it must mean. Evan’s expression perked up.


“But then how did she get in his self-storage unit? That just doesn’t add up.”


“Is there anyone who knew about the self-storage unit that might want to get back at Andrew for something?”


“Not that I know about,” Evan shook his head, slowly moving back and forth.


Dora left the room.


“I wonder where she’s going.” Evan said.


“Maybe she thought of something.”


“Dora!” Agent Sørenson called after her.


She didn’t stop but left the house entirely.


“Maybe she thought of where they are and decided that she would fare better at bringing them in than a squadron of police cars and sirens.”


“I hope that’s all it is. We have legal authority to detain her at this point.”


Dora walked across the lawn to her own driveway. She climbed into her Ford Explorer and drove off down the street, leaving a confused Evan and Richard watching through the living room window. She had an idea she had to follow-up on. She made a couple of turns and made her way through the Deerfield streets, wondering where on earth Engrid and Andrew could possibly have run away to. She pulled to a stop in front of the police station. Dora sat in the driver’s seat looking at the door of the police station through her nice, clean windshield, thinking through the wisdom of what she was about to do. She was either about the make the situation infinitely better or considerably worse. She finally decided that she had to go through with it. She stepped out of her car and hurried up the steps of the police station before she lost her nerve.


She walked up to the front desk.


“I need to speak with Dylan Riverside, please.”


“Are you family?” the sandy hair desk sergeant asked.


“I’m his great-aunt Dora.”


“Right this way.”


“What’s your name?” she asked.


“Phillip Morningside. I’m a staff sergeant here. Everyone’s out working on a case right now, so I guess I’m manning the fort.”


“You look tough enough to handle it. You’re a bit young but I’ll bet you’re strong.”


“I am.” The young man was flattered by this youthful senior citizen.


He led her through the corridors and arrived at a cell.


“Mr. Riverside, you have a visitor.”


Dylan looked up and scowled. “What are you doing here?”


“This is Dora,” Phillip announced.


“I know who she is. She’s the one who called the police on me.”


Phillip looked surprised. The old woman seemed harmless enough.


“You were holding a house full of people hostage at gunpoint. What was I supposed to do? Was I just supposed to sit around on my kiester and let you shoot them?”


Dylan scowled harder, “What do you want?”


“I want to strike a deal. I know it’s not in my legal authority, but I wanted to get your opinion on my proposal before I ask the police about it.”


“I don’t want a deal with you.”


“Mr. Riverside, they found your daughter.”


Dylan looked relieved, “They did? No one said anything to me about it.”


“They will.”


“Is she okay?”


“Yes. Agent Sørenson said she was fine. A little shaken up, which is understandable, but all in all, she’s fine. She’s seeing a counselor right now. As you know, Engrid and Andrew are the prime suspects. I am convinced beyond a shred of doubt that they are both innocent. The strange thing is that they found her in Andrew’s self-storage unit.”


“So that little bastard did do it. I knew he was trouble the minute I saw his queer little butt at Myrtle’s house.”


“Well, that’s where things take a turn for the odd, Mr. Riverside.”


“What’s that?”


“Amanda saw a picture of Andrew and she insists that he’s not the kidnapper. She also insists that only one man was involved. No women were involved, old or otherwise.”


“What does that mean?”


“It means that Andrew is innocent. Not only is he innocent, so is Engrid.”


Dylan’s relief was visible on his face. He looked tired and like he had aged 15 years in the past 48 hours. Dora felt like she’d aged 15 years too with all the police and interrogations and suspicions and accusations being thrown around about unspeakable horrors.


She leaned against the bars and brought her face up to the gap. “So...”


“So?” Dylan returned her gaze, “What did you have in mind.”


“Well, you are guilty…everyone knows that. You are guilty of throwing your daughter out into the streets. You are also guilty of threatening two people at gunpoint in a private residence. So, you are in big trouble as I see it.”


“I know all this. Are you just here to rub it in that I’m guilty and your friends aren’t?”


“As tempting as that would be…no.”


“Then why are you here?”


“The police aren’t convinced about Andrew’s innocence. They’re pretty convinced that he’s guilty. Or at least that he’s involved somehow. Plus, you have a lot of amends to make to your daughter. You can’t repair that relationship while you’re in jail.”


“And?”


“And so my proposal is that I will try to convince Evan and Myrtle to drop the charges against you if you will not pursue any charges against Andrew and Engrid. After all, we know they didn’t do it. So, if you don’t pursue prosecution, neither will we.”


“Are Evan and Myrtle willing to go along with you…you said you would ‘try to convince them’ …are they on board?”


“Not yet, but they will be. Once I explain the situation, they will understand.”


Dylan sat back on his bunk in the jail cell. He wasn’t so sure that Andrew was a harmless young man. Dylan was afraid that he was letting a criminal get away. But the offer of his freedom in exchange was a tempting bargaining chip. Dylan thoughtfully stroked his chin and pondered the situation.


“Okay.” He replied.


“You’ll do it?”


“Yes. I won’t pursue prosecution of Andrew if Evan and his mom won’t try to prosecute me. Deal?”


“Deal,” Dora replied, “I’ll go talk to Evan and Myrtle.”


“If they don’t go along with the plan, then there is no deal. If I go down for attempted murder or assault with a deadly weapon, Andrew and Engrid go down for kidnapping a minor.”


“Understood…now I have to go ensure the other half of this deal.”


Dora hurried past Phillip and out into the Deerfield darkness.


                                                 #


Engrid was looking at a roadmap. She decided that since this might well be the end of her days and she and Andrew might end up going out like Thelma and Louise, she might as well enjoy seeing the country before she left the planet. She was certain that once they bedded down for the night, the ghosts would haunt her mind and she would end up in tears as the reality of what they were up against came crashing down onto her mind and her consciousness. However, for the time being, she made every effort to lose herself in her project of planning their escape route to Canada.


“The closest route to Canada is through Detroit. We should have gone north on Interstate 65 and through Tennessee. Why’d we go over to Mississippi first?”


“I wanted to get out of South Carolina as fast as we possibly could. Plus, the interstate highways leading out of the state would be the first place the look when they realize we are no longer in Deerfield.”


“So, where do we go from here?”


“That’s up to you…you’re my official navigator.”


“I know you have it worked out in your head where would be best.”


“I have a few ideas. I’m not completely wedded to Winnipeg if you have a better suggestion. If you see somewhere else we might go, we can try it.”


“Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.”


“Moose Jaw?”


“Yes…Moose Jaw…I’ve wanted to go there since I was a little girl and found it on one of my father’s geological survey maps. I love that name. Whenever things were going badly in my life, whenever I wanted to escape my reality, I went to Moose Jaw in my mind.”


“You’re serious.”


“Yes, I’m serious.”


“Have you ever mentioned that to anybody?”


“No…it’s the sort of thing that isn’t nearly as much fun if people know about it. Plus I haven’t thought about it in a hundred years myself.”


“Then we’ll go there. They would never think to look for us in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. Engrid, it’s perfect.”


“Moose Jaw…” She smiled, “I also like the name Medicine Hat.” They were funny sounding names, and eighty years after thinking of it originally, she was finally going to get to go to Moose Jaw. Now she was truly excited about it. It was nerve wracking that she might finish out her last days in the Canadian wilderness, but there were worse places to die…rural Mexico being one fate she was glad she’d dodged. When it initially occurred to her that running away might be a last resort option, Mexico had been the first place she’d thought of. It seemed to be the place of choice for miscreants and outlaws on TV. Since she was now an outlaw, it made sense that she would go there. But Andrew’s suggestion of Canada was a vastly better option.


