Page 118

But the flashing cruiser ignored me, flying around to my left and charging forward. Behind us, a second and third came up and did likewise. I held my pace for a few moments, hardly breathing, waiting for one of my passengers to speak first. Benny was the one to break the silence.

“You don’t think they’re headed for the battlefield, do you?”

Dana said, “Let’s not think that way yet. We’re still miles away from the battlefield. They could be headed for…for a car wreck. Or a fire. ”

“I don’t see any fire trucks,” I replied, my teeth clenching around the words.

I upshifted back to fifth gear and hightailed it after them.

We arrived at the battlefield about ten minutes later, and found it sealed off by news crews, police cars, and an ambulance. I kicked at the brakes and stopped in front of the nearest news truck.

Dana was out of the car before I was, and she was quickly recognized. “What’s going on here?” she asked the first reporter who knew her name—a red-haired girl who looked barely old enough to be out of college. “What’s happened?”

“Mrs. Marshall, would you like to make a statement about tonight’s events?”

Dana snatched the microphone out of her hand and threw it on the ground, pulling the taller woman close by one handful of her sweater. “I would like for you to tell me what the fuck is going on, and talk quick because these days my attention span isn’t what it used to be. ”

“There’s…there’s…”

“Talk faster, sweetheart. ”

“A hostage situation. ” She jerked herself away from Dana, who was drawing a small crowd. At least one man with a camera aimed it her way.

“A hostage situation?” I walked around my car and came to stand beside her, between her and the enclosing crowd. “Someone tell us what’s going on. ” I stopped. A familiar face was pushing its way close to us.

“Alders,” I growled.

“Call me Nick!” he reminded us, squeezing between two microphone-wielding reporters and forcing his way through until he was on perfect eye level with me. “And don’t worry. They’re making it sound worse than it is. ”

“You’d better not be saying so just because my knee’s about a foot away from your crotch. ”

He backed up. “No. I’m not. It’s not…Look—it was his girlfriend. ”

“She’s not his girlfriend. ”

“The girl he was with, then. The dumb bitch ran off into the woods. Said she saw something. ”

I took him by the arm then and dragged him off back towards my car, flashing a glare over my shoulder that dared anyone to follow us. “Keep talking. I’m listening. ”

“And—and she ran. He went after her, and then there was some shooting, and some screaming. The girl came staggering back—they took her off in one of the ambulances. She got hit in the side; it went right through. But then the shooter, he said he had a hostage and not to follow him. He’s holed up back in the Tower. At the top of the tower. ”

“Jamie was telling the truth. I thought he was lying about that part. ”

“No, no way. We stayed over at the Tower. I thought it’d be safe. I thought it would be no big—” A police officer approached us then, undeterred by my warning glare.

“Mr. Alders? A word, please?” Nick looked positively delighted to get away from me, despite the uniform and the implication that the cop wasn’t very happy with him.

“Officer. ” I chased after them. “Officer, what’s going on? There’s a hostage? Is it Jamie Hammond?”

He paused, one hand still on Nick’s arm. “Ma’am, we don’t have all the details yet. Are you a friend of the hostage?”

“Yes. And I want to know what’s going on. ”

“What are you doing here?” he asked. “Did this guy call you?”

“No. No, Jamie called. He called and said for us to come here and get him. ” It wasn’t perfectly true, but it was close enough. “I told him we were on our way. That was, um, that was…”

“About half an hour ago,” Benny offered.