Hunted (5 page)

Stacy was…had been…beautiful.  Golden hair, pink cheeks, large hazel eyes, and the svelte figure of a cheerleader.  Yet, she had not one adversary.  She wasn’t from the most wealthy family and she seemed to know better than to step on the toes of the girls who were higher up on the totem pole, the girls who dated the football players and the popular guys.  Though, any of those boys would have dated Stacy if she’d only said yes to them.  But, she didn’t.  She was beautiful, but also smart enough to know her place in the pecking order at Fells Pointe High. 

Lanie simply could not imagine who would want to hurt her or why.  It would have made her feel slightly better to think that it was someone Stacy didn’t know, a shadowy and faceless stranger that had swooped in from out of the darkness to do such an unspeakable thing to such an innocent girl, but she knew that wasn’t all that likely.  Other than a few people passing through on their way to someplace else, there were no shadowy strangers in Fells Pointe. 

It
could
have been someone just driving through town that had spotted the girl and decided she would be their next…victim, so they’d seized the opportunity, had left her in the park, and then driven on their way.  However, she was the daughter of the Sheriff and she knew the statistics.  Nearly fifty percent of homicides involving females were committed by family members or other acquaintances.  Odds were, Stacy was killed by someone she was at least familiar with.  And that was the most bothersome thing of all.  Someone who lived in Fells Pointe, someone who ate chili fries at The Pub, someone who walked through the Town Square and bought the morning paper from Mr. Wallace’s Newsstand, had killed Stacy. 

And that person, that friend or that neighbor, was still walking around town as if nothing had happened. 

CHAPTER THREE

The sound of a car horn split the air and Lanie let out a shriek, jumping in her chair.  Jerked out of her morbid thoughts, she whipped her gaze toward the piercing noise, feeling more annoyed than frightened, and finding Brady’s black Honda pulling up into the driveway, with Brady waving to her out his window.

Trying to force her heart out of her throat and back down into her chest, Lanie got out of her chair, put her bag over her shoulder, and headed off the porch.  Once she was belted into her seat and they were on their way to the game field, Brady turned his kind blue eyes to Lanie, smiling at her.

“I didn’t think you’d feel like coming to watch practice today,” he said to her.

“I wasn’t going to,” she answered with a shrug, noting that Brady seemed to have slapped on a bit more cologne than was necessary.  It was actually starting to choke her.  Probably he had dabbed it on for Devyn, the poor girl.

“Well, I’m glad you decided to come,” he told her.  “You shouldn’t be sitting at home all depressed.  It…it won’t change anything.”

Lanie nodded, but didn’t feel the surge of annoyance that she had when her aunt had said the same thing.  It was just…different coming from Brady.

“Are you okay?” he asked her, shooting her a quick glance that was filled with worry.  “I mean
really
?”

“I’m okay,” she answered honestly.  “You shouldn’t worry about me.  You should be worrying about Stacy’s family.”

Brady lifted a broad shoulder.  “I am worried about them, but I don’t really know them.  I didn’t really know Stacy.  But, I do know you.  We’re all worried about you because…well, you know.”

Lanie looked at the boy, whose blonde hair was falling about his face in a disarray of sandy curls, feeling confused.  “Know what?  What do you mean?”

“I mean…well, your mom…you know, and then your grandma…and now your friend.  It just seems like you’ve lost a lot of people and…we’re all just worried about you,” Brady told her, looking highly uncomfortable.

Lanie considered his words for a moment.  He was right.  She’d lost her mother and her grandmother both in the past three years.  But, as horrible as it had been to lose half her family in such a short time, it was part of living.  Bodies were fallible.  Bodies grew old and bodies failed for no reason.  She’d come to terms with those losses. 

“I’m okay.  Really,” Lanie assured Brady.  “You don’t have to worry about me.”

“Eh, that’s what friends are for, right?” Brady said to her.

“Right,” she agreed easily, smiling.

“So, let us do our job.  I know you’d do the same thing for one of us,” Brady avowed.

Lanie felt a sudden and unexpected stab of guilt pierce her.  She’d been annoyed with Aunt Gretchen for doing her job, which was worrying about her niece, who’d lost two people already and had now lost a third in the most hideous way possible. 

She was an ungrateful snipe.

There was a space of silence in the car as Brady navigated the streets through town and toward Fells Pointe High, but Lanie didn’t mind.  Silences with Brady Cooper weren’t awkward at all, but were instead just…comfortable.  Maybe because Brady was just…comfortable.

“Lanie?” Brady suddenly spoke, turning a quick glance to her.

“Yeah?” she said, not quite liking the look in his eyes.

“Do you think someone in town killed…her?” came the question.

Lanie pulled in a breath.  “There’s a big probability that it wasn’t a total stranger who killed her,” she stated.

“It doesn’t even make sense,” Brady stated, shaking his head.  “Who…who would do something like that?  Someone that we
know
…it just doesn’t make any sense.”

Lanie agreed.  It didn’t make any sense.  A seventeen year old girl had her throat slashed and it was in all likelihood a friend or an acquaintance.  It did not, nor would it ever, make sense.

“Do you think your dad’ll find them?” Brady questioned seriously.

“He will,” Lanie answered.  She had absolutely no doubt that Sam Bancroft would find the person responsible.

Brady was silent for another short space.  “Do you think it’ll only be Stacy?”

Something slightly cold went through Lanie.  “What do you mean?”

“Do you think whoever it was…will stop?  Do you think they only wanted Stacy?” Brady questioned.

