A door banged open, and feet began tramping their way toward us.
“Have you taken a course in defensive driving from ex-Secret Service agents?”
“Well, no.”
“Then give me the keys.”
Delaying any longer would get us caught. I bit back a retort and tossed him the keys. He caught them neatly in midair and then opened the driver-side door and slid into the seat. I jumped into the passenger side and fastened the seatbelt.
I looked up from the seatbelt to see the man in black bearing down on us. I couldn’t help letting out a frightened little squeak.
“Hold on,” Paul said.
His foot went down on the accelerator, and the Volvo bolted out of the parking stall as if it had been goosed. The agent swerved to follow us. His hand reached for my door handle.
A clunk, and Paul engaged the door locks. I heard a muffled shout and saw the agent wince as he dropped back behind us. Maybe he’d just lost a few fingernails.
That wasn’t enough to stop him, apparently, because I saw him reaching toward his shoulder. Reaching, and pulling out a deadly-looking firearm.
“He’s got a gun!”
No response from Paul, except that the car surged forward, and then whipped around the turn up to the next level with a scream of brakes and a cloud of smoke worthy of any Hollywood street chase. I looked into the rearview mirror and saw the agent dropping back before he disappeared from sight.
“Taking the stairs,” Paul said, as he piloted the Volvo through another one of those rubber-burning turns. “Probably hopes he can head us off at one of the upper levels.”
“Can he?”
A flicker of a smile. “He can try.”
We hurtled upward, as I prayed all the while that we wouldn’t run into anyone else coming down the ramps, since Paul was taking the turns pretty wide in order to maintain our headlong momentum. On the last one he swung out a little too far, and I heard a slight crunch and a tinkle of glass as the left rear bumper made contact with an Escalade that was sticking too far out of its parking space. Ouch. There went my good driver discount.
“Shouldn’t we leave a note?”
Paul didn’t bother to dignify the question with a response. Instead, he pointed the car toward the exit, which of course was blocked by one of those remote-controlled gates and watched over by an attendant in a kiosk. I didn’t even have time to wonder where my ticket had gone — a blur of black came out of the stairwell, blocking our way. Jesus, had that agent flown up the damn stairs?
I thought I heard Paul mutter a curse under his breath, but he didn’t slow down. Not even as the agent raised his gun and pointed it straight at us.
How the hell had I managed to fall in with the UFO community’s answer to Dirty Harry?
Fear paralyzed me, kept me silent as we barreled down on the man. I clenched my jaw, waiting for the inevitable bullet to shatter the windshield. At the last second, though, he jumped out of the way, and we crashed through the slender arm of the gate as if it were made of popsicle sticks. A few flying bits of debris hit the roof of the car and bounced off as Paul shot down the driveway, then onto the street. Luckily, the only real traffic there was either headed to the Sheraton or the Hilton a little farther up the hill, so it wasn’t much work for him to maneuver around a few tour buses and SUVs.
“Which street is that?” he asked, as we barreled down on an intersection.
“Lankershim,” I replied immediately.
“Is there an airport close to here?”
What, were we about to run off to South America together? But I didn’t have my passport. “Burbank,” I told him. “A couple of miles away. Turn right.”
The light turned green just as we got to the intersection, and Paul swung the car around and began heading east. “What now?”
“Don’t stay on Lankershim. After this next curve, it’ll split off onto Cahuenga. Take that.”
He nodded and did as instructed. I turned and looked behind us but couldn’t see any signs of pursuit.
“Why the airport?” I asked.
“He knows what the car looks like. We’ll leave it in long-term parking and get a rental.”
These words were delivered so calmly and matter-of-factly that it took a second or two for them to sink in. What with the adrenaline-laced rush of pursuit and escape, I hadn’t really stopped to think about what was happening. But now Paul Oliver, a man I barely knew, was talking as if this was just the beginning, as if from now on our fates were linked.
“I’m just supposed to leave my car there?”
“Yes.”
“You run from the law much?”
A grim smile, although he never took his eyes off the traffic around us. “First time. But I know a few people who are pretty good at hiding themselves.”
“Great,” I said. “Turn right on Verdugo, then left on Hollywood Way. That’ll take us straight to the airport.”
“Got it.”
I slumped back in my seat and watched the businesses outside the window slide by. Whether it was circumstance, or fate, or just plain old rotten luck, it appeared I was now a fugitive.
CHAPTER FOUR
We pulled into the entrance to the airport — affectionately named after the late Bob Hope — without further incident. I remained silent as Paul guided the car around the perimeter of the parking lots and brought us into one of the long-term areas. No baggage to unload, of course. We simply got out, and he came around and handed me the keys.
“Good car,” he said.
I nodded. For some reason my throat was a little tight. It was dark outside, but not so dark that I couldn’t see the ding in the rear bumper from its encounter with the Escalade. I didn’t even want to walk around the front to see what breaking through that security gate had done to the bumper and the headlights.
Possibly sensing my mood, Paul didn’t say anything as we walked over to the terminal and then followed the signs to the area where the car rental agencies were located. Otto was conspicuously absent, although I could have used some of his advice right about now. Maybe that frenzied dash out of the parking structure back at the Sheraton Universal had scared my spirit guide right out of this dimension. Whatever the reason, he obviously had decamped, and I was left to follow my own instincts, muddled as they were at the moment.
