Ian Rankin - Tooth and Nail

Rebus knew he had to keep Chambers talking. By keeping him talking, he was keeping Lisa alive.- But the traffic had stalled. Red lights ahead. The BMW only a few cars in front, prevented from jumping the lights by another car directly in front: of it. Could he …? Should he even be thinking of it? The, judge' was still gripping Rebus's headrest, staring out towards the gleaming- black, car, the car that was so close to them. So close … and so stationary.

'Well?' It was Chambers's voice. 'Do you pull over, Inspector, or do I kill her?'

Rebus was staring hard at Chambers's car. He could see that Lisa was leaning away from Chambers, as though making to escape. But Chambers was gripping her with his left arm, his right presumably resting on the steeringwheel. So the man's attention would be focussed on the passenger side of the car, leaving the driver's side unguarded.

Rebus made up his mind and quietly opened his door, slipping out onto the reassuringly solid surface of the road. Horns were sounding around him. He paid them no heed. The lights were still at red. He began to move forward,' crouching, but moving quickly. Chambers' driver's-side mirror!If Chambers looked into it, he'd have a clear view of Rebus's approach. Make it fast, John, make it.

Amber.

Shit!

Green.

He had reached the BMW, had gripped the doorhandle. Chambers looked out at him, a stunned expression on his face. And then the car in front moved off, and Chambers gunned the engine, the car accelerating forwards, tearing itself free of Rebus.

Shit! Car horns all around. Angry. Angry drivers rolling down their windows and yelling at him as he ran back to the Jaguar. Started the car, moved off. The judge's hand patted. his shoulder.

'Good try, my boy. 'Good try.'

And Chambers' laughter on the car-phone. 'Hope I didn't hurt you, Inspector.' Rebus examined his hand, flexed it painfully. The fingers- had nearly been pulled out of their joints. His little finger was swelling already. A break? Perhaps.

'So,' said Chambers, 'for the last time. I make you an offer you can hardly refuse. Stop the car, or I kill Dr Frazer.'

'She's not a doctor, Chambers. She's just a student.' He swallowed:. now Lisa knew that he knew. Not that it mattered one way or the other, not now. He took a deep breath. 'Kill her,' he said. Behind him, the judge gasped, but Rebus shook his head, reassuring him.

'What did you say?' asked Chambers.

'I said kill her. I'm not really bothered. She's led me a merry little dance this past week. It's her own fault she's in this deep. And after you've killed her, I'll take great pleasure in killing you, Mr Chambers.'

He heard Lisa's faint voice again. 'God, John, please not' And then Chambers, seeming to grow calmer as Rebus grew more excited 'As you wish, Inspector. As you wish.' The voice was as cold as a mortuary floor, any' vestige of humanity gone. Perhaps partly it was Rebus's fault, taunting him with newspaper stories, with fabrications. But Chambers hadn't picked on Rebus: he had picked on Lisa. Had Rebus arrived a minute later at the Old Bailey, she would be on her way to certain death. As it was, nothing was certain.

Nothing but the fact of Malcolm Chambers's madness.

'He's" turning onto Monmouth Street,' said the judge, his voice level. °He had grasped the fact of Chambers's guilt, the horror of what had' happened and what might still happen.

Rebus heard a flapping sound overhead, and glanced up towards where a helicopter was shadowing the chase. A police helicopter. He could hear sirens, too. So, it seemed, could Chambers. The BMW spurted ahead, slashing the side of another car as it squeezed into a space. The injured car stopped dead. Rebus braked, pulled on the steeringwheel, but still clipped it with his driver's-side bumper, the headlamp shattering.

'Sorry about that.'

'Never mind the car,' said the judge. 'Just don't let him get 'away — '

'He won't get away,' said Rebus, with sudden confidence. — Now where the hell had that come from? The moment he thought about it, it disappeared' again, leaving behind' a quivering vapour.

They were on St Martin's Lane now. People mingling, pre-theatre or after work. The busy West End. Yet the traffic ahead had thinned for no apparent reason and the crowds gawped as first the BMW, then the Jaguar sped past.

As they approached Trafalgar Square Rebus saw, to right and left, police officers in luminous yellow jackets holding up the traffic in the side-streets. Now why, would they do that? Unless …

Road block! One entrance to the Square left open, all exits blocked, the Square itself kept empty for their arrival. In a moment they'd have him. God bless you, George Flight.

Rebus picked up the handset, his voice a snarl, specks of saliva dotting the windscreen as he spoke.

'Stop the car, Chambers. There's no place to go.'

Silence. They were skidding into Trafalgar Square now, traffic blaring in queues all around them, held back by the gloved, raised: hand of authority. Rebus was buzzing again. The whole West End of London, brought to a standstill so that he might race a Jaguar against a BMW. He could think of friends who'd give whole limbs to be in his place. Yet he had, a job to do. That was the bottom line. It was just another job to be cleared up. He might as well have been following teenage Cortina thieves through the streets of some Edinburgh housing-scheme.

But he wasn't.

They'd done one full circuit around Nelson's Column. Canada House, South Africa House and the National Gallery were just blurs. The judge was being thrown n against the door behind Rebus.

'Hang on,' Rebus called.

'To what, pray?'

And Rebus laughed. He roared with laughter. Then he realised the line was still open to Chambers's BMW. He laughed even harder, picking up the handset, his knuckles white against the steering-wheel, left arm aching.

'Having, fun, Chambers?' he, yelled. 'Like the TV programme used to say, there's no hiding place!'

And then the BMW gave a jolt, and Rebus heard Chambers gasp.

'You bitch!' Another jolt, and sounds of a struggle. Lisa was retaliating, now that Chambers was intent on this speeding circuit without end.

'Not'

'Get off '

And a piercing scream, two piercing screams, both highpitched, feminine in their intensity, and the black' car didn't take the next bend, flew straight for the pavement, mounted it and bounced into a bus shelter, crumpling the metal structure and driving on into the walls of the National Gallery itself

'Lisa!' Rebus cried. He brought the Jaguar to a sudden, pivoting stop. The driver's: door of the BMW creaked open and Chambers stumbled out, slouching off in a half-run, clutching something in his right hand, one — leg damaged. Rebus struggled with his own door, finally finding the handle. He ran to the BMW and peered in. Lisa was slumped in the passenger seat, a seatbelt passing in a diagonal across her body. She was groaning, but there were no signs of blood. Whiplash. Nothing more serious than whiplash. She opened her eyes.

'John?'

'You're going to be all right, Lisa. Just hang one Somebody will be here.' Indeed, the police cars were closing in, uniforms running into the Square. Rebus looked up from the car, seeking Chambers.

'There!'' The judge was out of the Jaguar and pointing with a rigid arm, pointing upwards. Rebus followed the line to the steps of the National Gallery. Chambers had reached the top step.

'Chambers!' Rebus yelled. 'Chambers!'

,But the body disappeared from view. Rebus started towards the steps, finding his own legs to be less than solid'. As though rubber instead of bone and cartilage were keeping him upright. He climbed the steps and entered the building by its nearest door — the exit' door. A woman in a staff uniform was lying on the ground in the foyer, man standing over her. The man: gestured towards the gallery's interior.