Лори Касс - Tailing A Tabby

I opened my mouth. Shut it. There wasn’t time to argue. “Come on.” I glanced up to the roof, but I couldn’t even see Eddie. No doubt he’d settled down onto the cushion where I’d been and was already asleep. “Be back soon,” I whispered.

Fast as I could, I dodged inside the houseboat. I put the gun’s safety on, grabbed my backpack from the dining table, and tossed in the gun, urgency tugging at me hard.

We clattered down to the dock, me first, Cade coming behind me, his stroke-induced limp slowing him down. In what felt like hours, but was probably barely a minute, we were in my car and away.

I braked hard when we reached the road. Which way had he gone? If I was a killer trying to run away from people who could put me in jail, would I turn left, heading toward a road that would take me north and away from towns and houses and anyone who might be able to identify me? Or would I go straight into Chilson, then through and past town, to head downstate and lose myself in the downstate crowds?

“That way.” Cade pointed straight.

I squinted and took my foot off the brake, but I didn’t see any taillights. “I don’t—”

“There was movement. No lights, just movement.”

I still didn’t see anything, but I trusted Cade’s judgment. My right foot smacked the gas pedal down hard, and my little car did its best to roar forward.

“It’s white,” Cade said. “And… there!”

Finally I did see something. The vehicle was small and white and had a single occupant. Karringer was behind the wheel of an electric golf cart.

“No wonder we didn’t hear him drive up,” I said. Golf carts were a common means of transportation for many people in resort communities, but I’d never once thought that Karringer would have one. How had he… ?

I shook my head. Didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered was keeping track of him until the police showed up. Which shouldn’t be too hard, since even the top speed of even the fastest golf cart was… well, whatever it was, it had to be less than what my car could do.

We sped down the street, closing in fast on Karringer. “Call nine-one-one,” I told Cade again. “Tell them we’ll follow him until someone catches up to us.”

Cade pushed at the phone’s buttons and soon he was chatting with a helpful young man from dispatch.

“Where are we at this moment?” Cade asked the dispatcher’s question out loud and glanced out the window. “Traveling east on Main Street, just passed the Hill Avenue intersection and—Minnie, he’s turning left!”

I pounded the steering wheel in frustration. Karringer knew the streets and sidewalks of Chilson better than I’d expected. He’d turned into the narrow park where I’d sat with Detective Inwood and Deputy Wolverson. This end, the downtown end, was relatively flat, but it descended quickly toward a short street that ran along the lake’s edge. And though the golf cart’s width would easily zip down the sidewalk, there was no way my car would fit between the stonework planters.

The car’s brakes screeched as I pushed hard on the pedal. The second we came to a complete stop, I opened my door and was outside.

I was halfway around the car and picking up speed when I heard the passenger door open. “Key’s in the ignition,” I called. “Drive around to the bottom of the hill. Make sure he doesn’t get out.”

Cade’s voice came through the night. “Take your phone, Minnie. No arguments.”

I wanted to argue, of course, but there wasn’t time. The dim illumination from the few streetlights wasn’t enough to guarantee catching a beach ball if it had been thrown straight at me, so I skidded to a halt, reversed direction, ran back, grabbed the phone from Cade’s outstretched hand, and took off running again.

“Be careful,” Cade shouted. I lifted one hand in a wave of agreement and kept on going.

What little light there had been up on the road filtered away quickly in the ornamental trees that dotted the sidewalk. Until tonight, I’d always enjoyed this hidden pathway, smiling every time I walked its brick-lined walk that curled around trees and shrubs and landscaped flower beds.

Now, as I pounded a straight path, running over grass, sidewalk, wood chips, and whatever else lay in my way, I hoped a small part of my brain would remember where the big rocks were and implement that memory in such a way that would allow me to avoid running straight into something and hurting myself so badly that, this time, Cade would be the one to take me to the emergency room.

Down the sidewalk, down the hill, down toward Janay Lake. If Karringer made it to the street that lay at the end of the park, he could zoom off in two different directions. And if he made it to the street before we caught up to him, we wouldn’t know in which direction he’d gone. We’d lose him, maybe forever.

An insistent squawking noise came from the phone. Right. Cade had been chatting with the 911 dispatcher. But I was running flat out and had no breath to spare for talking. From what Cade had told him, maybe they’d anticipate what was happening. Maybe a police vehicle was already speeding on its way to intercept Karringer.

Nice thought, but I couldn’t count on it.

I hurdled a flat rock that, if I remembered correctly, held a bronze marker that dedicated the park to a former mayor of Chilson. The perfectly executed leap boosted my confidence and I found that I hadn’t been running as fast as I could. Not quite.

Run, Minnie, run, I told myself. For Carissa. For Cade.

I don’t know if it was because I’d sped up or if Karringer had slowed, thinking that he’d lost us in his clever turn into the park, but I finally saw the back end of the golf cart. So far ahead, though, that I wasn’t sure I’d be able to catch up. I had to stop him… but how?

Come on, Cade, I thought.

“Stop!” I yelled, loud as I could. “Stop right now!”

Karringer’s head swiveled around and the golf cart started drifting to the right. I saw his mouth move when he caught sight of me, and it didn’t look like a very nice word that he said. He turned back around, but by the time he’d done so, the cart was headed directly toward a large and very solid-looking trash container.

He wrenched the steering wheel around. The cart turned hard. Too hard. In one quick movement, it fell on its side.

Car headlights swept across the scene, pinning Karringer down with its bright beams. My car, since I heard Cade’s voice calling, “Minnie! Minnie, are you all right?”

“Fine,” I said, waving, and ran to Karringer. His legs were trapped underneath the golf cart.

“I think my ankle’s broken,” he croaked. “I think it’s bleeding. You have to help me.”

With great caution, I approached. “You’re hurt?” If he was injured, I did need to help him. And if his ankle was broken, he wouldn’t be running away. I edged closer, trying to see.

“Minnie!” Cade was limping fast, cane in one hand and the gun in the other. “Stay back! I’m sure he’s trying to get you close enough to grab and use as a hostage.”

I backpedaled, my eyes wide.

Karringer cursed.

“Thanks,” I breathed to Cade as he came up to me. “Sometimes I forget how naïve I am.”

“Part of your charm, dear Minnie,” he said. “You are all right, aren’t you?”

“Pretty as a picture,” I said. “You?”

“Fit as a fiddle.”

Karringer was still whining about his ankle, and off in the distance, we heard the welcome sound of sirens rushing toward us.

“Well, my dear,” Cade said, “I’d say Trap Two is turning out terrifically.”

I laughed, and was pleased that only the teensiest bit of it sounded out of control. “Totally.”