While Adams radioed Nicky to tell him to meet them at the aquarium, Winter dialed the number that Rush had given him. It rang several times and was answered by Kimberly's recorded voice asking him to leave his name and telephone number and that she would return the call at her earliest convenience. He ended the call.
“Hurry,” he told Adams, who was already driving as fast as the heavy traffic allowed. Adams honked, but the only effect it had was to earn them a few naughty hand signals from other drivers.
After they crossed Poydras Street, a truck swerving to miss another car slammed its rear bumper into a minivan, and they both stopped, completely blocking both lanes. Adams started honking. The driver of the truck jumped down and stamped over to check on the van's driver.
Adams cursed and craned his neck, looking for an escape route. A policeman parked his motorcycle and started walking casually over. He glared at Adams, who held his open badge case out the window. The cop gave him a “just a minute” dismissive wave and approached the truck driver.
“I'm going to hoof it,” Winter told Adams. “It's about six blocks. Park the car as close as you can to the aquarium-there a road on either side of it-and meet me in there.”
Winter jumped from the car and took off running. Under his jacket the holstered SIG Sauer swung against his ribs like a metronome, keeping perfect machinelike time with each long stride toward the Mississippi River.
When he ran, Winter was in his element. If he hadn't been so nervous, he wouldn't so much as broken a sweat. He took out his cell phone, pressed Redial, and listened to it ring. Answer it, Faith Ann!
He dropped the phone back into his pocket and took out the radio. “Nicky, Adams, I'm almost there. Positions?”
“I'm getting close,” Nicky's voice said. “I'm on foot. I can see the building.”
“I'm moving,” Adams added. “Two minutes.”
“When you get there, you two watch the front. Adams, park close and, Nicky, watch the entrance. We'll go in and look for her. I'll bring her to the car out front and we'll take her straight to the hotel.”
Winter pocketed the radio and extended his strides.
At the corner of Magazine Street, he turned right on Canal Street and saw the aquarium's distinctive glass tower, like a cake made of mirrors, its flat top canted at a sharp angle.
59
Marta knew that the girl had called somebody from here at the aquarium. After scanning the plaza, she stood in line patiently, paid the adult admission fee, then went through the newly installed metal detectors without incident, since her blades were ceramic. Inside, she immediately spotted Tinnerino and Doyle over by the exit to her right and saw that they hadn't managed to find the girl. In the lobby, Marta checked the women's bathroom, figuring the cops hadn't thought to do that and it was a good place for the girl to hide.
Back outside the bathroom, Marta took out her phone and a slip of paper. Reading the dead lawyer's cell phone number, she keyed it in and listened. When the girl answered, the cops would have a new fix on her, and they would know if she was still in the area. She heard a phone ringing nearby. Marta's eyes stopped on a boy wearing a hooded sweatshirt and a ball cap, who nervously pulled a ringing phone from his pocket. As Marta watched, he looked at the display, pressed a button, and put it to his ear.
“Rush? Mr. Massey?” Marta saw the boy's lips mirror perfectly the words she heard. She realized that the boy wasn't a boy at all, but Faith Ann Porter in disguise! Marta had to hand it to her-this was one bright little girl. Too bad she was living her last day on earth. It was a crying shame she had seen Arturo. If only she had been in school, where she'd belonged, and not in her mother's office. Such a thin child, with such a fragile neck. One swipe and within seconds those bright blue eyes would lose their focus.
Marta saw the child searching the crowd. When the girl's eyes met hers, they filled with sudden shock, then abject fear. Marta hadn't imagined that Faith Ann would know her-had ever seen her before. Marta looked up to signal the two detectives to move in, but they were no longer standing there. Cursing under her breath, she watched the girl take off, weaving her way through oncomers and going straight through the doors the wrong way, Phone in hand, Marta headed for the exit, hoping she would attract less attention by going out that way. It would cost her time, but the security guards, alerted by Faith Ann's run past them, might stop Marta for a lot longer.
Marta dialed Arturo's cell phone as she made for the exit.
“Cover the front entrance. She just ran outside.” Marta walked fast, but she couldn't risk being captured on video rushing out.
Marta exited the aquarium knowing that the audiotape was in the backpack the girl wore on her back.
Arturo came rushing up the side of the building. Tinnerino and Doyle came outside. They didn't know how to react to meeting Marta in a public place, so they smiled like idiots caught playing with themselves.
Marta told them all, “The girl is dressed up like a boy. She has very short blond hair and a khaki-and-green-colored zoo cap. Dark red sweatshirt, black backpack, and dark jeans.”
“She didn't come this…” Arturo said. “I see her. She's headed around the corner of Canal.”
Marta caught a flash of red as the girl vanished around the power-station wall.
The cops sprinted after Marta and Arturo, who reached the corner of the shaded VIP parking lot just in time to see Faith Ann dart into an opening in the side of the building where the ramp to the Canal Place concrete parking structure was visible.
“She's inside the parking garage,” she told the cops. “You two watch the deck exit in case she tries to come out that way. Turo, you take the far street corner and watch the side exits in case she goes that way. We have to keep her boxed in. I'm going in after her.”
Tinnerino tried to interrupt her, but she pressed on. “Just do what I say,” she snarled. “She gets away, you two are screwed. She walked right past both of you once already. On second thought, call your boss. You build a blue wall around this whole block and cover every exit.”
60
Knowing that the woman would come after her, Faith ran around the far wall of the power station, past a kiosk, and through a tree-studded parking area. Ignoring the door into Canal Place because there was a security guard there smoking a cigarette, she hopped over a low wall behind a bike rack. She ran straight up the vehicle ramp, which coiled up into the parking garage. She stayed to the left side, where a narrow raised walkway allowed her to avoid the descending vehicles.
Faith Ann had no idea how the woman got her cell phone number, but she reckoned the cops could find out anything they liked. How had the woman known to come to the aquarium? All Faith Ann could figure was that somehow they could listen in on it and they had heard her tell Rush where she was. She didn't think Mr. Massey had told the cops, because she had told Rush they killed her mother and were after her.
She knew they would search for her and watch the outside of the building. The Canal Place complex housed a hotel, shops, offices, a million places to hide. On the first parking level, located on the building's fifth floor, a winded Faith Ann had no more idea of where to go than would a rabbit being chased by hounds. Standing beside two cars, she looked down on the intersection below and fought back her fear.
Concentrate.
Okay, Faith Ann, stop being scared. You have to think. How can you stop them from catching you? You know why they are coming. You know what they want. How do you keep those butt cakes from getting it?
Faith Ann fought to figure something out.
Concentrate.
61
Just as Winter arrived outside the aquarium, Adams was pulling up and parking on the access street next to the power station near a police-issue Crown Victoria. He got out and joined Winter about the same time a limping Nicky arrived, carrying his cane.