“It’s a long drive, you realize.”


“I know that. It’s in western Canada and we are still in North Carolina.” It’ll be a couple of days before we get there. We will have ourselves a little road trip.”


“You sound almost excited about this.”


“Well, I thought about it and this might be my final hurrah.”


“What do you mean?”


“I’ll turn 90 on my next birthday. How many more years could I be around? 10 to 15 would be a generous estimate. Chances are I’ve only got 4 or 5 more good years left before I become feeble and then die. If I’m going to spend my final years on the lamb, I might as well make a fun road trip out of it. If I was going to be miserable for my final years, I might as well have stayed in Deerfield and gone to prison.”


Andrew mused over that for a moment.


“Uncle Ray really wanted me to be a spy. It was his dream for me to follow in his footsteps. I think part of it was that he gave up that life when he took responsibility for me. I know he missed it. If it weren’t for me, he would have stayed in the CIA rather than becoming an army bureaucrat.”


“Why doesn’t he go back to being a spy now that you’re all grown up?”


“63 year-old spies tend not to last that long. He’s just waiting to turn 65 and he’ll retire. So by the time I was ‘all grown up’ it was too late for him to do that. So, his dream I guess was to live vicariously through me. But I didn’t want the nomadic life of a spy. When he was in the service in that capacity, he would get a phone call and disappear for months at a time. He would come back scratched up, shot, and bruised. He would be very evasive and not tell me where he’d been. Then when I started helping out his old commander and doing the delivery missions, two things became clear to me. Espionage was not the career path for me and that my becoming a CIA agent was Uncle Ray’s sweetest dream for me. It disappointed him a lot when I didn’t do that. Now it looks like the nomadic, rootless life insists on following me. As soon as I thought I was safe and settled, everything fell bizarrely and fantastically to pieces. Who would have ever imagined that something like this would happen? I have always gone out of my way to obey every law on the books. I’ve never had a speeding ticket or parking ticket or any legal infraction of any kind. Now I’m accused of who knows what all they’ll pin on me and now I’m a fugitive.”


Engrid turned these things over in her mind.


“I don’t know what it’s like to be a disappointment to a parent. I did exactly what my parents wanted and what culture and the church told me was right thing to do. I got an education, got married, had children, raised them more or less successfully, and had a lengthy and successful career in education. I love my husband and I cared for him in his waning years and placed him tearfully in a grave and now it was supposed to be a matter of waiting my turn to join him. That’s how life is supposed to progress. It’s always been that way and it’s a system that seems to work. But it seems like everything I thought about life and the world just keeps falling apart in the eleventh hour.”


“It does seem that a lot of bad things have happened lately. But we have to remember that we only had the best of intentions in helping that girl. You and I did nothing wrong. We did precisely what we were supposed to do.”


“I know that. That’s what makes this whole thing all the more disappointing. A person can’t even do a good deed anymore without being punished.”


“In a few days, things will calm down and be clearer. You still have your faith.”


Engrid looked at him, raising her eyebrows. She never expected that comment from Andrew. Perhaps those Bible lessons and churchgoing were starting to pay off.


“Yes…you are right! I should never have lost sight of that. This whole bizarre series of events should not have let me forget my faith. God will meet us in Moose Jaw.”


“We need God to get us out of this.” Andrew replied, “A little divine intervention would be very welcome right now.”


Engrid sighed, looking out of the window at the darkness of the American countryside. She wasn’t sure quite where they were. Somewhere along the interstate near the Tennessee/North Carolina state line- a very long way from Moose Jaw, and seemingly a universe away from home.


“Andrew…you are wiser than you realize.”


“How so?”


“You reminded me to remember my faith and hold on to it. I’ve always thought of myself as a faithful Christian. I was raised that way and was that way every day of my life. Then when something truly bad happens to me, I forget that. God goes out the window and I panic. This isn’t the first time that’s happened. I remember nights when my children were sick or when we found out that George’s pancreatic cancer had metastasized and was terminal. I forgot God. I got so focused on what to do and how to do it and when to do it, that I completely forgot to ask for God’s help or direction. We may not even be doing the right thing. God may already have this whole thing worked out. We might be running like scared little chickens while God, in his infinite wisdom, already has a plan in place.”


“What would that plan be?”


“I don’t know. That’s the problem with God’s plans…sometimes he doesn’t tell you right way. Sometimes, to teach you dependence, he makes you sweat a little bit and then it all works out in the end. Sometimes life looks like a meandering path, but in hindsight you can see the fingerprints of God.”


“What does that mean?”


“Well, sometimes things have to happen before other things happen and one series of events sparks or prepares you for another series of events. And you can’t see it at the time because we aren’t privy to what else is going on in the world or what else is coming down the pike in our own future. But somehow, miraculously I guess, it all comes together.”


“That’s pretty insightful.”


“I have my moments.”


“You are a remarkable woman. In some ways I wish you were younger. That way we could know each other longer.”


“I’m glad I’m the age I am. If I were younger, I wouldn’t have had the same parents, I wouldn’t have had the same husband, the same children, the same neighbors, everything about my life would have worked out differently and I like my life. There were parts I kind of wish I could do over again but for the most part, I’m happy with my life. I’m also happy that I’m almost finished.”


“You want to die?”


“Well I’m not suicidal if that’s what you’re thinking. I just mean that I miss people who have died and it does excite me a little bit that I won’t have to wait too much longer before I see them again. I know you miss your parents and so forth, but when you get older and you lose people you’ve known for half century or more; it’s a different kind of missing. There are nights I think George is going to come walking back through my door. He’s been dead for 15 years but sometimes I can almost hear him walking around upstairs. When he first died, I sometimes thought he was hiding the backyard. I know it sounds ridiculous. I will never forget it. It was about two weeks after the funeral. I was sitting in the living room reading when it occurred to me that George wasn’t really dead. He just hadn’t been home recently, but that he was hiding in the backyard waiting for me to find him. I knew it was off-the-wall, and I’ve never felt so crazy but I just couldn’t shake the feeling that George was hiding in the backyard. So, about 11:30 that night, I finally couldn’t keep it back anymore. I just had to check…just to make sure. So I took a flashlight and went out in the backyard and searched for George. I kept looking all the while telling myself that I was nuts and that George really was dead. I planned and attended the funeral in the church. I watched them close the casket and lower it into the ground. George was completely dead yet somehow in my mind, there had been a terrible mistake and George was really still alive and waiting for me.”


Andrew didn’t reply for a few moments. Then he spoke up, “That’s…”


“Insane…I know it is.”


“No, not insane…I just can’t imagine my mind playing tricks on me like that.”


“If you let someone close enough to you and they’re taken away, you will. I know many widows and widowers who’ve had similar experiences. Some of them are downright paranormal. Like a woman at church told me that she was worried about her husband after he died and she felt his presence in her room. She felt like someone sat on the edge of the bed and touched her shoulder. Whoever or whatever it was didn’t say anything, but she was filled with the most incredible sense of peace and she knew without a shred of doubt that her husband was in heaven.”


“That’s amazing.”


“Love is powerful. It can be the glue that holds your life together or the absence of it can drive you out of your mind.


“I hope I’ve found it with Evan.”


“I do too. You’re not a conventional couple, but you clearly love each other. I just hope us running away doesn’t tarnish anything.”


