smashing into his nose. Horner's mouth goes wide with pain, and blood spurts from his nose, and Rafferty grabs the sheath and jerks it away, but the knife slips out of it, glinting in the sunlight, still in Horner's hand. Feeling as though he has all the time in the world, Rafferty slaps both hands on the sides of the helmet and lifts up, popping the helmet off like a bottle cap, and then he slams Horner's forehead with the heel of his hand, driving it into the door of the stopped car behind him, and when Horner's head bounces back, Rafferty does it again as the car's driver twists her own head around, looking horrified. When the head bounces this time, Rafferty can see the dent in the door.
But as he raises his hand to strike again, there's a scuffling sound, and he snaps his head around to see Anand with his arm encircling the throat of the man-it has to be John-who pulled Miaow from the cab. John uses the strength of panic to bend forward sharply enough to pull Anand off his feet, turning him into a sort of human knapsack, then straightens abruptly and brings his head back trying to smash Anand's nose.
Motion to the left, and Rafferty instinctively jumps away. Horner leaps toward Rafferty with a deep grunt of effort, the knife slicing air in a long arc that barely misses Rafferty's face and chest. All Rafferty can do is retreat as Horner slides forward without raising his feet, the knife cutting from side to side like jagged writing in the air, and then Rafferty feels his shoulder strike something or someone, and Kosit shouts into his ear, 'Don't move!' He's beside Rafferty, his gun extended, pointing at the center of Horner's chest.
Rafferty glances over and sees Anand holding a gun on John as Miaow gets to her feet. Her cheeks are wet and shiny, and the left side of her face is scarlet where she was hit, but she seems more angry than frightened.
Kosit says, 'Drop the knife.'
Horner's eyes shift left and right, and he finds himself in front of the gap between the grille of the black SUV and the trunk of another car. Behind him the sidewalk is dense with people, even more than usual, since dozens have stopped to watch the fight and the rear-end collision. Horner takes a deliberate step back, between the cars.
Kosit says again, 'Don't move.'
Horner grins, his teeth large and square. He says, 'Fuck you.'
'I'm telling you-' Kosit says.
Horner retreats another step, putting him close to the crowd. People are trying to move away now, but they're held in place by the press of bodies behind them. 'Nine-millimeter,' Horner says, stepping back again. 'Let's say you hit me. Odds are, it'll go through. You ready to kill whoever's behind me?'
Kosit says, 'I'll risk it.'
Horner clears his throat and spits at Rafferty. Then he says, 'No you won't.' With a quick, fluid movement, he's up on the curb, straight-arming his way into the crowd. His head, with its distinctive, short-cut helmet of hair, rises above the dark hair of the Thais, but there's little Kosit can do except watch him shoulder a path for himself until he's broken through, and then he begins to run.
Kosit takes off after him, staying in the street, and then something cracks against the side of Rafferty's head, knocking him sideways, and he looks up to see John run past him, only slightly favoring the knee he landed on. John dodges into traffic, and Rafferty sees the same broad back he had chased into the Beer Garden-how many days ago?
Across this very road.
Anand is already chasing John, but Rafferty grabs the back of his shirt and shouts, 'Stay with Miaow!' then plunges into the traffic, in time to see John leap onto the center island, his arms extended to his left, palms out, to signal the traffic on the other side to stop. Miraculously, it does, and John darts across the three center lanes, still looking to his left when he enters the last lane, the reverse-direction lane where the traffic is coming from his right, and there's a tremendous rush of air under pressure, a loud, rasping horn, and a panicked squeal of brakes, and a bus slams into John, knocks him, limp-jointed, about eight feet, and then runs over him. The bus is still fighting to come to a stop when the truck that's following it hits what's left of John like he's a speed bump.
Rafferty is at the center island by then, and he realizes that Kosit is standing beside him, panting with his jaw hanging open. John is crumpled across the asphalt, his silhouette so broken he looks like clothes draped over a scattering of rocks. A wide pool of dark liquid surrounds his head.
Rafferty snatches at Kosit's sleeve and says, 'Come on.'
'But,' Kosit says, 'he's-'
'If you're a cop for sixty years,' Rafferty says, 'you'll never see anyone any deader. Let's get out of here.'
He tows Kosit back through traffic that has come to a total stop as drivers gape at the accident on the other side. 'Horner?' he asks.
'Gone. The cab was waiting for him.'
'Well, hell.' They jog over toward Miaow and Anand.
Kosit says, 'When you tell Arthit about this, make something up. Something where Anand and I come out looking good.'
'Horner's a pro,' Rafferty says. 'This is what he does for a living. There's one down anyway.' Miaow sees him coming and drops Anand's hand. She runs to Rafferty and throws both arms around him. He hugs her so tightly she squeaks. 'Are you all right?'
She wriggles free. 'I have a headache.'
'We'll get you to a doctor.'
Miaow steps back to get a better look at his face. 'It's a headache. I don't need a doctor.'
'Well, you're going to get one.'
'What's he going to say? 'Looks like you bumped your head'?' Then, with no transition, she's crying, and Rafferty kneels in front of her, his hands on her shoulders.
Anand comes up to them, seeming younger than ever. 'Sorry, sorry. I looked at the one who ran first, and my guy clobbered me.' He glances across the street, eyebrows raised in a question.
Rafferty says, 'Over there.'
'I heard the brakes. Dead?'
'By a broad margin.' Rafferty rises, a hand on Miaow's shoulder. 'Come on.'
'We're cops,' Kosit says. 'We should-'
'You do what you want. I'm leaving. Although maybe Anand should stay and take care of having the SUV towed, get somebody tracing its papers. Anand, you don't know anything about the guy across the street, okay?'
Kosit and Anand exchange glances.
Rafferty says, 'There's no way to explain this without bringing it all down on Arthit's head.'
Kosit nods. 'You didn't see anything,' he tells Anand. He starts toward his car and says over his shoulder, 'You'll both ride with me.'
'Fine,' Rafferty says. 'Now.'
Anand says, following, 'Both of those guys, when we first saw them, did you notice?'
'Thanks for helping Miaow,' Rafferty says, rubbing a circle in the center of her back.
'She was helping herself,' Anand says. 'Did you notice their clothes?'
'No. There wasn't time to-'
Anand looks questioningly at Kosit, who's opening the door of an unmarked car. Kosit says, 'I didn't notice anything either.'
'I did,' Miaow says. She sniffles and wipes her face with her forearm. 'The man who pulled me out of the car had blood all over him.'
Chapter 25
They're down to three now-Rafferty, Miaow, and Kosit, since Anand is waiting for the tow truck. Miaow takes Rafferty's hand as they cross the apartment-house lobby toward the elevator. After everything that's happened,
