This is the story I promised, another thriller, even though there isn’t much mystery attached to it.

The Escape

by Kay Lynn

Chapter 1

It was a hot muggy day when the three convicts escaped from the North Carolina state prison. One was called Bandit; a short swarthy man, with a pockmarked face, in his late fifties, he was a convicted rapist/serial killer who had forty-two confirmed kills to his name.

Luther, Luth for short, was an armed robber doing life. He was thirty-eight and known for his crazy hair-trigger temper. He would shoot on sight; he shot several people when he held up a bank, wounding most of them and killing one. He was very tall and thin with a receding hairline. The little hair he had was stringy blonde.

Then there was Rusty, who  had murdered his wife and was known for his absolute hatred and contempt for women. Rusty was the same age as Bandit. He was short, stocky, and bald, with a potbelly that came from years of alcohol abuse.

The three men had become fast friends in prison and had planned their escape for a long time.

Luth, who had grown up in the vicinity, told them when they were planning the prison break, "We’ll hole up in one of them rich people’s cottages down on Rocky Creek. We can lay low for awhile till the police stop looking for us and then we can head up north or out west. They won't never find us."

"Why don’t we try to find us a woman to take to the cottage with us?" Rusty suggested eagerly. "I been in prison for two years. It’s been just too long."

 

"I’m so glad our first year of college is finally almost over," Trixie Belden said wearily as she yawned and stretched in the dorm room she shared with Honey at New York State.

This past year had been one of the hardest times of Trixie’s life; a time of great sadness. Last summer, she had met the man of her dreams at Haight’s Island; Tonio Ramirez and she had fallen in love. But they only had a couple of months in New York together before he had to leave town to go to France on an investigation. Since he was FBI, he couldn’t discuss the details with her.

Tonio had never returned and she had gotten word that he'd been in a building which had been blown up by terrorists and no one had gotten out alive. She refused to believe it at first, but, after a few months, she finally admitted to herself that if Tonio were still alive, he would have contacted her by now. It had been a sad seven and a half months. The only good thing about it was that it caused Trixie to immerse herself in her studies. She may not have done that if Tonio had been around and might have flunked her first year of college.

A few weeks ago, knowing that college was ending, Trixie was in a quandary. She was concerned how she would deal with the pain now that she didn’t have her studies to bury herself in. She wanted to get away from everything that was familiar and everyone that was familiar.  To go to some secluded area, away from the city, away from family and friends, and even away from her home that she loved. She wanted some time to think and a chance to put Tonio to rest in her mind and heart, so that she could go on with her life.  The busyness of college life with her friends and brothers around all the time never gave her the opportunity.

All the Bob-Whites were at college now in New York City. After Tonio had disappeared, they had tried everything to get Trixie out of her blue funk. They had dragged her to parties and discos, they had made her join them for plays and pictures, and they had tried to fix her up with dates.

Don’t they know that they’re only making me more depressed? Trixie had often thought. I just need to bury myself in my studies and get through this year. This attitude, so much unlike Trixie, was a constant source of concern for all the Bob-Whites.

During the course of the last few months, Jim Frayne had expressed an interest in her and she returned that interest, but her feelings for Tonio were still too deep and too sad.  She had some grief work to complete before she could even think of a relationship.

She had made a new friend in college. Her name was Sedony and confiding in her was the one thing that made Trixie feel better. She loved Honey and Diana with all her heart, but, for some reason, being around them and all the other Bob-Whites made her depressed.

She confided to Sedony that she wanted to go and stay in some secluded place all alone, away from people who meant well and away from the hustle and bustle of city life. She told her that she couldn’t face going back to Crabapple Farm right now, so Sedony offered her the use of her family’s small vacation cottage in the hills of North Carolina. Trixie had gratefully accepted. But when she confided in her two best friends in the whole world, Honey Wheeler and Diana Lynch, they had their own ideas.

"Not without us, you’re not," Honey Wheeler told her indignantly.

"Yeah, Trixie, you need us," Diana said.

