No Escape (19 page)

“I’ve got lots of research for you on the investigation,” Tessa said. “I got three boxes of documents this morning.”

She heard a car turn into the drive well ahead of her and automatically stepped to the side of the alley. Still talking to Veronica, she walked along the six-foot-tall cement block wall that separated the alley from the lot where her car was parked.

Her friend was in the middle of a sentence when Tessa heard the distinct sound of a car gunning its engine. She looked up and saw a dark blue 1980s-model Chevrolet Caprice shoot down the alley with the sound of screeching tires.

It took two full seconds to realize that the car was headed straight toward her. With the walls of the alley taller than she was by almost a foot, and the wall of the parking building on her other side, she had no place to go.

“Are you crazy? Stop!” Tessa screamed. But the car kept coming.

She heard Veronica’s frantic voice on the phone as she dropped both it and her heavy purse and turned back toward the bank building. She ran along the wall, staying out of the middle of the alley, and went right past the covered entry to the lot where Ed was pulling out in his car. She didn’t even notice him.

Ed saw the stark fear on Tessa’s face as she raced by and pulled his gun as he grabbed the police radio. He dropped the mouthpiece when he saw the Caprice barreling past him down the alley.

Right after Tessa.

Without hesitation, Ed floored the accelerator, smashing the arm of the parking gate with his windshield and clipping the back end of the vehicle chasing Tessa. The impact caused the Caprice to fishtail wildly, and after overcorrecting the driver was forced to pull the wheel hard to the right—away from Tessa—in order to keep from losing control completely. Ed had a brief glimpse of a large male in the driver’s seat as the car sped away from them up the alley.

Then he saw Tessa sprawled near the wall and his heart skipped a beat. He threw his car into park, called in a hit-and-run to the police dispatcher, and ran the fifty feet that separated him from Tessa.

Downtown Los Angeles

Saturday afternoon, March 13

J
ust as Ed reached Tessa, she began to move. He held her down on her stomach. “Were you hit? Don’t move, wait for the paramedics.” Fear made his voice sharp and commanding.

“I fell, that’s all. The car didn’t hit me, I just rolled my ankle and fell while I was running. Who the hell was that guy, anyway?” Tessa pushed her way up onto her skinned forearms and looked at Ed as he crouched over her.

“I don’t know. It’s too early for a drunk. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was aiming for you, Tessie.”

She shook her head and looked at the ground. It was littered with rocks and pieces of cinder block where the car had clipped the wall, narrowly missing her. Then she saw movement in the corner of her eye, behind Ed as he crouched next to her, and knew in a heartbeat that he had been right.

The car had been aiming for her, and now it was returning to finish the job. “He’s back!” She called the warning as she tried to scramble
to her feet. But the car was approaching too fast. They weren’t going to be able to get out of the way.

Still hunkered down, Ed looked over his shoulder and saw the dark blue Caprice bearing down on them. There was no time to run, so from his awkward position he hefted Tessa into his arms and threw her bodily over the cement wall into the neighboring lot. He tried to jump after her, but the act of throwing her had put him off-balance, and he wasn’t able to make it over the wall on his first jump. He slid down and sprawled on his back briefly before getting to his knees.

Listening to Tessa frantically call his name, Ed drew his Glock 9mm and used his half-crouching position to take careful aim at the approaching car. He got off eight even shots before the driver jerked the wheel and aimed the passenger side of the car directly at him.

Tessa tried several times to climb the wall. Finally, she jumped with all her strength and pulled herself up to lie half over the top, staring down in disbelief. As the Caprice bore down on Ed, she grabbed a loose cinder block from the top of the wall and awkwardly heaved it at the windshield, where it caused a spiderweb pattern of splintered glass. Though the car swerved erratically, the windshield held. She couldn’t see inside to identify anyone.

The driver eased off on the gas when the cinder block hit. But after a moment he jerked the car back on course, hit the accelerator again, and ran down her best friend.

The Caprice hit Ed squarely in the chest, despite the fact that he continued firing shots at the oncoming vehicle—every one of them had punched holes in the windshield, but the car kept coming.

Tessa screamed again and again as she watched Ed fly down the alley into a corner of the far wall from the force of the impact.

The Caprice hesitated for a moment, then the driver gunned the engine and headed away from the scene. It clipped the front end of Ed’s car and sped down the alley
onto the city street beyond. Tessa strained forward from her position on the wall and saw it turn right, then listened as the sound of its engine faded in the light Saturday-afternoon traffic.

Ed didn’t move.

Frantically calling his name, Tessa scrambled over the wall and staggered as she dropped down to the alley. With one shoe off, her clothes dirty and torn, she ran toward the crumpled figure of her friend. On the way, she stooped to grab her cell phone from where it had fallen.

