NATALIE
The truck wasn’t far from Hildonen Farms when Natalie’s Tracfone rang. The sound of it, like a clang of bells, startled her, but she soon realized that only one person had the number. Kate.
Natalie answered the call on the second ring thinking, Trouble.
“I’m so sorry,” Kate blurted out, skipping the customary hello. Her breathing came through the phone’s speaker loud and uneven. “Hank showed up and I didn’t have a chance to explain things to him. He gave it away. Where are you? He said he saw you driving west on 358.”
Natalie grappled with the implications. “What are you talking about?” she said testily. “What did Hank say? Is he there? Did Joseph show up? Was he alone?”
For the sake of the children, Natalie avoided speaking their father’s name, using Joseph as a code between her and Kate. Even so, she couldn’t help but allow hints of fear to enter her voice. She took a glimpse behind her at the kids safely ensconced in the back of the truck, eyes glued to their respective devices. They appeared none the wiser, but Natalie knew better than to take those vacant stares for obliviousness. Devices or not, they were all eyes and ears—and on edge too, especially given how they’d been so unceremoniously rushed away from a place neither of them wanted to leave.
* * *
When Natalie broke the news to Addie and Bryce, that they would be leaving the farm, both children, as expected, protested vociferously. Addie stomped her feet in a regressive show of frustration. She so desperately wanted to stay and care for the animals, and Bryce (poor thing) burst into tears. Their obstinacy forced Natalie, under the pressure of time, to resort to a cruel lie that sickened her.
“We have to go to meet Daddy,” she told them. “He’s waiting for us and we have to hurry. If we don’t, we might miss him.”
The children were too excited at the prospect of a reunion with their father to question what they’d been told. Natalie embarked on a mad rush getting packed. She jammed clothes into suitcases while scrambling from room to room, checking under beds, making sure Bryce’s replacement bear wasn’t left behind.
“I might not have much of a head start,” Natalie said to Kate while pulling clothes from a dresser.
Go! Go! Go! That voice in her head again urged her along.
“I think the river makes the most sense,” Natalie told Kate hurriedly. “Bryce loves the water. Tell Michael what I said about Bryce if he shows up. It will make it sound more believable.”
When she was through getting her belongings together, Natalie had done such a haphazard packing job that her suitcase wouldn’t close without Kate pushing on the top with both hands, applying considerable pressure.
“You’re going to be all right,” Kate offered encouragingly before bringing Natalie into a brief, albeit comforting, embrace.
Natalie pried them apart, though she held on to Kate’s arms a beat longer, enough to send a look of gratitude and forgiveness.
“I know that you meant well,” she said. “And thank you for all that you’ve done. Please, please, just do whatever you can to help us get away from him.”
* * *
Whatever Kate had done, clearly it hadn’t been enough.
“How much of a lead do I have?” asked Natalie, who drove with the phone pressed between her left shoulder and ear. Bluetooth wasn’t an option because the children would listen in, and she didn’t have a headset handy.
“Not much of one,” Kate revealed. “They showed up here minutes after you’d gone. I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Natalie said. “Just help me. You know the area. There’s got to be a place where we can hide.”
Route 358 out of Elsberry snaked its way through a stark landscape of plowed fields and thin forest like an asphalt river. She was headed to 79, and from there didn’t know if she would go north or south. Now she questioned if she could even make it to the main road.
“Talk to me, Kate,” Natalie said urgently, forgetting for a second to keep her voice down.
“What’s going on, Mommy?” asked Addie from the backseat. Natalie pulled the phone from her ear, spun her head to look behind her. Sunlight from all the outdoor time had transformed Addie’s hair to an odd shade—nearly orange.
“It’s nothing to worry about, sweetheart,” Natalie said, imagining an asthma attack coming on at the worst possible moment.
“What street are you near? Can you see any signs?” Kate asked in a faraway voice, jarring Natalie back to the moment.
She put the phone back against her ear before glancing out her window.
“I just passed Oma Lane.”
“Oma Lane, okay, okay, let me think,” muttered Kate.
Natalie was thinking too, but the notion that she could outrun her pursuers was out of the question. Michael was with a cop—probably a dirty one—who could call for backup. She pictured state troopers swarming her, lights flashing, sirens blaring, and it was back to Ohio and the same problem with the law. She had her children with her, and their safety remained paramount.
A gray sedan came out of nowhere and started to close the gap, fast. “I think they found me,” said Natalie, panic in her voice.
Kate described a car that sounded just like the one coming up on her tail.
“Give me something, anything,” Natalie pleaded as she turned onto North Fifth, headed south. She didn’t know the area, didn’t know where to go.
“Where are you now?” asked Kate.
Natalie gave her position as she watched the gray sedan accelerate.
“Okay, you should be coming up to a Baptist church on the right any second,” Kate announced. “It’s just before Commerce Street. Turn in to the parking lot when you see it.”
Natalie saw a large building up ahead, no steeple, but the sign out front confirmed it was the right place. She didn’t use her blinker, waiting until the last possible moment before making the turn.
“Drive straight through the parking lot,” Kate instructed. “There’s no barriers, just drive right onto the grass, and take a right onto North Sixth Street. They may follow you, but they’ll be confused for a moment. It’ll buy you some time. I think I know what to do from here.”
Kate issued her directives while Natalie was already bounding over a grassy patch at the back end of the parking lot.
“Mom! You’re off the road,” Bryce shouted.
“Right, honey,” said Natalie nonchalantly as she drove onto the street behind the church. “Wrong turn. Here’s the real road, all better now.” She paused to catch her breath. Into the phone she said, “Okay, I’m on North Sixth, what now?”
“Follow that road back and take a left back onto North Fifth. Then take your first right onto Powell,” Kate instructed.
Natalie checked her rearview. There was no sedan in sight, but that might not mean anything. She assumed they’d see the tire tracks in the grass and would follow.
“I’m on Powell,” Natalie said.