The men and women at the conference table turned, staring. Flaxx pushed back from the table and stood. “What’s this!”
“Donald Flaxx, I have a warrant for your arrest.” Hamada waved it in front of him. “Turn around and put your hands behind your back.”
The jaws of the store managers and Maldonado, who had followed Hamada in, dropped.
Flaxx drew himself up. “Arrest? For what!”
“Let’s see.” Hamada pursed his lips. “Conspiracy to commit burglary, accessory to burglary, conspiracy to commit arson, accessory to arson, murder in the commission of a felony, fraud, conspiracy to commit- ”
The jaws kept dropping.
Flaxx turned to Maldonado. “Katherine, call Wayne. Have him come to the Hall of Justice.”
She scrambled for the phone on the desk.
Flaxx let Hamada cuff him, but his lip curled. “My lawyers will eat you alive. I don’t know anything about any of this. That bully Dunavan’s tried everything under the sun to pin something on me. He even slept with one of my bookkeepers. But you just try taking anything she told him to court.”
Hamada smiled. “We’re not arresting you on the basis of any information from Miss- ”
“Hamada! Carrasco’s gone!”
They whirled toward Galentree in the doorway.
Cole raced through the washroom and wall into Irah’s office. And swore. On the desk sat her spy camera monitor… showing the main Bookkeeping office. The view from the spy camera she planted to watch Sara! Her jacket hung on the back of her chair, high heels lay on the floor beside it, and a bottom drawer of the desk stood open an inch, blocked from closing by blonde curls. The remains of an envelope with a strip of tape across each end lay beside the spy monitor.
He ran out into the hall to find Galentree leading a group his direction. Seeing Razor, too, he said, “She spotted you in Bookkeeping, and probably went out the emergency exit. There’s a desk drawer with at least one wig in it so I’m betting she’s put on another and rigged herself some kind of disguise. There’s an envelope on the desk that looks like it was taped under the desk or a drawer. It could have had new ID or money in it. I’m going to try catching up with her on the stairs.”
Through the exit door, he took the stairs in bounds…leaping to the middle of the flight then vaulting the center railing to land in the middle of the next flight, and vaulting that railing to the middle of the next flight. Could he overtake Irah? What a nightmare for containment if she reached the shopping arcade. Three levels interconnecting with all the other buildings in the complex. Numerous street level exits.
Even if they blocked all the exits, how did they spot her when they had no idea what she looked like now… not color or style of hair, not what clothing she wore. She left her jacket, so she must be planning to acquire new clothing. She might even dress male. And once out of Embarcadero Center, she could go anywhere. Damn, he was an idiot! He should have remembered the spy camera on Sara and warned Razor about it!
Above him heavy running footsteps echoed in the stairwell. One of the uniformed officers giving chase? Below him he heard nothing. Maybe she was running barefooted.
As he dropped past level after level with no sign of Irah, his stomach dropped even farther. By the time he reached the Promenade Level he was swearing in frustration. He made a quick survey of the area but saw no one that could be Irah. Ditto after rushing down escalators to the Lobby and Street Levels.
Son of a bitch! She managed to outrun him after all.
He zipped back to the Flaxx offices to give Razor the bad news. But of the group that arrived with Hamada, he saw only one uniformed officer…who stood outside the door of Bookkeeping watching Katherine Maldonado face the entire office staff. Half were talking at the same time, demanding to know what was going on and what would happen now. All of them looked frustrated, worried, and lost.
Maldonado tried raising her voice above theirs. Without luck.
Then Farrell, standing at the back of the group, put two fingers in his mouth and produced a piercing whistle. In the startled silence he said, “Give the lady a chance to talk.”
In the silence Cole also heard voices in the direction of Irah’s office. Hurrying there, he found Razor and Galentree searching it. The surfer photograph lay face down on the desk. Strips peeled from the surface of the cardboard backing indicated that the envelope had been taped there.
Razor looked around from checking behind other photographs.
“I lost her,” Cole said.
Razor muttered under his breath, “Hamada alerted mall security before taking Flaxx away and we’ve got Central District officers on their way to sweep the surrounding area and search the mall.”
“Let’s hope they can recognize her.”
“You say something?” Galentree asked.
“Just talking to myself.” Razor dropped his voice more. “At least she can’t use her car. The secretary told us where the company parking spaces are in the garage and we’ve got a man watching it until it’s picked up for processing.”
“I’m going back down to look for her.”
Except standing in the middle of the street level courtyard, he wondered where to start. He had to do more than just wander the shopping arcades and streets outside. The security officers and uniformed PD he saw were already doing that much. That stash behind the picture — whether new ID, cash, or credit cards — indicated she had planned for the possibility of flight. Maybe as far back as the day she became Asset Manager, deliberately choosing to have her office near the emergency stairs. If he could guess her plan, he might intercept her.
Cole put himself in Irah’s place. With cops coming in the front door, she reached for her escape kit and bolted out the back. Her objective would be to reach the street and leave the area before they had time to surround it and trap her.
But…leave it for where? In her place, he would want out of the city. The fastest, nearest means for that was the Bay Area Rapid Transit. Make it to BART’s Embarcadero Station and she could be on her way to Oakland.
Since he knew the Embarcadero Station, Cole ziptripped there. Even though unable to collar her himself, when he spotted her he could whisper her location in the ears of the uniformed officers scanning the ticket lines and platform. He searched among the waiting passengers, too… trying to ignore clothing and hair color, concentrating on height and build, hands and ears. Two women and one young male raised his hopes, and officers stopped both of the women without his urging. On closer inspection, neither the women nor the male proved to be Irah.
Maybe she had not arrived here yet. Buying new clothes would take time. He moved to the street and worked his way back toward Embarcadero Center. But while he passed two patrol units and two bicycle officers, he reached the Sacramento Street entrances without seeing her. Had she taken another route? Or maybe chosen alternative transportation?
He zipped to the ferry terminal on Pier 1…then line-of-sight to a ferry churning its way toward Oakland. Searching among its passengers also failed to turn her up. So did checking out passengers at the terminal when he zipped back there. Ditto checking the Sausalito-bound passengers at the terminal behind the Ferry Building.
Cole headed back across Justin Herman Plaza. On the way he spotted another possible candidate there. A bicycle officer did, too. Nearing the pair, though, Cole saw she was only another false alarm.
Cole shook his head as the bicycle officer let her go on her way. The false alarms indicated everyone was doing their best watching for Irah, but they were still missing her. Maybe
Or…since she knew they were expecting her to flee, what if she did just the opposite? Knowing the Tenderloin from playing Kijurian, her plan might be to go to ground there, hiding among the homeless or in cheap hotels until the heat died down. The risk of hiding in plain sight was unlikely to bother her. She might even get off on it.
Hiding in plain sight. He stared toward Embarcadero Center. What if she were already doing that? In a few hours hundreds of office workers would start heading home for the day. Avoid detection until then and she could lose herself in the exodus.