Miraculously, she could still hear Veronica’s voice demanding in worried tones to know what was going on. The whole incident had taken less than a minute, from the time she’d realized the car was headed her way to the instant it had hit Ed.

Still running, Tessa held the phone to her ear. “Officer down. Officer down. It’s a bad one.” She gave Ronnie the location, a description of the vehicle, and the direction it had been heading. Then she dropped the phone into her pocket as she threw herself down next to Ed.

He lay unmoving on his back, brown eyes open, his face amazingly undamaged. Except for the blood that leaked out of his nose and the corners of his mouth.

“Can you hear me? Ed? Hold on, the ambulance is coming.” Tessa sat next to him and picked up the hand he held out to her. “Don’t try to move,” she cried as he lifted his head to check around the alley.

“Is he gone?” Ed whispered. He coughed harshly, and more blood appeared on his mouth.

“Yes. Lie still.” Tessa slid his head into her lap, hoping since he was moving it around that he didn’t have a spinal injury. She was more concerned about keeping him still as the blood trickled from his mouth, and she used her fingers to tenderly wipe the scarlet stream from the corner of his lips.

She only succeeded in smearing it, and more welled forth immediately.

“Tessie.”

“Yes, I’m here.” She stroked his hair back and looked at the gray pallor of his face. Tears leaked silently from her eyes as he coughed repeatedly, clearly struggling for breath.

“God never saw fit to bless me and Mary with children. I love you like my own daughter. Just wanted to say that.”

Cough, cough.

The racking noise made her heart turn over.

“I love you, Ed. But you’re going to be fine. Hold on, just hold on. Ronnie is calling an ambulance. She’s here, on the phone. She loves you, too.” Tessa dug in her pocket, thinking it would help Ed to hear his partner’s voice.

Ed shook his head. “Don’t fret, my girls. I’ve had a good run at it, and no regrets. Well, one. I would have liked to see you get married, Tessie girl. And give me some grandchildren to go along with the one Ronnie has.”

“Please don’t say that. You’re going to be okay. You’re too tough to give up,” she pleaded.

“I’m an old cop, Tessie. And lonely. I miss Mary,” he said.

Then he whispered his dead wife’s name again, his tone almost surprised. His eyes closed and his struggle for breath stopped.

This time Tessa didn’t bother to call his name. She heard the sound of sirens approaching as she laid Ed out in the alley and began to perform CPR.

But in her heart she knew he was already gone.

Santa Monica, California

Saturday evening, March 13

“W
hat time is it?” Luke asked MacBeth. They were spread out in the conference room, reviewing state records on income and property taxes. Tessa had called around noon wanting to look into this new angle, so they’d spent the day pulling information from online data and analyzing the results.

“Coming up on six,” MacBeth replied.

Tessa had said she’d join them by four. Luke picked up the phone and dialed her cellular number. Again.

But he’d only been able to reach her voice mail for over an hour, and was starting to get worried.

The sound of the doorbell brought him to his feet in relief. MacBeth followed him through the dimly lit, glass-walled reception area, where Tessa stood with Veronica Harris. In fact, Tessa leaned heavily on her friend, which was the first clue to Luke that something was very wrong.

He jerked the door open and looked with disbelief at Tessa’s battered face. She had several raw abrasions, the worst on her cheekbone and chin. A small white bandage
had been taped over her forehead, just at the hairline, and even in the poor light Luke could see where fresh blood was starting to seep through it.

Then he looked down and saw the dried red streaks all over her blouse and slacks.

“My God, Tessa. What happened?” He came through the doorway and gently pried her away from Ronnie, then led her to a soft couch in the waiting room.

“I’ll get the first-aid kit and change that bandage,” MacBeth said.

“Baby, are you all right?” Luke squatted down in front of her and tried to get her to look at him. She had the shell-shocked look of someone who had been through something unspeakable.

“She’s okay,” Veronica said from next to Luke. “Physically, anyway.”

“Someone tell me what the
hell
is going on.”

“He’s dead. They ran him down in the street like a dog,” Tessa whispered.

Luke’s head whipped around. “Who—Ed?”

Veronica nodded grimly as her own eyes filled with tears she refused to let fall. “Hit-and-run. It was deliberate.”

“Are you hurt?” Luke asked Tessa.

She shook her head. “H-he’s dead because of me.”

“He died because of the driver in the other car. You can’t blame yourself,” Ronnie said. It sounded from her tone like she had repeated the phrase a number of times already.

“The car was aiming for
me
. He was trying to kill
me
, and Ed got in his way.”

“What the fuck happened out there?” Luke asked. As Tessa’s eyes filled with tears, he took a steadying breath. “I’m sorry, baby. Please, just tell me what happened.”

