In a flash, Talbot dropped to her side, gun drawn. “Sniper!”
Rafferty shot out of his car and into the plaza. He crouched beside Alice, his hand on her good shoulder. “Easy, Alice. We’re here.”
“My cellphone’s upstairs. Call an ambulance,” Talbot said.
Rafferty scanned the buildings across the street. “Where the hell did that come from?”
“She needs an ambulance,” Talbot insisted.
His eyes still on the buildings, Rafferty pursed his lips. “No, she doesn’t.”
“What?” Talbot’s frantic gaze dropped to Alice’s shoulder as Rafferty scurried to the planter at the base of the steps up to the street.
“Constable,” Alice said.
Rafferty and Talbot both said, “What?”
“The parking structure. Across the street. There was a muzzle flash.” She scrabbled to open her bag with her left hand.
“Gotcha,” Rafferty said. He crept up the steps and over to the side of his car.
Talbot stayed by Alice, his gaze on her shoulder as she fished the Tanfoglio from her bag.
“I shall be fine, Lord High Constable. Cover Rafferty. I shall be right behind you.”
Talbot blinked down at her and then rushed to the steps and up to Rafferty’s car.
The two dove into the street. Tires squealed and horns blared.
Alice rolled onto her stomach, stayed low and moved to the planter, the Tanfoglio in her left hand. Her shoulder was almost fully healed. The bullet was pushing against the lining of her jacket.
She switched her gun to her right hand and crept up to Rafferty’s car, leaned against the back door and listened. Amidst all of the downtown Philadelphia traffic noise, there must be something. She detected the echoing roar of an engine, moving fast.
She leapt to her feet and sprinted out from behind the car. The two constables were on the sidewalk across the street. They were braced. They’d heard it, too. Alice sprinted across the street through a break in traffic and to their sides.
Talbot glanced at her shoulder, eyes wide. “You’re okay?”
“Coming out of the parkade,” Rafferty shouted.
All three turned to face the parkade exit as the revving engine grew louder.
A brown sedan shot out of the exit and slid into the street, narrowly missing Rafferty’s cruiser. It shot ahead, weaving through traffic.
They brought their weapons to bear on the vehicle. Alice squeezed off a shot. The rear window imploded. She was focusing on the driver when Talbot pressed his hand on the Tanfoglio, forcing it down.
“There’s too many people around. You might hit one.”
Alice grimaced. “Constable Rafferty, your car.”
They hurried across the street and piled into Rafferty’s still-running cruiser. Alice took the back seat. Rafferty yanked it into drive, hit the lights and siren, and the cruiser bolted from the curb.
From the passenger seat, Talbot pointed ahead. “They turned left at the lights.”
Rafferty nodded and dodged the cruiser around an SUV. “I see ‘em.”
The cruiser skidded left at the intersection and roared after the brown sedan. Traffic in front of Rafferty scrambled out of the way.
“Right on fourth street!” Talbot shouted.
“I’m there,” Rafferty growled.
Alice rolled down both rear windows.
In the left-hand lane, Rafferty cranked the wheel right. The cruiser slid through the turn. Horns blared. The cruiser rushed up the narrow, one-way street, closing on the sedan.
“Constable, can you hold it steady?” Alice eased her torso out the rear window.
“Alice, you can’t shoot at them. There are still too many people around,” Talbot shouted.
“Don’t worry. I got this,” Rafferty told Alice.
She slipped back inside and to the center of the back seat. “What are you going to do, Constable?”
“Watch.”
The cruiser surged ahead. As they neared the rear bumper of the brown sedan, Rafferty moved the cruiser to the left, as if to pass them. As they pulled abreast of the rear tire, Rafferty nudged the sedan with the cruiser’s bumper. The back end of the sedan shunted sideways. Instead of disengaging, Rafferty accelerated. The push turned the sedan sideways. Alice saw the panicked expression of the sedan’s driver.
“Now, we just need those passenger side tires to catch a grip,” Rafferty yelled.
Alice watched the driver’s side of the sedan start to lift. Abruptly, the sedan jerked upwards. Alice glimpsed the bottom of car.
Rafferty slammed on the brakes and the cruiser screeched to a halt as the brown sedan rolled violently over and over. It came to rest on its roof, fifty feet ahead of them.
“Sure hope those guys had their seatbelts on,” Talbot said.
*
The doorbell sounded just after Alice and the Raffertys finished dinner. Geri and the girls were loading the dishwasher and she looked over her shoulder at her husband. “Was Rachel coming over, tonight?”
Rafferty shrugged. “Not that I remember.”
“Maybe she just decided to drop by.” Geri ambled out of the kitchen toward the front door. Alice heard it open.
“Good evening. You must be Mrs. Rafferty. I’m looking for Alice Fisher. Is she here?”
Alice glanced at Rafferty as she stood and rushed into the living room. “Lord High Constable,” she said as Talbot came into view. “Please, come in.”
Geri stepped to the side as Talbot entered, a slim folder in his hand.
Alice nodded at the folder. “Is this an official visit?”
Talbot glanced down at the folder and chuckled. “I’m sorry, no, it’s not official. Just something I wanted to talk to you about.”
Rafferty stuck his head into the living room. “We just put coffee on if you wanna join us. Course, I don’t know if our coffee is good enough for you FBI-types.” He smirked at Talbot.
Talbot smirked back. “I guess I’ll just have to slum it, tonight, Detective.”
Geri made her way back to the kitchen. “Girls? Do you want to go play outside for a while?”
Christine and Susie nodded vigorously.
“Just stay in the back yard, okay?” Geri called after the two of them as they scrambled for the sliding door.
Geri returned to loading the last of the dishes into the dishwasher. Rafferty got four cups out of the cupboard. Alice and Talbot settled into chairs at the kitchen table.
“Anything come from those two perps in the car?” Rafferty asked.
Talbot shook his head. “Nope. As
