The Winner

  it for granted. But I see what you mean. I see it exactly.”

  After he left, LuAnn gently lifted Lisa out of her carrier and laid her in the middle of the king-size bed, stroking her hair as she did so. She quickly undressed her, gave her a bath in the oversize tub, and dressed Lisa in her pajamas. After laying the little girl back down on the bed, covering her with a blanket, and propping big pillows on either side of her so she wouldn’t roll off, LuAnn debated whether to venture into the bathroom and perhaps give the tub a try as well to work the pains out of her body. That’s when the phone rang. She hesitated for an instant, feeling guilty and trapped at the same time. She picked it up. “Hello?”

  “Miss Freeman?”

  “Sorry, you’ve—” LuAnn mentally kicked herself. “Yes, this is Miss Freeman,” she said quickly, trying to sound as professional as possible.

  “A little faster next time, LuAnn,” Jackson said. “People rarely forget their own names. How are things? Are you being taken care of?”

  “Sure am. Charlie’s wonderful.”

  “Charlie? Yes, of course. You have the lottery ticket?”

  “It’s in the safe.”

  “Good idea. Do you have pen and paper?”

  LuAnn looked around the room and then pulled a sheet of paper and a pen from the drawer of the antique-looking desk against the window.

  Jackson continued: “Jot down what you can. Charlie will have all the details as well. You’ll be happy to know that everything is in place. At six P.M. the day after tomorrow, the winning ticket will be announced nationwide. You can watch it on TV from your hotel room; all the major networks will be carrying it. I’m afraid there won’t be much drama in the proceedings for you, however.” LuAnn could almost envision the tight little smile on his lips as he said this. “Then the entire country will eagerly wait for the winner to come forward. You won’t do it immediately. We have to give you time, in theory of course, to calm down, start thinking clearly, perhaps get some advice from financial people, lawyers, et cetera, and then you make your joyous way up to New York. Winners aren’t required to come to New York, of course. The press conference can be held anywhere, even in the winner’s hometown. However, many past winners have voluntarily made the trek and the Lottery Commission likes it that way. It’s far easier to hold a national press conference from here. Thus, all your activities will take a day or two. Officially, you have thirty days to claim the money, so there’s no problem there. By the way, in case you haven’t figured it out, that’s why I wanted you to wait before coming. It would not look good if people were aware you arrived in New York before the winning number was announced. You’ll have to remain incognito until we’re ready to present you as the winner.” He sounded upset that his plans had been altered.

  LuAnn scribbled down notes as fast as she could. “I’m sorry, but I really couldn’t wait, Mr. Jackson,” LuAnn said hurriedly. “I told you what it would be like back home. It’s such a small place and everything. People would know I’d got the winning ticket, they just would.”

  “All right, fine, there’s no sense wasting time discussing it now,” he said brusquely. “The point is we have to keep you under cover until a day or so after the lottery drawing. You took the bus to Atlanta, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you took suitable precautions to disguise your appearance?”

  “Big hat and glasses. I didn’t see anybody I knew.”

  “And you of course didn’t use your real name when buying your ticket?”

  “Of course not,” LuAnn lied.

  “Good. I think your tracks have been effectively erased.”

  “I hope so.”

  “It won’t matter, LuAnn. It really won’t. In a few days, you’ll be much farther away than New York.”

  “Where exactly will I be?”

  “As I said before, you tell me. Europe? Asia? South America? Just name it and I’ll make all the arrangements.”

  LuAnn thought for a moment. “Do I have to decide now?”

  “Of course not. But if you want to leave immediately after the press conference, the sooner you let me know the better. I’ve been known to work miracles with travel arrangements, but I’m not a magician, particularly since you don’t have a passport or any other identification documents.” He sounded incredulous as he said this. “Those will have to be prepared as well.”

  “Can you get them made up? Even like a Social Security card?”

  “You don’t have a Social Security number? That’s impossible.”

  “It ain’t if your parents never filled out the paperwork for one,” she fired back.

  “I thought the hospital wouldn’t let a baby leave without that paperwork having been completed.”

  LuAnn almost laughed. “I wasn’t born in no hospital, Mr. Jackson. They say the first sight I saw was the dirty laundry stacked in my momma’s bedroom because that’s right where my grandma delivered me.”

  “Yes, I suppose I can get you a Social Security number,” he said huffily.

  “Then could you have them put another name on the passport, I mean with my picture on it, but with a different name? And on all the other paperwork too?”

  Jackson said slowly, “Why would you want that, LuAnn?”

  “Well, because of Duane. I know he looks stupid and all, but when he finds out I won all this money, he’s gonna do everything he can to find me. I thought it’d be best if I disappeared. Start over again. Fresh, so to speak. New name and everything.”

  Jackson laughed out loud. “You honestly think Duane Harvey will be able to track you down? I seriously doubt if he could find his way out of Rikersville County if he had a police escort.”