Lanie hadn’t considered anything like that.  It was not a very comforting thought.  “I-I…I don’t know.  I-I mean…nothing like this has ever happened before, so…I mean…I doubt it will happen again.”

Brady nodded, but said nothing and the conversation was dropped.  Lanie was glad.  Even considering the possibility that it would happen again was sickening.  She did not want to talk about it. 

“You’ll be careful for a while, right?” Brady asked her as they turned onto Fairview Drive, which was the street that led to Fells Pointe High and the game field beyond.  “I know you like to walk into town for coffee or whatever, but…you’ll be careful, right?”

Lanie couldn’t miss the nervous, worried tone lacing Brady’s words.  He really was worried that whoever had…done that…to Stacy might not stop at her.  “I will.  I promise,” she assured him.  The last thing she wanted for herself was to wind up like Stacy.

It was such a strange thing to have to think about being careful walking around town.  It had never been a second thought before.  Fells Pointe was so safe, so removed from the trouble that the rest of the world was having, that it seemed like an affront, an abomination, to have it desecrated in such a heinous manner.

Brady drove past the familiar brick building that housed Fells Pointe High and continued onward down the tree lined street for a ways before coming to the gravel parking lot belonging to the Harvey Fell Sports Field, named after the great, great, great…great?...grandson of the founder of Fells Pointe.  Mr. Harvey Fell had donated the money to have the game field moved away from the school house and onto a location that was better suited than the small, barely useable field that had been used for decades.

Brady wheeled his car into a space and Lanie noticed there were a lot more vehicles in the gravel lot than there usually were for a Saturday afternoon practice.  There seemed to be twice as many cars filling the lot.

“What’s going on?” Brady questioned, throwing the car into park and climbing out.

Lanie followed suit, getting out of the car and waiting for Brady to pull his enormous duffle bag full of gear from the trunk.  They both headed across the lot and through the stand of trees that separated the game field from the street.  Lanie felt her heart thumping hard in her chest.  Her mind was racing, coming up with all sorts of scenarios as to why there would be so many people at the field.  She tried not to think of anything bad because there were no police cars anywhere around, yet, but she couldn’t help but dredge up a picture or two that caused her to feel sick.

Brady, his duffle bag over his shoulder, put his hand on Lanie’s back as they moved through the shadowy stand of oak trees.  Brady was thinking the same things that Lanie was thinking.  That something bad had happened at the field, maybe to one of their friends.

Cautiously, the exited the tree line and stepped out onto the game field, both of them letting their gazes sweep around, both of them expecting the worst.  However, there didn’t seem to be anything…bad…going on, other than the stands on both sides of the field being filled with a lot of…parents?  Yes, there were an
alarming
number of parents sitting in the stands, talking with one another and watching the team out on the field, goofing around.

“What the hell?” Brady said, sounding dumbfounded.  “It’s just practice today, right?  We…we don’t have a game?”

Lanie shook her head.  “No.  There’s no game.  I-I…guess they’re all here because…”

“Of what happened,” Brady finished for her.  “Oh.  So, they’re here to what?  Keep an eye on us?”

“Probably,” Lanie answered as they walked down the field, past the concession stands and the rest room building and toward the center of the field.

“So, they’re just gonna be sitting there...
watching us
?  This sucks!  I mean, this is our place!  This…this sucks!” Brady complained, shooting an angry glare toward the stands.

Lanie agreed.  The parents hardly ever came to watch practice, which meant the game field was a place the kids could hang out and do whatever they felt like doing without having to worry about getting caught.  There weren’t that many places around Fells Pointe where the parents weren’t hanging around and watching, and now, thanks to whoever had…done that…to Stacy, there was one less place they could escape the all-seeing eyes of their families.

“What’s next?  Are they going to start hanging out with us at The Pub?  Or the Drive-In?” Brady demanded, clearly upset by the very prospect.

Lanie shrugged, having no answer for him.  Things were different now, at least for the moment, so there was no telling what the parents would do in an effort to make sure their children were safe and didn’t wind up like Stacy.  Though, it would be a shame if no one could hang out at the Drive-In for a while.  The old, decrepit drive-in theatre on the outskirts of town was the preferred hangout spot for the kids around Fells Pointe.  Without that place to run to in an effort to escape, everyone might just lose their minds.

“Devyn and Johnna are here,” Brady pointed out, nodding toward the opposite end of the field, where the Spirit Squad were all huddled around one another, their pristine white and royal blue uniforms seemingly over-bright against the back drop of trees.  “I’ll give you a ride back after practice, okay?  Don’t go off on your own.”

Brady veered off in the direction of his teammates and Lanie kept going down the field, but a deep voice calling her name stopped her. 

“Lanie!  Hey, wait up!”

Turning around, Lanie saw Chase Wylie coming toward her, his helmet under his arm and his dark hair mussed.  As he walked, Lanie couldn’t help but notices the head of every girl in the stands turning to watch him.  And she honestly didn’t blame them.  Chase Wylie was a very tall,
very
good looking quarter back with vivid blue eyes, a crooked smile, and a face that could have been used to sell very expensive men’s cologne.  He was, hands down, the most attractive boy at Fells Pointe High, which was why he had throngs of girls chasing after him.  Of course, it also didn’t hurt that he was the son of the most influential and wealthy man in town.  Even seventeen year old girls could keep an eye toward the future.

Chase had been through his fair share of girlfriends, which Lanie found rather offensive on some level.  And that was why she had turned him down so many times over the past few months.  She wasn’t into being just another notch in someone’s bed post, and good looks and a charming smile could not change her mind on that.  Yet, when Chase had asked her out last week, she’d said yes.  She was still confused about that decision.