something in the voice that changed her mind.
She sees him and tries to run faster.
Boone trots toward her, grabs her as she falls into his arms, gasping for breath.
“He's behind me,” she says.
“Dan?”
She nods and gulps some air. Petra comes up and helps Boone lift Tammy to her feet. Tammy looks at her. “I'll testify. I'll do anything you want.”
“Good. Thank you.”
“Let's get you out of here,” Boone says.
The shot comes out of the fog.
63
Johnny Banzai hears the shot.
You don't hear a lot of gunshots in Encinitas, especially not west of the PCH, and certainly not in the proximity of The Institute of Self Awareness, where people do not tend to “find themselves” at the wrong end of a gun. No, the guns around Shrink's tend to be surfboards, not firearms.
Gunshots are going to grab any cop's attention, but these shots really reach out and grab Johnny's head, because they're coming from the direction of his destination, the aforementioned ISA, and Johnny's aware that he's getting there in the wake of Boone Daniels.
Boone caught this wave first and Johnny jumped in, and now they're both pumping it to get to the real Tammy Roddick first. Johnny has some very pointed questions to ask her, he has some equally sharp queries for Boone, and he wants to know from both of them what they have to do with the Jane Doe lying beside the motel pool.
It didn't take all that long to find out that the Jane Doe wasn't Tammy. Then he went to Roddick's place of employment, Totally Nude Girls, and found out that (a) Tammy's boyfriend had been Mick Penner; (b) she dumped him for Teddy D-Cup; and (c) Boone was a step ahead of him. A quick visit to Teddy's La Jolla office and the flash of a badge got Teddy's receptionist to give up that the good doctor was on his way to make a house call at Shrink's after getting a phone call from a man who claimed that he was Tammy Roddick.
Classic Boone.
Goddamn him.
Except now Johnny hears shots, and he hopes to hell that he gets to arrest Boone and not do an investigation on his killing.
He opens his window, attaches the flasher unit to the roof of the car, and hits the siren. Then he gets on the radio and calls for uniformed backup. “Shots fired. Plainclothes officer approaching the scene.” It's dark and rainy out and he doesn't want to be standing there with a gun in his hand when nervous uniforms show up. They might see the gun before they see the badge.
Then he pushes the pedal to the floor.
Banzai.
64
Chess with guns in the night and fog.
Cool game in theory, scarier than shit in practice.
Adrenaline-pumping, ass-clenching, heart-racing scary. A paintball freak's wet dream, but these bullets aren't loaded with paint; they're lead. And if you fuck up, you're not going to get splattered; you're going to get splattered.
Boone tries to move himself and the two women through the muted fireworks display without getting shot. Which isn't easy because the beach is narrow at high tide, and Dan and his two boys keep closing off the space. Boone can't make a break toward the bluffs because they have that covered, and he can't get them up or down the beach because they have that sealed off.
Dan shoots and makes his target move, shoots and makes them move again-and each time they move, he directs his guys and closes off the space. Just like in the ring, he's patiently walking them down, working them into the corner for the kill.
Boone hears sirens in the distance. Cops are coming, but are they going to come in time? In the dark and fog, the shooters will take more chances than they otherwise would, knowing they can probably get away in the mist and confusion.
So the question, he thinks as he pushes Petra and Tammy to the sand and lies on top of them, is whether or not he has time to wait for the cavalry to ride in. A spray of bullets zipping just over his head makes up his mind. The police are going to get there in time to find their bodies. So they have to make a move.
There's only one place left to go.
65
High Tide sits in The Sundowner enjoying an End of the Workday Beer. The End of the Workday Beer is the best beer there is, with the possible exception of the occasional Weekend Morning Breakfast Beer or the Post Surf Session on a Hot Afternoon Beer.
But High Tide likes the End of the Workday Beer best because, as a supervisor for the San Diego Public Works Department, he puts in a hard, long workday. Josiah Pamavatuu, aka High Tide, is a busy man when weather like this pulls in. He'll have crews out 24/7 for the next few days, and he'll have to keep track of them all, making sure that they're getting the job done, keeping the water flowing smoothly underneath the city.
It's a lot of responsibility.
That's okay-High Tide is up to it. He's enjoying his brew when Red Eddie comes in and sits down on the stool beside him.
“Howzit, brah?” Eddie asks.
“Howzit.”
“Buy you a beer?”
Tide shakes his head. “Driving, brah. Just one before home to the kids.”
“Good man.”
“What you want, Eddie?” Tide asks.
“ Bruddahcan't have a beer wid a bruddah he don't want somethin'?” Eddie asks. He raises a finger, points it at Tide's beer, and the bartender brings him one of the same.
“You're about da business, Eddie,” Tide says.
“Okay, business,” Eddie says. “Your buddy Boone.”
“What about him?”
“He's on a wave he shouldn't be on.”
“I don't tell Boone what he can ride.”
“If you're his friend, you would,” Eddie says.
“You threatening him?” Tide asks. His fist tightens on the beer mug.
“D'opposite,” Eddie says. “I'm trying to toss him a line, pull him in. He's looking for some wahine; she's causing a lot of aggro. If certain peoples was to locate the chick first, Boone's out of the impact zone, you know what I mean.”
“Boone can take care of himself,” Tide says. But he's worried why Eddie's approaching him about this. He
