angry-looking deputy with a thick mustache was about to bang on-had a fire escape leading to an alley that fed into a network of back streets.
Kaitlin drew near and whispered fiercely, 'His stomach's hurting. I'm not keeping him out of my sight for more than a minute.'
'You won't have to.'
A hammering on the door. They froze in the darkness, standing back from the front window. 'Police. Open up, please.' A pause and then another series of knocks. 'Open up.'
Through the bathroom's closed door, above the hum of the fan, Sam's cough was barely audible. Walker eased the Redhawk free of his waistband. Kaitlin caught it on the rise, folding it in both hands and holding it firm so it pointed at her stomach. She shook her head-no way. Walker couldn't risk prying the gun free, not without risk to Kaitlin and not with a deputy three feet away, separated only by a two-inch hollow-core door.
If the deputy was coming in, he'd have a free shot at Walker.
Kaitlin matched Walker's glare until the deputy's footsteps ticked down the hall. She shoved the gun away and ran to the bathroom, throwing open the door. Sam lay sprawled by the toilet. Kaitlin let out a cry and flipped the light switch.
Splashes of bright red vomit stained the tiles.
The standby paramedics flicked their cigarettes through open windows and drove off. Tim cabled and padlocked his MP5 in the rear of his Explorer.
Bear stood on the runner of his truck, peering at Tim over the open door. He looked about nine feet tall.
Tim said quietly, 'I think he's here. Make a show of clearing out.'
'There's a few buildings there with a view,' Bear called out, pointing to some office buildings a few blocks away. 'Let's go take a look.'
The deputies strung up along the block nodded and climbed into their various SUVs. Bear lowered himself into his truck and rattled off. Tim backtracked to the building, eyes on the ground, the walls, searching out any indication of Walker's presence. He jogged upstairs, his hand skimming the railing. Thanks to Maybeck's ram, the front door of 22 sat crooked and loose in the frame. Miller had secured crime-scene tape across the jamb to dissuade squatters until he could send a handy-man out. Tim tapped the door open, ducked beneath the yellow tape, and crouched over the slit in the carpet. He was reaching to feel the edge when he noticed a stroke of red painting the insides of the fingers of his left hand. He smoothed a thumb across, and it came away sticky.
No sign of blood anywhere in the apartment. He checked the front-door knob. None there either.
He called Bear. 'Any of the guys cut themselves on the entry? Anyone bleeding?'
'Not that I saw.'
'You'd better come back here.'
'Why?'
'Found some blood.'
'Where'd you find it?'
'On my hand.'
'Okay. We're up in the office buildings checking out sniper roosts-be there ASAP.'
Tim went back onto the landing and looked at the doorknobs of the apartments he'd checked. No blood. He jogged down the stairs, halting halfway. He ran his hand along the dark wooden rail. Toward the bottom, he hit a run of wetness.
He stared at it a moment, then started back up.
Sam's head lolled weakly on his slender neck. 'I tried. I tried to be so quiet.'
Kaitlin sat on bent knees, wiping the blood from his chin. 'Why didn't you call for me?'
Sam's voice came strained through a seized-up voice box. 'They would've got him.'
Walker stood speechlessly, idiotically, his feet stubbornly planted since Kaitlin had shoved open the bathroom door.
Kaitlin scrambled over to her purse, dumped its contents on the bed, and grabbed the cell phone. Rushing back to Sam, she keyed in three digits. She sat in the blood, cradling Sam's head in her lap, and stared at Walker, her eyes blazing reproach. Sam swayed, a stream of blood spilling over the side of his mouth. His lips goldfished as he dry-heaved.
Sam's eyes rolled north, giving a prize view of his yellowed sclera, and then his body went limp in Kaitlin's arms.
Tim heard the complaint of a window forced open. He sourced the noise to the last apartment Thomas had checked. No one had answered Thomas's knock.
Pressing his ear to the door, he heard murmuring and what sounded like soft sobbing within. Directly in his line of sight on the worn-down sill, a single drop of blood stood out, flecked at the perimeter with tiny splash petals.
Tim stepped back, drew his Smith amp; Wesson, jerked in a breath, and kicked. He landed the sole of his boot beside the knob, picking up the resistance of the lock assembly so he wouldn't wind up putting his leg through the cheap door, leaving the rest of him trapped outside. The dead bolt ripped through the inner frame.
His eyes took in the dim interior in a sweep that matched the movement of his. 357. Blood, shockingly red against white bathroom tile. A little boy's legs and waist in view by the toilet, his torso blocked by the half-closed door. Kaitlin's sob-stained face looking up, panicked and helpless. A disposable cell phone pressed to her ear.
Directly across from the door, framed perfectly from the waist up by the open back window, Walker mirrored Tim, aiming straight back at him.
Chapter 71
Tim remained two strides into the dark apartment, gunfacing his shadowed double through the open window. The faint light thrown from the hall encompassed only Walker's figure, suspended, an orb surrounded by darkness. A Weaver shooting stance, both hands firmed around the revolver's grip, head slightly canted for sight alignment.
Tim shouted to Kaitlin, 'What's wrong?'
Kaitlin was rocking Sam's body, yelling, 'He's dying! He's unconscious!'
Walker shifted his weight, and the fire escape creaked. Neither he nor Tim lowered his gun; neither barrel wobbled even slightly. Given their proximity and aim, one shot would mean two and the likely end of them both.
'Sammy's not breathing,' Kaitlin sobbed.
Without the slightest movement of his body or turn of his head, Tim said calmly, 'Have you called 911?'
'They're on the way. I don't know how long. The operator didn't get it. Sam's condition is too complicated. Don't die, baby. Please, breathe.'
Tim felt his adrenalized pulse in his neck, the back of his throat. He took his left hand off the grip, showing his fingers, then rode the hammer home with his right thumb and turned the gun sideways. He tilted his left hand toward the bathroom, asking permission.
Walker nodded, pulled his gun back, and vanished, hammering down the creaky metal stairs of the fire escape.
The ambulance screamed toward the hospital, making Tim, Kaitlin, and the two paramedics dig their feet into the floor and brace against the walls. The cramped space reeked of stomach acid. Tim's pants and sleeves, like Kaitlin's, were stained red. Sam drifted in and out of consciousness. Bear followed, his Kojak light blinking atop his rig.
After Walker had fled, Tim had turned Sam on his side and fingerswiped his mouth, clearing any blockage. It had taken a few rounds of messy CPR to get Sam's heart back on line; finally he'd coughed and started to cry hoarsely. Tim had radioed the paramedics who'd backed up the raid; they were only a few miles away. Bear had hustled the other ARTists, setting them on Walker's trail. LAPD had been alerted as well, a good sweep of the neighborhood already under way.
Sam had lost enough blood to drop his hematocrit, the paramedics said, plus his advanced liver disease was