"Not to mention," said Honey, "that I’m not going back to Sleepyside and spend the first month there by myself, watching my poor brother mope over you."

The real reason Honey and Diana were so insistent on accompanying Trixie was that Trixie had been so despondent this past year. Honey and Diana were afraid for her to go off alone. Not that they thought Trixie would do something irrational, they just knew that she needed people around her a lot more than she thought.

Her parents, her brothers, and Jim had not wanted her to go, but they understood why she needed to. Her family had initially been against her relationship with Tonio, because he was quite a bit older than she was, but they had grudgingly accepted it.  After learning about Tonio's death last September, they wished they had a chance to do it over again.  They would have been a lot more accepting.

Chapter 2

Trixie flew down to North Carolina alone. She did not feel up to taking the long car trip with Diana and Honey. They had left one day before she had and would be there toward the end of the following day.

Trixie loved the cottage. It was a tiny log cabin set in the woods on the side of a mountain, like so many mountain cottages in that area.

The cottage was extremely secluded, so Trixie was surprised to find that it had running water and electricity. She was certain the families and elderly people close by probably still lived quite primitively. In front of the cabin, there was a mountain stream teeming with rainbow trout. The road to the cabin came up to the side of the yard and the other side looked down the mountain. The mountain bloomed with an array of beautiful summer flowers in whites, pinks, yellows, apricots, lavenders and blues. When she looked down the mountain she saw a pastel carpet of flowers.

During the two days Trixie was there alone, she loved to sit on the bank of the mountain stream and just watch the swift water flow, or sit and admire the beautiful carpet of flowers.

"Oh Tonio," she said the first day she was there, as she stared into the water and wiped away a tear. "I miss you so much, how do I go on without you?"

When Honey and Diana arrived the next evening, Trixie was gladder to see them than she thought she would be. She knew they would be understanding and allow her privacy when she was having one of "those" days. It would be nice to have them there the remainder of the time.

"We brought food," Diana said, climbing out of the passenger seat of Honey’s little red sports car.

The three girls spread a blanket on the bank of the stream and ate the fried chicken and homemade biscuits that Honey had picked up at a little country café on the way in. Trixie looked around at the sunshine and the little bubbling stream. She saw the greenery and the butterflies flitting around the wildflowers and listened to the birds sing and, for just a brief moment, she felt a sense of being alive again. Something that she hadn’t felt in the long seven and a half months that Tonio had been gone.

Chapter 3

Bandit, Luth, and Rusty had a long night after they broke out of jail. After finally getting off the grounds of the prison, Rusty took them down a small winding stream hoping that the water would throw the scent off so the dogs couldn’t track them. After they had run so far and so hard that each man thought his lungs would burst, Luther led them to a cave where he and his brother used to camp when they were growing up in the hills. The three men fell inside the cave in exhaustion and slept for a long time.

The next morning, Bandit was the first one to awaken. "All right, you two, let’s get moving.," he told them, kicking them. "We been here way longer than we needed to."

The other two convicts wearily sat up and began to stir around.

"I need some smokes and some coffee. We have to go hit a convenience store,   but before that we need to steal a car."

"That’s the quickest way to get caught, ain’t it?" questioned Luth. "Steal a car and the law will know we’re still around these parts. I thought we wanted them to think we were heading for New York or Florida or something."

 

Their first full day at the cottage, the three girls decided to go down the Blue Ridge Parkway and just enjoy the scenic wonders of the Smokey Mountains. They stopped the car at different places, climbed out and enjoyed the spectacular views. The beauty and peacefulness of the surroundings seemed to be restoring life to Trixie, which didn’t go unnoticed by Honey as Trixie joined in conversations.

The three girls laughed and talked as they rode and even went over the border into Tennessee, to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.

"Let’s find a grocery store, buy some food, and have a picnic somewhere on the side of a mountain," Diana suggested.

