Discussion Group for February 13th........In the Rundown by Joe Hill

  • This message board permanently closed on June 30th, 2020 at 4PM EDT and is no longer accepting new members.

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
What a powerful story. This reminded me of a couple true crime personalities:

Susan Smith who claimed a man jumped in her car at a stop light (as this lady in the story claimed). And we find out she drowned her children because they were in the way of her being with her rich boyfriend.

Then there's Darlie Routier who told authorities a man broke in their home and killed 2 of her boys and sliced her throat.

Susan Smith admits to her crime, while Darlie Routier still maintains her innocence. The jurors sentenced her to death, a decision that hinged on Silly String.

What I'm getting at, obviously the mother killed these two boys over mounting bills. Unfortunately, our troubled young man who was just fired and has had several complaints made about him walks into the scene.

But, I looked beyond what Joe wrote.

Wyatt, bloody, prints all over that knife, scratched by a woman who is now running for help herself. The mother also hurt by Wyatt, punched in the throat, hair pulled, bones in the wrist crushed -- (in self defense, but who is going to believe him?)

Wyatt believes his Rundown is to save the boy's life. To get help. But to me, the real Rundown in this story is between the Mother and Wyatt. Who will reach help first? Whose story is going to be believed? Mom's? A man jumped in the car and did this to me and my children (and Wyatt shows up to be that man)? Or Wyatt? I came upon this ghastly scene and had to fight her off to get away?

Wyatt's future now depends on the interpretation of the scene.

A good prosecutor will have him locked up no sweat. Battered and grieving mother and more than likely dead children vs. misfit malcontent.

What's the rest of this story?
 
Last edited:

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
17,221
82,822
47
United States
Wyatt believes his Rundown is to save the boy's life. To get help. But to me, the real Rundown in this story is between the Mother and Wyatt. Who will reach help first? Whose story is going to be believed? Mom's? A man jumped in the car and did this to me and my children? Or Wyatt? I came upon this ghastly scene and had to fight her off to get away?

Wyatt's future now depends on the interpretation of the scene.
This is the story in a nutshell. We think the story is going one way and then it takes a turn. I liked what was happening with Wyatt and Kensington, though. I'm sort of sorry the focus changed, but that is part of the brilliance of this story. The diversion is intentional; at least I think so. Hill begins the story with a character's name who won't be a key player. This is how you do a thriller in short story form.
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
This is the story in a nutshell. We think the story is going one way and then it takes a turn. I liked what was happening with Wyatt and Kensington, though. I'm sort of sorry the focus changed, but that is part of the brilliance of this story. The diversion is intentional; at least I think so. Hill begins the story with a character's name who won't be a key player. This is how you do a thriller in short story form.
Yes. He starts taking us one way and then boom! we're in a whole new postal code! Joe's writing and stories seem to birth so effortlessly.
 

Spideyman

Uber Member
Jul 10, 2006
46,336
195,472
79
Just north of Duma Key
Am trying to picture the time frame/ era of this story. The mention of punk and video store. Dana brought up an excellent point about how a good prosecutor would have him locked up. I wonder if that would be true today-- what tid bits of evidence/ DNA/forensic would have proven the mother's guilt?

once again Joe took us down one path, and shifted it with total ease. The more I read of his works, the greater the appreciation of his skills.
 

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
17,221
82,822
47
United States
Am trying to picture the time frame/ era of this story. The mention of punk and video store. Dana brought up an excellent point about how a good prosecutor would have him locked up. I wonder if that would be true today-- what tid bits of evidence/ DNA/forensic would have proven the mother's guilt?

once again Joe took us down one path, and shifted it with total ease. The more I read of his works, the greater the appreciation of his skills.
I worked at a video store in 1996. I pictured this story around mid-nineties; maybe because of my own history.
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
Am trying to picture the time frame/ era of this story. The mention of punk and video store. Dana brought up an excellent point about how a good prosecutor would have him locked up. I wonder if that would be true today-- what tid bits of evidence/ DNA/forensic would have proven the mother's guilt?

once again Joe took us down one path, and shifted it with total ease. The more I read of his works, the greater the appreciation of his skills.
I don't think any evidence would point to the mother other than a random bill marked OVERDUE that had fallen from her purse. When Wyatt talks about her while mowing her lawn, he talks about the many credit cards, so, if he has a good defense, they will do a forensics on her spending and the mounting bills. That could help his story.

But, the DNA, his prints are on the knife. Blood all over him. His skin under mom's nails. She could claim she was fighting this big tough man and she's just a little itty bitty mom. The punches and broken wrist bones on mom from the bad man. Her prints were on the knife but she could claim it was because they wrestled for it. His shirt around the kids throat (although that does speak to him trying to save the kid.)

I think it would be a battle in court. And years from now, we'll be hearing about the Innocence Project fighting for his release.
 

cat in a bag

Well-Known Member
Aug 28, 2010
12,038
67,827
wyoming
My thoughts echoed DJ's. This young man, who was facing a life of struggle most likely, due to his learning disability. No one really likes him, he is a lonely young man. And he gets fired and walks right into this horrific crime scene.

Seeing the cop at the end, he thinks he is going to get help but he is going to be locked up quicker than he can blink. And no one will believe him. Maybe he can get a good lawyer, but a good public defender? Everyone already mostly expects he is no good. Maybe not criminally no good, but no one will question him being in trouble, they will just nod their small town heads and say they always knew there was something off about him.

Another excellent story. Pretty sad, really, all the way around.
 

