Ridley Pearson - Middle Of Nowhere

"What do you want to bet," Gaynes replied, "she'll lead us to him anyway?" Then she added, "Oh, yeah. I forgot. You don't bet."

Boldt said, "I think he'll park her for a while-an hour, an afternoon, a day. Keep an eye on her himself. Maybe just let her stew. The guy knows us. Knows the way we think. He's been in and out of the system his whole life. His brother's dead. He's wanted and on the run."

"Pissed off."

"That too. Depending on that temper of his, he could exercise some patience at this point. There's no real rush, other than staying away from us."

"You overestimate him," she disagreed. "He's an impatient, wild man. And if we believe Samway, his one purpose at the moment is to take you out for getting his brother killed. That's urgent. That's pressing. Ask Daphne-he's irrational, unpredictable and impatient. That call she just made? He called her in. We've got this skel."

Samway rode the Broadway bus north for eleven blocks-a cop sitting a few rows behind her-and then disembarked in front of a Seattle's Best Coffee, where she drained the next hour off the clock. Jilly Hu entered the same establishment, wearing a scarf over her head, and read the paper and sipped tea for this same hour, one eye on the suspect, another ready with her cellular phone.

By the time Samway departed the coffee shop, Shoswitz had unmarked cars in place-ready to continue the game of chess. Boldt and Shoswitz remained in constant contact. The radio hummed with activity. Boldt lived for these moments.

When an hour had expired, Samway reboarded the 60-the northbound Broadway bus. Jilly Hu remained behind in the coffee shop.

"You're biting your nails, L.T.," Gaynes said. "You don't normally do that."

Boldt glared. Her timing was off. He envisioned the movement of the various cars as Shoswitz re-deployed them, fully aware that Flek could be on any street corner, or waiting in a car nearby.

"You're thinking he's a planner," Gaynes said, reading well his steadied concentration.

"I am."

"That he's waiting out there, watching for us."

"Tracking her," Boldt said, "like a stalker."

"And if he spots us-"

"He'll never make contact with her again. It'll be the last we ever see of him." He sensed something from Gaynes. "What?"

"I have a hunch you're gonna hear from him, L.T. The rest of us, maybe not. But you? He's not through with you."

"Thanks," Boldt said. "That's reassuring."

"I call 'em as I see 'em. Which is on account of why I'd like to see us catch him first."

"Well, at least we're in agreement there."

Broadway teemed with college kids: restaurants, record stores, grocery stores, moviehouses. On foot it would prove far more difficult to follow her, given the environment. Thankfully, Samway remained onboard the bus at the busiest stops. When she did disembark, it was to transfer from the 60 to the 43-a move that left Shoswitz hustling through bus route schedules. But Gaynes knew the 43, putting their van a jump ahead of the rest of the surveillance teams.

"It goes through Montlake to the U-District."

Boldt speculated, "He wants her in areas where there are a lot of kids her age. First Broadway, now the U."

"We can beat the bus there, L.T. And get me into the field-onto the street. If she tries to use the crowds to lose us… I'm already on the ground and running."

Boldt felt somewhat obliged to let Shoswitz orchestrate the manpower, but Gaynes was right: They had a window of opportunity, and though a gamble, it seemed worth taking.

Reading his thoughts, Gaynes said bluntly, "This woman is not getting off in Montlake, L.T. He wants her in the U."

Boldt turned away from his assigned route without reporting in, while the radio spit static as Shoswitz hurried to comprehend bus route 43. Gaynes reached for the radio's microphone.

"We gotta call it in, L.T."

"Wait," Boldt instructed. He continued north on 10th Avenue, making for University Bridge.

As Shoswitz began to bark orders, Boldt keyed Gaynes to report that they were already under way to the University bus stop.

"We don't know she's headed to the U," Shoswitz objected over the radio.

Boldt took the microphone from Gaynes, and said, "Yes, we do, Captain. I'm getting there ahead of time to put Gaynes on foot."

"You'll stay in formation," Shoswitz ordered.

"We're crossing University Bridge. I'll report when we have Gaynes deployed." He put his foot to the gas, in part to cover the sound of Shoswitz screaming.

By the time the 43 pulled to a stop and Samway disembarked, clutching the box given her by Manny Wong, Boldt was parked across the street from the University's transit hub while Gaynes watched from inside a nearby KFC. For all his efforts, Shoswitz had outsmarted himself. With two cars stuck in traffic he'd been reduced to Boldt's van and a couple of cruisers. With the cruisers unable to show themselves for fear of scaring off Samway, Boldt and Gaynes led the surveillance. Samway headed out on foot into the crowds of college kids. "She keeps checking her watch," Gaynes reported, now following on foot. Ten minutes passed, by which time Shoswitz had reassembled his crew. The Ford, driven by Lee and now once again with Jilly Hu as passenger, parked on 45th Avenue. Danny Lincoln amazed everyone by arriving on his bike, his messenger's backpack strapped on tightly.

"We're coming back toward you," Gaynes reported. "I smell another bus. This guy is careful."

Boldt relayed the information to his team, believing Flek may have used the stop as part of his plan: While Samway walked around the U, Flek could buy himself time to move to the next location and set himself up with a viewpoint. Thankfully, no one from Boldt's team had followed her off the bus-something Flek may have been watching for. Boldt reported his theory to Shoswitz, warning that Flek might be a step ahead at each phase of Samway's progress, suggesting the cruisers be pushed out well away from the center of the action. Shoswitz concurred. The team now came down to Boldt's van and the Ford.

Samway led Gaynes right past Boldt's van, reentered the transit hub, and boarded the 67, whose electronic display carried the words "Northgate P amp; R."

Gaynes slipped in beside Boldt. "Now he wants to lose her in the mall," she said.

"He's watching," Boldt warned. "It gets tricky now."

Boldt drove on. The bus headed north. Again, traffic became the nemesis. To part the traffic with a light or siren was unthinkable, and yet both Boldt's van and Lee's Ford fell farther and farther back as traffic worsened.

"This keeps up," Gaynes warned, "and we lose her."

"Suggestions?"

"We slip over to Eighth or Fifth, running parallel, and use our stuff if we have to."

"I like it," Boldt said. He nudged his way left, his blinker flashing. A Navigator let him through with a polite flash of its headlights. The Ford remained behind the bus. Gaynes called in the change of plans.

"Was about to suggest that," Shoswitz said. It was the only time Boldt had smiled in the last two hours.

Boldt ran red lights on Eighth Avenue and quickly passed the bus's reported parallel position.

Gaynes suggested she leave the van upon their arrival at the mall. "I can be in that parking lot ahead of her."

The 67 made one stop after the mall. "We don't know the mall is her destination," Boldt said.

Gaynes pushed. "Is he going to have her ride the bus all the way out here, and then skip the mall? He can get her lost in there, L.T. It has to be the mall." She hesitated. "This is one time you're going to have to gamble."

Boldt pulled to the curb. To his right, he spotted the bus two blocks away, also slowing. "Go!" he shouted.

Gaynes popped the passenger door open. Boldt watched as she entered the mall's vast parking lot. A moment later she looked like just another person walking from a parked car toward the mall. To his right, Boldt saw passengers disembark the 67. He studied body types, tortured by the agonizingly long stream of people-until finally he spotted Samway among them. To his relief she still carried the package. They had guessed right. Gaynes would call it gambling-he might never live this down.