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Another cop car going north screeched to a halt and swung a u-ie. I looked behind us and we had three squad cars trailing us now, their sirens blaring and lights rolling. It looked like other cars were back there too, members of the chase. And one of them looked a whole lot like Lee’s Crossfire.
I turned back forward and answered Lee. “We saw Pepper Rick so we’re following him. Going south on Broadway.”
A car shot past us, looking like it had Terry Wilcox’s goons in it. It jerked in front of Pepper Rick and slammed on its brakes. Everyone behind it, including us, slammed on their brakes and went into evasive maneuvering. Ally’s Mustang did a couple more sickening lurches, and then we all accelerated, Pepper Rick and Coxy’s boys jockeying for position in front of us like they were on a NASCAR track. Thankfully, everyone on Broadway was pulling well over because of the squad car posse behind us.
“Pull over,” I heard Lee demand in my ear.
“She won’t listen to me,” I told Lee. “She and Tex are on a mission.”
“Indy, tell Ally to pull…the fuck…over,” Lee repeated.
“Ally,” I said, “Lee wants you to pull over.”
“I can’t,” Ally returned. “I can’t do it. He’s not gonna get away. He shot at you.”
It was then I lost my mind, pulled the phone from my ear and screeched, “Pull over, God damn it!”
We were well into Englewood when a squad car came up beside us, Willie Moses at the wheel. I saw Brian Bond sitting in the passenger seat doing hand gestures at us, his face a mask of disbelieving fury. Ally turned her head to look at him and lost control of the Mustang.
We pitched right then left, nearly sideswiping Willie and Brian. Willie avoided us, shot forward and then we bounded across the median, cars coming the other way, swerving and blaring their horns.
With incredible luck, we careened into an old, unused lot, knocked down a chain link fence, driving over it and then coming to a smashing, bone-jarring halt when we slammed into a concrete slab.
FOURTEEN
WAS HE MAKIN’ A CALL?
Upon impact, the airbags blew out.
I sat in a daze for a few seconds, my mind automatically doing a body inventory to assess any damage. When I realized that I was okay, I pulled back from the airbag and asked, “Everyone all right?”
Ally mumbled something. There was a grumble from the back seat and my door was wrenched open.
I saw a penknife puncture the bag, which deflated immediately. A hand was at my chest to hold me back against the seat so I didn’t crumple forward with the loss of the airbag. Not that my seatbelt was going to let me go anywhere; it had contracted on impact and my chest was killing me. Lee was crouched in the door beside me.
“You okay?” he asked, though he was finding out for himself, his hands running along my limbs, his eyes doing a body scan, searching for blood or bones protruding through my skin. In the lights illuminating the vacant lot, I could see his face was pinched with anger and concern.
Hank was on the other side. Ally’s bag was flat and he was doing the same thing.
“Yeah. I think so,” I told Lee.
“We need to get them free of the car,” Hank told Lee.
Lee reached across me and undid my buckle. He helped me out and walked me well away from the car toward the street. I used this time to pull my head together and take stock of the new aches and pains coming my way. I flipped my cell shut and slid it back in my pocket.
Ally and Tex were standing five feet away, Tex stomping his feet, for some reason looking like he was doing a war dance without moving his arms. There was a bloodstain at the shoulder of his sling. Luckily, that was the only blood on any of us.
I decided in an instant I was going to kill them both.
“You’re both nuts!” I shouted, charging forward, intent on murder, or at the very least maiming. “You could have killed us!”
I’d made it two strides before an arm snagged around my middle, hooking me and jerking me back. I slammed against Lee’s body but still struggled forward, pumping my arms and stamping my feet.
“I can’t believe,cannotbelieve, you just did that,” I shrieked at Ally. “You’re crazy. Totally gonzo! What were youthinking?” I shouted.
“He was gonna get away!” Ally shouted back.
“Who cares!” I screamed.
