“Once we turn onto the street, keep it slow and steady so we can scope things out. If it looks good when we reach Misty’s car, then we’ll stop. If not, keep going.”
“Sounds good.”
Daeng turned so he could see Misty in the backseat. “Let me have your keys.”
“Why?”
“So I can drive your car.”
“I can do it.”
“I’m sure you can, but I think it would be better if I did.”
Reluctantly, she handed her keys to him. “The driver’s door can be tricky. My car is old so it doesn’t have keyless entry, and the lock sticks.”
“No problem.”
A few minutes later, they turned onto Peter’s street. Like the previous day, cars were parked up and down both sides, but since it was still the middle of the workday, plenty of spots were available. Howard kept the speed of his BMW down as they scanned for trouble.
Daeng saw five people total — seven if you included the occupants of the two strollers a couple women were pushing. He worked his way from one person to the next, quickly assessing and then dismissing them as threats. He sensed that all five either lived on the block or worked there in some kind of domestic function — nannies, most likely.
“Anything on your side?” Howard asked.
“Not yet,” Daeng said.
“How do things look to you?” Howard asked Misty.
“I don’t know,” she replied. “Everything looks normal.”
As they continued forward, Peter’s building came into view. It looked quiet, no one out front, just a man with another stroller a few buildings down, and a woman walking a small dog a dozen feet behind the man.
“There’s my car,” Misty said, pointing at her Camry. It was parked on Peter’s side of the street, right where they’d left it the day before, and looked untouched.
“What do you think?” Howard asked.
Daeng looked around. The street seemed quiet enough. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
* * *
There was nothing of interest along the side of the building, and as far as Teig could tell, the alley was also a bust. Central had told him he might not find anything, but that did little to ease Teig’s annoyance. He was a goal-oriented person, so when assigned a task, he felt a hell of a lot better when he accomplished it.
“Let’s go back to the street,” he said. “Central wanted photos of the plates on all the cars parked around here.”
“How far do we go?” Holt asked.
“Both sides of the street, a block each way. I think that should do it.”
* * *
There was an empty spot at the curb two cars in front of Misty’s. Howard drove to the end of the block, made a U-turn, and then drove back and eased his sedan into the spot.
Daeng once more scanned the street in both directions.
Nothing new. Nothing unusual.
He opened the door and hopped out, phone in hand. Walking casually along the road, he looked down at the cell’s screen like he was checking e-mail or texts. Just another busy local doing what everyone else did.
He didn’t look up again until he was only a few feet from the Camry. He quickly examined the door, checking for any signs that someone had tried to break in — scratches around the lock, loose weather stripping at the base of the window — but all looked good.
He slipped Misty’s key into the lock, but it only turned a quarter of the way. He jiggled it, thinking that would loosen it up, but it would go no farther.
Fine, he thought. He’d get in on the passenger side. But when he tried turning the key to extract it, it wouldn’t come back out, either.
Behind him, he heard a car door open, and looked over to see Misty heading in his direction.
“I told you it was tricky,” she whispered as she walked up.
She jiggled the key until it turned all the way and the door opened. “There you go,” she said, taking a step back.
But Daeng barely heard her. His attention was focused on Peter’s building, where two men in suits looking very much like the ones from yesterday had just emerged from the side access way.
“Get in the car,” he said.
“What?”
“Get in. Now. And move over to the passenger side. I’m driving.”
He glanced over at the BMW, and shared a quick look with Howard through the side-view mirror. Daeng could tell Howard had seen the men, too.
“Go,” he mouthed, and climbed into the driver’s seat of the Camry.
* * *
Teig and Holt walked over to the cars parked directly in front of the apartment building.
“You take this side of the street. I’ll take the other,” Teig said. “Frame it so you get the license plate and a partial of the car so that they can see make and color.”
“All right.”
Teig stepped between the bumpers of the two closest cars, planning on crossing to the opposite side, but paused when he noticed the BMW heading in his direction. By the way the car was angling onto the road, Teig was pretty sure it had pulled out of a spot at the curb. Best to get a picture of it.
When the BMW neared, he raised his phone to take the shot. That’s when he noticed the second car pull out of a parking spot.
This one a Toyota Camry.
* * *
Daeng wanted to pull a quick U-turn and head in the other direction, but the parked cars on the other side made the street too narrow. They had no choice but to drive by the men in front of Peter’s building.
As they pulled away from the curb, Misty gasped.
“That man. Is he—”
“Act like you live here,” Daeng told her.
One of the men Daeng had seen was now standing between two parked cars, pointing his phone at Howard’s BMW. There was no doubt in Daeng’s mind he was taking a picture.
Daeng could feel Misty’s tension across the divide between their seats. “It’s going to be okay,” he said.
She made no reply.
As soon as Howard passed Peter’s building, the man standing on the street turned his phone toward the Camry.
“Keep it casual,” Daeng said, his lips barely moving. “Make him think this is our neighborhood.”