“That worries me too. I’m worrying about someone I may never see again.”


“You’ll see him again, don’t worry about that. I’ll see him and Dora again.”


They drove on in silence for a while, thinking about the discussion they just had.





                                                           #





         Dora hurried back over to Evan’s house to see if she could convince them to go along with her plan.


         “Why would we do that? If Andrew’s innocent it won’t matter,” Evan asked, standing by the fireplace in the living room.


         “It still matters because if he threw her out once, he’ll do it again if he doesn’t do worse. She’d be better off living with her grandmother while he pays his debt to society.”


         “But Evan, that girl is hurt and scared and she needs her father. You and your mother are the only people standing between him and freedom. It’s your choice whether to press charges or not. You, Evan, hold the key to that man’s and his daughter’s life and I don’t want you to make a choice you will later regret.”


         “Does Dylan regret what he put mom and me through?”


         “Yes. He knows it was wrong. You won’t have to worry about him anymore.”


         Evan didn’t quite believe her. He knew she had an agenda- liberating Dylan- and she was only saying what she needed to so he would be on her side.


         “Have you discussed this with Agent Sørenson?”


         “No, I wanted to make sure it was okay with you first. I didn’t see a point of stir things up until I knew for sure that you would do your part.”


         “My part?”


         “Yes. If you insist on pressing charges, there’s no point making me look bad.”


         Evan thought it over for a moment. Perhaps Dora was right. Maybe it would be a mistake to pursue prosecuting Dylan. He could have learned his lesson and not be a threat to them anymore. He wasn’t sure if that was a gamble he was willing to take.


         “Are you sure that Dylan isn’t just trying to get out of jail so he can try it again?”


         “Yes.”


         “How can you be so certain?”


         “This whole thing was my idea. I told you that already. Dylan was uncertain at first too, but I convinced him that he was a good plan. He’s willing to go with me on this, why shouldn’t you? He has much more to lose than you do.”


         Evan turned it over in his mind. She did make good sense; he had to give her that.


         “I just hope he doesn’t get out of jail and then try again to hurt mom and me.”


         “I hope not too. I would feel terrible if something like that happened,” Dora responded, furrowing her brow while considering the possibilities.


         “Is it a risk you are willing to take? If you think that he doesn’t pose any danger to mom and me and that having him out of jail is beneficial for his daughter, I will agree to it. But mom has to agree to it too.”


         “Will you talk to her?”


         “No, if you want her to go along with it, you’ll have to convince her yourself.”


         “That sounds fair. I will go over to her house now and ask.” Dora got turned and left Evan standing by the fireplace looking into its black interior. Evan’s normally youthful face was full of worry lines and furrows. He thought life was going remarkably well and then in the last 72 hours, it had all fallen apart. He could sense in his heart that Andrew was gone. He knew Andrew had realized the trouble he was in a decided to make a run for it. If he’d been asked to come, Evan would have been the first to jump in the car. While he understood the reasoning, he hurt that Engrid and Andrew had ditched him and ran. He turned to leave the room.


         Agent Sørenson saw him leaving, “Evan…where are you going?”


         “Upstairs. I need to be alone.”


         He didn’t wait for a response and simply walked down the central hallway and up the stairs to the bedroom he’d shared with Andrew. Evan opened the door and flopped himself face down on the bed. He could feel the tears welling up in his eyes, but he refused to let the macho men downstairs see anything weak or vulnerable.


         Evan realized that he’d been left again. Ray had left him…Grant had left him…twice one by choice once by death…when he came out to her his mom left him, though she’d come back. Not only did Andrew leave him, he felt like Engrid had left him too. He couldn’t understand why they didn’t love him enough to let him come along. He would have done anything in the world to be with them right now.


         He rolled over on the mattress and looked out into the night sky through the curtains.


         “Where are you my love?” he said out loud. “Why won’t you come back to me?”


         The tears burst forth and Evan wept for his love that was lost. His heart ached that Andrew was gone. He almost wished Andrew was guilty so he could hate him for being an evil monster. But he knew; he was utterly convinced, by the faint glimmer that Amanda had not identified Andrew as the vile perpetrator, that Andrew was innocent. Andrew was innocent but didn’t know that Evan knew that. Evan was angered at himself for thinking, even momentarily, that Andrew was guilty or, or even capable of, doing the crimes the police were convinced he’d done. Hopefully Amanda’s denial that the man in the photograph was the man who kidnapped her would be enough to convince the police that Andrew was innocent. The important thing now was to find Andrew and tell him the good news. He could stop running now and come home.


         But where could Andrew and Engrid be. For both himself and the police, that was the million dollar question. But Sørenson specifically said that there had been no activity on Andrew’s accounts. It dawned on him. Andrew had an offshore account that was part of his parent’s estate. Evan’s eyes flew open as he realized he had one last chance to find his lover. Andrew was a security nut and so kept a laptop under the floor in the closet that had all his banking and financial transactions stored on it. Evan was sure the police hadn’t discovered it when they searched the house hauled all the electronic and personal information out of their house. Evan listened carefully to make sure that no one was coming up the stairs or listening at the door. He had no way to test for bugs, so he would just have to be extra quiet.


         He tiptoed in his sock-clad feet over to the walk-in closet and slowly opened the door. There were long bars on both sides with clothes hanging on them. Andrew’s clothes were all on the left while all of Evan’s were on the right. At the back of the closet was a chest of drawers. Behind the chest of drawers, was a safe. It was recessed into the wall, hidden by what appeared to be an air duct. Andrew had the apparatus installed when he moved in. He grabbed the corners of the chest-of-drawers and slid it away from the wall.


         Evan knew how to manipulate the clasps and so it didn’t take long to unlatch the “air duct” cover and set it aside. The safe was about three times the size of a shoebox. Andrew had shown Evan just last week how to retrieve and open the safe. It was part of their estate planning so that if something happened to one of them, the other could access the assets. The only thing in the safe was a laptop and a handwritten piece of paper. The safe was supposedly fire safe, but Andrew was afraid that it was not heat safe. So, the laptop kept the information stored electronically, but the paper had printouts of all the account numbers, passwords, and usernames that Evan would need to access all Andrew’s money…which was a lot.


         Evan didn’t want the police to know what was going on upstairs in the bedroom. He pulled out his cell phone, which had internet access on it. He dared not use the wireless router because the police were almost certainly monitoring that. They might be watching his cell phone but that this point, that was just a risk he was going to have to take.


         He brought up the cell phone’s browser and typed in the web address of the banking portal. He keyed in the username and password written on the page. Slowly, over the wireless telephone network, the information was being beamed from somewhere in the world to Evan, hidden in an upstairs closet in Deerfield, South Carolina.


         He clicked on the recent transactions link. Evan’s eyes popped out. About 2:30 that afternoon, Andrew had paid $5,364 to Discount Auto Sales. He’d bought another car. Andrew had planned to run away. He knew they would look for his Pathfinder, but they wouldn’t know to look for a recently purchased used car from Discount Auto Sales. Also had an idea which direction they were headed. They were going northwest. There was a gas purchase in Traveler’s Rest, SC and a stop at a fast food restaurant in Asheville, NC.


“Where in the world could they be going?”


