HIDING: first of three: hiding hunting healing

By C. L. JOHNSON

Attorney Camilla S. Kennedy was known as an excellent attorney. She was good at straddling the line between legal and illegal, which allowed her reputation to grow quickly. She was known as a tough attorney who wouldn't quit the fight. Many people sought her out. People who had the money and the connections found her.
The man was one of those people. Camilla's reputation brought a phone call that led to an afternoon meeting. That meeting would change the course of her life. One day. One meeting. One blink. The day she had taken her eye off the ball. The man's power could not be matched. Once he got you, you were his.
Two years and a relationship with the man's son didn't give her the option of just walking away. She had seen too much. She knew too much.
Camilla determined the time was drawing near. She knew when he used her up, she would become a liability, and the man didn't keep liabilities.
There was no way she could go to the authorities, he owned too many of them. She weighed her few options carefully and started formulating a plan. She knew she must run. She must hide.
After many nights of thinking, worrying, and planning, Camilla determined there was only one place in the world she may be able to hide. A place where she didn't exist. Once that was decided, she began to put the plan in motion. A short time later Camilla Kennedy was gone. From that day forward, she would not claim that name or that life.
Cami Sue was found and she was going home to a hollow on top of a mountain. A place she left over twenty years ago…and when she left, she never looked back.
Now it was time to once again reinvent herself. Now was the time for Hiding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350904161

Book preview

BK90078117.jpg

HIDING

©2023 C. L. JOHNSON

This is a work of fiction.

Names, characters, organizations, places, and events or incidents are either imaginary or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead) is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced or transferred in any way without written permission of the author.

Print ISBN: 979-8-35090-415-4

eBook ISBN: 979-8-35090-416-1

Contents

Chapter 1. ESCAPING TO HELL

Chapter 2. A FLOOD OF MEMORIES

Chapter 3. PLAN B

Chapter 4. Stick to the Plan

Chapter 5. Losing Control

Chapter 6. Homesteading

Chapter 7. FINDING SJ

Chapter 8. Edie Kennedy and Stanley Jackson

Chapter 9. Back to Hiding

Chapter 10. Survival

Chapter 11. Winter is Coming

Chapter 12. Sheriff Conroy

Chapter 13. Cleveland

Chapter 14. A New Plan

Chapter 15. All Hell Breaks Loose

Chapter 16. Patched Up…Again

Chapter 17. Things are Much Bigger Now

Chapter 18. Up the Chain

CHAPTER 1

ESCAPING TO HELL

It’s three o’clock in the morning on a dirt road on the top of a mountain. It’s dark. Shadows move amidst the trees.

Did I go down the wrong road again? Camilla thought as she pulled the car over. Wait, I know this road! She’d been driving almost seven hours, but if you count how many times she’d been turned around, it’d be eight. She should have bought a map.

She could have gone anywhere. Literally anywhere. Italy. A Caribbean Island. Colorado. Why West Virginia? Why the hell did she feel the need to escape to West Virginia? Fear. It was fear of what would happen had she not. Knowing that she could be and would be found wherever she went, except here. This was the one place where she didn’t exist.

She sat in her car on a back country road and took a deep breath. Maybe nothing looked familiar but at least she was safe, for now. The road was a single-lane dirt road, barely more than a path. She hadn’t driven this road since she was eighteen. As a kid she rode down these dirt lanes daily, most days it was school buses. Sometimes it was in daddy’s truck.

She leaned forward and cranked up the heat. It was chilly, mid-September. She took another deep breath and looked around. No traffic. Nothing moving except the leaves. Where was she? From the main road she drove to Weston traveling toward Elkins, then took route 250 to Durbin. On to Burner Mountain. She made it to the horseshoe bend. That was right, but from there she was lost. Well, maybe not lost, just not where she wanted to be.

Camilla turned the car off, wrapped her jacket around herself, slid her seat back, and closed her eyes. She was exhausted. How long had it been since I slept, she wondered? In a matter of moments, she was asleep.

The gentle sound of rain hitting the roof of her car woke her at 6:53. It was that time right before daybreak, when the shadows started to dance. With a frustrated, tired sigh she started the car. As she headed back toward the bend she was amazed at the beauty of the mountain. She had almost forgotten what it looked like in the early morning light.

The shadows of the mountain danced faster as each passing minute brought more sunshine. The leaves were in their prime. Crimson and orange. Gold and purple. The rain only helped in bringing more magic. She turned the car around at the bend, gazing at the skyline where the mountains reached toward the clouds. Watching the sky, she now knew where to go.

Just over a short hill the road widened to the left and there it was. A red dirt road where she knew every flower and every tree that ran its border. This was her road. There used to be three farms on this road. Now there’s only one. Off the left-hand side is a hollow where she used to live.

