and take a hundred-and-fifty-degree shower, then soak in a bubble bath.
“You can go ahead and get back on the freeway, ma’am,” the officer told her. “They’re setting up barricades so they can get the fuel hosed off, but you can make it if you go now.”
Molly smiled and kept walking, wishing someone could drive her home, wishing she had someone waiting for her there. Now that the emergency was over, that initial rush of strength was dissipating and her bones felt like rubber.
Sliding into the car, Molly sat for a moment and stared in disbelief at the ignition. Her key ring, holding house keys, office keys, the whole shebang, was hanging there. She never left her keys in the car! If it had been stolen, the insurance company wouldn’t have paid off, good samaritan acts notwithstanding. So much for patting herself on the back earlier for following safety rules, she thought.
The car started immediately. Molly buckled her seat belt and hit the door-lock button. Accelerating, she turned right at Verdugo Boulevard and headed for home. She wanted off the freeway. Out of this scene of mayhem that was much too real to ever forget as one could an upsetting movie or even a tragic news show.
* * *
AS MOLLY DROVE AWAY from the accident scene, the man in the blue mechanic’s jumpsuit gave his name and telephone number to Lieutenant Cortez. He was also thanked and sent home.
The man returned to his car, but before driving off, he reached for his cellular phone and punched in a number.
“Hello,” a male voice snapped in his ear.
“Nothing went down as planned,” the slight man reported, wiping a bead of sweat from his thin mustache. Despite the cool night air, his being that close to a cop had made him nervous. “I was waiting for your guys, but all hell broke loose. They were ambushed or something. Both of your vehicles were in a wreck. When the girl arrived, she dived right in to help. By the time I got out of the car, there were three other cars stopped and I never got a clear shot.”
“Why didn’t you take them all out?” the man on the other end demanded. “I would have covered you for the extra work.”
“It never would have worked. There were too many people.”
“Well, where the hell is Steele? Is he dead?”
“I don’t know. Probably. Two guys are. The two live ones I saw were an old dude and a black guy. He ain’t either of those, I guess.”
“Well, at least he’s dead. That changes things, but...” The man’s voice trailed off. “Well, tomorrow I’ll send someone for the girl. You go back home. I’ll be in touch.”
The man in the blue coveralls hung up without answering and drove off. He saw the girl’s car up ahead, wondered if he could get a clean shot through the window, but discarded the thought. Too chancy with all the cops around.
He’d get her later. Or someone else would.
* * *
A BLOCK AWAY FROM the accident scene, Molly leaned back into the seat. It was then she noticed the dash light on. The tiny red diagonal line in the box indicating the silhouette of a car was blinking brightly, Detroit’s high-tech way of telling her that one of the car doors was ajar.
“For criminey’s sake,” she muttered, feeling the driver’s door with her left hand. She thought she had closed it tight and realized she was more wiped out than she feared.
“Put your hand back on the wheel.”
The man’s voice boomed out from the back seat in a ragged, angry command. It was deep, with an accent Molly’s terror-frozen brain did not immediately place.
Reflexively, her leg stiffened and the car lurched.
Her chest ached from the increased speed of her heart, and the muscles in her neck screamed out as if they were encircled by a noose. For a second, Molly felt as if she had suddenly died and floated above herself.
“I’ve got a gun aimed at your back. Put your hand back on the wheel.”
Molly trembled as the unseen passenger roughly pushed at her hand, and she cried out in a little whimper. The door that was ajar was on the passenger side of the car, she realized in horror!
While she was out helping keep a fellow human being alive, this guy had crept into her back seat with who knew what brand of crime on his mind.
She was too afraid to look around but risked a quick check into the mirror. It told her nothing. He must be hunkered down in the corner of the seat, or on the floor. How could I not have seen him when I got in? she asked herself. Molly damned the fact that she owned a two-door car. You could never see into the back seats.
With her hands now growing sticky with sweat against the leather steering wheel, a million possible actions to take flew through her mind. She could honk, slam on the brakes, run into a car. Anything to get someone’s attention. The traffic light a few hundred yards ahead changed to red, and Molly slowed down and stopped.
“What are you doing in my car?” she demanded.
The stranger made no response, though she heard him gasp as if in pain, then swear softly under his breath. Molly caught the image of a muscular forearm, and a glint of metal around his wrist. Then she saw his gun.
“Drive.”
She jerked her eyes straight ahead. The light had turned green. “Where to?” she asked, keeping her foot on the brake.
“Drive home. That’s where you were going, wasn’t it?”
He was Australian. The Crocodile Dundee inflection was there, though all the wit and “g’day, mate” humor were ominously absent.
“I’m not taking you to my home.” Molly knew she sounded insane, but even terrified, she had no intention of driving some maniacal murderer to her front door.
For a moment, it was quiet. Another car passed on her left, the driver peering in his mirror to get another glimpse before pulling his vehicle in front of her. The light ahead changed to yellow, then red again.
Molly realized she was holding her breath. Then she heard the gun click. Suddenly the man in her back seat jerked her head back by the hair. “Drive to your house or I will. I know the address, Molly, and I know Mission Verde. You have three seconds to decide what happens next.”
Tears stung Molly’s eyes from the pain of his grip, as well as from sheer physical terror. The fact that he knew her name scared her much worse than when she thought she was a randomly chosen victim. Some bell of recognition was ringing in her brain, though through the fog of fear she couldn’t tie it to a specific piece of information.
With no other alternative, Molly eased her foot off the brake and hit the gas, sending the car rushing through the red light.
Chapter Two
A half mile from her home, Molly’s heart rate slowed down a bit, and anger joined forces with hysteria as a leveling force. Most people she knew would agree that she wasn’t a tough person, but she also did not allow anyone to push her around.