He quickly folded the paper and shoved it back in the safe. He stowed the computer back in its spot behind the fake vent cover and returned the chest-of-drawers to its proper place. Now the question became, what do to with the new-found information. He walked slowly down the stairs so as not to attract attention. He slipped by the agents gathered in the living room and walked out to the sidewalk. He made his way nonchalantly up towards his mother’s house. He hid behind a large maple tree on the far side of the house and watched the shadows of the two women moving around in the kitchen.


Dora was explaining her plan to get everyone off the hook in the case. She tried to persuade Myrtle that Dylan no longer posed a threat to her or her son and that Amanda needed her father back in her life more than she needed anything. Myrtle took quite a bit of convincing but when Dora got it in her head about something, she was bulldog determined. Myrtle reluctantly acquiesced. Dora excused herself and moved towards the door.


Evan waited for Dora and watched her descend the front steps and walk towards the sidewalk. He leaned around the edge of the tree and whispered, “Pssst.”


She froze midstride and looked around, not sure she’d heard anything.


“Yes?” She timidly said into the night.


“Dora! It’s me, Evan.” She turned around.


“What are you doing out here?”


“I have an idea.”


She was still a bit disturbed by the unexpected intrusion, “What’s your idea?”


“I found out which way they’re headed.”


“Did he call you?”


“No. He has a secret bank account that the police don’t know about.”


“But you do?”


         “Yes. I logged onto the bank’s website and I found out some interesting things. First, earlier today he bought something from Discount Auto Sales. I don’t know what kind of car it was. But they were in Asheville a few hours ago. I wonder where they’re going.”


“I have no earthly idea. But if we want to go follow them, we have to find out what kind of car it was.”


“I guess we could call the dealership in the morning,” Evan replied.


“There might be another way.”


“What’s that?”


“Do you have a copy of Andrew’s insurance card? If you do, you can call and pose as him and ask if the car you bought today was put on the insurance. They might say the make and model to confirm it. It’s worth a shot.”


As they walked along, Evan asked, “So, if we find out what kind of car it is and even what direction they’re headed in, what are we going to do about it?”


“Unless,” Dora was coming up with a new possibility, “You have access to his bank account information, right?”


“Yes…what are you thinking?”


“We can monitor it. They have to stop at a motel or something. If we can find out which one, we can call them.”


“Dora, you’re a genius!”


“Thank you. It just popped into my head. I really didn’t want to go on a wild goose chase across the country. The only other alternative I could think of was to have my friend Harvey fly us out to the general area they are in and then we would have to intercept them. That would be practically impossible. Chasing the two of them down would be like finding a needle in a haystack at night in the middle of a hurricane with nothing for light but a candle.”


“That’s true…especially if they opt for a big city, which they probably will because it’s so much easier to blend in and disappear.”


Given their direction, what major cities could they opt for?”


“Well, they’re in western North Carolina. They could go almost anywhere. There aren’t any big cities in that area. If they kept going, they could be in Cincinnati by morning then Minneapolis or Chicago within a day or so. Given the time they charged the meal, they are most likely somewhere in the Knoxville area.”


“I guess we could meet them there.”


“I doubt that’s their final destination.”


“Why?”


“I don’t know. It’s just a hunch. I think they’re going to head north. I wouldn’t be surprised if they go to Canada.”


“My goodness that’s a long drive! I don’t know if they would go to Canada.”


“Why not?”


“I drove there once because I wanted to go on a road trip.”


“So we just wait for them to bed down for the night?”


“Yes. How long does it take for charges to post to that account?”


“Within 10-20 minutes.”


“Perfect. We can get the location of the charge from that then look them up online and call the office and be transferred to their room.”


“It sounds a bit convoluted, but that just might work!”


Evan and Dora walked down the street back towards their houses. It was getting very late. It would be midnight within the hour.


“They might trade off driving so they may go all night and not stop anywhere.”


“That’s entirely possible,” Evan admitted.


“That means they’ll be very, very far away from here.”


“But thanks to modern technology, they can still be reached. If we could just talk to them and explain what’s happened recently, they’ll understand. I just want him back.” The teary wetness returned to his eyes and his voiced cracked. Dora looked at him sympathetically.


“I know you do. I know you love Andrew more than you’ve love anybody in a very long time. He’ll come back to you. I know it. He’ll come back to all of us.”


“Do you really think so? Morgan didn’t come back.”


“Morgan didn’t take Engrid with him when he left.”


“Good point…she’ll bring him back. She’ll drag him back by his preppie, pin-striped shirt collar, won’t she Dora?”


“You know Engrid. She’ll only let him run the show for so long before she pulls rank and they come right back here to Maple Avenue. It might take her a couple of days depending on how nice Andrew is being to her.”


“Nice? If he’s been demanding and mean it would take longer for her to get him to come to his senses, wouldn’t it?” Evan wondered out loud.


“You don’t know Engrid, then. If you are obstinate and demanding, she will purposefully screw with you just for sheer spite. The meaner you are, the more likely you are to get her to do nothing. Trust me, he’s being nice to her or they’d already be back.”


“Unless he really went overboard…just because Andrew wasn’t the actual kidnapper, doesn’t mean he isn’t involved somehow or even the mastermind behind the whole operation. They found her bound and gagged in his self-storage unit which only a handful of people knew about. So, either he’s in on it or this is beyond a colossal coincidence. The chances any particular kidnapping victim ending up in any particular place is pretty remote. There are just too many possibilities to enumerate. So, then what are the chances that one kidnapping victim just happens to get dumped in the self-storage unit of the very person who was out looking for her the night before?”


“Quintillions to one I guess?”


“Unless…”


“Andrew was involved.”


“Bingo. So, we are back to thinking he’s the perpetrator.”


“Well that was an exercise in total futility.”


“So, do we want to contact him? What if he’s really guilty and he’s running scared. We could get ourselves and Engrid into a whole lot of trouble. Dora, Andrew is capable of murder. I witnessed it with my own eyes. He shot Grant right in the chest with a shotgun while I was inches away from the bullet wound. Grant’s blood showered down on me when Andrew blasted that massive hole in him.”


Dora walked along beside her young friend thinking about what he’d just said. It was the first Evan had ever spoken to her about the horrifying events of that night. The night that Grant died Dora had been asleep in her bed when a loud bang had awoken her. She raced to the window to see what was going on.


“I saw you that night. I heard the gunshot and when I went to see what was going on, I will never forget the sight of seeing Andrew’s silhouette holding that gun in the upstairs bedroom. I thought to myself, “My God! I don’t know why but Andrew’s killed Evan. What are we going to tell his mother? I can’t be the one to tell her that her son’s been gay for 48 hours and how he’s been brutally murdered by his would-be lover. I immediately called the police. I went and hid in my bedroom. It seemed crazy even then, but I wanted to make sure that whoever the shooter was, I wasn’t his next target.”


“I knew one of the neighbors must have heard the shot since the police got their so soon.”


“But now, if we are returning to the premise that Andrew is guilty, what do we do with the information we have?” Evan asked.


Dora thought for a moment and the replied, speaking slowly and deliberately, “We have no choice but to turn it over to the police. If Andrew really is guilty, he needs to be apprehended. Engrid needs to be brought back whether she too is a victim or if she is in on it. We could go to jail ourselves if it’s found out that we have this information and withheld it from the investigators. We can’t withhold information like that.”


“I guess you’re right. I’m just worried that he’s innocent and we’re about to send an innocent man to the electric chair.”


