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“Okay. We’ve slowed her down,” Jake said. “Now what?”
“We hope the police get here soon,” A
Jake glanced down the street. There were no cars around. It had been several minutes since he called Hank, but the cop was nowhere in sight.
He pulled out his cell phone and called the detective. “Where are you?” he asked, when Hank answered.
“I’m about five minutes away,” Hank said. “I don’t know how close the cruisers are, but I told them to leave their sirens off. We don’t want to warn her.”
Hank chuckled when Jake told him what they’d done to slow her down. “Get out of sight,” Hank said. “We’ll take care of her.”
Jake hung up and spun around as an engine sounded from inside the garage. Tammy was leaving. The garage door motor hummed. The door shuddered and shook as the motor howled and worked uselessly. The door scraped up an inch and stopped. The motor died, then started it’s persistent whine again.
A
The killer spun around, glancing in all directions, her face flushed with anger. Then she opened the driver side door of the Firebird and looked inside, probably hoping to find the keys in the ignition.
She slammed the door and looked toward the street, her brows in a tight, angry line.
Jake knew Tammy had no way out except by foot. He looked around anxiously for Hank as the killer tucked the pistol into her waistband and started off on a steady jog down the street, moving away from where the Lincolns watched helplessly.
Chapter 51
Friday, 12:45 p.m.
ANNIE WATCHED the woman who had kidnapped her and threatened their lives disappear down the sidewalk. She was getting away.
“We have to follow her,” she said, looking at Jake. “Or she might be gone forever.”
Jake frowned at A
“Wait,” A
Jake stopped, turned back, and frowned as A
“I’m going to cut her off. I think I know where she’s headed.”
Jake dug in his pocket, pulled out his key ring, and handed it over, a reluctant look on his face. “Be careful.”
“Follow her,” A
“I’ll call Hank,” Jake said. “I’ll stay on the line with him until he gets here.”
A
But today, there was no choice.
The engine roared when she turned the key. She dug for a lever below the seat, tugging it forward to accommodate her normal legs rather than Jake’s long ones.
The garage door shuddered and thumped as she put the vehicle in reverse and backed up carefully. She gave it a spurt of gas and the car leaped back, faster than she expected, and she was on the street, facing away from the direction the killer had fled.
She knew Tammy would be desperate now, and desperate people do desperate things. The woman was in a panic, with no choice but to get out of the subdivision and get to Main Street as fast as possible.
At least, that’s what A
Even at the rate Tammy was ru
A
She spun the wheel, worked the car into low gear, and touched the gas, glancing in the rearview mirror as the car jumped forward. She saw Jake’s back, now almost out of view.
She clung to the steering wheel, managed to find second gear, eased the clutch out, and took a quick right-hand turn without slowing down.
A cruiser breezed past. At the speed she was going on a residential street he undoubtedly would’ve pulled her over under normal circumstances. But today, she was sure the pair of cops inside the vehicle were intent on apprehending a killer, a little too late to do any good.
Main Street wasn’t far ahead. She counted on a modest flow of traffic in this part of town during the day.
A
She touched the brakes lightly, slowed at a stop sign to avoid a pedestrian, and then swung onto Main. She spun the steering wheel to the left, cut to the inside lane, and whipped around a slow moving vehicle. She was making good time and expected to have time to spare—but not much. Every second could count.
Her destination lay just ahead—just a few more moments.
A
She stopped outside the doorway of a flower shop, two feet from the corner of the building. If she had judged this right, her quarry would appear directly in front of her shortly.
She eased to the corner, chanced a quick peek around, and then pulled her head back.
The killer was coming, working her way up the sidewalk toward Main Street. Her pace had slowed, she was tiring, her head drooped from exhaustion, but she would be here in a few seconds. Jake was nowhere in sight. A
A
The moment Tammy Norton came into view, A
A
Tammy lay on her back and clawed like a wildcat, snarling through gritted teeth as she scratched and scraped to break loose from A
Three or four pedestrians gathered to watch and cheer, not making a move to retrieve the weapon or aid in the struggle.
The killer outweighed A
Each of the combatants were filled with a determination of their own—the killer to escape, A
Tammy’s longer arms reached A
From the corner of her eye, A
Then with a desperate move, the killer released her grasp on A
The killer gritted her teeth. “Stay there or I’ll kill you now.”