Both Trixie and Honey agreed, so they stopped at a nearby store and bought fried chicken, deli potato salad, baked beans, rolls, lemonade and, from the bakery department, a fudge brownie a piece.

The three sat on the side of the mountain at a picnic table in the Smokey Mountains National Forest. The place was so beautiful and serene. The girls didn’t say much as they ate their delicious meal, that is, until Diana, seated opposite Trixie and Honey looked behind them.

"Gleeps!" she said, her lavender eyes as big around as saucers.

Trixie and Honey turned to look, not knowing what to expect.

"It’s a bear!" shouted Honey. "I’ve heard you’re supposed to stay perfectly still when a bear comes up."

"I’ve heard that, too," replied Trixie warily, "but I'm having a problem with it. Let’s run."

Each girl grabbed some picnic paraphernalia and garbage and made a run for the car. Once they were safely leaving the area, they burst out laughing.

"The look on your face when you saw that bear," Trixie said, still breathless from laughing.

"Well," said Diana, "you should have seen the looks on Honey's face and yours."

After driving the more than seventy miles back to the cottage, all three girls were bushed. Everyone took a quick afternoon nap and then rose to greet the evening in the Smokey Mountains.

Trixie was in the old-fashioned kitchen when she heard a vehicle outside. As she pulled back the green gingham curtain, she saw a fifties model Chevy Apache truck pull up in the yard. A little old lady, who couldn’t have been more than five feet tall, climbed painstakingly out of the truck.

"Hi," said Trixie, stepping out on the porch to greet her.

"Hello, young lady. You must be the people the Wilmarks are letting use their cottage this summer."

"I guess that would be us," said Trixie, smiling. "I’m friends with their daughter Sedony."

"Well, I been afraid you were going to think I wasn't neighborly," she said in her soft southern accent as she plopped down on one of the rocking chairs on the porch. "I’m sorry I haven’t gotten over here before now, but my Wilbur, he’s got a bad back, you know, and his back went out on him the other day. I couldn’t very well leave him by himself to do all our chores. I wasn’t meaning to be rude."

"Oh," said Trixie, "I didn’t even realize there were any other houses around here."

"Oh yeah." The old lady finally got around to introducing herself. "By the way, I’m Emma. My husband Wilbur and I live over there across the holler. And there’s a house over in the woods beside us, but a quiet feller lives there and we don’t hardly ever see him. I think he’s one of them citified New Yorkers, at least, that’s what people say."

"Oh," said Trixie, smiling. She wondered what Emma would think if she knew that she also was one of those citified New Yorkers. "That’s interesting."

Honey and Diana both stepped out on the porch and Trixie quickly made all the introductions. The three girls and the elderly lady sat on the front porch in the old rocking chairs and talked. Emma was very interesting and told them about mountain folklore and stories from this particular part of North Carolina. The girls were so engrossed in the stories that Emma told that they didn’t realize how much time had elapsed.

"Oh my goodness, I need to get home," Emma said, quickly standing up. "Wilbur will need my help to slop the hogs. He can’t lift those fifty pound feed bags." She told the girls the last part quietly, as if she were speaking a confidence.

The three girls looked at the tiny, elderly woman in amazement, wondering if she actually did that.

"I almost forgot, I brought you all something." Emma ambled out to her truck and brought back a big picnic basket with food in it. In the basket was some home-cured ham slices, homemade biscuits and peach preserves Emma told them she had made from the peach trees that grew in her back yard. There was also freshly churned butter and a jar of home-canned vegetable beef soup, which they could have later on.

After thanking her and watching her drive away, the three girls took the basket inside.

"Oh, this food is delicious," said Trixie, taking a big bite of a biscuit loaded down with butter and preserves.

Trixie had gotten so thin over the course of the past year causing concern for her friends and family not only for her health, but also her state of mind.

I hope she keeps eating like this, Honey thought, pleased at the change she had seen in Trixie the past few weeks.