Dora pursed her lips at him, “He’s a long way from the electric chair…there’s no reason to think that far ahead. If he is innocent, I have faith that our nation’s justice system is adequate to find him innocent and release him to rejoin the public citizenry. And if, God forbid, he is guilty, then by God Almighty it’s our duty as human beings to do whatever it takes to bring him in and get him put into a maximum security prison for the rest of his life.”


Evan’s head sagged as he thought about that. He knew in his heart of hearts that Dora was right and he had no choice except to turn his phone and the related information over to Agents Sørenson and Mortar. Sørenson would be grateful for a break in the case while Mortar would be popping a capillary that they hadn’t come to him with this information in the very beginning. Neither Dora nor Evan wanted to deal with the irascible Agent Mortar. Fortunately as they approached, Mortar was inside but Sørenson was standing on the top step of Evan and Andrew’s house smoking a beautifully etched Algerian briarwood pipe. The sweet smell of pipe tobacco wafted through the air as they approached.


“I hope you don’t mind me smoking out here?”


“Not at all, Agent Sørenson…would you mind sitting down on the swing, there’s something Evan would like to present to you. It will help you get your man.”


Sørenson nodded appreciatively and took a seat on the front porch swing. Evan drew his phone out of his pocket and keyed in the URL and log in information again into the browser. Sørenson waited with patient interest in what Evan was queuing up to show him. His briarwood pipe nestled lightly on his knee.


Evan turned the phone around and showed it to Richard Sørenson.


“It’s a banking website.”


“Yes. It’s for a private off-shore account Andrew has. It was part of his parent’s estate and he’s using it to pay his way while he’s running away. He knows you’re monitoring his regular bank and credit cards, so he won’t use them. He knows the police don’t know about this one and since it’s an offshore account, the police or FBI or SLED wouldn’t know to look for it. It just dawned on me a little bit ago when I went upstairs to rest.”


‘So, today he made a stop at a Wendy’s up in Traveler’s Rest, is that correct?”


“Yes. Now we’re waiting for a motel charge to pop up on the account so that we will know where they are staying. This page refreshes every 90 seconds and it takes about 10-15 minutes after the charge is processed before it is posted to the website. So, essentially, less than 20 minutes after they check in for the night, we know where they are.”


“This is a very impressive piece of detective work. We will definitely use this to capture Andrew and bring him to justice.” Sørenson sounded like a motivational speaker there for a moment as he rallied Dora and Evan to press on to fight for truth, justice, and the American way.


“If you want to get the most up-to-date information, you can just hit the refresh button every-so-often. That was you can keep closer tabs on him.”


Sørenson hit the button, as instructed. “Shoot.”


“What’s the matter?” Dora asked.


“He just took out an $8,000 withdrawal from a bank in Knoxville, Tennessee.”


“That’s good, right? That means we know where he is.”


Sørenson furrowed his brow, “It also means that Andrew is planning to drop off the map for a while. He won’t be able to hide forever, but he can probably hide for quite a while. I’m sure Andrew has a few tricks up his sleeve.”


“What do you mean by that?” Evan asked.


“I got the background check back for him. His uncle got him a job for a couple of years as a transport agent for the CIA.”


“Transport agent?”


“Yes. Andrew did package deliveries for General Marlowe. That was his uncle’s commanding officer when he was an overseas operative.”


“Andrew was a spy?”


“Not in the James Bond sense of the term, but he did have some tactical training in espionage. So, if he wants to drop off the map, he has the knowhow and the wherewithal to do it.”


Evan looked bewildered, “I had no idea.”


“Every time we found out something new about Andrew, the mystery deepens. It seems that that boy is a bigger mystery that I ever imagined.” Dora said, shaking her head.


Evan walked over to the edge of the porch and looked out into the night.  He thought, “Andrew…what have you done?”





                                       #





Andrew walked out of the Greater Knoxville National Bank with an envelope stuffed in his jacket pocket. Engrid watched him through the windshield as she plotted their Canadian getaway on her road atlas.


“How did it go?”


“I got the money. We’ll have to get going in case they’ve already discovered the offshore account. I don’t want to take any chances.”


He started up the car and drove away. He got on the northbound interstate 75 out of Knoxville.


Engrid knew that Andrew had a plan. She had no idea what the plan would entail but she knew he’d tell her in due time. For the time being, she just sat quietly and watched the glow of Knoxville shrink into the horizon via the side view mirror.


“This all seems so futile. This is the age of information and technology. Aren’t we going to get caught eventually?”


“No. We aren’t going to get caught Engrid. In fact, you and I know we are innocent. So, as soon as the police figure that out, we’ll go back.”


“I remember my first trip out of the country. It was in 1960. My father retired from the geological survey and he and my mother decided to become missionaries. So, at the ages of 65 and 63, the packed up their bags in the Pacific Northwest and moved to Brazil. They moved there in the spring. I used my summer break that year from teaching to go visit them. Airliners weren’t then what they are today. They didn’t have any massive jets that can fly long distances like they do now. They had transoceanic flights, but not nearly as many. I flew from Greenville to Brownsville, Texas to Mexico City to Panama City to Rio de Janiero and then took a train into Brazzaville where I got on a bus full of smelly people and chickens. I had a goat for a seatmate and then my parents met me at a bus stop and we took a mule cart through the Amazonian rainforest to their mission compound. I actually enjoyed being there. It was amazing being part of a missionary organization. I went back several summers throughout the 1960’s but then the area became politically unstable and so even my parents moved to Seattle.”


“I doubt you’ll have a goat for a seatmate in Canada.”


“I hope not. Like I said, I enjoyed being there, but the getting there was a different story.”


“Have you been to other countries besides Brazil?”


“Yes. I’ve even been to Canada. I’ve been to Europe. I’ve wanted to go to Asia, but I haven’t made it there yet.”


“Perhaps we can go. Once we get into Canada, we can leave via Vancouver.”


“My passport has expired.”


“Don’t worry about that. I’ve gotten that all taken care of.”


“How so?”


“In the morning, we’re meeting someone in Indianapolis. He’s got some paperwork we might find helpful.”


“Oh,” Engrid replied.


Andrew was silent for a moment, “I can’t imagine you in the Amazonian Rainforest.”


“I was much younger then. In 1960, I was a youthful 40 year-old. My kids were teenagers by then.”


“I sometimes forget how ancient you are.”


“Gee, thanks.”


As the glow of sunrise grew, they were approaching Indianapolis to get whatever it was that Andrew had arranged to pick-up. He drove the car through the streets and pulled to a stop at a parking meter alongside a beautiful tree-filled park.


“When I get out, you get behind the wheel. Keep the engine running and anyone who even looks like their thinking of approaching this car, you drive away.”


“Okay.” When Andrew got out of the car, Engrid scooted over to the driver’s seat and watched Andrew put a few coins in the meter. He walked off down the street. Up ahead there was a well-dressed young man sitting on a park bench. The youthful stranger stretched his arms up and over his shoulders. He yawned largely and stood up. He walked towards Andrew with a folder in his hands. Andrew and the stranger grew closer to one another and Engrid looked on from her perch behind the wheel of the Camry. The folders exchanged hands. Both kept walking as if nothing had happened. Engrid averted her eyes and studied the Kansan license plate of the car in front of her. The stranger passed by and if he noticed her, he gave no indication of it.


Andrew disappeared around the corner. Engrid kept glancing around, looking for anything or anyone that appeared out of place. A meter maid zoomed by on her scooter, and a few officer workers from nearby high rises kept walking to and fro going about their daily business. Engrid kept vigilant watch, but nothing stood out to her as a reason for concern. She was watching people eating lunch in the park when the passenger’s side door flew open.