Some part of me thought the smart thing to do would be to walk away from Paul and call the police to turn myself in. How bad could the penalties be? No one had been hurt, after all. Yes, there had been some property damage, but I was ready to pay for that. Chalk it up to temporary insanity or something. Besides, all I’d really done was run when some guy yelled at me that he was a federal agent. He hadn’t even flashed a badge.
However, my gut told me that would be a spectacularly bad idea. True, being a fugitive from the law was not something I’d envisioned when I left my house earlier this evening, but the pricking of my thumbs or my spider sense or whatever else you wanted to call it told me I needed to stick with Paul, that we really had stumbled onto something I couldn’t walk away from.
So I nodded when he told me to hang back as he headed to the Alamo counter. It made sense; rental car places tended to get twitchy when unmarried couples tried to rent cars together. At least, that’s what I’d heard. None of my relationships had ever lasted long enough for us to get to the “renting a car together” stage.
I loitered by a kiosk of brochures and pretended to be interested in horseback riding in Griffith Park. Actually, that sounded as if it could be a lot of fun, but I somehow doubted I’d be riding a horse any time soon — unless Paul couldn’t manage to rent a car, and we’d have to try getting away from the feds on horseback.
He went out the door with the car rental agent, and I stiffened. Was he ditching me? Then I told myself to relax. They had probably just gone out to perform the inspection of the car, the one where they walk you around the vehicle and then try to upsell you on the insurance. No doubt he’d be back inside as soon as he coul
d.
A few yards away there was a small newsstand cum snack shop, and I spotted a refrigerated case with sodas and bottled water. I’d never been much of a soda drinker, but the water looked awfully good. Running away from federal agents was a good way to work up a thirst. Besides, getting something to drink would kill some time.
I’d just paid for two bottles of water when Paul returned. “Here,” I said, and thrust one at him.
He appeared somewhat nonplussed that I’d thought of him, but took the bottle and replied, “Thanks. Well, we’re set. I got a beige Camry — I thought that would be inconspicuous enough.”
“I’ll say.” It was the type of car that every other person in Southern California seemed to drive. Something struck me, though. “What about the credit card?”
“What credit card?”
“The one you had to use to rent the car. Can’t they — I don’t know, trace you through that or something?”
A somewhat surprised smile. “Yes, ‘they’ probably could…except that I used a prepaid Visa card. It’s not directly linked to my bank account, so it’s much more difficult to trace.”
“You in the habit of carrying those sorts of things around?”
He shrugged, then pointed at a door farther down the hall, out of line of sight for the rental car counter. “We can go out that way. As to your question, well, an acquaintance once told me those sorts of things could be invaluable in certain situations, so I’ve taken to carrying one for emergencies.”
“An acquaintance.”
“Yes. One I’ll need to contact soon. But first things first.”
I followed Paul through the door and out into the parking lot, where a beige Camry did in fact await us. Whatever was going on, I hoped it wouldn’t involve my poor Volvo being left in that parking lot for more than a day or so. Yes, it was a long-term lot, so the car wouldn’t attract any attention for awhile, but…
This would have been a lot easier if I’d known Paul better. Or at all, actually. With someone else I might have felt comfortable enough to express some of my misgivings, but as he was being almost preternaturally calm, cool, and collected in the face of adversity, I thought I should do the same. Even if I did feel like a bowl of Jell-O inside.
“How well do you know this area?” he asked, as he clicked the remote to unlock the doors.
I waited until we were both inside and fastening our seat belts before I replied, “Well enough. One of my college roommates lives in Burbank, so I come out to visit every once in awhile when our schedules mesh.” These meet-ups depended more on Jess’s schedule than mine, since she worked in merchandising for Disney and had a lifestyle that was a lot more high-powered than mine, but I guessed Paul didn’t really need to know that.
“Good. Where’s the closest electronics store? And would it be open?”
The clock on the radio told me it was 8:45. Scary to think that I’d met up with him only a little over an hour earlier. “There’s a Best Buy up on Burbank Boulevard that we might make before it closes.”
He didn’t say anything, but merely guided the car out of the parking lot and in the direction I indicated. From there it was only a mile or so to the shopping center where the store was located, but we still cut it close because of some extremely bad luck at a couple of lights. Still, we made it with five minutes to spare. I waited in the car while Paul carried out whatever transaction he’d planned. A few minutes later, he came back carrying a shopping bag, out of which he pulled a plastic clamshell case that contained one of those prepaid cell phones, the kind where you didn’t need a contract.
“Let me guess,” I said, as he pulled a Swiss Army knife off his keychain and began to slice the packaging open. “Not traceable.”
“Precisely.” And he extricated the phone, then set it on the console between the front seats and proceeded to open a second package, this one holding a car charger. “I’m not entirely certain that they’re surveilling my phone, but it never hurts to be safe.”
I probably didn’t want to know, but decided to go ahead and ask anyway. “And exactly who are ‘they’?”
