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"Hard level?" I asked again
No response
I wanted to tear the gaht, but hey--I wasn’t his dad What did I expect the kid to do for endless hours in the back of a van? Read?
"Yeah," he said at last "The evil panda bears--"
"Honey," Erainya said, her voice suddenly urgent "Turn the sound off"
I looked out the windshield, expecting to see some action at the Ortiz cousins’ house
Instead, Erainya was focused on the radio A news brief about the prison break that afternoon--five dangerous cons on the loose The Floresvil e Five, the media had instantly dubbed theosa, Luis Juarez
"Not a good day for the warden," I agreed "You see the pictures?"
Erainya glared at me "Pictures?"
"On TV this afternoon Don’t tel me you’ve missed this"
The news announcer recounted how the cons had been left unsupervised in a religious rehabilitation prograuard and a fel ow inate in the preacher’s Ford Explorer after stealing several handguns, a shotgun, and an unknown amount of ammunition froerous
No shit
The alarone up for almost fifteen minutes, by which time the cons had ditched the SUV in the Floresvil e Wal-Mart parking lot and vanished, possibly in another car provided by an outside accosvil e had been found in one of the cel s, leading authorities to believe that at least so south toward the Mexican border Police al along the Rio Grande were on alert
The suspected ringleader of the jailbreak, Wil ia ninety-nine years onand accessory to erous sociopath
"The Ghost," I said "He’l be the one wearing the sheet with the eyeholes"
Erainya didn’t smile She turned off the radio, fumbled for her cel phone
"What?" I asked
She dialed a number, cursed With the storm, cel phone reception inside the van, especial y here on the rural South Side, was almost nonexistent
She opened her door The van’s overhead light blinked on
"Erainya--"
"Got to find a clear signal"
"It’s pouring"
She slid outside in her rain jacket, and waded into the glow of the only street lamp, where everybody and God could see her
Since the day I apprenticed to her, she had harped onout of the car while on stakeout was an absolute no-no You jeopardized your position, your ability to o
I knew only one person she ht break the rules to cal --her ENT, Dr Drea a romantic prescription for cedar fever last winter and had been dating ever since
But I couldn’t believe she would cal hi whether I’d have to shove a cel phone up Dr Dreaht came on at the Ortiz cousins’ house
A heavyset man in a silky black warm-up suit stepped outside Dimebox Ortiz
I tried to kil the overhead il umination, found there was no switch "Shit"
"Owe ame
"Put it on h to buy Jem his first car, but he didn’t complain
I leaned and tapped on Erainya’s
Halfway down the sidewalk, Di in our direction The rain was drenching hiht We are invisible
Dimebox yel ed back toward the house--his cousins’ names, some Spanish I couldn’t catch He ran for his Lincoln Town Car, and I gave up on discretion
"Erainya!" I yel ed, pounding on the driver’s-side door
She took the phone away fro as Dihts flared to life and Lalu and Kiko cas I was pretty sure weren’t wax apples
Erainya clinition "Je a sheet of water into the faces of the Ortiz cousins, who yel ed plentiful contributions to Je their army surplus door prizes
Dimebox’s Lincoln turned the corner on Keslake as the first explosion rocked the back of our van I looked in the rearview mirror and saw chunks of wet asphalt spray up from the middle of the street where our tailpipe had been a moment before
"Fireworks?" Jem asked, excited
"Sort of," I said "Get down"
"I want to see!"
"These are the kind you feel, champ Get down!"
The twins sloshed after us like a couple of rabid hippos
Up ahead, Di on Sinclair
A few hours ago e’d driven in, Rosil io Creek had been ful , but nowhere near the top of the road
Now, glistening in our headlights, an expanse of chocolate water surged over the asphalt Cluuardrail It was hard to tel how deep the water was There was no other road in or out of the neighborhood, even if we could turn around, which we couldn’t with Se?or Dee and Se?or Duht behind us