“Drive away. Now…just go up here and turn right.”


Engrid jumped and nearly hit her head on the ceiling at the intrusion.


“Good God Andrew, you nearly made me pee myself.’


“Just drive.”


Engrid put the car in gear and sped away from the curb and into the flow of traffic.


“What was that all about?”


“I got us some help.”


“What sort of help?” Engrid pulled to a stop at the traffic light.


Andrew held up a driver’s license. Engrid looked over and adjusted her glasses so she could see what it said.


“Rebecca Peterson. Who is Rebecca Peterson?”


“For the time being, you are.”


“I’m Rebecca Peterson?”


“Yes. You are a resident of Davenport, Iowa.”


Andrew rifled through more of the paperwork.


“That jerk-wad...”


“What?” Engrid asked as she pulled forward and merged into interstate traffic.


“Look at this.”


Engrid looked quickly.


“It looks like a marriage license.”


“It is. According to this, you and I are married.”


“What!?” she pulled the car to a stop in emergency lane of northbound I-65. The car skidding to a halt as other cars swerved to avoid a collision, blaring their horns as they flew past.


“We are Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan and Rebecca Peterson of Davenport, Iowa.”


“You and me…married?”


“Yes. That wasn’t what I had arranged for, but it’s what we’ve got.”


“No one’s going to believe that.”


“Why not?”


Engrid just looked at him for a moment before gracing his idiotic comment with a reply, “Because you’re a spry young man and I’m 64 years older than you. Who, on planet earth, would believe that we are married?”


“I don’t know.”


“Of course if it were true, I’d be the envy of every nursing home in the nation. But if you are looking for a sugar mama, you’re barking up the wrong tree.”


“I have plenty of money, anyway, so you have a sugar daddy for the time being.”


“I can live with that,” she said as she floored the car to re-enter the stream of traffic, “I’m in the mood for something…expensive, honey punch, sweetie pie.”


“Let’s just keep going. We will stop for the night in Fargo, North Dakota.”


“Can’t we stop by Davenport, honey; I need to pick up my Geritol?” Engrid smirked. Once the shock of being to a married to an adorable 25 year-old guy wore off, she realized that she could have some fun with this. She would definitely get some mileage and some blackmail material out of this trip.


“It’s not too far off the trail.”


“I know. That’s why I thought we might stop by. That way if anyone asked us about the town, we could at least have a clue what it looks like.”


“That’s not a bad idea.”


“Okay.” Engrid pushed little car hard as they made their way north that Monday morning. She watched the skyline of Indianapolis fade into the horizon through the rear view mirror of their little car.


                                                 #


Amanda lay in her bed, staring up at the stars on the ceiling. Her grandmother, Cecilia Bardwell, had come down from Huntsville to stay with her indefinitely. Her father was still in jail for attempting to kill his girlfriend and her son. She was in a hospital bed in a treatment facility. The police had run a blood test on her and she tested positive for several narcotics.  She was placed in the detoxification center by a court order earlier that day. Cecilia had protested, saying that Amanda would be much better off at home with her grandma than at some cold, impersonal institution. Amanda’s mind was finally clear. The other night had been a dire and much-needed wakeup call for her. She’d given up hope that anyone would care for her again. But there her loving grandmother sat in a chair holding her hand as she drifted in and out of sleep.


She started twitching, she was dreaming. She had a vision of her kidnapper etched in her mind. He was a tall, pale faced stranger. He was chasing her through a forest. She ran faster but no matter how fast she ran, he kept pace step for step. Amanda jerked up in bed, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. Cecilia, who had dozed off herself, sat up in her vinyl chair. She rubbed her eyes and looked at Amanda. The stricken expression told her that the dream had not been a pleasant one.


“Are you okay, sweetie?” Cecilia leaned forward.


Amanda just stared around her room. “No. I’m scared.”


“Scared of what? You are safe now. I’m here with you. I won’t let anything hurt you.”


Amanda seemed unconvinced.


“Every time I go to sleep, I see him.”


“You see the man who kidnapped you?”


“Yes.”


“What does he look like?”


“Tall and white…he’s always dressed in black. He wears a hat so I can’t see his eyes.”


“Did you know him?”


“Yes. He sold me stuff.”


“Drugs?”


“Yes. He sold them to me.”


“Do you know his name?”


“No.”


Cecilia sat back in her chair. She wanted to find the guy who did this to her granddaughter. She was so angry at Dylan. He had no business throwing her out like that. Regardless of what she may or may not have been or done, no one should throw their child out in the cold like that. Her rage at him burned deep. Even deeper than anything she felt for this mysterious stranger who got Amanda hooked into a dark underworld.


A nurse quietly knocked on the door and poked her head in.


“Is everything okay in here?”


“Oh yes, she just had a bad dream is all.”


“Have the police caught the kidnapper yet?”


“Not that I’ve heard. They have a full out manhunt in progress though, so it won’t be long now before he’s brought to justice.”


“So, they know who did it? So it’s just a matter of finding him.”


“No, they don’t think it was that guy they thought it was. I was told that Amanda told them that he wasn’t the guy. The police showed her a picture. It’s weird though. I’m sure he’s involved somehow- given where they found her.”


“I know how that feels. The whole town’s in an uproar over it. Imagine such a heinous crime being committed in little-ole Deerfield.”


“No place is safe anymore. There’s crime all over the place.”


“That’s the truth…” the nurse replied, “Well, if you need anything tonight, don’t hesitate to press the call button and let us know!”


“Thanks, I think we’re set for tonight.”


Cecilia turned her attention back to Amanda.


“What can you tell me about the night you were kidnapped?”


Cecilia pulled out a micro tape recorder the police had given her in case Amanda decided to open up to her.


Amanda lay quietly in her bed, thinking over the night of the attack.


“I remember the night before. I was walking along the bridge over the river. Someone or something scared me. It was something in the shadows and I fell over the railing. The man in the picture rescued me that night. I would have drowned in the river, but he pulled me to safety. The old woman who’s picture they showed me was with him. They saved my life. I don’t remember much else about that night. I guess the cold water shocked me and so that’s why I remember that part. But the man who kidnapped me wasn’t that guy. I met the man who kidnapped me on my first night after dad threw me out.”


“At least that poor young man won’t spend the rest of his life in prison.”


“I feel sorry for him. I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”


“Do you know where you were when the police found you?”


“No.”


“How long were you there when they found you?”


“I don’t know. It seemed like a long time.”


“I just remember the man chasing me. It was at the park where I went sometimes to get high. I don’t remember what happened. I just remember him chasing me and the next thing I knew I was tied up and then the police were banging on the door. I don’t know what else happened.”


“That’s enough. You should rest some more, you’ve had a bad day.” Cecilia leaned forward and clicked off the tape recorder. She was still piping mad at Dylan and as far as she was concerned her son-in-law could rot in that jail cell. If he did get out, she was going to file suit to get custody of Amanda. He wouldn’t be allowed to hurt her again in any way, shape, form or fashion. She would see to that. Amanda closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.





