Dance Of Death

A roar of questions followed. But Collopy simply mopped his brow and retreated.

'This press conference is over!' shouted Rocco, to no effect. 'No more questions!'

But it was clear, from the frantic hands and the shouts, that it was not over, and that there were many, many more questions to come.

FIFTY-EIGHT

Hours passed as they drove through one deserted beach town after another. Dawn had swelled into a dismal day, bitterly cold, with a knife-edged wind whipping out of a pewter sky. D'Agosta was still listening, moodily, to the police radio. He was growing increasingly concerned: the police chatter concerning them had abruptly dropped off-not just because of the gem heist, although that filled most of the channels, but because they'd probably switched to more secure channels that couldn't be monitored from their portable police-band radio.

It was becoming obvious to him they had reached the end of the line. Hitting more convenience stores was hopeless-with a full tank of gas, Diogenes would have no further reason to stop. Their previous score in Yaphank had only confirmed what Diogenes wanted them to know-that he had gone east and that Viola would shortly be dead. Beyond that, nothing. D'Agosta felt sick for Pendergast: it was hopeless, and he knew it.

Still, they soldiered on, stopping at motels, marts, all-night diners, each time exposing themselves to the possibility of being spotted and arrested.

What few scraps D'Agosta had managed to glean from the radio had been disheartening. Bolstered by a new and strong federal presence, the police were rapidly closing in. New roadblocks had been erected, and local authorities were on full alert. Inevitably, they'd learn about the purchase of the pickup truck. Unless Pendergast had something truly clever up his sleeve, their free-range hours were numbered.

The pickup swerved abruptly and D'Agosta clutched the roof handle as Pendergast screeched into a small parking lot, coming to a halt in front of a twenty-four-hour Starbucks. Beyond lay a public parking lot and, beyond that, the gray, rolling Atlantic.

They sat for a moment while the police radio, still tuned to the museum theft, droned on. Some kind of press conference was in session, being broadcast over one of the public channels.

'No way they stopped here,' said D'Agosta.

'What I'm after is a wireless hot spot.' Pendergast opened the laptop, booted it up. 'No doubt there's one inside. I'll use a sniffer to find an open port, tap into the Net that way. I left my pattern-recognition software running at the Dakota. Perhaps it has something more to tell us.'

D'Agosta watched morosely as Pendergast tapped on the keyboard. 'Would you be so kind as to order us some coffee, Vincent?' he asked without looking up.

D'Agosta got out of the truck and entered the Starbucks. When he returned a few minutes later with a couple of lattes, Pendergast had moved into the passenger seat and was no longer typing.

'Anything?'

Pendergast shook his head. Slowly, he sat back, closed his eyes.

D'Agosta eased himself into the driver's seat with a sigh. As he did so, he noticed a police cruiser turning into the parking lot. It slowed as it passed them, then halted at the far end of the lot.

'Shit. That cop's running our plates.'

Pendergast didn't respond. He sat motionless, eyes closed.

'That's it. We're screwed.'

Now the cruiser eased into a three-point turn at the end of the lot and headed back toward them.

Pendergast opened his eyes. 'I'll hold the drinks. See what you can do about getting him off our tail.'

Instantly, D'Agosta slammed the truck into drive and peeled out, fishtailing past the cruiser and onto the road paralleling the boardwalk. The cruiser snapped on its lights and siren, accelerating behind them.

They tore along the dune road. Moments later, D'Agosta heard another siren, this one coming from somewhere ahead.

'The beach,' said Pendergast, gingerly balancing the lattes.

'Right.' D'Agosta shifted into 4WD, spun the wheel, and bashed through the railing onto the boardwalk. The truck rumbled across the uneven wooden planks, hit the railing on the far side, and was briefly airborne as it made the two-foot drop to the sand.

In a moment, they were racing along the beach, just beyond the surf. D'Agosta glanced back to see the squad cars in the sand, still following.

They were going to have to do better.

He accelerated further, tires spinning up jets of damp sand. Ahead, he could see an area of dunes, one of the many preserves along the South Shore. He swerved into it, broke down another wooden fence, and hit the scrubby dunes at forty. It was clearly a large preserve, and he had no idea where he was going, so he angled the truck into the roughest-looking section, where the brush was heaviest and the dunes highest, covered with a scattering of scrubby pines. No way the cruisers could follow them in here.

Suddenly, Pendergast sat up, like the snapping of a steel spring.

D'Agosta bashed through some more heavy brush, then glanced into the rearview mirror. Nothing. The cruisers had been stopped, but D'Agosta knew their respite was only temporary. All the police stations along the South Shore had beach patrol buggies-he knew, he used to drive one, in another life just a few months back. They were still in deep shit and he'd have to find some other way to-

'Stop the truck!' Pendergast said abruptly.

'No way, I've got to-'

'Stop!'

Something in the tone caused D'Agosta to jam on the brakes. They swerved wildly, stopping beneath the shadow of an overhanging dune. He killed the lights and the engine at the same time. This was crazy. They'd left a set of tracks any idiot could follow.

The radio was still on the press conference, and Pendergast was listening intently.

'… always been safely locked in a vault at the museum's insurance company. The gem was too valuable to put on display-our insurance company wouldn't allow it.'

Pendergast turned to D'Agosta, a look of astonishment and sudden, fierce hope lighting up his face.

'That's it!'

'What?'

'Diogenes finally made a mistake. This is the opening we need.' He had his cell phone out.

'I wish to hell I knew what you were talking about.'

'I'm going to make some calls. As of now, you have but one vital task, Vincent: get us back to Manhattan.'

The faint sound of a siren came up from behind the screen of dunes.

FIFTY-NINE

Smithback slowly SHUT his cell phone, stunned by the bizarre call he had just received. He found Nora looking at him curiously. They had finally opened the museum's staff entrance and employees were streaming past them, rushing to gain the warmth of indoors.

'What is it, Bill?' she asked. 'Who was that?'

'Special Agent Pendergast. He managed to track me down on this loaner cell phone I picked up at the Times.'

'What'd he want?'

'I'm sorry?' He felt dazed.

'I said, what did he want? You look shell-shocked.'

'I've just had a most, um, extraordinary proposal put to me.'