The Kiss after Midnight (The Midnight Trilogy) (8 page)

“Tobias Mead,” the man said.

Tobias nodded.

The bald man pulled out a badge. Tobias couldn’t see it clearly from where he stood, but it resembled FBI identification. “I’m Agent Podolski,” the man said.

Tobias twitched. The man didn’t look like an Agent Podolski. The face just didn’t go with the name. “What do you want?”

“You have to remain calm. I know you’re scared. Hell, I’d be, too—”

“Why?” Tobias demanded. “Why would you be scared? What have I actually done?” He took a step back. “Do you even know anything about me, or are you just here to kill me?”

“Relax, son. I just want to talk.”

“Oh yeah. Where’s you backup?”

The man smiled and pulled out a pistol. “You know, I tried to make this easy, but you’re really pissing me off.”

Tobias took a deep breath and held it for a second. He put both hands in the air. “What do you want?”

“Not here. Come.” The man pulled out a pair of handcuffs with his left hand and approached Tobias, the gun still in his right.

Tobias’ hands shook as he took a step forward and then another.

“Stop right there,” a woman screamed.

Tobias looked past the man to see a tall woman with short hair and bright blue eyes pointing a pistol at the bald man.
Shit, that’s Annabel, Penélope’s friend from Friday night. She must have been the person on the phone.

“Turn around slowly,” the woman said, “and put your goddamn hands up.”

The man put both hands in the air—the gun still in his right—and turned around, not uttering a word.

“You okay, Tobias?” Annabel said.

Tobias put his phone in his pocket and wiped his mouth. “Yeah.”

Annabel took a step back and aimed the gun at the man’s head. “Tobias, listen to me. I know you’re scared, but I want you to take the gun from him and handcuff him to the railing.”

Tobias’ face tightened, and after a few moments of hesitation, he grabbed the gun from the man’s hand. He handcuffed him to the thick metal rails. The man only smiled at him.

Tobias ran toward Annabel.

“So you’re just gonna leave me here?” the man said.

Annabel walked up and slapped him. “You tell Antonio that he’ll never get this man. And if I find out that he killed my friend, I’ll make sure he doesn’t get away with it. I don’t care who he is.”

She ran down the stairs. Tobias followed closely behind her.

“You won’t get away with this, you know,” the man shouted. “We’ll find you wherever you go.”

Upon reaching the foot of the stairs, Annabel cautiously walked outside, avoiding eye contact with the many pedestrians on the sidewalk.

***

Rico answered his phone on the fourth ring. His attention had been on the police cars departing from the apartment’s entrance. The unusually calm voice of Antonio greeted him.

“Have we got him yet?” the
comisionado
asked.

Rico shifted, trying to clearly see the many faces leaving the building. “I don’t know what’s going on. Most of the police cars have left, but no sign of Tobias.”

“What about Fernando?”

“He’s still in there.”

Antonio grunted. “Why do you sound like you’re going on a fucking milk run?” He raised his voice. “We need to get this guy and we need him today.”

“I know the stakes.”

“Do you? If Fernando isn’t out in one minute, I want you to go in there and get him.”

“But are you sure—”

The phone disconnected. Rico sighed and continued studying everyone leaving the building. He glanced at his watch five minutes later and got out of the car.

He rushed along Fifth Avenue, his cell in his hand. A man brushed past him in a blue uniform similar to the one Fernando had stolen from the janitor they’d beaten unconscious the night before. “Excuse me,” he said to the man. “Where’s the back entrance to that place?” He pointed at Tobias’ apartment building.

The man pointed to a small, almost invisible alley. Rico gave the man twenty dollars and soon found the back entrance. He drew his .45 and shot the lock off the back door. He ran up the stairs and reached Fernando four stories up.

“Quick,” Fernando said after Rico had taken the gag out of his mouth, “they’re getting away.”

***

Tobias held on to Annabel’s left hand as she led the way along Fifth Avenue. The sun shone brightly on them, making him perspire heavily through his gray cardigan. He leaned toward her after a few minutes of walking. “You see back there,” he said, “you were ... you ...

Annabel stopped and looked at him, irritation on her face. “What? What is it?”

“Nothing.” He continued following her, but something didn’t feel right. She knew her way around a gun a bit too well. Who was she, really? Some sort of police agent?