                                                 #





Evan and Dora sat in the kitchen of his house. The police had left and the SLED agents returned to the police station to maintain their base of operations there. It was just Dora and Evan sipping cups of chamomile tea and trying to relax after one of the most stressful and difficult days of their lives. It seemed everything they thought they knew about Andrew was questionable. It may not all be fabrication, but they had no way to be sure any of what he’d told them was actually the case. Evan felt betrayed. He just couldn’t believe that he could have allowed himself to be so blind as to let such a monster into his heart. Dora was right, Andrew had to be involved somehow, even if he wasn’t the actual kidnapper. There was just no other conceivable explanation for how Amanda Riverside ended up in his self-storage unit.


Evan wasn’t sure what his future might hold. He could afford the house by himself, but would he be allowed to live here. It wasn’t technically his house. He wasn’t sure if he would be allowed to take over the mortgage should Andrew get caught and go to prison. There were so many unanswered questions about every facet of life. Plus he had to face the reality that he had to go to work tomorrow. That regardless of what Andrew and Engrid may or may not have done life did have to go on. He was worried he wouldn’t be able to focus tomorrow. But he couldn’t call in sick, he needed to get out of the house and try to get some sort of normalcy back to his life.


Dora just sat quietly. Her mind was an exhausted blank. Her cup of tea was getting cold, but she couldn’t even think clearly enough to take a sip.


“Would you mind staying here tonight?” Evan asked, “You can sleep in the guest bedroom. I really would rather have someone in the house with me. I don’t like being here by myself. Especially with everything being all messed up today. ”


“That’s fine. I can go home right quick and pick up some things.” Even though she said it, she made no move towards that end.


“Dora, in your heart of hearts, do you think that Andrew is innocent and that he’ll come back? I hope he’s innocent, but I don’t know. I don’t know what to believe any more.”


“I have no idea. I’m so confused. I’m so tired this fuzzy old brain of mine won’t kick into gear. I’ll just have to sleep on it and get back to you in the morning.”


“That’s fair. I’m in no shape to make decisions or judgment calls either.”


Dora shifted her weight like she was going to stand up, but she stayed put.


“This all messes with my sense of security,” Evan said, not taking his eyes off his cup of chamomile tea, “It just makes me wonder about myself.”


Dora was intrigued, “What do you mean?”


“I mean that I seem to attract bad people. I know I haven’t told you about Ray, and I won’t go into it tonight, but he was bad news. You know how things went with Grant and now Andrew turns out to be some kind of maniac- kidnapping young girls and holding old women hostage. It’s just that if someone keeps attracting terrible people, then that must mean I’m a terrible person too.”


“Don’t be ridiculous. It probably means you’re a wonderful, caring person. Otherwise damaged people wouldn’t reach out to you. If you were a terrible person, you would probably attract decent people and try to corrupt them. Andrew’s problems started long before he ever knew you existed. Any mental or psychological problems Andrew has have nothing to do with you. Don’t you ever think that any of this makes you a bad person!”


“I know. It’s just that I can’t help but think that this is at least partly a reflection on me.”


“It’s not.”


Evan slowly nodded his head and took a sip of his tea.


“Don’t even let yourself think such bad things about yourself.”


“When you were single, did you ever date people who turned out to be crazy?”


Dora thought about it for a moment, “It might take me a moment, I haven’t been on a date since 1938,” she sat quietly for a moment more, “Yes. I did once. What was his name? Ah- Stewart Taylor. Oh he was bad news. I was 16, he was 23. Of course my mother was dead set against me having anything to do with him, but that just made me want him all the more. One day he came by cheerleading practice…”


“You were a cheerleader?”


“Once upon a time, yes. Anyway, he wanted me to marry him. Being a foolish teenager, I said yes. Oh he was every girl’s fantasy…muscles, athletic, older and I think he’d been in the military or something. I looked at him probably much like you looked at Andrew. So, he took me in his arms and kissed me…right there in the bleachers. Those girls were so jealous. Then we got in his car, a 1929 Ford Model A Roadster… and we were going to drive to the justice of the peace. But, somehow through the grace of God I guess I came to my senses and told him that I’d changed my mind. He got so furious at me! I’d never been so scared. He flung that car over to the side of the road and made me get out. I was grateful to comply. Well, he spun off in a lather and headed out of sight. Then Sunday came. I was sitting on the pew by myself. I was a bit of a rebel so I attended a Holy Roller church that my parents, being staunch Lutherans, wouldn’t get within 100 yards of. The pew had a space between the back and the seat, so that about six to eight inches of your back was exposed. I felt someone come up behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and it was Stewart. He was dressed very nicely, especially considering that the depression was in full swing that year. I felt something press into my spine. That boy had a knife in his hand. I froze…he said, ‘Don’t scream girl…you know you’re my girl…I can’t let anybody have you.’ Oh I wanted to scream. The pastor was going on about sin and vice and all I wanted to do was scream and run away from the man behind me.”


“What did you do?”


“Nothing. Old Man McCutcheon was sitting nearby and he saw the whole thing. His brother was the sheriff so Sheriff McCutcheon went to Stewart’s house that night and I don’t know what he said, but Stewart never bothered me after that.”


“I can’t believe he pulled a knife on you in church.”


“Neither could I. Now that was bold of old Stewart. Pulling a knife on someone in the house of God…that takes gumption…talking about ‘playing with fire!’”


“Where is he now?”


“I don’t know. He moved away from here a few years later and I’ve never heard from him since. Even though he was a dastardly fool, I hope he had a good life.”


“Maybe. You sure have.”


“Yes…I’ve had a wonderful life. And you will too.”


“I hope so.”


“You will…I can feel it. I don’t know if Andrew will be part of your life overall or just a blip on the radar screen. That remains to be seen, I guess.”


“I guess…I hope he is.”


“I do too, unless God has something better in store for you.”


“Like what?”


“I don’t know…maybe someone else…someone who isn’t a psychotic maniac, perhaps.”


“That would be nice…but we don’t know that he’s guilty.”


“No, we don’t…you’re right about that... I was teasing with the whole ‘psychotic maniac’ thing anyway. I realize that it was in poor taste.”


“I hope Andrew has a good life…whether it’s with me or not.”


“I hope that for everyone. It’s just my nature to always think the best of people.”


“I wonder where they are tonight.”


“Somewhere north of St. Louis probably… you don’t think they would actually run away to Canada do you?”


“I don’t know what to think anymore, honestly. This whole thing’s been messing with my head too, Evan…and my brain’s a lot older and slower than yours. So, if you’re bumfuzzled by this whole thing, just think how bad it is for me.”


“Okay…”


“Well, I’d better go get my things and get ready for a slumber party,” Dora smiled and stood up. She walked over to the sink, rinsed out her teacup and put it in the dishwasher.


“Thank you, Dora. This means a lot to me.”


“You’re welcome,” she patted him on his shoulder as she walked past toward the door.





                                                 #





“Mrs. Peterson?”


Engrid raised her head. Andrew was passing Peoria. She’d dozed off with her head lolling against the seatbelt.


“Yes, Mr. Peterson?” She said with irritated sarcasm.


“I’ve been thinking…”


“And all this time I thought the serpentine belt was about to catch fire.”


“Ha-ha. I was thinking what our cover story should be if the Canadian officials question us. What will we tell them by way of explanation?”


“That we were two fools in love.”


“I’m being serious Engrid…or should I say, Rebecca. I think I’ll call you Bec.”


“You can call me Engrid. I don’t know why they felt the need to assign me a new name. I’ve been called Engrid for such a long time.”


“Were you ever known by another name besides Engrid?”


“Yes. My family always called me Mae.”


“Why’d they call you by your middle name?”