He didn’t answer immediately, instead plugging the charger into the cigarette lighter and connecting it to the phone. After a long pause, he said, “People you really don’t want after you…or finding you.”
Wonderful. “So what next?”
“How much cash do you have on hand?”
Ha. He was in for a bit of a surprise. “About fourteen hundred dollars, give or take.”
That did seem to flap the imperturbable Dr. Oliver. His head swiveled in my direction, and he said, “What?”
“My clients prefer to pay me in cash, for reasons that should be obvious enough. Although Mr. Jimenez does keep trying to persuade the IRS that my services should be a tax deduction, so he pays me by check.” I grinned; that particular stratagem hadn’t been working so well. At least the last few times I’d finally gone on record and informed Mr. Jimenez that his creative bookkeeping would result in a terse letter from the Internal Revenue Service, which of course only proved to him that I really was able to see the future. Then again, it didn’t take a psychic to know that playing fast and loose with the tax code the way he did was a surefire recipe for an audit. “Anyway, I’d meant to go to the bank, but what with everything going on, I just didn’t. Good for us, though, right?”
“Very good for us,” he agreed, and started up the car. “I have some cash, but nothing like that.”
“And what do we need the cash for?”
“That should be obvious enough.”
I waited for him to enlighten me.
He pulled back onto Burbank Boulevard, heading toward the freeway. “You can’t go home, of course. I’m sure someone will be waiting for you. So the best solution is to find an inexpensive hotel or motel where we can regroup and I can attempt to make contact.”
“Contact with whom?” Under other circumstances I might have been a bit more anxious about spending a night in a hotel room with a man I’d just met, especially since I’d never been much of one for one-night stands. However, I knew Paul Oliver wasn’t doing this as a convoluted way of trying to get me in the sack. If that was all he’d wanted, I was pretty sure he had a much nicer room back at the Sheraton Universal than wherever we were going to end up.
“An…acquaintance. Someone who might be able to help.”
I didn’t see how this mysterious acquaintance could get us out of the morass in which we were currently embroiled, but since I didn’t have any better options to offer, I figured I might as well let Paul try.
“I know a place out in Pomona. They take cash and don’t ask questions — at least, they didn’t used to,” I told him. “We need to head east.”
Even though he was maneuvering us onto the onramp, he still managed to shoot a startled glance in my direction. I guess I didn’t really give the impression of someone who knew all the cash-only, pay-by-the-hour dives.
I grinned. “Not what you’re thinking, Dr. Oliver. I’m from Claremont — Pomona is the town next door. When I was in high school, the kids used to rent rooms at a couple of these places when they wanted to party without anyone asking too many questions. Besides, I’m guessing Pomona is probably the last place anyone’s going to be looking for us.”
“Good strategy,” he said. “I will admit to being something at a loss here in Southern California.”
“Oh?” After all, I knew next to nothing about him, except that he was a double Ph.D., chased UFOs, and drove a mean getaway car. “So where are you from?”
“New Mexico.”
If he was unfamiliar with Southern California, ditto for me and New Mexico. I’d always had a vague impression of the place as being overrun with New Age types and UFO hunters. Well, I guess I’d been right on one count, anyway. Despite my profession, I didn’t really buy into a lot of the whole New Age philosophy. I knew Otto existed because he’d shown up in an extremely inconvenient way the day I turned twelve, but as for the crystals and the
Reiki and all the rest of it went, well, I could definitely leave it.
“Right,” I said. “Roswell and all that.”
“Actually, my parents owned a ranch about fifty miles outside of Santa Fe.”
Paul hadn’t struck me as the ranching type. Then again, a ranch might explain the calluses on his hands. But he had said “owned” — past tense.
As smoothly as if he’d done it a hundred times, he maneuvered the Camry over to the right and onto the long curving ramp to the 134 freeway, taking us east toward Pasadena and points beyond. After a brief silence, he went on, “We sold most of the land when my father died. I kept the house, but my mother moved into a retirement community in Santa Fe. Said she wanted to live someplace where someone would do for her for once.” A corner of his mouth quirked, just a little. If I hadn’t shifted in my seat so I was turned more toward him, I would have missed it altogether.
I didn’t know exactly what to say. “I’m sorry about your father.”
“It’s all right. It was eight years ago. He was out driving fence posts, and he just went. Heart attack. At least he was outside, doing something he loved.”
True enough, I supposed. Even though I didn’t have any earthly idea of exactly what driving a fence post entailed, I thought it would be better to go that way, in the wind and the sun, and not in some hospital bed. Death didn’t frighten me at all; I knew too much about what waited on the other side.
Pain, on the other hand…
“So is that how you got into astronomy?” I asked. The question probably sounded like what it was, an obvious attempt to change the subject, but I didn’t see any point in dwelling on painful memories. “Big sky country and all that?”
“Technically, I think Montana is the real big sky country, but yes. Not much light interference out where we were. Where I am, that is.”
I pictured him then, in some lonely farm house stuck out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by telescopes and star charts and whatever else it was that astronomers used. No wonder he wasn’t used to Los Angeles.
“You said you were from Claremont,” he commented. “Good colleges there.”
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