John Miller - Upside Down

Winter looked up the hallway, past where passing people hugged the wall to avoid the filthy mop water.

“Hold Beaux-Beaux here,” Winter told Gale. He and Adams walked down the hall and to an exit that opened into the lobby for the Wyndham Hotel. Faith Ann was nowhere to be seen.

Nicky's voice came over Winter's radio. “ Massey?”

“Go ahead, Nicky.”

“You alone?”

“Just me and Adams at the moment.”

“I spotted the kid. I mean I think it was her.”

“Where?”

“She crossed the street from the aquarium, went over to the ferry's pedestrian walkway, got onto the ferry. I went after her, but the boat was already leaving when I got there.”

“Drive. Take the bridge over,” Winter told him sharply. “See if you can spot her. We'll be there as fast as we can get loose without creating suspicion.”

Faith Ann had slipped out of the hotel, made her way around the power station, and crossed the intersection near the aquarium. Police cars were everywhere, but the cops were focused on Canal Place. Crossing the intersection along with a noisy group of tourists, she passed by the concrete benches. She went up the staircase to the pedestrian walkway to the ferry.

She couldn't have timed her escape better, because as she hurried onto the moored vessel the ferry's horn blasted and the deckhand closed the steel-wire door. Within seconds she was down the stairs to the car deck, standing at the bow of the USS Thomas Jefferson, gazing across the river at Algiers Point.

As the cool wind evaporated the sweat from her face, Faith Ann went back over the escape. She had hastily switched sweatshirts in the parking deck. She had run up to the fourth level and left her cell phone there. They had the number and were somehow able to track her down when she used it. Instinctively, she knew she needed to slow her pursuers, to keep them busy trailing her without getting too close, while she figured out how to get to Mr. Massey. She had seen enough television shows to know the cops could listen in on calls if they had a number, and they could track the phone's location.

She had escaped for the moment, but there could still be cops waiting for her. She had the strangest feeling that an angel had guided her steps. She would call Rush again as soon as she was near a phone.

The envelope was tucked inside her pants, hidden by the thick, hooded gray Tulane sweatshirt. Carrying the negatives and photocopies around was too risky. She needed to hide them somewhere safe. She only had eight hours until Horace Pond was going to die.

Without any plan in mind, she closed her eyes and prayed silently. She was aware that several teenagers had joined the crowd at the bow. She looked around and saw that the boys and girls were obviously not related, and they had all come from a stretched GMC passenger van parked thirty feet away. The side door of the vehicle said UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, HATTIESBURG, MISSISSIPPI. There were luggage cases in an aluminum cage on the van's roof and a ladder leading up from the rear bumper.

Faith Ann picked out a boy close to her own age and sidled over to him. “Hi there. You guys on a field trip?”

“Nah. A stupid Bible bee contest in Barataria, Louisiana.”

“Bible bee?”

“Like a spelling bee, but only with words from the Bible.” He shrugged. “Some trip to New Orleans. Like we go right to the French Quarter, and instead of going to see Bourbon Street or something cool, they march us through some church, get us some lame powdered doughnuts, then drag us to see a bunch of stupid fish. Now we're crossing the Big Muddy to enjoy some dumb scenery before the contest.”

“That's messed up,” Faith Ann said sympathetically.

“Tell me about it.”

“Can you do me a favor, you think?”

The boy eyed Faith Ann suspiciously. “Is it anything I could catch grief over?”

Faith Ann shrugged. “I don't know. Maybe.”

“Cool,” the boy said, smiling.

Winter knew Faith Ann would beat Nicky to Algiers Point by a good ten minutes, but since the girl was on foot there was a chance he might spot her on the sidewalks.

As long as the cops didn't know she was on the ferry, Nicky had an advantage.

Winter and Adams returned to find Gale waiting with his dog.

“She exit?” Gale asked.

“She didn't go that way,” Adams said with certainty.

Winter nodded his agreement. “Guy who's been there for the last fifteen minutes said nobody came through the lobby from here.”

“Nobody saw her?” Gale asked. “She went into the hotel, right? I'm sure Beaux-Beaux can track her.”

“I said she didn't go that way,” Adams snapped.

The K-9 officer didn't protest when Winter suggested that they go back the way they'd come, to see where she'd pulled the last double-back on them.

Before they got to the parking deck, however, Adams stopped.

“Officer Gale,” he said. “You did a great job. I'm going to see that you get an FBI commendation for your effort. A nice letter from my director won't hurt your career.”

“She got away,” Gale said. “I'm sure she went into the hotel.”

“I am going to ask you to do me a favor,” Adams said.

“What's that?”

“Unless your superiors ask you directly, don't go into specific detail about the tracking.”

“Sir?”

“For your and Beaux-Beaux's sake.”

“I'm sorry?”

“It's just that if it comes down to a question of whether we screwed up, or if Beaux-Beaux here isn't up to the job, or whether your handling was questionable… you know what we're going to put in our reports. And if we do, the Director won't be sending any letters or issuing any glowing commendations.”

“But it was the bleach,” Gale said defensively. “It killed the trail for a few seconds.”

“I smelled it before we opened that last door,” Adams said.

“Me too,” Winter agreed. “We thought you'd pull the dog back to save his nose, but you went straight through the door.” He knelt to pat the dog's head. “Tell you what, Gale. Let's just agree that the trail looped back in on itself, which isn't a lie. We'll forget your mistakes, or whatever.”

Gale stared down at Winter.

“She just outfoxed us,” Winter said.

Gale stood listening, his eyes unreadable.

“You can keep tracking. Start over and follow the trail from scratch. Try and pick up her scent around the building, while we do a search on our own. Maybe she went back through the atrium and through some shops or something. Radio when you find her. You can be the hero. It's fine with us. That way our asses will all be covered.”

“But…”

“Go on. We'll buy you and Beaux-Beaux some time. We'll tell Suggs you're still looking.”

“You sure?” Gale asked suspiciously.

Adams and Winter nodded.

“I'll just take that swing through and see if we can scare her up.”

Winter and Adams watched as K-9 Officer Gale and Beaux-Beaux strode back up the ramp.

“That should buy us some time,” Adams said.

“I'm glad you're on my side,” Winter said. “Let's see how fast we can get across the bridge.”

Even though they had taken Suggs by surprise and bluffed their way into holding back twenty itchy-fingered cops, there was no real proof that Suggs was intending to harm Faith Ann and nothing to tie Suggs into Bennett other than Bennett's words. Suggs knew he was under suspicion, but for the moment Winter needed to keep him and his Tin Man team guessing. Whoever the couple was, they were only tied into Tinnerino and Doyle and Bennett. Until he knew who they were, there was nothing to be gained in mentioning them.

When Winter and Adams came out, Manseur was standing near Suggs's car, between Suggs and Tinnerino. He didn't smile when he saw Winter and Adams.