distance to the car. The two guys weren’t especially hurrying, but they were covering ground, and Davenport would be at the Porsche before she could get close. Then he’d see her, and if he saw her…
“Shit! This was so stupid,” Alyssa said. “What were we thinking? If he sees us coming, he’ll know what’s up. He’ll kill us.”
“So we take him home,” Fairy said. “Hey: he’s a cop. This is a first time we’ve done a cop. Let’s calm down. Calm down and take him home.”
Lucas said to Del, “Okay, Cheryl’s appointment’s at ten? Let me know what happens.”
“I will-I’m a little scared,” Del said. “She’s always been healthy as a horse. God only knows what you can get in a hospital now. They’ve got all these weird germs. And she used to assist with angiograms, who knows how much radiation she got? And she’s really been feeling rocky. I thought she was better last week, but now it’s back.”
“Let me know,” Lucas said. And, as Del turned away, “You’re all right? About the shooting?”
“Pretty sure,” Del said. He shrugged. “Maybe people like us can forget it. Let it go. Go get a cheeseburger.”
“You’ll think about it for a while,” Lucas said. “I believe you’ll be okay, but if you aren’t, tell someone. They got pills.”
“Yeah. Pills. Check you tomorrow, big guy.”
Lucas called Weather from the car. “Are we all over the TV?'
'Everywhere. Networks, cable. Lucas- we’ve gotta talk. This has been crazy, first you get shot, and then this.'
'We’ll talk,” he said. “Maybe I’ll become a humble carpenter. Or I could become the skate sharpener for the Gopher women’s hockey team.”
“Lucas… really, how’re you feeling?'
'My ass is kicked, but I’m okay,” Lucas said. “I’m still a little worried about Shrake and Del, but they say they’re okay.'
'See what happens tomorrow,” she said. “Yeah.'
'So. Would you have time to stop at the SA? I just dropped a bottle of milk and it’s all over the place. We’ll need some for breakfast tomorrow.”
“Sure. See you in twenty minutes.”
He took it easy heading home. He had a Super America convenience store in mind, and headed down Maryland on remote control, thinking about the day. The Siggy investigation had been mostly a BCA deal, but when the final explosion occurred, St. Paul had carried a lot of the weight. They’d also been the guys in the sharp- looking BDUs and armor and helmets with the big guns, and they were the ones who’d gotten the TV time.
Which was fine with him. Idled through a green light, heading down the hill toward the SA, flashed on the first animal he’d ever killed while hunting. It’d been a rabbit, and he was shooting a.410 single- shot shotgun, the first gun of his life. The bunny broke cover thirty feet ahead of him, at the edge of an empty, harvested bean field.
He remembered how cold it was then, in late October, and how he’d shucked one mitten and his father had said, “Take him.” The rabbit ran away, as they do, but then, as they also do, began turning, a long curved run, as though the rabbit were inscribing a circle with Lucas as the center point. He led it by a foot or two, pulled the trigger, and the rabbit tumbled head over heels, dead before it hit the ground.
He thought about it because it was exactly the way that Del had shot the runner. Lucas had been watching it, the rest of them had too much background to risk a shot after him, and then he saw Del swinging with the man’s pace and the single shot and the man went down like the shot bunny.
Lucas found himself standing in front of the SA store, hardly knowing how he got there.
He nodded at the counterman going in, got a bottle of one- percent and a couple of bottles of diet Coke. Checking out, the counterman said, “Looks like rain.”
“Spring’s coming,” Lucas said. “Wouldn’t be surprised to see a little more snow.'
'Won’t last,” Lucas said. “Take it easy…” He went out to the Porsche, carrying the grocery bag, popped the passenger- side door so he could put the bag on the floor…
Fairy whispered, to all of them, “Go, go…” And she was out the door, the car idling by the curb, across the verge of damp grass, coming up to the gas pumps where he’d parked, behind them, actually, out of sight, the gun heavy in her hand, around the pumps, and he was right there and he stood up and saw her and she was six feet away, the gun swinging up…
Lucas caught a flash of urgent motion between the pumps and turned, still bent over the bag, saw her, recognized her, saw her hand moving, knew what was happening, had no chance for his gun or for anything, trapped by the door of the car and he reached onto the front seat and caught the vest and yanked it up and the gun went off and the blow hit him in the heart and he went down…
One bright flash and one horrifying bang and he was down beside the car and Alyssa was screaming, “Go, go,” and she turned and ran before the counterman in the gas station could see her, and she was in the car and she swung in a U- turn…
Lucas sat up, alive, breathing, holding his chest. The blow hadn’t actually been heavy enough to knock him down, but he’d gone down anyway, because somehow, that’s what you did when you were shot, and it took him a few seconds to realize that there was no blood and he staggered to his feet, the vest in his hand, realized he’d managed to smother the muzzle of the gun with the vest, and he looked toward the street and saw Alyssa’s big green Benz swing in a U- turn and then he was in the Porsche and the counterman was running toward him, and he cranked the car and the anger clawed at his throat and they were out of there, a hundred feet behind her and he was gonna eat her fuckin’ lunch…
She saw him stand up, realized that she’d missed, and she screamed at herself, “Jesus, Jesus,” and then she stopped thinking altogether and thought about getting home, getting somewhere safe, and she stood on the gas pedal and was through the light, swinging past skidding cars, left onto 35E, headed south, and a moment later she saw the blue lights of the Porsche behind her and Fairy rose out of her chest and took the car and pushed the gas pedal to the floor…
Lucas was on the phone, screaming at St. Paul: “Headed south on 35E, she’s headed straight back into town, going past Pennsylvania, coming up on 94…”
The dispatcher said, “We’ve got a car coming up. Aw, he says you’re in front of him, he can see you,” and Lucas flicked his eyes toward the rearview mirror and saw the lights, but they were falling back.
And the dispatcher said, “We’ve got another car coming east on I- 94. Where do you want him, where do you want him?”
“I don’t know yet, I don’t know…” They were traveling at a hundred and ten miles an hour through sixty- mile- an- hour traffic, through a big snarly intersection downtown, and Lucas saw flashing lights ahead to the right, then Alyssa’s taillights flared and she cut left and Lucas shouted, “Headed east on 94…” then he saw the curb coming up and went left and shouted, “Wait, wait, she’s headed toward the Lafayette, she’s coming up on the bridge, she’s turning onto the bridge.”
She crossed the Mississippi, speed climbing again, then, with more cop lights coming toward her, dropped off the exit onto the riverside Plato Avenue, and around the corner to the right, Lucas shouting into the phone all the time, bringing in more patrol cars.
Plato was an industrial street: not much traffic, and no homes. Lucas was on her bumper now, or nearly so, pushing her. If he pushed her hard enough, in the big car, she’d lose it, and instead of killing somebody else in
