Cat Spitting Mad

"Did he hurt you?"

"I got away. He was… So much blood. And their screams… I-Redwing got me away." Dillon bent over Dulcie, hugging her so hard Dulcie couldn't breathe.

Charlie sat idling the engine, letting the phone ring and ring, watching Wilma's dark windows, and watching ahead and in her rearview mirror for car lights. Or for a car without lights creeping up the street. Why didn't Wilma answer? She never stayed out this late. Charlie wanted to get out and bang on the door, look in the garage to see if her car was gone. But she wasn't leaving Dillon.

She hung up at last. She was redialing when a black Mercedes came around the corner, no lights, heading straight for them.

Crystal was not alone. Beside her in the open car sat a tall man that Charlie didn't know. As the car slid against the van, Crystal's passenger leveled a large-caliber revolver at them, first picking out Dillon, then moving a quarter inch so his sights were on Charlie.

22

THE GUN aimed at Charlie's face looked as big as a ca

"I want the girl! Now! Both of you-out of the van!"

Charlie stomped on the gas and jerked the wheel hard, crashing the van into the Mercedes in a metal-screeching sideswipe that threw the shooter off-balance and dropped Dillon to the floor. She took off, burning rubber. "Dial the cops! Dial them now! Nine-one-one. Do it!"

But Dillon was already dialing.

A yowl of protest rose from the backseat.

"Shut up," Charlie snapped. "One more sound, Joe Grey, and I'll pitch you out the window."

She took the corner on two wheels, her rearview mirrors blazing with lights careening behind her.

"There's static!" Dillon shouted. "I can't make them understand. They can't-Was that a tire? Did we blow a tire?"

"Duck!" Charlie shoved Dillon under the dash as another shot boomed. Four more explosions. Dillon hit the redial. Charlie took a corner so fast she thought she'd topple the van. They were in the middle of the village; she prayed no one was on the streets. She was heading for the police station when a siren screamed behind them. She gave it the gas, watching in the mirror as a black-and-white wedged the Mercedes against a parked truck.

"Give me the phone. Watch behind us. Tell me what's happening!"

Shoving the phone at her, Dillon fled between the seats to the back of the van, where she could see. "It's Officer Wendell. Alone in the patrol car. He hasn't made them get out. My God, he's just standing there talking to them. Just talking! No, he's getting back in his unit. Letting them go. Charlie, he's letting them go. What kind of cop…?"

Charlie turned up Ocean fast, without lights. "Is Crystal coming after us?"

"No, she… Yes. Step on it, she's coming."

She made a fast right. "Where's Wendell?"

"Turned left back there."

Was Wendell trying to cut them off? Charlie swung another right, into the narrow, unlit alley behind Beckwhite Automotive. Parking in the blackest shadows, she punched a one-digit code into the phone, listened to it ring and ring. When finally Clyde answered, she was shouting, couldn't make herself speak softly. She didn't think her plan would work, but she didn't know what else to do. She glanced up at Dillon.

"Stay here. Stay down."

Keeping low, she moved out of the van to a wide, sliding door in the back of the building. Using her flashlight long enough to punch three numbers into its digital lock, she slid the door back. Why didn't Clyde have an automatic door?

But why would he? This wasn't the main garage, only the paint shop. She could smell the automotive enamel, sharp and unpleasant. Ru

Three cars left the big garage. The first, an old green Plymouth ru

The other two vehicles left by a different route, ru

Crossing above the Highway 1 tu

Neither cat saw the black station wagon double back to follow them where it would not be seen.

Moving higher along the narrow winding road, soon they had gained the long, overgrown drive into the Pamillon estate. Charlie wiggled the car in between the detritus of tumbled walls and dead oak trees, parking behind a ragged mass of broom bushes. Only when she cut the engine did she hear another car directly behind them, the sound of its motor bringing her up, ready to take off again.

Then she saw it was Harper. She had already cocked the.38 Clyde had given her, when they switched cars at the shop. Easing the hammer down, she holstered it and nudged the sleeping child. "Come on, it's Harper. Guess he decided to come with us-guess he lost Crystal. You okay? You remember how to get down there?"

Yawning, Dillon bundled out of the van and took Harper's hand. "We have to go through the house." The cats streaked out of the van behind her, pressing close to Charlie's heels. When Harper saw them, he did such a classic double take that Joe almost laughed.

Charlie looked at Harper blankly. "They were in the van, I didn't have time to get them out."

"They changed cars with you fast enough."

"I couldn't leave them in the shop, Max. Those paint fumes would have killed them; cats can't take that stuff."

Harper scowled at her and didn't point out that she could have let the cats out of the shop, that they'd been only a few blocks from home.

He looked down at Dillon. "What makes you so sure Crystal won't think you'd come here?"

"She found me here. Down where we're going. I was so scared, nearly in hysterics. So scared I couldn't talk."

"Then why…?"

Dillon looked up at him. "Later when I sassed her, she threatened to bring me back here-to leave me alone down there. I got hysterical. She thinks-I hope she thinks-I'd do anything to keep from coming here."

Harper gri

"Not with you here."

Harper made a sound halfway between a grumble and a laugh. Charlie glanced at him, wishing she could see his face.

Moving deeper in through the fallen limbs and dense growth and heaps of adobe bricks, Harper used his torch sparingly, turning it to a thin, low beam that the night seemed to swallow. Listening for any sound behind them, Charlie and Harper kept Dillon close between them. The three cats padded very close, pushing against Charlie's ankles, Joe and Dulcie peering into the grainy shadows, expecting to see yellow eyes flame suddenly in the torchlight. They might envy the king of cats, but they had no desire to be hors d'oeuvres. The kit, though staying close, seemed more fascinated than scared.