“I was named after my two grandmothers, Engrid and Mae. Grandma Mae died in the flu epidemic of 1918 while Grandma Engrid was still alive until 1943. Grandma Engrid lived to be 101. Since there was already an Engrid, they called me by my middle name, Mae. My parents and siblings always did.”


“You have siblings?”


“Yes. Well, had. I was the baby. I was a surprise to my parents later in life. My next youngest sibling was 8 years older than me the eldest was 14 years older than me. I’m the only one left, though. I had two brothers and two sisters and they’re all dead.”


“I’m sorry to hear that.”


“I’m sorry to have to say it. It still amazes me how many people I know are dead. The number keeps climbing.”


“Mae…hmmm… but no one in Deerfield called you Mae?”


“No.”


“Why did you switch to Engrid?”


“I wanted to start my own life in South Carolina. I wanted to make something different of myself. It seems silly now, but at the time it was very important to me. Plus it’s much easier to be known by your first name. It’s annoying to have people call you by the wrong name. That’s much less likely if you go by your first name. So, I talked it over with George and we agreed that in South Carolina I would be Engrid…in Oregon I would be Mae.”


“That’s really nifty.”


“I suppose. So no one calls you Michael?”


“No…how did you know my middle name?”


“You mentioned it once.”


“I did?”


“Actually it was mentioned in the newspaper in the article about you calling the police on Evan and getting him arrested for robbing me. It said Andrew Michael Garrison, 25 and Evan Robert Grayson, 27…and Engrid Mae Matthews…older than dirt.”


“I didn’t realize my middle name was included.”


“It was. I like that name. I’ve wondered sometimes why you don’t go by Drew or Andy.”


“I have a couple of friends who call me Drew. You can call me that if you want.”


“Nah. You’ll always been Andrew to me, Mr. Peterson,” She rested her head on the seatbelt strap and resumed her nap.


Shortly, they arrived in Davenport. They spent a few hours poking around the town before resuming their trek northward. Andrew was determined to get out of the country as fast as possible. They drove and drove as sailed past Minneapolis and turn northwestward. They’d been driving and riding almost continuously since they’d left Deerfield.


Andrew kept his eyes straight ahead. His mind churned over the recent events. He felt guilty for dragging Engrid along on this bizarre journey across this great country. She didn’t deserve this sort of uprooting at this stage of her life. She deserved to spend her remaining years doing what she wanted and not having to worry about anything. She shouldn’t be out here on the open road running from the law. The guilt was beginning to prey on his mind. He tried to focus, but he couldn’t. He knew that he didn’t want to ever set foot inside a prison, let alone be incarcerated for a very, very long time. He also knew he was innocent. The trouble was proving it. Why should he…the burden of proof was on the prosecution, not on his side. He knew he was innocent and he knew there was no way they could prove anything against him or Engrid. Since when was being a good citizen and looking out for your fellow human beings a crime against humanity? He hit the brakes. Engrid jerked awake as she body slung forward against the seatbelt.


“What’s wrong?” she said, bracing herself against the dashboard.


“Nothing. There’s nothing wrong. We aren’t going to run away.”


She blinked and looked around.


“I mean we are innocent. We have no business being out here.”


“I know that…what’s your point?” She rubbed her eyes beneath her glasses.


Andrew released the brake the pulled ahead.


“My point is that we should go home.”


“Back to South Carolina?”


“Yes. We should go home to South Carolina.”


“But what if we go to prison?”


“We won’t. We have a good justice system here. Besides, the burden of proof is on the prosecution. We don’t have to prove anything.”


“We don’t?”


“No. We don’t have to prove anything. We should go back and take a stand. We are not going to prison Engrid.”


Engrid watched the passing trees. Andrew pulled the car off of the interstate highway.


“What are you doing?”


“I’m taking you home.”


“Really? Well I guess we’re properly married, so I guess it’s okay.”


“I meant to your own house.”


“I know that…I was just teasing. You mean it, we can go home and I won’t have to go to prison? Promise?”


“I promise. We are going to go home and get this whole mess straightened out. I just hope Evan will take me back. He’ll probably be pretty peeved at both of us, but he’ll get over it.”


“I’m hoping he’ll be so relieved to have us back, he’ll forget to be angry about us skipping town and running off across the country.”


“That would be ideal.”


Andrew pulled to a stop at the end of the intersection.


“Let’s to a little further north…we’re only an hour from Fargo.”


“What’s in Fargo?”


“Hopefully they’ll have a decent hotel where I can take a shower and get a decent night’s sleep before heading back to South Carolina to face the firing squad.”


“There won’t be a firing squad. They’ve probably already figured out that we’re innocent and they are just trying to figure out a way to contact us.”


“We’ll call Evan from Fargo and let him know where we are and that we’re safe.”


“I agree. Let’s do that,” Andrew accelerated they car as he and Engrid sped towards the civilization and amenities of Fargo, North Dakota. They found a nice Holiday Inn right off the highway and checked into two separate rooms. They both needed their space after being cooped up in the car together for what seemed like an eternity. It was hard to believe that he had been two days since they made their getaway under the cover of darkness.


“You should call Evan once you get settled in,” Engrid state.


“I will. I just want to get cleaned up first.”


“That sounds fair.”


Engrid bid him adieu and went to her room to settle in for the night. She was positively giddy to be going home again. She’d lived in fear the last 48 hours of never seeing her home or her friends again. That thought horrified her, but not as much as the prospect of prison. Now that Andrew was confident that everything was going to be fine and that they were going to go home in the morning, her world brightened and the burdens she’s recently carried were lifted. She slid the plastic key card in the door and opened up the door to her evening sanctuary. She sat her purse down on the dresser and rolled her suitcase over to the bed and flopped it down onto the generic floral print bedspread. She unzipped her baggage and prepared for her much longed for shower.


Meanwhile, Andrew was pacing in his own room. While he’d assuaged Engrid’s fears, his own mind was a whirl of fear and trepidation. He wanted more than anything else on the planet to call Evan and confess everything and beg his forgiveness and that Evan would graciously accept and welcome him back into their home. But he feared that his reception would be less than cordial. He knew that if the SLED agents got wind of where he was, the Fargo police would be knocking on his door in a matter of minutes. Within hours, he’d be taken out of North Dakota and returned to South Carolina to await trial. While he knew he was innocent, he was also well aware that it would not be the first time an innocent man went to prison. While the American justice system was better than most countries, it still wasn’t perfect. Sometimes, mistakes were made and innocent citizens suffered the consequences. So, he paced. Back and forth across the small hotel room he went.


Engrid picked up the phone and dial the number she found in the phonebook.


“Yes, I would like to order a large pepperoni pizza and a Caesar salad.”


She was hungry. Once it arrived, she would invite Andrew over to share it with her. Until then, it was shower time.


Andrew picked up the phone and put it down again. The fear was becoming overwhelming. This was why he never became a real spy. His nerves couldn’t handle the pressure of life or death decisions. Should he call and confess. Should he keep going to Manitoba like they’d planned? If he decided to continue to make a run for it, he would put Engrid on the next flight back to South Carolina. That was it…she could be home in a few hours while he continued on the lamb. No one would believe that she was really involved. They would construct a story in which Engrid was coerced and wasn’t acting on her own free will to leave in the first place. That would ruin any future he and Evan might have had, but that was just a risk he was going to have to take. He’d promised Engrid that they would head home in the morning.


He picked up the phone, fingers shaking as he dialed Evan’s cell phone.