Bad To The Bone (39 page)

"What?" Price's lawyer asked. "What is
it?"

"Isn't that Robert's first wife?" I
asked.

The lawyer nodded. "Sure is. And they say
women and elephants never forget."

"We don't forget," I assured him. "It's just
that sometimes we manage to forgive."

Jeff had been talking to me the whole time I
was lost in this memory. I hadn't heard a word he said. "What?" I
asked blankly, looking up at him. "What did you say?"

"I said I'm sorry I lied about your
grandfather," he mumbled. "I'm sorry I pulled him into this
mess."

"So he didn't tell you where I was?" I
asked. "He doesn't know?"

Jeff shook his head. "You remember Rocky
Road Reed?" he asked.

"Despite years of trying to forget him,
yes."

"He saw a photo of you in a Jacksonville
paper a while ago. Something about a lady politician."

Oh, yeah. I had tried to stay out of the
papers for that one. I thought I had succeeded.

"He remembered that the photo had been taken
in Raleigh. You were pretty easy to find once I knew that. You
don't exactly blend in with the crowd."

He laughed nervously. I didn't.

"Ah, Honey Bunny, don't be mad," he
pleaded.

I think it was the Honey Bunny that did it.
Jeff never really heard a word I said. Like every other junkie on
the planet, he was far too busy scheming to ever listen. No amount
of caring for him or wishing it otherwise would change that simple
fact. Any guilt I felt at what I was about to do vanished.

They say you're not supposed to interfere in
other people's lives. But if I had followed that advice, Robert
Price would still be in jail and a lot of rotten people would be
walking around free.

I stood up. "Good luck, Jeff," I said.

"Where are you going?" he asked,
alarmed.

"I'm giving you some privacy, so you can
call your mother."

"Why would I want to call her?"

"Jeff," I lied to him, "One day soon those
two men are going to be back for the rest of their drug money. And
you better not be around when they get here. They told me they
would kill you if it was the last thing they ever did. Ask your
mother for the money to go away. She'll give it to you. She always
has. Tell her you need it to start over. Somewhere far away where
you don't know anyone and where those men will never find you. Go
someplace where you have a chance to be someone new."

"Someone new?" he asked. "Why would I want
to be someone new?"

"Because your nose is running, your eyes are
bleeding, your head is pounding and one day you, my friend, are
going to either run out of pills or do something else stupid. And,
believe me, next time I will not be there to bail you out."

He stared at me in silence.

"Get out now, Jeff," I warned him. "Stop the
world. Tell it you want to get off. Go someplace far away. Go to
Alaska."

"Alaska? I'm from Florida."

"Bring mittens. Sign up for a work crew and
build pipelines. Do some hard labor. Use your body for a change,
instead of abusing it. If you stay away long enough, those guys
will move on to someone else. It's your only chance. Take it. Just
do something different, so you can get on with your life."

"Like you have?" he mumbled resentfully.

"Like I have," I agreed. I walked to my door
and took my knapsack off the hook on the back of it.

"Where are you going now?" he asked.

"To the Amtrak station," I explained. "To
check out the fares to Florida."

"Florida?" he said. "You hate that
place."

"No, I don't. You're what I hated about that
place. You and the people we used to know. But I love Florida. It's
my home. It's where I come from. It's who I am. And I am not Tawny
Bledsoe. Or anything like her. I am not going to turn my back on
the people who love me."

"Meaning what?" Jeff asked hopefully.
"You'll help me after all?"

He would never change. "This has nothing to
do with you," I explained. "Nothing I ever do in my life again will
ever have anything to do with you. It means that I am going home to
see my grandfather. And I'm going to pray every mile of the way
that he forgives me for staying away for so long, all because of
something as stupid as pride."

Jeff stared at me, not understanding. "I
don't get it," he finally said.

"I didn't think you would. But I learned
something important from Tawny Bledsoe and I don't plan to forget
it. Maybe you ought to remember it, too."

"Remember what?" he mumbled resentfully.

"You can run from yourself," I told him
gently, "but you cannot hide."

# # #

Copyright © 2000 by Katy Munger

e-book version published by Thalia Press,
February 2011

Visit
 
http://www.katymunger.com
 
for more information on the
author and her books.

Casey Jones books by Katy
Munger:

LEGWORK

OUT OF TIME

MONEY TO BURN

BAD TO THE BONE

BETTER OFF DEAD

BAD MOON ON THE
RISE 

Books by Katy Munger,
writing as Chaz McGee

DESOLATE ANGEL

ANGEL
INTERRUPTED

ANGEL OF DARKNESS
(2012)

Books by Katy Munger,
writing as Gallagher Gray

PARTNERS IN
CRIME

A CAST OF
KILLERS

DEATH OF A DREAM
MAKER

A MOTIVE FOR
MURDER

This novel is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead,
is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author
or publisher.