Carr was hanging up the phone when Lucas got back. "More stuff coming in on the sonofabitch. Lot of stuff from Duluth. He resigned there, just like he told us, but if he hadn't, the cops were gonna get him for ripping off homes after fires. A couple of arson guys think he might have set some of the fires himself."
"Good. The more we can pile up, the better, if there's a trial."
Davenport, you got it right. He's coming, he's past us, he's on the hospital road, he's on the hospital road, we're running parallel down the highway… Goddamn, it's hard to see anything out here.
"Shelly, you know where to go. Weather, get your coat on. Tighten up the straps, goddammit." He pulled the adjustments tight on the body armor, helped her with her mountain parka. She'd be cold without her regular jacket, but it'd only be for a minute or two. "You know what we're doing now."
"Pace it out, take it slow, stay with you. As soon as anybody yells, get down. Stay on the ground."
"Right. And everybody knows the panic drill if he decides to come inside." Lucas looked at Climpt and Carr, and they nodded, and Carr gulped and wiped his nose with the back of his hand.
"Nervous?" Lucas asked Weather, trying a smile.
"I'm okay." She swallowed. "Cottonmouth," she said.
Even on a blizzard day, there'd be twenty or thirty people in the hospital-nurses, orderlies, maintenance people. Unless Helper had freaked out, he wouldn't try a frontal assault on the building. And he knew that Weather had a deputy as a bodyguard. His only chance was to snipe her with a rifle or to get in close with a pistol or shotgun, shoot it out with her bodyguard, like he'd tried when he ambushed Weather and Bruun. They'd set up Weather's Jeep within a rough circle of cars, they'd given him places to hide, places they could reach with snipers on the roof. They'd show her to him, just long enough.
As soon as he flashed a gun, they'd have him.
He's thirty seconds out.
Anybody see a weapon?
Didn't see a thing when he went by. He didn't show a long gun on the machine.
He's ten seconds out. All right, he's slowing down, he's slowing down. He's stopped right at the entrance to the parking lot. Davenport, you got him?
Lucas put the radio to his mouth, stared through the waiting room window out to the parking lot. He was looking into a bowl of snowflakes. "We can't see a thing from in here, the goddamn snow."
He's still sitting there, can you guys on the roof see anything?
I can see him, he's not moving.
What's he doing?
He's just sitting there.
"Is he coming in?" Weather asked.
"Not yet."
Wait a minute, wait a minute, he's moving… He's moving past the lot, he's going past the lot down the hospital road. He's moving slow.
Where's he going?
He's going on past the hospital.
Lucas: "You guys on the sleds, he's coming your way, stay out of sight."
We're up in the woods, don't see him. Where is he? Still coming your way.
Don't see him.
He's on the road by that gas thing, that natural-gas pump thing, he's just going by.
Wait a minute, we got him, he's moving slow. What do we do?
"Stay right there, let the FBI guys track him," Lucas said.
He's passing us. Boy, you can hardly see out here.
The FBI man's voice came in over the others: He's stopped. He's stopped. He's two hundred yards behind the hospital, by that big woods.
"Janes' woodlot," Climpt said. "He's gonna come through the woods, sneak in through the back door by the dumpsters."
"That's always locked," Weather said.
"Maybe he's got some way to get in."
He's not moving. Somebody's got to take a look.
Carr, fifty feet away, by radio: Lucas, if he doesn't move in the next minute or so, I think the guys on the sleds ought to cruise by. If he's just sitting there, they can keep going, like club riders. If he's back in the woods, we ought to know.
Lucas put the radio to his mouth. "You guys on the sleds-cruise him. Stuff your weapons inside your suits, out of sight. And be careful. Don't stop, keep going. If you see him, just wave."
Lucas turned to Climpt. "We better get set up by the back door. If he comes through, we should be able to see if he's carrying."
You guys on the roof-we might have to turn you around, he may come in the back. One of you go out back right now, keep a lookout.
Got that.
"If we spot him coming in, we could have Weather just walk across the end of the t-corridor," Climpt said. "He'd be able to see her from the door, but he wouldn't have time to react. If he starts running down that way…"
They worked it out as they ran to the back of the hospital, Weather and Carr hurrying behind. Henry Lacey, palefaced, stood by the reception desk with his.38. The nurses had been moved down to the emergency room, where they had concrete walls to huddle behind.
Rusty: We just passed his sled. He's not here. It looks like he's gone up in the woods. Doesn't look like he's wearing snowshoes, Let's, uh…
There was a moment of silence, then the same voice.
We'll cruise him again.
"What are they doing?" Lucas asked Climpt. "They're not going back…?" He put the radio to his mouth: "What're you doing? Don't go back!"
Just coming back now.
There was a dark, abrupt sound on the radio, a sound like a cough or a bark, and a last syllable from the deputy that might have been…
He's…
Silence. One second, two. Lucas straining at the radio. Then an anonymous radio voice from the roof.
We got gunfire! We got gunfire from Janes' woodlot! Holy shit, somebody's shooting-somebody's shooting.
CHAPTER 26
Weather was the key, the Iceman had decided after Davenport and Climpt left, but he couldn't go running off yet. Had to wait for the cops to clear.
He opened the green Army footlocker, took out the top tray, full of cleaning equipment, ammunition, and spare magazines, and looked into the bottom.
Four pistols lay there, two revolvers, two automatics. After a moment's thought he selected the Browning Hi Power 9mm automatic and a double-action Colt Python in.357 Magnum.
The shells were cool but silky, like good machinery can be. He loaded both pistols with hollow points, stuffed thirteen more 9mm rounds into a spare magazine for the automatic, and added a speedloader with six more rounds for the.357.
Then he watched television, the guns in his lap, like steel puppies. He sat in his chair and stared at the game shows, letting the pressure build, working it out. He couldn't chase her down, he couldn't get at her in the house. Wasn't even sure she was still at the house. He'd have to go back to the hospital again.
Weather usually left the hospital at the end of the first shift. She'd stay to brief the new shift on her patients. The fire volunteers would be arriving a few minutes after five. If he were going to pull this off, he'd have to be back by then.
A two-hour window.
He looked down into his lap at the guns. If he put one in his mouth, he'd never feel a thing. All the complications would be history, the pressure.
And all the pleasure. He pushed the thought away. Let himself feel the anger: they'd ganged up on him. Bullied him. They were twenty-to-one, thirty-to-one.
The adrenaline started. He could feel the tension rise in his chest. He'd thought it was over. Now there was this thing. The anger made him squirm, pushed him into a fantasy: Standing in the snow, gun in each hand, shooting at enemy shadows, the muzzle flashes like rays coming from his palms.
His watch brought him back. The minute hand ticked, a tiny movement in the real world, catching his eye with the time.
Two-fourteen. He'd have to get moving. He heaved himself out of his chair, let the television ramble on in the empty room.
Weather would walk out to the parking lot. Through the swirling snow. With a bodyguard. On any other day, a rifle would be the thing. With the snow, a scope would be useless: it'd be like looking into a bedsheet.