  “Please, Mr. Jackson, if you could do it that way, I’d really appreciate it. Of course, if it’s too hard for you, I’ll understand.” LuAnn held her breath desperately, hoping that Jackson’s ego would take the bait.

  “It’s not,” Jackson snapped. “It’s quite simple, in fact, when you have the right connections, as I do. Well, I suppose you haven’t thought of the name you want to use, have you?”

  She surprised him by rattling one off immediately, as well as the place where the fictitious person was from.

  “It seems you’ve been thinking about doing this for a while. Perhaps with or without the lottery money. True?”

  “You got secrets, Mr. Jackson. Why not me, too?”

  She heard him sigh. “Very well, LuAnn, your request is certainly unprecedented, but I’ll take care of it. I still need to know where you want to go.”

  “I understand. I’ll think real hard about it and let you know real soon.”

  “Why am I suddenly worried that I will regret having selected you for this little adventure?” There was a hint of something in his tone that caused LuAnn to shudder. “I’ll be in touch after the lottery drawing, to let you know the rest of the details. That’s all for now. Enjoy your visit to New York. If you need anything just tell . . .”

  “Charlie.”

  “Charlie, right.” Jackson hung up.

  LuAnn went immediately to the wet bar and uncapped a bottle of beer. Lisa started to make noise and LuAnn let her down on the floor. LuAnn watched with a big smile on her face as Lisa moved around the room. Just in the last few days, her little girl had started to really get the hang of crawling and now she was exploring the large dimensions of the suite with considerable energy. Finally, LuAnn got down on the floor and joined her. Mother and daughter made the circuit of the hotel room for about an hour until Lisa grew tired and LuAnn put her down for the night.

  LuAnn went into the bathroom and started running water in the tub while she checked the cut on her jaw in the mirror. It was healing okay, but it would probably leave a scar. That didn’t bother her; it could have been a lot worse. She got another beer from the refrigerator and walked back into the bathroom. She slid into the hot water and took a sip of the cold beer. She figured she would need plenty of both alcohol and steamy, soothing water to get thr
ough the next couple of days.

  Promptly at twelve o’clock, Charlie arrived with several bags from Bloomingdale’s and Baby Gap. During the next hour, LuAnn tried on several outfits that made her tingle all over.

  “You certainly do those clothes justice. More than justice,” Charlie said admiringly.

  “Thank you. Thanks for all this stuff. You got the size just right.”

  “Hell, you got the height and figure of a model. They make these clothes for people like you. You ever think about doing that for a living? Modeling, that is?”

  LuAnn shrugged as she put on a cream-colored jacket over a long, pleated black skirt. “Sometimes, when I was younger.”

  “Younger? My God, you can’t be far out of your teens.”

  “I’m twenty, but you feel older after having a baby.”

  “I guess that’s true.”

  “No, I ain’t cut out for modeling.”

  “Why not?”

  She looked at him and said simply, “I don’t like getting my picture taken, and I don’t like looking at myself.”

  Charlie just shook his head. “You are definitely one strange young woman. Most girls your age, with your looks, you couldn’t drag them away from the mirror. Narcissus personified. Oh, but you need to wear those big sunglasses and keep the hat on; Jackson said to keep you under wraps. We probably shouldn’t be going out, but in a city of seven million I don’t think we’re going to have a problem.” He held up a cigarette. “You mind?”

  She smiled. “Are you kidding? I work in a truck diner. They don’t even let you in unless you got your smokes and plan to use ’em. Most nights the place looks like it’s on fire.”

  “Well, no more truck diners for you.”

  “I guess not.” She pinned a wide-brimmed, floppy hat to her hair. “How do I look?” She posed for him.

  “Better than anything in Cosmo, that’s for sure.”

  “You ain’t seen nothing yet. You just wait till I dress my little girl,” she said proudly. “Now that is something I dream about. A lot!”

  An hour later, LuAnn put Lisa, who was decked out in the latest Baby Gap fashions, in her baby carrier and hefted it. She turned to Charlie. “You ready?”

  “Not just yet.” He opened the door to the suite and then looked back at her. “Why don’t you close your eyes. We might as well do the whole production.” LuAnn looked strangely at him. “Go on, just do it,” he said, grinning.

  She obeyed. A few seconds later he said, “Okay, open them up.” When she did, she was staring at a brand new and very expensive baby carriage. “Oh, Charlie.”

  “You keep lugging that thing around much longer,” he said, pointing at the baby carrier, “your hands are going to scrape the ground.”

  LuAnn gave him a big hug, loaded Lisa in, and they were off.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Shirley Watson was madder than hell. In seeking appropriate revenge for her humiliation at the hands of LuAnn Tyler, Shirley had taxed her ingenuity, to the extent she had any, to the maximum. She parked her pickup in an out-of-the-way spot about a quarter of a mile from the trailer and got out, a metal canister held tightly in her right hand. She looked at her watch as she made her way toward the trailer, where she was pretty certain LuAnn would be deeply sleeping after working at the diner all night. Where Duane was she didn’t really care. If he was there, then she might get a piece of him too for not defending her against the Amazon-like LuAnn.