She turned onto the wide path where no vehicles had traveled in a long time. At certain points the weeds had completely taken over and the road disappeared. As she turned the bend, she saw a silo, the Lough Farm. It was nothing like she remembered. The barn was smaller and looked like it hadn’t been used in decades, the roof caving in. The house itself was abandoned. A little further down she passed the second farm. It too was dilapidated. What had happened to the Smiths and the Loughs? They had children, where were they? Why would they leave? But then again, didn’t she leave?

She slowed to a crawl as the road grew narrow. Thankfully, the sun was up and she could see where she was going. As she passed the giant oak where she carved her initials when she was sixteen, she saw the two ridges that fell into the hollow. Suddenly, she burst into tears. Cami Sue had come home.

As if on cue, the rain stopped and sunlight flooded over the mountain range. Camilla sat in her car and cried for a long time. The memories creating a flood.

CHAPTER 2

A FLOOD OF MEMORIES

1969. Cami Sue had just turned fourteen when it started.

She lived with her daddy, momma, and Tommy in the hollow on top of the mountain. They lived smack-dab in the middle of 13,000 square miles of federal protected land known as the National Radio Astronomy area. It was their farm, but it was U.S. government’s laws. There were no telephone lines on top of the mountain. You couldn’t see another house and if you screamed, no one heard you. There was no noise from traffic or airplanes and there were no televisions. It was all she knew until she graduated high school.

There was the noise of the birds and the wind, the rain and the trees. The animals and rippling creeks. Cracks of thunder and lightning. The drip in the kitchen sink and the toilet when the handle got stuck. Of laughter and quiet talks, goodnight kisses and jump rope. These were good noises.

She was a happy little girl who went to a small school that was little more than a single room built on the side of the road. She was smart and she had a bunch of school friends. She walked to school every day; it was a little less than a mile and a half each way and she enjoyed the walk. Some days momma walked with her; and the days before Tommy joined the war effort, he would race her to the fencepost.

She knew all the short-cuts. She would follow the cow paths on the Lough farm then cut through the woods onto the horseshoe bend instead of following the road. She only had to walk to the Lough farm. A school bus picked her and six other children up at the end of their lane. They would ride the bus another seven miles into Bartow. A new school had been built and she loved it.

Her life was a daily routine that went one way while she sat behind a desk then another way during the summer. All she knew was happiness. She didn’t go much of anywhere, there was no need. Everything was perfect during those days.

Cami Sue could count on her hand the number of times daddy had taken her off the farm. When she was in school, she saw a bit of the world from the school bus window. She had even gone on a few school trips. There was the Green Bank Observatory, Cass Railroad, and the local library. She had read about other places like New York, Paris, and Washington DC. Her teacher would bring in books with pictures of maps. She loved maps. Cami Sue would stare at a new city and dream of traveling there.

Daddy was what many people called backwards. He didn’t socialize much which meant momma and Cami Sue didn’t socialize much. Cami Sue knew nothing about any other family members. Didn’t even know if she had any and she didn’t much care. Her world was just daddy, momma, and Tommy. That was all she needed.

Many said Cami Sue was backwards too. She never left from home, she had friends, but they weren’t welcome at the farm. Either momma or daddy would always say no. After a while Cami Sue stopped asking and she wasn’t allowed to visit their homes either. She didn’t go to football games or dances or restaurants. It was the twentieth century, but not in the hollow on the mountain top. Not on the farm. And then it all changed.

That was the day Cami Sue became a fourteen-year-old mother. Daddy cried, her brother didn’t send any more letters from the frontline, and her momma died. She might as well have died too. Her new life became hell, but she learned to live with it.

Cami Sue loved her baby sister almost instantly. Every bit of love that had been lost with the death of her mother and brother was found in that baby girl. Katie Lynn was the one person who made Cami Sue remember how to smile. She found she was pretty good at mothering. She worked hard at taking care of Katie Lynn, but she found she didn’t have time for much else.

It became her passion. Her distraction. She quit going to school; it’s not that she wanted to quit, she had to take care of her sister. There were no visitors. It was just Cami Sue and Katie Lynn, sometimes Daddy. He wasn’t always there. A fourteen-year-old girl in a hollow on a mountain top.

Her daily routine was in the house while her father farmed. He left before the sun came up, mid-day he came in for lunch. He would eat, push his plate aside, and go back to farming. He wouldn’t speak to Cami Sue or Katie Lynn. He barely looked at them or the house or his food. He wouldn’t come back inside until after dusk.

Cami Sue took care of everything. The house, the food, most of the garden, the laundry, and the few bills that need to be paid each month, but mostly she took care of Katie Lynn. Some days she pretended to travel to Paris or cruise across the Atlantic. She would read anything she could get her hands on- the Bible, the dictionary, mommas’ old magazines.

