Nathan's Run (1996) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was plenty of time to plan, he told himself, and God knew there was plenty of time to worry. He'd get to all of that later. The clock read ten o'clock now; there had to be some good cartoons on cable. Last night-or really this morning, he supposed-as he wandered into the master bedroom in the dark, the first feature he noticed was the enormous big-screen TV in the corner opposite the enormous bed.
    Nathan found the remote on the nightstand and thumbed the ON button. The huge screen jumped to life with startling speed.
    The channel was set on a news station, with the volume turned all the way down. Nathan looked down at the remote to figure out how to make the proper adjustments, and when he looked up again, he was greeted with a table-sized picture of himself glaring sullenly out of the screen. It was the picture they took of him when he was first arrested. He mashed the UP arrow on the volume control and left it there until the voice-over was plainly audible.
    _ _ _ at large. Police refuse to speculate on a motive behind the murder, but sources close to the Braddock County Prosecutor's Office advise that the age of the fugitive will have little effect on the manner in which the case is prosecuted?'
    The screen cut to a videotape of an older man wearing a suit, standing in front of the JDC building. Nathan didn't like the man's eyes. They had the heartless look of all the creeps he'd had to deal with in the juvenile justice system. The electronic letters superimposed across the man's chest identified him as J. Daniel Petrelli, Commonwealth's Attorney.
    "We cannot overstate the seriousness of this crime," Petrelli said, looking directly into the camera. "We believe that Nathan Bailey killed Mr. Harris, and we will pursue him and the charges against him with all the vigor appropriate to the offenses with which he is charged."
    "What will happen to him if he's caught?" a voice asked from off-camera. "Will you return him to the Juvenile Detention Center?"
    Petrelli didn't even pause to consider the options available to him before answering, "When he is caught, which we have every reason to believe will happen today, it is my intent at this time to prosecute the young man as an adult. If he can commit a grown-up crime, he can pay the grown-up price."
    "Surely you're not suggesting the death penalty," the off-camera voice asked.
    Petrelli chuckled coolly and raised his hands next to his face. "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. First, let's get Mr. Bailey back behind bars. We'll worry about his ultimate disposition as we prepare for trial."
    "The death penalty," Nathan gasped aloud. "Geez, that means the electric chair." He was completely mesmerized by what he was watching. He'd never heard his name on television before, and he'd certainly never seen his picture there. (He wished they could have found one that made him look less evil.) Filling out a morning of firsts, he had never been called a murderer before, either. "You've really shit in the punch bowl this time, buddy," he scolded himself, swiping a phrase often used by his father.
    The screen cut back to the anchorman behind a desk. "John Ogilsvy has been tracking the police investigation for us since this story first broke. John, are the police even close to finding Nathan Bailey?"
    "Well, Peter," John Ogilsvy said, "all morning long, the Braddock County Police have been long on details about the effort to locate the boy, but short on information about the results of their efforts." The picture changed again to show a tired-looking man in a redand-blue Izod shirt standing behind a bank of microphones. The electronic caption identified this man as Lt. Warren Michaels, Braddock County Police Department.
    The only sound associated with the pictures continued to come from John Ogilsvy. "Detective Lieutenant Warren Michaels addressed reporters late last night and in the very early hours of this morning with what has to be very embarrassing news for the police. According to