Nobody Runs Forever

the brakes, barely stopping himself from thudding his forehead against the windshield.

Parker patted the air downward: calm down. Then he lifted a finger: wait.

Dr. Madchen stared at him in terror as Parker walked around the front of his Alero and got into the passenger seat. “Back out of here,” he said.

“What are you—why is the—what are you—”

Parker tapped a knuckle on the doctor’s kneecap; not hard, just enough to draw his attention. “Back out of here,” he said.

“You’re not supposed to—we’re not supposed to know—”

Parker said, “Well, this would be easier,” and brought the Beretta out of his pocket, not pointing it anywhere in particular.

“No! I don’t want to die!”

“Then you’ll back out of here.” Finally the doctor got the idea. Shaking, clumsy, he managed to shift the Alero into reverse and jump on the accelerator.

“Easy.”

“Yes. Yes.”

“Back around to the right and stop.”

The sight of the pistol had calmed the doctor wonderfully. He backed out of the driveway and around to the right, stopping along the low curb. There were no sidewalks here.

“Put it in neutral.”

The doctor did that, too, then turned a very earnest face toward Parker. “I don’t want to die,” he explained, as though there might have been some question.

“That’s good,” Parker said. Bending down a bit, he saw, in the right side mirror, headlights approach. Putting the Beretta away, he opened his window and waved his arm. Dalesia drove by, and Parker said, “We’ll follow him.”

The doctor put the Alero in gear. “I don’t see—I don’t see why—”

“We’ll talk when we’re all together.”

Dalesia drove them away from that expensive neighborhood, into the nearby commercial neighborhood that’s always to be found in an area like that. It included an all-night supermarket, a glaring bubble of fluorescent light in the darkness. Dalesia turned in at the parking lot there, and the doctor followed. Dalesia parked some distance from the store, and Parker said, “Stop to his left.”

“All right.”

“Shut off the engine.”

“I haven’t done anything wrong.”

Dalesia got out of the Audi and slid into the back seat of the Alero. “You’ve been a naughty boy,” he told the doctor.

The doctor twisted halfway around in the seat, face distorted. “No, I haven’t! I did everything Jake asked me to do, I’m willing to do whatever.”

“You’re hanging around the hospital,” Parker told him. “You don’t have a job there.”

“He’s my patient, I want to be sure.”

“He’s not your patient now. You come in there,” Parker said, “and you act like a little boy with a secret. You talk to Jake about what’s happening—”

“No, no, I wouldn’t!”

“You hint about what’s happening. You hint in front of his sister. Who else do you hint in front of?”

“Nobody! No one! I swear, I wouldn’t— I need this! I need it, you don’t understand, the life I live, I need this, I don’t want to die—”

“I got that,” Parker said.

“I don’t want to die,” the doctor said, more calmly. This time, it was a humble statement, as though he were asking permission. “If this doesn’t happen,” he told them, “this thing you two are doing, if this thing doesn’t happen, I’m going to die.”

Parker watched him. “You are?”

“I can’t live. This is my last, you’re my last hope.”

Parker and Dalesia shared a glance. Dalesia said, “So you don’t want to louse things up.”

“No! No! Anything but!”

Parker said, “Stay away from the hospital.”

“I will,” the doctor said. “I hadn’t realized, but you’re right, you’re absolutely right, I—”

“Stay away from Jake,” Parker said.

“I will. I promise.”

“No more hints.”