Annabel urged him to walk faster. “We need to get a move on. We’re still not safe.”

Tobias swallowed. “What? I thought the police had gone.”

Annabel stopped walking again. “Do you think that’s it? That they’ll just give up. The police are around here waiting to just catch a glimpse of us. As for that clown, do you think he’s alone? Whoever he’s with will find him soon and they’ll be after us all over again.”

They continued down Fifth Avenue, Tobias twitching each time he made eye contact with a pedestrian. “Back there,” he said, “you mentioned the name
Antonio
to that man. You meant Antonio Cabrera, right?”

“Yes.” Annabel didn’t look at him.

“So he’s after me, too?”

She glanced at him. “They’re all after you.” She nodded toward his pocket. “The police, Antonio, all of them. They want what you have on the memory stick.”

“But it’s not even mine,” he said. “It’s probably my friend’s. I saw it by the side of his bed when I left his place on Saturday. I just thought it was a pen.”

“Don’t you get it yet?” Annabel said. She increased her pace, continuously looking backward. “It was Penélope’s. She must have dropped it there and you found it.”

“Fuck. How did she get involved with these people?”

Annabel cast glances behind her and spoke quickly. “It doesn’t matter now. She’s dead. All that matters is what you’ve got and what’s on it.”

“What is it?”

“You’ll see soon enough. But you need to walk faster. We have a tail.”

Tobias looked back sharply, but Annabel yanked him back around. “Do you want to get us killed? They don’t know we’ve seen them. Let them keep following us. We’ll lose them soon.”

“Who is it? Police?”

“I’m afraid not. Remember what I said about Antonio sending more than one man? Well, I’m afraid it’s him.”

Just then, the silhouette of the bald man from the building appeared about ten feet ahead of them, six people away. Annabel stopped Tobias and turned around. A second man was behind them, steadily navigating the pedestrian traffic, a gun in his hand.

Annabel shifted her focus between the two approaching men. To their left, the bald man moved cautiously, hands inside the breast of his jacket. The man to their right moved slightly quicker, easing people out of the way, his gun close to his right leg.

She leaned into Tobias, her back grazing his. He trembled, casting worried glances at both men.

“What’re we going to do?” he asked. Scores of pedestrians continued to pass them, not immediately noticing the fear on his face. He imagined numerous faces watching him from the taxis that passed.

Annabel held his right hand. “Where’s the gun?”

“‘In ... in my pocket.”

“I want you to shoot into the air.”

Tobias turned toward her sharply, his eyebrows rising.

“Just do it.” Annabel drew her gun as she exchanged looks with both men again, clearly signaling her willingness to use it. A scream soon followed, and then another.

Tobias looked two feet to his right and saw a woman and a teenage girl with their hands raised to their faces, their screams getting louder.

“Gun,” a man beside him screamed. “It’s a gun!” He ran away, pushing scores of people out of his way.

More eyes focused on them, but the commotion didn’t escalate.

Annabel tugged against Tobias’ shoulder. “Now. Do it now.”

Tobias pulled the gun from his pocket, evoking screams from numerous people directly in front of him. He raised his hand in the air and let off a shot, and then another, the recoil almost throwing him to the ground. The explosion turned Fifth Avenue into chaos. Men, women and children scrambled away. Some ducked for cover.

Cars stopped abruptly as people ran into the streets, many pointing toward where the shots had been fired. Annabel held firmly to Tobias’ hand. He saw that the men chasing them were throwing fleeing pedestrians to the ground.

Annabel grabbed Tobias’ wrists and ran across the road, forcing drivers to halt by brandishing her gun. She continuously pushed panic-stricken people out of the way, all the while trying to keep her eyes on their pursuers.

Tobias let go of her hand and ran alongside her, his laptop bag still firmly over his shoulder. Police sirens soon filled the air, and two marked cars appeared about thirty feet away, at the intersection with West Thirteenth Street. Just then an explosion rang in his ears as shards of glass from a nearby shop window shattered.

He turned briefly toward where he’d felt the shot come from to see the bald man extending his gun as he ran through the crowd. The sound of another shot came, followed by a loud grunt. A tall man in a green jumper slumped to the ground, blood pouring from his back.