She took the hand he offered her and wrapped her bloodstained fingers around it. She hardly noticed MacBeth when he sat down next to her and opened the first-aid kit he’d
brought. Then she tried to relate what had happened as concisely as possible.

A few minutes later, she flinched as he peeled the soiled bandage away from her forehead. “Hold still,” Luke said. “MacBeth was a paramedic before he even joined the police department. He knows what he’s doing.”

“She barely let the medics touch her at the scene,” Ronnie complained.

Tessa exhaled a shaky breath when pressure was applied to the half-inch gash at her hairline. Then she tightened her grip on Luke’s hand.

“What happened when the car came back again?” Luke prompted.

She swallowed hard. “There wasn’t time to run. I was lying on the ground where I’d fallen. Ed was squatting next to me—like you are now. There just wasn’t time. So he saved my life.”

“He loved you,” Veronica said quietly.

Tessa closed her eyes, and two tears slipped down her face. Then she looked straight down at Luke. “Ed picked me up and threw me over a wall to safety. But he couldn’t make it over himself, not from the position he was in. I saw him try—his head appeared at the top of the wall, but he slipped back down before I could help. Then I heard gunshots.”

Luke’s hands jerked in hers, as he realized how close Tessa had come to dying.

“I tried a couple of times and finally made it to the top of the wall. I grabbed a loose cinder block, thinking I could break the windshield and make the driver stop. But he didn’t. Ed fired so many shots, I couldn’t even count them. And the driver still kept coming.”

“We found eighteen 9mm shell casings at the scene. Ed emptied his magazine and went down fighting,” Veronica said.

“I saw the car hit him. I’ve never seen a human being actually
go flying through the air before. I—” She broke off, unable to continue.

“It’s okay.” Luke sat next to Tessa and wrapped his arms gingerly around her, unsure of how to offer comfort without disturbing her cuts and bruises. She leaned tensely against him, and he knew the story wasn’t done. “What happened next?”

“The Caprice drove off. I had to run to get to Ed, b-because he was at least thirty feet away. He—he was still alive, but he was br-breathing blood.” Tessa’s teeth began to chatter as she spoke.

Luke and Veronica both flinched at that detail, and Luke said a foul word under his breath. He met MacBeth’s eyes and released Tessa’s hands so the other man could began cleaning the raw scrapes on her right arm.

“That’s enough. You don’t have to finish,” Luke said.

She didn’t hear him. “I told Ed he would be all right, but he knew. He said his wife’s name. Then he shut his eyes and died. I tried to do chest compressions, but it just made more blood come out of his mouth. The first paramedic unit arrived, and they took over. I heard one of them say every bone in his chest was broken. There was nothing they could do, but they kept trying anyway.”

In the silence that followed, MacBeth finished cleaning her right arm and gently took her left hand to inspect it for cuts. She jerked against Luke and turned even whiter than she had been before.

“Damnit, Tessa. You said you weren’t hurt,” Ronnie said. “You refused further treatment.”

“She’s in shock. Why did the medics listen to her?” MacBeth asked as he changed places with Luke to examine Tessa’s left wrist better.

Ronnie sighed with self-disgust. “We all wanted to get her statement so we could go after a cop-killer. The EMTs checked her out at the scene, but she seemed okay and refused
transport. Hell, an ER doc doing a ride-along with the fire department said to take her in, but she wouldn’t go. She wanted to come here. Even after they took Ed away in the ambulance, trying to resuscitate him, she insisted on coming here.”

“He was gone,” Tessa said. “I felt him leave. And I wanted to tell Luke something.”

“What, baby?”

“At lunch, Ed told me how you helped him after Mary died. He was so touched that you went to her memorial service. I wanted to tell you what that meant to him.”

Now Luke was the one to close his eyes against the sting of tears.

For just a moment he could see Ed’s face as it had been at Mary Flynn’s funeral. The naked pain, bewilderment, and shock he’d seen eight years ago were now mirrored in Tessa’s blue-gray eyes. He didn’t have any experience dealing with this type of emotional pain, but was going to have to learn. Fast.

She moaned low in her throat as MacBeth gently manipulated her arm. He met Luke’s gaze over her bent head. “Her wrist is broken in at least two places.” He showed Luke the swelling at the point near where the wrist widened into her hand, and then another spot, a few inches above her watch-band. MacBeth eased the watch off, apologizing when she sucked in a pain-filled breath.

“Shit. I’ll take her to the ER. Just sit with her for a minute.” Luke stood to get his keys and motioned Ronnie to follow him across the room.

“Any word on the other car?”

“No. Tessa said it was an older-model Caprice, dark blue four-door, but it didn’t have any plates. Every off-duty cop from the precinct is at work right now running DMV records checks and looking at stolen blue Chevrolets. This guy had better hope the Highway Patrol finds him first.”

