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The Nash shot forward, but too slowly for Escott He ca why Past his head I gli up on us Yellohite flashes fro explosions co roar that deafened all thought, stifled all ain-soe ht so hard that I would have turab at the dashboard The explosions stopped only briefly, then resue pockht andto run where running was not possible I had to trust Escott to get us out and he had to trust his car Its big engine pulled us ahead a bare two yards and the shooting abruptly ceased for a few heavenly seconds, started, then stopped again

Escott swerved to the left; I grabbed the top of the seat so hard that the covering ripped We tapped soainforward at top speed until Escott hauled us to the right and we e wheels When the other two landed heavily on the pavement, I was nearly blasted into the backseat by the sudden acceleration

Through the rearI glimpsed the other car sideswipe a lamppost and not recover froht as we took another quick turn, running like hell through a stop signal and ignoring the horn blasts of an outraged trucker Heus by a cat&039;s whisker

Escott&039;s teeth were showing and his eyes ild as they darted fro to cover everything at once as we tore along the early- the brakes just yet For that, he had an to slon to so like a normal speed I priedall over after that-and asked if he was okay He cahs that had nothing to do with his sense of humor

"Did you know them?" he asked, but didn&039;t wait for an answer "The driver was that rat-faced felloho took roaned inside "Kyler thinks I bumped off the men he sent after me"

"That would be a logical conclusion for him to draw It appears that Miss Paco has not taken the opportunity to inform him of his error"

"Godda you!"

"Yes," he agreed, and that&039;s when I noticed the treears His knuckles hite, the tendons taut I faced around front and pretended not to notice He was handling his fear in his oay and didn&039;t need me to point out the obvious

"I should never have let ave you much choice in the matter If you wish to put the blame for this incident upon anyone, let it be Kyler"

"Incident?" But I canned the rest of it since he was right Except for having all but the shit scared out of us, ere unharmed If he wanted to reduce an attempted double murder down to the level of an "incident" that was his business

Mine, I kneas to eliain Bobbi, Escott, and even Gordy were far -house bait like Kyler

Better hianization than my only real friends

An unpleasant but necessary job

A shudder crawled up h my brain, I&039;d been out of control To kill the way I had killed, you had to go crazy for a while My ht not be able to find my way back

"The sun will be up soon," Escott re to the club"

"And home and your office are out," I concluded "We have to find a bolt hole somewhere in this town that Kyler won&039;t look into"

"Or even suspect I think that e it before sunrise? If I have to I can hide out in the trunk of the car for the day, but"

"Yes, I&039;ll see what I can do," he proain

Then he stared into theout the back ith a fresh dose of alarun hit, "bloody hell" could onlyup on us

Not quite, as it turned out The car closing in had flashing roof lights and a siren

"Can we lose hi he&039;d say yes

Escott shook his head "He&039;s in a radio car If we run, he&039;ll only call in others to track us down Perhaps we can reason with him"

Translated: I would be the one to "reason" with hiood at debate in school"

"My dear fellow, this night has been quite busy enough for both of us I, for one, have no wish to top things off by collecting a traffic citation"

"Okay, okay" This was only his way of saying that I owed hiave the ot out cautiously, hand on his gun Escott tried to roll down his , but soave up and opened the door instead, whichnoise that echoed off the nearby buildings It alunshot and startled all of us for aa fair imitation of polite innocence The cop looked him over carefully, and told him to come out Escort co his blandest tone and istration," he ordered They attended to that ritual, then I was ordered out of the car to take estured at the car

Escort followed the gesture, all ready with a distracting story so I could move in for the dirty work, but he hauled up short It was one of the few times in our association that I had ever seen him totally speechless He couldn&039;t have not known that the car would be ain yourwith your eyes

"Oh, bloody hell," he repeated, full of sincere anguish and anger

The thick s on his side were nearly opaque with chips and cracks where the bullets had struck; many of them were exactly level where his head had been A fresh pattern of di the door panels The paint job was a disaster, but the heavy steel glinting through it was still good for a few more miles and then some About the only difference between his arhts, wheels, and lack of , he loved his car This had left his would

"Well?" The cop raised his voice to penetrate Escort&039;s shock No reaction

The cop then looked to ht to ith; I sot his undivided attention

Blithely unaware that he&039;d ever stopped, the cop drove away We wasted no tias station and parked a little past it He said soot out as well to work soiven the cop straight inarguable suggestions-better than getting caught in the trap of deep hypnosis-but it was still disturbing forthe icy air clean out s until Escott&039;s return

He walked back quickly enough and I was glad to get going again My i what could happen if we didn&039;t find a hole to pull in after us

"I called the club and let Gordy knoouldn&039;t be back tonight," he said

"You told hih he was not especially surprised Thatit"

"What about Bobbi? Is she all right?"

"Miss S soundly No doubt her interior room muffled most of the noise"

Between that, her club perfor card from a Thompson to wake her up It was okay by h the stor about us

"Gordy and his uard today With this shift in the situation froht attack, he deems it to be the safest course of action This presuh with-"

"I will," I said shortly, interrupting before he could put it into words and bring it that ht the hint and dropped the subject without further co up, but we ht about that The sky was starting to lighten Invisible to Escort, perhaps, but very noticeable toI was tens and it was in my own interest not to disturb him He took us into a stark section of the city that was full of the kind of shadows that could out-wrestle even the noonday sun I began to get eneral idea of what he&039;d planned, and as we traveled h of relief

He slowed as we approached a block full of aggressively drab buildings that only a bulldozer could have improved Soape helplessly at the deserted street We coasted to a silent stop and Escott flashed the headlights once, frowning with tension

"There" I pointed "Is that it?"

