Nolan didn’t have it figured yet, not quite, but he could feel it coming together. Enough time as a detective, you started to tap into something. Like using the Force. A part of you just started to sense something about to go down.
He thought about calling Matthews or Jackson, asking them to saddle up and join him. Detectives rolled solo all the time, but a smart man never walked into an actual situation without someone watching his back.
Thing was, they’d be in Area One, probably Englewood, where the bangers ran. For some reason, the bad guys loved holidays; even around Christmas, there was always a huge spike in crime – domestic violence, armed robbery, suicide. And Halloween brought the crazies out in force. If he called for backup, he’d be pulling cops away from what was sure to be a bad scene.
Not yet. He’d give it a little while, see what shaped up.
Ahead of him, the Range Rover abruptly stopped beside a small park. There’d been no warning, and he swung over hastily, pulling the sedan into the empty parking lot of an ironworks. What were they doing? Some sort of a meet? If so, Danny was losing his touch. The Rover wasn’t what you’d call inconspicuous in this neighborhood.
Then, as Nolan squinted at the truck, the passenger door opened and a figure in black jumped out. The man started sprinting the moment his feet hit the ground, cutting across the park and heading for an alley just beyond it. The Rover pulled away from the curb.
Danny had been on the passenger side.
Now Nolan had two targets. He could easily ride Danny down. But it would mean blowing his cover, and ending whatever was going on. The net result would be no different than it had been this afternoon. He needed to lie low until he figured out what was going on. With a soft curse, Nolan put the the car in drive and followed the Rover, keeping a hundred yards back. If he had to, he’d ride this tail all the way to hell.
44
Cold air sawed in and out of his lungs as Danny hauled himself up the electrical conduit behind the abandoned Quik-E-Mart. His sneakers clung to the brick, and once he had a good grip on the roof, it was just a matter of getting a knee up. He paused for breath, then crabbed his way to the edge of the building.
Despite the moon, the night was dark, the scattered pools of sodium light doing little to alleviate the gloom. Danny glanced at his watch. Quarter till nine. Call it seven or eight minutes of recon before he had to move. He unfastened the watch and slid it into his pocket, where it couldn’t reflect a stray beam of light and give him away. The roof gravel poked into his chest as he lay down to stare across the street.
The Pike Street building rose five stories, each less finished than the last, until the top floor girders poked upward like broken bones. A streetlight on the opposite corner backlit the skeletal structure, marking the concrete shaft that enclosed the fire stairs. October wind made the sheeting on the face snap and pop. On one hand, that was a stroke of luck; it echoed loudly, and would cover his approach. But it also meant he couldn’t see inside at all. The only part he could make out was the top floor, which had no plastic to screen it. Danny started there, scanning carefully. His eyes probed shadows, traced girders. Any detail could be the difference between life and death – and not only his own. Mentally, he overlaid the blueprints. The struts, the framing, everything exactly as it should be.
Wait.
There, by the upper entrance to the stairwell. Something caught his eye, a dark shape not geometric enough to belong. Then it moved, and he saw that it was two somethings.
Tommy and Karen.
It made sense. Tie them up out of the way, somewhere they couldn’t escape. Steel bands tightened around Danny’s chest. He couldn’t see Evan on top of the building. He could have been hiding, lying flat, but Danny doubted it. More likely he was on a lower floor. After all, he only expected Richard, and wouldn’t be spooked.
The door to the construction trailer was open, and the wind banged it against the siding in a lonely clatter. Could he be inside? It would have been Danny’s choice. The trailer offered privacy and an easy escape. But somehow he doubted Evan would use it. Not a bold enough gesture.
Then he saw a flash of light on the third floor, a quick flare of yellow that lasted two or three seconds. A lighter. Evan had fired up a cigarette and given away his position.
Danny could have laughed, except it was bad news. The plan had been to free Tommy and Karen while Richard distracted Evan. But to reach them, Danny would have to sneak up the stairs, right past Evan, who would be keyed up, at the top of his game. Plus there was Debbie to think of. He had no idea where she would fall in this equation, so he had to assume she was the enemy.
Frustration surged through him. Couldn’t he catch one goddamn break? Was that so unreasonable? Just a little help? He rolled over, the stones sharp against his spine. The sky above was a wash of starless midnight blue, the moon heavy and ominous. They were screwed.
Unless…
He flipped back over to stare at the building. It was a long shot. He was thirty-two, not sixteen. And even at sixteen it would have been a ballsy move.
Still.
Whatever the cost.
Danny wormed his way back to the alley side of the roof, swung his legs over, and dropped to the ground. With his back to the brick, he slid along the wall. From the mouth of the alley, he surveyed the building again, marking the place where Evan had stood – with any luck, he’d be watching the gate to the south, not the street to the east. Danny slid the watch from his pocket. Five till.
What the hell.
Staying low, he walked across the street, forcing himself not to run. Darting motion might catch Evan’s eyes, but a black shape stepping slowly between darknesses should be able to sneak past. The cracking of the plastic grew louder, but not loud enough to drown out the rushing blood in his ears. Thirty-nine steps took him to the edge of the fence, the old Hitchcock flick flashing in his mind. Fear sparked random thoughts. He pushed it away, pushed everything away, and eased himself along the fence, eyes on the jagged building with its gray skin. No sign of any motion. Reaching the far fence corner, he straightened, then bent to touch his toes, stretching his leg muscles. Tightening up could be fatal.
As his fingers gripped the chain-link fence, he allowed himself one final memory. A golden afternoon last summer, not a cloud darkening the horizon. Karen laughing and shrieking as he dragged her into the cold water of Lake Michigan.
I’m coming, baby. Whatever the cost.
The chain link bowed inward as his black sneaker bit, hands reaching for the crossbar, the metal cold in the night air, and then he hauled one leg up and over, careful not to kick the fence, and dropped to the dark ground within. He landed soundlessly and jogged toward the northeast edge of the structure, eyes on the rough dirt.
At each corner of the building, thick steel ran from buried concrete foundations all the way up to the top of the building. Up close, the H-shaped girder seemed blacker than night. He ran his hand over it, feeling the rough spots of welds, the bolt marks and torch holes. Crossbeams branched out at every floor, twelve feet between them. Sixty feet up, the metal ended in dim skies.
This can be done. You’ve seen this done.
Except that the guys he’d seen do it were twenty-year-old ironworkers with muscles like a romance novelist’s fantasy. And mostly they did it to get down.
All of a sudden, he was twelve again, playing Pisser. The same palm sweat and stomach stitches, the same mad desire to back out. Like that moment before the first hill on a roller-coaster, when you wonder if you couldn’t just jump out and take the maintenance ladder.