 

Chapter 4

The next day the girls decided to go swimming and picnicking at a place called Sliding Rock Park. It was kind of a long drive, but none of the three minded. They left the house early that morning, stopping at a store and filling the picnic basket Emma had brought them with all kinds of goodies. Then, laughing, joking and having fun, they were on their way.

"Okay, this is the one," said Luth, pointing toward the cottage from where they stood in the woods below.

The three desperate criminals stared at the neat little cottage overlooking the mountain stream.

"I think someone is staying there," said Bandit, noticing the porch light had been left on.

"Probably so.  In the summer, these places are hardly ever empty," Luth said.

"This will be a good hiding place," said Bandit. "You done good, Luth."

Luth’s head swelled with the praise. Bandit was the leader, the mastermind in jail, and Luth felt privileged that he had chosen him.

"Let’s go," Luth said.  He and Rusty stood up and headed through the woods, towards the little cottage.

"Wait a minute!" Bandit yelled, motioning them back. "If we get in there and the person occupying the place comes back, he’s liable to catch us by surprise.   He might get trigger happy, especially if he’s got a wife and kids.  We have to watch the place and plan our next move to make sure we have the advantage."

"It’s usually middle-aged or old people that own these cottages around here," Luther told him. "This one probably has some old, rich people from some place like Florida staying here." Luth was  itching to walk to the cottage. "We can overpower them."

"Hold it, Luth," said Bandit, lighting up one of the cigarettes they stole from a local store they had broken into last night. "It always pays to be sure. We’ll case the place for a couple of days and find out who all is staying here, then we’ll plan our next move."

Luth felt that Bandit was wrong, but he had agreed before the break that Bandit was the leader. And Bandit knew how not to get caught.

 

The girls were having a blast at Sliding Rock Park. Trixie didn’t think she’d ever had so much fun. It was the same kind of thrill as riding a rollercoaster. The water was ice cold and when the girls first went in, they screamed all the way down. After playing in the water until lunchtime, they spread out on enormous beach towels and lay in the sun.

"Do you think we should be getting back now?" Honey said as she sat up, rubbing her eyes. All three girls had fallen asleep in the sun and it was now late afternoon.

"Sounds like a winner to me," said Diana, standing and gathering her blanket and suntan lotion.

"I’d like for us to go into town and have dinner tonight," Honey said as she gathered up her things, "if that would be all right with you two."

Trixie surprised Honey and Diana both by saying, "I’d love to do that. We could check out the local culture."

The girls drove home, tired and slightly sunburned, but happy. They's had  a   fun, fulfilling day. Back at the cottage, they all slowly climbed out of the car and stretched before even moving to go into the cottage or unload their belongings.

Trixie and Honey went on in the house, but Diana stood outside, peeling her wet bathing suit cover off and hanging it on the makeshift clothesline. Wearing only her bikini, she headed toward the front door of the cottage.

 

"Whew! Would you look at that!" said Rusty, excited as the three girls climbed out of the little red sports car.

"We hit the jackpot!" said Luth. "Let’s go." He started towards the cottage for the second time that day.

"Hold it," Bandit said, stopping him once again.

"Hey, it’s three girls staying here, Bandit," said Rusty. "We can take them easy. Each one of us will have a sweetie. I can’t wait to get my hands on that one in the bikini."

"Once again," said Bandit in an irritated tone, as if he were talking to a very slow child. "As I told you before, we have to check out the situation first. They may have parents coming in, they may have boyfriends or husbands, and we need to be sure of who all may be staying here before we go charging in. Careful planning will keep us from getting caught and sent back to jail or shot."

In reality, Bandit couldn't care less about careful planning. Even though what he said made sense, even to him, he liked to choose his victims carefully. He liked to do things in such a way that brought them the utmost fear before he started the torture and the killing. He figured those three good-looking girls were probably here alone, but he wanted to go in on them in such a way that they would be almost paralyzed from fear. He wanted to take some time to plan how and what he was going to do.  They reluctantly headed back to the cave where they had spent last night. They thought about the three girls in such a way that if the girls had any idea, they would be terrified.