[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
It was going to be tricky, that was for sure. But for all the car s faults,
its steering was tight and precise.
I slowed a bit, let the Annihilator gain on us. It only took a second. The
SUV s massive grill loomed over our trunk, its lights like fire, its engine
roaring as if it were about to devour us.
Morpheus barked incessantly.
I sped through the grounds, looking for Galloway Hall. There it was, up
ahead. And there, around the building s far side, Angie s shortcut. The
pedestrian pathway.
I waited until the last possible second, then cranked the wheel hard to the
right, gripping it with both hands, and aimed the car for the center of the
opening, this low-ceilinged pathway that Angie used to sneak out of Mackenzie
without paying for her parking.
The Annihilator was no more than a couple of feet behind us.
We d only been in the tunnel a thousandth of a second when we heard it. An
ear-splitting noise. Metal meeting brick. Glass shattering. Sheet metal
tearing.
I d have looked back, but I had to keep my eyes straight ahead to make sure
neither fender caught the brick walls. But I was able to catch a glimpse of
Page 200
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
the fireball in the rearview mirror. I didn t slow down. I didn t know how
much of the Annihilator might be left to follow us in.
As it turned out, what was left of the truck only went about thirty or forty
feet, but I couldn t bring myself to let up on the gas until we were out the
other end. Only then did I stop the car, a couple of feet shy of the chain
that kept us from driving out onto Edwards Street.
I unbuckled and, along with Angie and Trevor and Morpheus, got out of the
Virtue and looked back.
The brick archway had caught the Annihilator at the base of the windshield.
Bullock and Blondie would have been thrown forward from the force of the
collision, but only in the instant before the brick archway sliced the entire
top of the vehicle, and in all likelihood their heads, clean off.
THERE WAS A LOTof explaining to be done.
Before the cops began with their onslaught of questions, I told them,
standing by the Virtue and holding a shaken Angie in my arms, that there were
a few things they needed to know about immediately. There was the matter of a
tied-up woman in a house out in the suburbs. And the fact that her husband had
taken a header off a balcony at the airport Ramada, and that the odds were she
didn t know a thing about it yet.
Also, there was a guy with a bullet in his leg in a house on Wyndham Lane.
Assuming he was still there, and hadn t already hobbled his way down to the
closest emergency room.
It was pretty likely they were going to find, in the back of that
disintegrated Annihilator, a dead police detective. And further investigation
by their forensic folks would show that he hadn t died in the accident.
And last, but far from least, there was my daughter Angie. She seemed okay,
but as I explained to one of the officers, she d been drugged with something
earlier in the evening and should be checked out at a hospital immediately.
There were already ambulances at the scene, waiting for the folks from the
fire department to see who or what they could recover from the wreckage of the
SUV, so a couple of paramedics rushed over to see how she was.
I m going to have to answer a whole lot of questions, I said as they loaded
her into the back of the ambulance, an anxious Trevor moving from one foot to
another as he cautioned the paramedics to be careful with her. I ll give your
mother a call, send her to the hospital to wait with you. After they ve
checked you out, made sure you re okay, the cops are going to have a lot of
questions for you, too.
Angie nodded tiredly and slipped her arms around my neck. You look nice in
your new clothes, Daddy, she said.
Thanks, honey.
Promise me you ll have them check that bump on the side of your head?
I smiled. I think it s fine. It might even have knocked some sense into me.
Page 201
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
She was puzzled by that, but let it go. You were something, she said. You
were really something. And then her mouth dropped open, as though she d
suddenly remembered something.
What? I said.
Shit, she said. I ve got an essay due in the morning.
I smiled. I think being kidnapped and narrowly escaping death is an even
better excuse than having your dog eat your homework. I m sure the paramedics
will write you a note. Which course is it?
My psych course. I had all the research done. All I had to do was write it
up, which I was gonna do last night.
Don t worry about it, I said. Your professor will understand. What was it
about, anyway?
She smiled. Man and masochism, she said. Trying to figure out why some
guys get turned on by pain.
My eyebrows went up. This is what they re teaching you in school?
College, Dad.
Tumblers started falling into place. So, what kind of research did you have
to do for a paper like that?
I read all kinds of stuff, and I even talked to Trixie.
Oh yeah, I said, like I was trying to remember. Our old neighbor.
She s hardly old. She s pretty dynamite looking, actually.
You know what I meant.
Yeah. Like, it s no secret anymore what she does for a living, so I gave her
a call, she gave me all kinds of great quotes. I made her promise not to tell
you, cause I knew you and Mom would freak if you knew I was going out to see
her.
No, I said defensively, we d have understood.
She s actually a very nice person, Angie said.
Yeah, for sure. She is.
It s not the sort of thing I d like to do for a living, though, you know?
I nodded. Well, I don t like to judge.
Angie smiled. I hope you re not pissed.
It was my turn to smile. I ll get over it. Listen, you really should get
checked out.
She turned and there was Trevor, trying hard to look nonchalant in his long
black coat, but you could see it in his eyes, that he was rattled, that he d
been through a night like no other. Morpheus seemed a bit drained, too,
standing at Trevor s side, leaning into him, his long tongue hanging in front
Page 202
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
of him.
Angie approached Trevor, smiled. Thank you, she said. She leaned in and
gave him a light kiss on the cheek. Thanks for being there. I guess I ll give
you shit later about how you happened to know where we were.
He said, Nothing I ever did was meant to hurt you. It was meant to protect
you.
Yeah, well, I think you got lucky on that one.
I wasn t the only one, he said, as if to remind her that her good fortune
was linked to him in some small way. I think this is one of those defining
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]