  With each step, the short, squat Shirley grew even angrier. She had gone to school with LuAnn, and had also dropped out before graduating. Also like LuAnn, she had lived in Rikersville all her life. Unlike LuAnn, however, she had no desire to leave it. Which made what LuAnn had done to her even more awful. People had seen her sneaking home, completely naked. She had never been more humiliated. She had gotten more crap than she knew how to deal with. She was going to have to live with that the rest of her life. Stories would be told again and again until she would be the laughingstock of her hometown. The abuse would continue until she was dead and buried; maybe even then it wouldn’t stop. LuAnn Tyler was going to pay for that. So she was screwing around with Duane, so what? Everybody knew Duane had no intention of marrying LuAnn. And everyone also knew that LuAnn would probably kill herself before she would ever walk down the aisle with that man. LuAnn stayed because she had nowhere else to go, or lacked the courage to make a change, Shirley knew that — at least she believed she did — for a fact. Everyone thought LuAnn was so beautiful, so capable. Shirley fumed and grew even more flushed in the face despite the cool breeze flickering across the road. Well, she was going to love to hear what people had to say about LuAnn’s looks after she got done with her.

  When she drew close to the trailer, Shirley bent low and made her way from tree to tree. The big convertible was still parked in front of the trailer. Shirley could see the tire marks in the hardened mud where something had spun out. She passed the car, taking a moment to peer inside before continuing her stealthy approach. What if somebody else was there? She suddenly smiled to herself. Maybe LuAnn was getting some on the side while Duane was away. Then she could pay LuAnn back even steven. She smiled even more broadly as she envisioned a naked LuAnn running screaming from the trailer. Suddenly, everything became very quiet, very still. As if on cue, even the breeze stopped. Shirley’s smile disappeared and she looked around nervously. She gripped the canister even more firmly and reached in her jacket pocket and pulled out the hunting knife. If she missed with the battery acid she was carrying in the canister, then she most assuredly wouldn’t miss with the knife. She had been cleaning game and fish most of her life and could wield a blade with the best of them. LuAnn’s face would get the benefit of that expertise, at least in the areas the acid missed.

  “Damn,” she said as she moved up to the front steps and the smell hit her right in the face. She looked around again. She hadn’t experienced such an odor even when working a brief stint at the local landfill. She slipped the knife back in her pocket, unscrewed the top to the canister, and then took a moment to cover her nose with a handkerchief. She had come too far to turn back now, smell or not. She silently moved into the trailer, and made her way down to the bedroom. Edging open the door, she looked in. Empty. She closed the door softly and turned to head down the other way. Maybe LuAnn and her beau were asleep on the couch there. The hallway was dark and she felt her way along the wall. As she drew closer, Shirley steeled herself to strike. She lurched forward and, instead, stumbled over something and fell to the floor, coming face-to-face with the decaying source of the stench. Her scream could be heard almost to the main road.

  “You sure didn’t buy much, LuAnn.” Charlie surveyed the few bags on the chaise lounge in her hotel room.

  LuAnn came out of the bathroom where she had changed into a pair of jeans and a white sweater, her hair done up in a French braid. “I just like looking. That was fun enough. Besides, I flat out can’t believe the prices up here. Good God!”

  “But I would’ve paid for it,” Charlie protested. “I told you that a hundred times.”

  “I don’t want you spending money on me, Charlie.”

  Charlie sat down in a chair and stared at her. “LuAnn, it’s not my money. I told you that, too. I’m on an expense account. Whatever you wanted, you could have.”

  “Is that what Mr. Jackson said?”

  “Something like that. Let’s just call it an advance on your future winnings.” He grinned.

  LuAnn sat down on the bed and played with her hands, a deep frown on her face. Lisa was still in her baby carriage playing with some toys Charlie had bought her. Her happy sounds filled the room.

  “Here.” Charlie handed LuAnn a package of photos from their day in New York. “For the memory book.”

  LuAnn looked at the photos and her eyes crinkled. “I never thought I’d see a horse and buggy in this city. It was lots of fun riding around that big old park. Smack dab in the middle of all them buildings, too.”

  “Come
on, you’d never heard of Central Park?”

  “Sure I had. Heard, leastways. Only I just thought it was all made up.” LuAnn handed him a double photo of herself that she picked out of the pack.

  “Whoops, thanks for reminding me,” said Charlie.

  “That’s for my passport?”

  He nodded as he slipped the photo into his jacket pocket.

  “Don’t Lisa need one?”

  He shook his head. “She’s not old enough. She can travel under yours.”

  “Oh.”

  “So I understand you want to change your name.”

  LuAnn put the photos away and started fiddling with the packages. “I thought it’d be a good idea. A fresh start.”

  “That’s what Jackson said you said. I guess if that’s what you