Luke looked past Veronica to where Tessa was sitting quietly with MacBeth. “Are you going to be all right while I take her to the hospital?”

“Yes. I’ll go back to the precinct. Ed had a sister in Oregon, and someone has to call her. As soon as the ME is done with the body we’ll start planning a burial with full honors. He bought the empty plot next to his wife’s grave years ago.” Veronica clenched her hands together and dug her short nails into the palms, thinking the pain would help her focus.

“Let me know if I can do anything. I mean it. And thanks for bringing Tessa here.” He leaned forward and pressed a sympathetic kiss to her cheek. “I’m sorry as hell about Ed. He was the best.”

Veronica looked at him. “Take care of her. I heard the whole thing on my cell phone—her screams, the car’s engine sounding like a horror movie, the gunshots. I’m never going to be the same. I can’t imagine what seeing Ed die in front of her will do to Tessa. Reliving it won’t be easy, but we still need to talk to her for a formal statement. The captain wants to speak with her personally.”

“I’m taking her to the hospital, then we’re going to ground for a few days. Until I know for sure who tried to kill her and why, I’m not letting Tessa out of my sight. If the PD needs to talk to her, tell them to come by the ER.”

Ronnie nodded. “Any ideas about who might have done this?”

“It has the feel of a contract job. The guy was a pro—to come back after the first pass, then keep going despite having eighteen 9mm rounds hit his windshield. It has to be related to one of her cases.”

“That’s what the senior investigator on the scene thought as well.”

Luke continued. “I’ll bet money it goes back to Club Red, since that’s the only case she’s working on with players capable of arranging a hit. We found out a few days ago that
the club is turning over about $25 million each year, so it’s worth their while to silence Tessa.”

“I’ll be sure to tell the investigators to look into that angle. I guess now LAPD will get involved in that task force,” Veronica said.

“Yeah. I’ll call you tomorrow and let you know where we are. But just you—I don’t want anyone else to know.”

“Okay.” She turned to leave. “Why don’t you take her to the ER at La Brea Hospital? That’s where Ed was taken. The people there will bump her up to the front of the line, treat her right.”

“Thanks.”

Hours later, Luke watched from across the room as a technician checked the new cast on Tessa’s left forearm. She’d already received personal condolences, as well as a gentle interrogation about what had happened, from Ed Flynn’s captain at LAPD.

Now the doctor was in the room for a final checkup and to sign her release papers. He’d pulled Luke into the far end of the room to give additional instructions.

“The fractures aren’t displaced, so the bones should heal well in the cast. She’ll need occupational therapy once it comes off, but I believe she’ll recover fully. Her other injuries are minor—a few deep contusions, some cuts and abrasions. Keep them clean and moist to minimize discomfort. Ice should help, too.”

Luke nodded. “I’d like to get her into my hot tub to help with stiffness. I’ll clean the cuts after each soak.”

“I’ve also written a prescription for painkillers. See that she takes them, at least for the first few days. It should get a lot better after that, as long as she doesn’t move her fingers too much. And watch her for signs of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder,” the doctor added. “She saw something terrible today. It’s going to affect her deeply.”

“Yeah. But if I know her, she’s going to take her pain and emotions and pour them into the investigation.”

“I think it would be healthy for her to work again, after she’s had a few days of rest. Try to get her life back to normal as much as possible. Routine, comfort, and security will help her get through this. Understand that her emotions will be all over the place, and be patient.”

“I will. Thank you, Doctor.” Luke shook his hand and watched as the man went over to inspect Tessa’s cast a final time. Then the doctor excused himself from the room, along with the technician.

“He’s a nice man,” Tessa said. “He and the captain wanted to assure me that Ed didn’t suffer. Apparently there was massive chest trauma that ruptured the aorta and broke several ribs, which punctured his lungs. Even if it had happened inside the ER, there was nothing they could have done to save him. Knowing that helps a little.”

Luke could see she was trying to accept the reality of Ed’s death by talking about it openly. But hearing the soft, toneless summary of her friend’s injuries was making the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

She might look all right, but Tessa was a breath away from emotional breakdown. She desperately needed to deal with the jumble of feelings inside her, or they would eat her alive.

“How do these people think they can get away with running down a police officer?” Tessa asked. “I don’t understand.”

Luke didn’t argue with her assumption that Ed’s death was related to Kelly and Club Red. “It’s easy for them—they never signed on as law-abiding citizens.”

“I want those bastards in prison.”

“Or dead,” Luke agreed. “As of right now, the gloves come off.”

“We’re going to take Kelly out of there by force?” Tessa guessed.

“Yeah. We tried making nice by working the system and building a case—and it got a good cop killed. From now on, we do things my way.”

“Good.”