Annabel frowned and continued running beside Tobias, shoving pedestrians aside. Three more police cars arrived, and an ambulance edged toward the civilian-filled streets, horn and siren sounding in unison. Two more shots rang out and a middle-aged woman fell to the ground.

A third shot struck Tobias in the right arm. He grunted and slammed into a lamppost, blood covering the wound. “Fuck.”

Annabel grabbed his arm and inspected the wound while still keeping an eye on the approaching men. Tobias strained his neck to look.

“It didn’t go in,” she said.

Tobias looked at her dumbfounded.

“It’s only a graze. Now move it.”’

She pulled him up and continued running. They made it to within ten steps of the police cars and the ambulance parked on West Thirteenth Street.

Tobias held her hand. “Are you crazy? The police are after me.”

Annabel glared at him and pointed toward the approaching assailants. “Them or the police?”

Tobias shrugged.

“You have to decide, Tobias, ’cause I’m not getting killed today.”

Tobias nodded and Annabel put her arms round him, burying his face in her chest. She rushed toward two police officers struggling to keep order. “Please help. My boyfriend’s been shot.”

One of the officers, a brown-haired man, ran toward them and eased Tobias to the ground. He inspected the wound for a few seconds amid the chaos.

Annabel crouched and looked back down Fifth Avenue. Tobias’ face tightened as the officer continued inspecting the wound. Annabel returned to his side. “Is he going to be okay?”

He waved toward a paramedic before helping Tobias to his feet. “He’s going to be just fine, ma’am.” He looked at Tobias. “You’re very lucky. The bullet only grazed your arm.”

“Oh, thank God,” Annabel said in a high-pitched voice. “I was so scared.”

The paramedic arrived soon with another man. They helped Tobias into an ambulance. He gave Annabel a long questioning stare. She gestured that he should remain calm. She then walked back to the Fifth Avenue intersection.

Tobias wiped sweat from his head as he was put into the ambulance. He watched as a number of people boarded it. A woman with glass protruding from her right arm screamed in pain while a man suffering from a bullet wound to the lower abdomen was tended to. He tapped one of the paramedics. “Have you seen my girlfriend?”

Just then, Annabel charged back to the ambulance, breathing heavily. She sat beside him and held his hand.

“What happened?” he whispered. “Where did those guys go?”

“Don’t worry about that. We’re safe now.”

The sirens sounded and the vehicle dashed toward the hospital.

***

The ambulance sped through the busy streets, taking a sharp right onto Sixth Avenue. Tobias could feel his heart beat faster. He couldn’t go to the hospital and he knew it. He assumed that the policeman hadn’t recognized him because his picture had not yet been plastered everywhere. He was in no doubt, however, that by the time they reached the hospital, it would be a completely different story. He continued looking toward Annabel, trying to gain her attention.

Annabel instead was gazing at the gunshot victim, tears forming in her eyes. The ambulance took a sharp right, and Tobias saw that they were on West Fourteenth Street.

“Where are you taking us?” Annabel asked one of the paramedics.

The paramedic glanced at her as she continued attending to the injured. “Bellevue,” she said. “It’s on First Avenue. We can’t be far.”

Annabel rubbed her palms together and looked around before reaching for her gun. She pointed it at the paramedic and shouted at her male partner, “Tell the driver to turn the sirens off and slow down or I’ll kill her.”

What the fuck is she doing?

The male paramedic dropped the bandage he had in his hand and signaled to the driver. The ambulance slowed down and the sirens were silenced. He looked at Annabel. “Where are we going?”

“Tell them to take a left onto Seventh Avenue.”

After he relayed Annabel’s instructions, she motioned for the man to stand near her. Meanwhile, the other paramedic continued tending to the wounded. Annabel avoided her glare.

“I don’t know why you’re doing this,” the woman said, “but these people haven’t done anything. Don’t they at least deserve a chance?”

Annabel dismissed Tobias’ questioning stare. “Can you see us going anywhere else?” she said to the woman. “We’re still going to the hospital, just by a different route.”

Per Annabel’s instructions, the ambulance driver took a right turn and then a left and drove for nearly a mile before Annabel signaled for him to stop. She ordered him to come to the back of the ambulance.