Blake Pierce - Once Hunted

Riley studied her ex-husband’s face as he stared at the office door. In many ways, he seemed like a changed man. Not long ago, he’d been inattentive to the point of serious delinquency as a parent. He’d always insisted that all of April’s problems were Riley’s fault.

But April’s drug use and her much-too-close brush with forced prostitution had changed something in Ryan. After her stay in the rehab clinic, April had been home with Riley for six weeks now. Ryan had visited often and had joined them for Thanksgiving. At times, they seemed almost like a functional family.

But Riley kept reminding herself that they had never really been a functional family.

Could that change now? she wondered. Do I want it to change?

Riley felt torn, even a little guilty. She’d long tried to accept that her own future probably didn’t have Ryan in it. Perhaps there might even be another man in her life.

There had always been some kind of attraction between her and Bill. But they’d also fought and quarreled from time to time. Besides, their professional relationship was demanding enough without throwing romance into the mix.

Her kind and attractive next door neighbor, Blaine, seemed a better prospect, especially since his daughter, Crystal, was April’s best friend.

Still, at times like now, Ryan almost seemed to be the same man she’d fallen in love with so many years ago. Where were things headed? She really didn’t know.

The office door opened and Dr. Lesley Sloat stepped out.

“We’d like to see you now,” she said with a smile.

Riley had long since taken a liking to the short, stocky, good-natured psychologist, and April was clearly fond of her too.

Riley and Ryan both went into the office and sat down in a couple of comfortable upholstered chairs. They were facing April, who sat on a couch beside Dr. Sloat. April was smiling weakly. Dr. Sloat nodded for her to start talking.

“Something happened this week,” April said. “It’s kind of hard to talk about …”

Riley’s breathing quickened and she felt her heart beating faster.

“It’s got to do with Gabriela,” April said. “Maybe she should be here today to talk about this too, but she’s not, so …”

April’s voice trailed off.

Riley was surprised. Gabriela was a stout, middle-aged Guatemalan woman who had been the family’s housekeeper for years. She had moved in with Riley and April and was like a member of the family.

April took a deep breath and continued, “A couple of days ago, she told me something I didn’t tell you. But I think you should know. Gabriela said that she had to leave.”

“Why?” Riley gasped.

Ryan looked confused. “Aren’t you paying her enough?” he asked.

“It was because of me,” April said. “She said she couldn’t do it anymore. She said it was too much responsibility for her to have to stop me from harming myself or getting myself killed.”

April paused. A tear came to her eye.

“She said it was too easy for me to sneak out without her knowing. She couldn’t sleep at night wondering if I was putting myself in danger. She said that now that I was healthy again, she was moving out right away.”

Riley was jolted with alarm. She’d had no idea that Gabriela had been thinking any such thing.

“I begged her not to go,” April said. “I was crying and she was crying, too. But I couldn’t change her mind, and I was terrified.”

April choked back a sob and wiped her eyes with a tissue.

“Mom,” April said, “I actually got down on my knees. I promised never, ever to make her feel that way again. Finally … finally she hugged me and said she wouldn’t leave as long as I kept my promise. And I will. I really will. Mom, Dad, I’ll never make you or Gabriela or anybody worry about me like that ever again.”

Dr. Sloat patted April’s hand and smiled at Riley and Ryan.

She said, “I guess what April’s trying to say is that she’s turned a corner.”

Riley saw Ryan take out a handkerchief and dab his eyes. She’d very rarely ever seen him cry. But she understood how he felt. She felt her own throat catch. It was Gabriela – not Riley or Ryan – who had made April see the light.

Even so, Riley felt incredibly grateful that her family would be together and in good health for Christmas. She ignored the dread that lurked deep down inside, the awful feeling that the monsters in her life were going to take away her holiday.

When Shane Hatcher walked into the prison library on Christmas Day, the wall clock showed that it was exactly two minutes before the hour.

Perfect timing, he thought.

In a few minutes, he was going to break free.

He was amused to see Christmas decorations hung here and there – all made of colored Styrofoam, of course, nothing hard or with edges or useful as rope. Hatcher had spent a lot of Christmas holidays in Sing Sing, and the idea of trying to evoke the holiday spirit here always struck him as absurd. He almost laughed aloud when he saw Freddy, the taciturn prison librarian, wearing a red Santa hat.

Sitting at his desk, Freddy turned toward him and smiled a cadaverous smile. That smile told Hatcher that everything was set to go as planned. Hatcher silently nodded and smiled back at him. Then Hatcher walked between two shelves and waited.

Just as the clock ticked the hour, Hatcher heard the sound of the loading dock door opening at the far end of the library. In just a few moments, a truck driver came in pushing a large plastic bin on wheels. The dock door closed noisily behind him.

“Whatcha got for me this week, Bader?” Freddy asked.

“What do you think I’ve got?” the driver said. “Books, books, books.”

The driver took a quick peek in Hatcher’s direction, then turned away. The driver, of course, was in on the plan. From that moment on, both the driver and Freddy treated Hatcher as if he weren’t there at all.

Excellent, Hatcher thought.

Together, Bader and Freddy unloaded the books onto a wheeled steel table.

“How’s about a cup of coffee over in the commissary?” Freddy said to the driver. “Or maybe some hot eggnog? They’re serving it for the holiday.”

“Sounds great.”

The two men chatted casually as they disappeared through the swinging double doors out of the library.

Hatcher stood quietly for a moment, studying the exact position of the bin. He’d paid off a guard to nudge a surveillance camera little by little over a period of days until there was a blind spot in the library – one that the guards who watched the monitors hadn’t yet noticed. It looked like the driver had hit the mark perfectly.

Hatcher silently stepped out from between the shelves and climbed inside the bin. The driver had left a coarse, heavy packing blanket at the bottom. Hatcher pulled the blanket over himself.

Now was the only phase of Hatcher’s plan when he thought that anything could possibly go wrong. But even if somebody came into the library, he doubted that they would bother to look inside the bin. Others who might ordinarily have checked the book truck closely as it left had been paid off too.

Not that he was worried or nervous. He hadn’t felt such emotions for some three decades now. A man who had nothing to lose in life had no cause for anxiety or unease. The only thing that could arouse his interest was the promise of the unknown.

He lay underneath the blanket, listening closely. He heard the wall clock tick the minute.

Five more minutes, he thought.

That was the plan. Those five minutes would give Freddy deniability. He could honestly say that he hadn’t seen Hatcher climb into the bin. He could say he’d thought Hatcher had actually left the library earlier. When five minutes were up, Freddy and the driver would return, and Hatcher would be carted out of the library and then driven out of the prison.