He chanced a quick look at her, and knew they were in trouble. Her forced smile screamed, “I’m hiding something.”
When they were only a dozen feet away, the man lowered his phone. He’d taken his shots, and by the look on his face, he knew something was up. As they passed him, he was turning to his colleague.
Daeng heard him shout, “That’s them!”
Glancing at the rearview mirror, he saw both men running in the same direction, and knew they were going for their vehicle.
So much for staying under the radar.
He shoved the accelerator to the floor.
* * *
“That’s them!” Teig shouted to Holt.
Both men started running to their Audi sedan.
“Are you sure?” Holt asked, not breaking stride.
Just then the Camry’s engine roared.
Teig glanced back and saw it racing away. “Hell, yeah, I am,” he said.
* * *
As they reached the end of the block, Daeng slowed only enough to take the turn without flipping the Camry, then sped up again until they were right behind Howard’s BMW.
He checked the rearview mirror. For a moment, he thought perhaps the others had decided not to pursue them, but it was only wishful thinking. Before he even had a chance to move his gaze back to the road, a dark Audi sedan skidded around the corner.
Following Howard’s lead at the next intersection, Daeng turned again, right this time. As the Camry’s tires screamed in protest, Misty’s arms shot out, bracing herself against the dash.
“Oh, God,” she muttered more than once.
They went up the block and turned again, causing a car coming in the other direction to screech to a halt and blare its horn. Unfortunately, Daeng knew that it didn’t matte
r how many turns they took. While Misty’s Camry was fine for everyday life, the ancient vehicle was nowhere near the same performance class as the BMW or the Audi.
“You have your phone?” he asked.
“It’s in back,” Misty said, her hands still pressed against the dash. “It’s in my purse.”
“Take mine. It’s in my pocket.” He twisted his hips so that she’d have easier access to his jeans pocket on the right, but she didn’t move. In a calm voice, he said, “Misty, please get my phone. We need to call Steve.”
It took a few more seconds, but she finally reached over and worked the phone out. After he talked her through unlocking it and finding Steve’s number, she placed the call, putting it on speaker.
Howard answered right away. “You guys okay back there?”
“This Audi’s got us beat,” Daeng said. “No way I can lose him in this. We need a diversion and I’m open to ideas.”
The line went quiet for a few seconds. “I have one. You guys hang tight.”
“You want to give me a hint?” Daeng asked.
Howard had already hung up, but he gave them a hint nonetheless as his BMW suddenly shot ahead in a burst of speed the Camry couldn’t even dream about matching.
“Where’s he going?” Misty asked.
Since Daeng had no idea, he didn’t answer.
They watched as Steve turned down another street. When they reached the intersection, they turned, too.
All they could see ahead of them was empty road.
* * *
Holt was behind the wheel, while Teig was on his radio, filling in Central.
“Not sure if it’s two or three,” he said. “We think the Camry the woman and the man are in is following another car driven by a male alone. A BMW. He passed by us a few seconds before they did. I was able to get pictures of all three.”
“Send them to me,” Central said, as if this was the first thing that should have happened.
Teig retrieved his phone and sent the images in a single e-mail. “You should have them any second,” he said as the message left.
There was a pause. “All right. I’m going to see what I can find out from here.”
“What do you want us to do? Follow or capture?”
“Do they know you’ve made them?”
Teig hesitated. “Uh, yes.”
“Then just following is out of the question, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Teig, do not lose them.”
“We won’t.”
Teig replaced the radio in its harness and looked down the road. The Camry was about three quarters of a block away, the BMW still in front of it.
“Don’t worry about being seen,” he told Holt. “Close in.”
As Holt increased their speed, the BMW turned onto a new road. As soon as the Camry reached the intersection, it turned, too.
That cinched it. They had to be together.
For the next several minutes, Teig and Holt zigzagged through the neighborhood as the others tried to lose them, but that was a contest the Camry could never win.
Suddenly the BMW, which had been driving only fast enough for the Camry to keep up with it, zoomed ahead and took a turn. It was several seconds before the Camry and the Audi followed suit.
“Looks like the other guy took off,” Holt said.
The BMW was nowhere in sight.
Smart man, Teig thought.
“Do we stay on the Camry or go try to find him?” Holt asked.
“The Camry,” Teig ordered.
* * *
Daeng checked the mirror again. The Audi had moved in close, and was now a mere half car length behind them.
Daeng kept taking turns, hoping they’d catch a break, but so far that hadn’t happened.
“You doing okay?” he asked Misty.
“Not really,” she said. She had one hand still on the dash, while the other was now gripping the handle above the door.
He hoped whatever Howard had in mind was going to work, but he knew he couldn’t count on it, and needed to come up with his own solution. Shooting the other driver would have been the easiest thing. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a weapon.
No, he realized. That wasn’t exactly true.