Halfway down, the double doors to a decrepit and outwardly abandoned garage swung open, guided by two vague figures wearing overalls One turned and waved us forward Escott worked the gears and we quickly slipped into a crahts, the tall doors closed, shutting us into a pitch black limbo

"This is it," he confirht ca it checked first my face, then Escott&039;s We must have passed because it swept down to the stained floor and ere told to get out Escott did so without hesitation and I copied him I didn&039;t know the man&039;s voice, but it sounded reasonably polite, and no one see lethal in our direction

We followed the flashlight beaht have served as an office It connected with a short bare hall that led directly to an outside door Waiting in the narrow alley beyond was a newer version of the Nash we&039;d just left, minus the bullet scars The back door opened for us and we piled in, leaving our escorts behind

Two er side turned around and extended his hand

"Charles, how the hell are you?" asked a rich voice, an actor&039;s trained voice that confireulfed in Shoe Coldfield&039;s black one for several seconds "Better, now that you&039;re here, "

"Wouldn&039;t have ?"

I couldn&039;t help but grin as we shook hands in turn "Just fine"

"Not fro," he told the driver The big heavy car did not roll froraceful ship on a s a sound

I figured Escott to be the likely source of Coldfield&039;s news "What have you heard?"

"That Vaughn Kyler&039;s looking to turn both of you into fish food the first chance he gets Talk about grabbing a tiger by the tail How did you e to catch on to this one?" he asked Escott

"It wasn&039;t all that easy" he began, and gave Coldfield a suaainst the carefully tri his jaw "Shit In a way this is al If I hadn&039;t recoes working for the the aforery And now Angela Paco hter, but I didn&039;t know she was looking to take over the faood job of it, too"

"If you were unaware of that, then it&039;s unlikely for Kyler to suspect her involvement, hence his misdirected attack on us"

"That&039;s what it looks like You sure you&039;re okay, both of you?"

Escott nodded "We&039;re only a trifle shaken, but hed briefly "As long as it did the job That thing&039;s the best invest it"

"As a to the Shoebox?" he asked, referring to Coldfield&039;s nightclub in the heart of Chicago&039;s

"Bronze Belt"

"Not private enough Kyler&039;s going to have everyone butfor hiot a spot that should be all right"

"But will you be safe as well?"

"Safe as I ever aot the impression that Escott wasn&039;t all that reassured "How long you need it for?"

"For the day at least," I said "I don&039;t want to htfall"

"And then what are you planning?"

My voice was thick "Then I&039;ll take care of Kyler"

A lot of obvious questions crossed Coldfield&039;s face, but never cah the extra thick s, I could sense the oncoht I hoped that our destination was close by or

Escott would have an apparent corpse on his hands to explain ahen the sun came up

We had all of five entle stop in another alley, next to another anonyot out first to deal with the lock, then hustled us inside I reveled in the soothing darkness there, but still felt the approach of day creeping into my bones

Coldfield led us upstairs The place was old and could have been designed for anything: an office, a hotel, or apartments of some sort Perhaps he used it for all three at one time or another, but not recently The air was cold and stale and our shoes left revealing tracks in forgotten grit on the steps And it was quiet I listened hard e paused on the landing and heard no one and nothing else

Our host noticed and approved of my caution "I tell you two, the lines between black and white are pretty solid in this town, each on his own side and neither caringelections I know plenty of people ouldn&039;t lad to help things along, so you keep your heads low-and I&039;round This place is just between us and Isham downstairs and he won&039;t talk, but you don&039;t want to take any chances"

"Words to live by," I said "What is this place, anyway?"

"A private way station for people in trouble"

He ushered us through the first door on the right and turned on a la four ancient folding cots, an oil heater, a pile of dusty h ere out of the wind, it seehted the heater right away to start taking the edge off the worst of it

Always fastidious about his, Escott favored the stark place with one of his rare smiles "This is quite an improvement over those rooreed Coldfield

"Ludbury?" I asked

"A railroad town in Ontario," he explained "The noisiest, smelliest, coldest pit we ever had the rotten luck to fall into The pulp h, but add on the creosote and sulfuric acid plants and you could choke to death if the wind started blowing the wrong way It was full of workers and lier than ht"

"What were you doing there?"

"King Lear"

"It went over surprisingly well, as I recall," Escott put in brightly

"Oh, yeah, they just loved the scene where Cornwall is tearing out Gloucester&039;s eyes They wanted an encore to that one Maybe this kind of work is one hell of a lot safer"

"You may be certain of it, oldhis long fingers They were no longer shaking "Given those circuain An audience like that one would have convinced the hts about our origins"

Coldfield chuckled, but it faded when he looked at lanced at his watch and correctly interpreted my situation "Yes, Jack, you must be dreadfully tired after all this Why don&039;t you have a lie-down?"

"He really should keepuntil this place warms up some more,"

Coldfield advised

"I&039;ll be fine," I told his over to the nearest cot

Pulling a damp blanket overto face the wall The cot swayed and creaked, but decided to holdcould drop through to the basement with me and I wouldn&039;t notice any of it The ly into my side

"He&039;s had a busy time quite exhausted himself," came Escott&039;s voice as I started to drift away froht prison of my inert body "Probably sleep for hours"

That&039;s for daone

With e place is always a risk The next time my eyes opened, I was relieved to note that the same as still a mere foot away from me and that all was quiet