The Honda swerved as the tire blew.
Caleb was alongside it and grabbed for the open window, his feet bracing against the side of the car.
Jelak was lifting his gun.
“Caleb, jump, dammit,” Joe called.
Caleb released the window, fell to the street, and rolled to the curb.
Jelak was on the freeway, riding on the rim of the blown tire.
Joe called for backup as he entered the street. Jelak couldn’t go far with that tire. They might have the bastard.
Caleb was up, running toward him, jumping into the passenger seat. “You screwed it up,” he said through his teeth. “You should have let me—”
“Shut up,” Joe said as he entered the freeway. “He has a bullet in him and a blown tire. I’ve called for backup. We’ll get him. And what the hell were you trying to do jumping on his car like a damn monkey?”
Caleb ignored him, his gaze on the cars whizzing in the lanes ahead of them. “I don’t see him. I don’t feel him. I think he’s already off the freeway. Take the next exit.”
It would make sense, Joe thought. That tire alone would have made Jelak try to get off the freeway as soon as possible. He exited the freeway at the next exit and started to double back.
“We’ve lost him,” Caleb said. “Dammit, it would have to be in the middle of the city. I can’t feel him.”
“I shot him. Maybe I got lucky, and the bastard’s dead.”
Caleb shook his head. “He’s not dead. I’d know it.”
Joe didn’t think he was dead either. He didn’t have any special insight like Caleb, but he was sure that all of Nancy Jo’s efforts had been wasted. If he’d been lucky, he would have found Jelak in that motel room instead of ready to fly the coop. He’d almost had him. “You’re probably right. Then we just keep on looking.”
HE WAS STAGGERING, JELAK realized, as he clutched the black Croco case tighter under his arm. He was getting weaker, and he had to find a place to rest, to heal. After he had abandoned the car behind that deserted warehouse, he must have walked miles. Twice he’d had to hide in the brush when a squad car had cruised slowly by.
And the blood was trickling out of the wound, Jelak thought, outraged. Precious blood. Nancy Jo, Margaret Selkirk, all the others . . . Blood that would give him the prize that he had striven for so long to gain. It wasn’t a strong loss, but even a little was too much. He’d tried to bandage it, but the blood was still seeping around the handkerchief he’d used as pressure.
The wound itself didn’t worry him. He didn’t think Quinn had hit a vital organ, and he was close enough to the divine state of resurrection that his strength would carry him through. But if he lost too much blood, then he would have to delay the final victory. Even Eve would not be able to send him over the top.
So he had to stop the blood, find a way to get to a doctor and get the wound stitched. Fury tore through him. Damn Quinn to hell. How had he found him?
Seth Caleb? More than likely.
It didn’t matter. Quinn had to be punished. He’d thought that Caleb was the main threat, but Quinn had found him. Quinn had shot him. He had to show him he couldn’t do this to him.
There was a BP gas station up ahead with the usual snack and convenience store. He could hear country music pouring out of the radio of the Ford truck parked by the pumps and saw a teenage girl with long, shiny brown hair filling up her Mazda.
He couldn’t afford to wait longer. He had to stop this trickle of blood.
He’d wait until there were no customers inside the snack shop and make his move.
ED NORRIS WAS SITTING IN the passenger seat of a dark blue limousine when Joe walked out of the precinct that evening. “I want to talk to you, Quinn.”
“And I don’t want to talk to you. It’s been a very bad day, and I have no desire to listen to your guff.”
“I’m not going to give you any guff.” Norris got out of the limousine. “And I don’t think it was a bad day if you managed to put a bullet into my daughter’s murderer.” He shrugged. “I could have wished you were a better shot and blown his brains out.”
“I was off-balance. He’d just tried to run me down.”
“Jelak did kill my daughter?”
“I believe he did. It’s early days. We have no proof.”
“Was that what you were doing at Allatoona earlier today? Looking for proof?”
“Yes. Of a kind.”
“What proof?”
“You have people following me all the time. I’m surprised you don’t know.”
Norris smiled. “I’m surprised I don’t either. Someone slipped up.”
He was actually being likable, Joe thought. He was getting a glimpse of the charismatic politician who was on his way to the White House.
“I was looking for evidence connecting the car Jelak abandoned to your daughter’s crime scene.” That was true at least.
“And you found it?”