There was always the Camry itself. What he needed to do was create the opportunity for the Audi to come alongside. If he did it right, a quick whip of the wheel would send the other vehicle smashing into a parked car.
He eased back on the accelerator a bit.
“Come on,” he whispered as he looked in the mirror. “Come take a look.”
* * *
Teig knew it was almost over.
Without the BMW to guide it, the Camry was starting to slow, the driver no doubt realizing he didn’t have a chance. If Teig really wanted to, he could have Holt bump the back corner of the Toyota and spin it out right now. The only drawbacks were potential injuries or deaths. Orders were to bring at least one of them in alive.
If they could get around front, they could cut off the Camry. That should do the trick.
He scanned past the other car at the road ahead. Another intersection was coming up, and after that the street widened a bit. The perfect place to perform a takedown.
He explained to Holt what he wanted to do.
* * *
“What are you waiting for? Come on,” Daeng said. His gaze bounced from the mirror to the road and back.
“What are you talking about?” Misty asked.
As they passed through the next intersection, Daeng glanced over, intending to reassure her. But the car racing down the intersecting road stopped him from saying anything.
* * *
Teig settled back in his seat as they approached the intersection. From the holster rig under his shoulder, he removed his gun, and popped out the mag to double-check the load as he always did before going into action.
The mag had just cleared the end of the grip when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.
It was large and black and moving much too fast.
He started to turn to take a better look.
* * *
The sound of the impact was loud and jarring.
Misty looked around. “What was that?”
“Our diversion,” Daeng said as he slammed on the brakes.
Leaving the engine running, he scrambled out of the Camry, Misty only seconds behind him.
“That’s…that’s Steve’s car,” she said.
Indeed it was. Daeng had seen the BMW come down the intersecting road. Howard had timed his run perfectly, T-boning into the side of the Audi and pushing it clear out of the intersection, onto the curb.
Daeng ran toward the accident, scanning the two German sedans. No way either of them would ever be driven again.
In the smashed front cab of the Audi, he could see the two men jammed together, unconscious or dead. Which meant, at least for the moment, he didn’t need to worry about them, so he angled straight for the BMW.
He found Howard slumped against his seatbelt, a deflating airbag draped on his lap. Daeng tried to jerk open the driver’s door, but it had been bent in the accident and wouldn’t budge. He tried the door behind it. This one popped open right away, so he crawled in and reached around the seat, feeling Howard’s neck for a pulse.
It was there. Strong and steady.
He crawled over the seat and shook Howard’s shoulder. “Hey, Steve. Wake up.” No response. “Steve, come on. Can you hear me? Wake up. We’ve got to get you out of here.”
He heard the front passenger door open, and looked back to see Misty sticking her head in.
“Is he dead?” she asked.
“No.”
“Oh, thank God.”
A fat guy in a faded Guns N’ Roses T-shirt jogged up behind Misty. “Hey, is that guy all right?”
Misty, sounding surprisingly in control, said, “We’re checking him now.”
“Steve, it’s time to wake up,” Daeng said, tapping Howard’s ch
eeks.
Howard started to blink.
“He came out of nowhere,” the overweight rocker said. “Whacked right into those other guys.”
“Maybe you should go check on them,” Daeng suggested.
“There’s somebody already over there.”
“They could probably use some help,” Misty said. “We’ve got this one here.”
The man hesitated, then nodded. “Yeah. I’ll see what’s going on.”
Misty leaned back into the cab. “Are you okay?” she asked Howard.
“Not my best day,” he said, wincing. “But I’ll be fine.”
Daeng did a quick check for broken bones, but found nothing obvious. “We need to get out of here before any others show up. You think you can move?”
Howard nodded once. “Yeah. I just…need some help.”
Daeng unlatched the seat belt, and helped Howard climb across the seats. Once they were out, Daeng and Misty got on either side of him and headed for Misty’s car.
“Should you be doing that?” It was the same guy as before. “He probably shouldn’t move until the EMTs get here. He might have internal injuries, you know. Don’t you watch TV?”
Misty replied before Daeng had a chance. “I’m a nurse,” she said. “I’ve already checked him over. I think it’s best to get him to the hospital as soon as possible.”
“You’re a nurse? Shouldn’t you take a look at these other two also?”
“Let me help with this one first, and I’ll be right there.”
As soon as they’d left the man behind, Daeng whispered, “Nice improvising.”
“Thanks,” she said, sounding like she couldn’t quite believe what she’d done.
They got Howard into the backseat of the Camry, and started to get into the front.
“The files,” Howard said, his voice weak. “In my trunk.”
The files from the safe at Peter’s apartment. They hadn’t had time to dispose of them.
Daeng looked at Misty. “Are they important?”
“It wouldn’t be good if anyone found them, if that’s what you mean.”
“Okay. I’ll be right back.”
Racing back toward the accident, Daeng could hear sirens approaching, no more than a minute or two away.
“Hey, what happened to that nurse?” the onlooker asked. “Thought she said she’d be right back.”
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