After the first year, things began to brighten up. Daddy began to smile again. Cami Sue would notice him watching Katie Lynn or a sunset. His shoulders seemed less heavy. Around that time, he started leaving after dinner and wouldn’t come home until the next day. Daddy left every night and Cami Sue didn’t ask where he went. That just how they lived. He would leave, but he always came home. Until one evening he didn’t.

Almost two weeks after daddy disappeared a man came to the hollow. You could hear his footsteps as he walked up the lane. The energy in the hollow changed. It became more electrified. Cami Sue watched him through the screen door. He was a short man, shorter than most. He was thin and was wearing some type of uniform. It wasn’t a military uniform like the men who came to the farm the day after momma’s funeral to talk about Tommy. It was a sheriff’s uniform. He was older than her brother, but younger than her father. The dogs weren’t going to allow him to round the last bend, so Cami Sue stepped onto the porch and called out to him.

Stop right there. May I help you?

The man stopped as the German shepherd approached him. Hello. I am looking for Mrs. Rose.

Cami Sue crossed her arms saying, She’s dead. I am in charge until my daddy comes home.

He hesitated a moment, I’m sorry for your loss. How long has Mrs. Rose been deceased?

About a year, Cami Sue replied.

He hesitated again before he spoke. I’m John Miller. I work with Pocahontas Sheriff’s department. I was asked to see if I could locate your family. May I speak to you about your father?

Come up to the porch.

John Miller didn’t move. At this point there were two large dogs within four feet of him. The dogs stood there watching him. It was one of those dog stares that told you not to move and John Miller didn’t. Cami Sue let John Miller watch the dog another minute before calling out, Buddy. Lucky. Come. The dogs padded back toward the house. Come have a seat. Would you like something to drink?

As John Miller sat down Cami Sue saw him bend to look into the house. No thank you, ma’am. What is your name? Are you part of the Rose family?

Yes. I am Cami Sue Rose. When daddy’s away I speak for the family. What do you have to say? She sat straight in her chair, speaking with the authority of a woman three times her age.

John Miller looked at the garden, the animals by the barn, the grass, the sky. He looked through the front door, but he didn’t look at Cami Sue.

I am sorry, but your father had a wreck nine days ago. He, um, he died in the crash. We did not know his name until this morning. He didn’t have a driver’s license and the truck was for farm use so there was no license plate on it. Bill Smith recognized the truck and told us who it belonged to. I am very sorry, Miss Rose. We think it was foggy and he lost his bearings. Miss Cami Sue? Are you sure there isn’t anyone else here? He said quickly.

Cami Sue sat very still, her lip quivering. She looked straight at him, saying nothing.

Cami Sue, do you understand what I just said? Your father is dead. He isn’t coming home. John Miller finally looked at her.

Cami Sue nodded, Standing up. I understand what you said. My father is dead. I am the only adult here. Where is my father’s body?

John Miller scrunched his face with a puzzled look. The body is at Pocahontas Memorial Hospital. Do you need me to take you there?

My sister is asleep upstairs. I can’t leave, Cami Sue said.

John Miller was silent a few minutes. Well, Cami Sue, why don’t you take your time and go get your sister. Pack whatever things you’ll need, I will wait here. I will take you both wherever you need to go.

She walked into the house and fell to the floor. As she fell, she heard momma say, Back straight. You’ll be fine. We will get through this.

When Cami Sue woke up, she found herself on the sofa. John Miller held a cold rag to her head and was talking her awake. Cami Sue. Wake up. You are okay. You are okay.

John Miller was in his late 30s, a family man. He lived in Marlinton with his wife and three children. He had worked for the sheriff’s department as a deputy since he was eighteen. Yet, this was the first time he had been in this situation. He had never met a family like this, it was almost like he had stepped back in time. Even the house looked like it was in another era. The furniture looked handmade. The windows, siding, railings, and kitchen looked like they were in their prime forty years earlier.

Cami Sue sat up, her focus back. She pointed at John Miller as she stood. You stay here.

While Cami Sue was upstairs John Miller took a look around. The kitchen was clean. The house orderly, but it was odd. There were no pictures. No newspapers or magazines. No radios or televisions. The dishes looked like they had sat in those cupboards for generations. The front door had no lock. Granted, most front doors in this area didn’t have locks, but it should if these two little girls were left here alone. There were handmade toys stacked neatly in a basket in the living room. It didn’t look like anyone else lived here and that made him nervous.

Fifteen minutes later Cami Sue came back holding Katie Lynn. We’re ready. We need to be back before dark. Can we do that?

John Miller stood up, focusing on the girl in front of him. She was a part of this century dressed in jeans, a t-shirt with converse shoes, and a