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
17,221
82,822
47
United States
When the story began, I thought it was going to be all about Wyatt and Kensington working in a video store and I was fully prepared to share this story. Dana Jean so adequately and completely summed up this story that I will do my own little "rundown".
When I was nineteen I worked at a video store called Movie Gallery, mostly nights and weekends. It was your typical glass-fronted store with only one door. Small circulation desk, dark movie theater carpet, blaring TVs hanging from the corners, the usual. One guy I worked with was about twenty, pale with blonde Rick Astley hair, and always popped the collar of his white shirt (uniform). He tried his best to get out of working. He asked me if I wanted to see his piercing, which I quickly declined when I learned it involved "stepping into the back room". LOL. I wondered if he was gay; did he think I was gay? I thought it was funny.
Then there was the forty-five year old woman with straight dark hair. We all joked with her by casually leaning on her shoulders; she was vertically challenged. She always came to work high. I remember having a bad stress headache and she bent over her purse and handed me a pill which I thought was an aspirin. I swallowed it with my drink and became suspicious when I got dizzy. "What was that you gave me?" She had a devilish smile. "It was a Xanax," she said. She then took out a compact full of pills like candy. She had Xanax, Klonipin (they were green), Percocet, Lortab, Oxycontin- you name it. She liked being bad and living on the edge. I came to this conclusion when I found her having sex with her boyfriend in his car behind the store on her break. It was dark and I couldn't see, but still. Who does that? She did. LOL.
I could go on.
 
Last edited:

fljoe0

Cantre Member
Apr 5, 2008
15,859
71,642
62
120 miles S of the Pancake/Waffle line
I don't think any evidence would point to the mother other than a random bill marked OVERDUE that had fallen from her purse. When Wyatt talks about her while mowing her lawn, he talks about the many credit cards, so, if he has a good defense, they will do a forensics on her spending and the mounting bills. That could help his story.

But, the DNA, his prints are on the knife. Blood all over him. His skin under mom's nails. She could claim she was fighting this big tough man and she's just a little itty bitty mom. The punches and broken wrist bones on mom from the bad man. Her prints were on the knife but she could claim it was because they wrestled for it. His shirt around the kids throat (although that does speak to him trying to save the kid.)

I think it would be a battle in court. And years from now, we'll be hearing about the Innocence Project fighting for his release.


What else will hurt Wyatt is that he seems to have trouble with everyone. His fighting with his co workers will not help when the police start interviewing everyone he knew. They will all say, "yeah, this guy was unhinged. I knew he was going to do something violent one day."
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
When the story began, I thought it was going to be all about Wyatt and Kensington working in a video store and I was fully prepared to share this story. Dana Jean so adequately and completely summed up this story that I will do my own little "rundown".
When I was nineteen I worked at a video store called Movie Gallery, mostly nights and weekends. It was your typical glass-fronted store with only one door. Small circulation desk, dark movie theater carpet, blaring TVs hanging from the corners, the usual. One guy I worked with was about twenty, pale with blonde Rick Astley hair, and always popped the collar of his white shirt (uniform). He tried his best to get out of working. He asked me if I wanted to see his piercing, which I quickly declined when I learned it involved "stepping into the back room". LOL. I wondered if he was gay; did he think I was gay? I thought it was funny.
Then there was the forty-five year old woman with straight dark hair. We all joked with her by casually leaning on her shoulders; she was vertically challenged. She always came to work high. I remember having a bad stress headache and she bent over her purse and handed me a pill which I thought was an aspirin. I swallowed it with my drink and became suspicious when I got dizzy. "What was that you gave me?" She had a devilish smile. "It was a Xanax," she said. She then took out a compact full of pills like candy. She had Xanax, Klonipin (they were green), Percocet, Lortab, Oxycontin- you name it. She liked being bad and living on the edge. I came to this conclusion when I found her having sex with her boyfriend in his car behind the store on her break. It was dark and I couldn't see, but still. Who does that? She did. LOL.
I could go on.
...apparently so could she....
 

fljoe0

Cantre Member
Apr 5, 2008
15,859
71,642
62
120 miles S of the Pancake/Waffle line
When the story began, I thought it was going to be all about Wyatt and Kensington working in a video store and I was fully prepared to share this story. Dana Jean so adequately and completely summed up this story that I will do my own little "rundown".
When I was nineteen I worked at a video store called Movie Gallery, mostly nights and weekends. It was your typical glass-fronted store with only one door. Small circulation desk, dark movie theater carpet, blaring TVs hanging from the corners, the usual. One guy I worked with was about twenty, pale with blonde Rick Astley hair, and always popped the collar of his white shirt (uniform). He tried his best to get out of working. He asked me if I wanted to see his piercing, which I quickly declined when I learned it involved "stepping into the back room". LOL. I wondered if he was gay; did he think I was gay? I thought it was funny.
Then there was the forty-five year old woman with straight dark hair. We all joked with her by casually leaning on her shoulders; she was vertically challenged. She always came to work high. I remember having a bad stress headache and she bent over her purse and handed me a pill which I thought was an aspirin. I swallowed it with my drink and became suspicious when I got dizzy. "What was that you gave me?" She had a devilish smile. "It was a Xanax," she said. She then took out a compact full of pills like candy. She had Xanax, Klonipin (they were green), Percocet, Lortab, Oxycontin- you name it. She liked being bad and living on the edge. I came to this conclusion when I found her having sex with her boyfriend in his car behind the store on her break. It was dark and I couldn't see, but still. Who does that? She did. LOL.
I could go on.


That sounds like a fun place to work. Why did you leave? :)
 

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
17,221
82,822
47
United States
That sounds like a fun place to work. Why did you leave? :)
:biggrin2:

Better job. At night it got crazy. I'm not exaggerating. There was another guy my age who refused to wear anything but roller blades as he worked. He wore funky blue contacts and smoked weed and did Ecstasy. He liked to hand over movies to hot girls so that the scanner didn't beep. Freebies. Meanwhile, Mrs. Percocet is giving freebies in the back alley.