Beverly Barton - The Outcast

She kept hearing the words murderer, Landry, own father, dead, or alive tumbling around in her mind, and knew the officers were intent on capturing Reece at any cost.

The sheriff led the pack as they pulled up outside room nineteen, several men emerging from their vehicles, their guns pulled, as the sheriff lifted his bullhorn and called for Reece Landry to surrender.

Elizabeth's mouth felt dry, her hands damp. Her stomach twisted into knots. Hatred. The sheriff's deputies hated Reece Landry. They hated him not only because he had escaped but because they thought of him as a bad seed, a man capable of murdering his own father.

Clasping the key to number nineteen in her moist hand, Elizabeth marched into the office. The woman behind the desk glanced up at her.

"You checking out, sugar?" the six-foot redhead asked.

"Are you Flossie?" Elizabeth stared at the woman whose striking burgundy red hair had been draped into a French twist.

Flossie eyed Elizabeth, raising her black-lined, thinly tweezed eyebrows. "Yeah, sugar, I'm Flossie."

"Then, yes, I'm checking out." Elizabeth laid the key on the counter and waited for a response from Flossie.

Flossie picked up the key, then dropped it into the waste-basket under the counter. "What's your name?"

"Elizabeth."

"Elizabeth, huh? Well, has our friend left yet?"

"Only a few minutes ago." Elizabeth looked at Flossie, wondering if she dared trust her.

"Are you in a hurry or you got time for a cup of coffee?" Flossie nodded toward the coffee machine sitting at the end of the counter. "Might be a good idea for us to talk, and you could wait around and see what happens when Sheriff Bates finds out his man has slipped through his fingers."

"Luanne saw me last night," Elizabeth said.

"Well, we'll just skip the coffee, but I don't think you have to worry about Luanne telling the sheriff much about you. I don't know what you said or did to her last night, but you convinced her you were a witch. She won't tell anybody but me because she's afraid they'll think she's crazy." Flossie's wide red lips spread into a big grin.

"Thanks for everything, Flossie."

"You'd best be leaving, sugar."

Elizabeth reached out across the counter, taking Flossie's age-spotted, ring-adorned hand into hers. The two women exchanged knowing glances.

I've got to help this girl get away. She's important to Reece, and that's a first. Maybe she'll stand by him and he'll get himself out of this mess. Sensing Flossie's thoughts, Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief.

"You know he's on his way to the Burtons' summer house by the lake. I need directions so I can go to him after I pick up some supplies."

Flossie looked past Elizabeth, out the glass front of the office. "They're busting in room nineteen right now."

Turning her head, Elizabeth watched as the deputies broke down the door and stormed inside.

"Tell me how to get to Spruce Pine, to the summer house."

"Take Highway 40 until you get to Midget Creek. There's a four-way stop. Take a left and keep going until you see a sign that says Oden's Bait and Tackle Shop. About a mile past Oden's is a turnoff on the right. Take it and stay on that gravel road until it forks in two different directions. Take another right. It'll turn into a dirt road before you reach the cottage. The house is pretty well hidden in a grove of trees."

"I'll find it. Thanks."

Flossie came out from behind the counter, sizing up Elizabeth. "I hope you love that boy, sugar. I hope to God you love him, 'cause if ever a man needed to be loved, Reece Landry does."

Did she love him? Elizabeth asked herself. Did she? She cared about him, longed to be with him, was willing to suffer going out into the world to help him, was taking a chance on being arrested for aiding and abetting a criminal.

"I care about him. I care a great deal." Elizabeth rushed outside into the cold morning air. Glancing toward room nineteen, she saw the sheriff and other officers standing around in a circle, discussing Reece Landry's second escape.

She slipped into the T-Bird, started the engine and drove out onto the highway. Within five minutes she turned onto Highway 40 and began looking for a minimart of some kind, one that had a pay telephone. About two miles up the road she pulled off at Joe's Market, asked the attendant at the full-service pump to fill the T-Bird and went inside to shop for supplies. Only a few customers wandered around, most of them people who'd stopped for gas. Elizabeth filled a hand basket with sandwich fixings, canned soups, milk and cereal and coffee, along with assorted items she thought they could use. She placed the basket on the checkout counter, then retrieved a six-pack of beer and a six-pack of cola from the wall cooler.

The middle-aged woman at the checkout counter smiled as she added up Elizabeth's purchases. "You new in town or just passing through?"

"Just passing through right now, on my way to meet a friend." When Elizabeth heard the bell hanging above the door tinkle, she turned to see a highway patrolman entering.

"Hey, there, Pete," the checker said. "Are you here for your regular?"

"Just coffee right now, Carolyn." The patrolman poured himself a cup from one of the two pots behind the counter, handed the checker the correct change and took a sip of the hot liquid. "I haven't got time for lunch. They've called an all-points bulletin for us to be on the lookout for Reece Landry. The night clerk over at the Sweet Rest thinks a customer who came in yesterday evening was this Landry guy."

"You mean he's here in Newell?" Carolyn rolled her big brown eyes heavenward. "Didn't know the man personally, but I can't imagine anybody in his shoes being fool enough to come back here, knowing he'd be recognized."

"Well, whoever this Mr. Jones was that spent the night in room nineteen, he got away this morning, and so did the woman who spent the night with him."

Carolyn grinned at Pete while she continued checking Elizabeth's groceries. "Yeah, well, I heard that Landry had a way with the ladies. Good-looking guy...uh...from what I could tell from his pictures in the paper. I remember something coming out during the trial that Kenny Stanton's wife said Landry was after her hot and heavy."

"Kenny Stanton's wife is a real looker. Can't blame Landry for giving it a try." Pete laughed, tipped his hat to Carolyn and Elizabeth, then walked toward the door, his disposable coffee cup in his hand.

"Do y'all know who the woman was with Landry?" Carolyn called out just as Pete opened the door.

"Got no idea, and the only description is sketchy. A brunette." "Probably some hooker, if he was at the Sweet Rest."

"Yeah, more than likely."

Elizabeth watched the patrolman get into his car and drive away. Turning to the checker, she forced a smile. "Is this Landry man in trouble with the law?" "Child, Reece Landry's been in trouble with the law all his life." Carolyn began sacking Elizabeth's groceries. "But he's an escaped convict now. He was convicted of murdering his own father, but he escaped on his way up to Arrendale less than a week ago."

"Why would he come back here?" Elizabeth picked up amusement in the woman's mind and heard words like framed and innocent and inheritance in her thoughts.

"I'd say he's a fool." Carolyn handed Elizabeth two sacks, then picked up the third. "I'll help you to your car with this one."

"Thanks."

Carolyn followed Elizabeth toward the door. "Reece Landry claimed he was innocent, and a few folks around here believed him. He wasn't old B.K. Stanton's legitimate son, if you know what I mean."

Elizabeth opened the door. "Weren't there any other suspects?"

"Plenty, but the sheriff didn't follow through on anything once they arrested the man the Stanton family wanted out of the way." Carolyn followed Elizabeth to the T-Bird and handed her the third sack after Elizabeth placed the others on the back floorboard. "If you come through this way again, stop by."