Philip adds, “Jesus, David, for God’s sake, you don’t want to do that.”
I worry he’s overselling it, but he’s not.
On the phone, I hear Semsey say, “Whoa whoa, David, let’s all slow down here a minute, okay?”
“Semsey?”
“What?”
“I’m serving a life sentence. I kill the warden, I become the most popular guy in Briggs. You understand me?”
“Of course, David. Of course. They’re dropping back right now. Look.”
I do. The squad cars are giving us distance.
“I don’t want them dropping back. I want them all the way gone.”
Semsey gives me the soothing voice. “Listen, David. Can I call you David? That’s okay, right?”
I fire the gun through the back window. Philip raises a surprised eyebrow. “The next one goes between the warden’s eyes.”
Philip gets fully into character: “Jesus, no. Semsey, listen to him!”
Semsey’s words turn into a panic sputter. “Okay, okay, hold up, David. They’re stopping. See? I promise. Look out the back window. Take a look. We can still make this right, David. No one has gotten hurt yet. Let’s talk it out, okay?”
“What’s your phone number?” I ask.
“What?”
“It says NO CALLER ID. I’m going to hang up now. I’ll call you back in five minutes with my demands. What’s your number?”
Semsey gives it to me.
“Okay, get paper and pen ready. I’ll call back.”
“I already have paper and pen, David. Why don’t you just tell me now? I’m sure we can work—”
“Keep back and nobody gets hurt,” I say. “If I even sense a cop car, this ends with a bullet in his brain.”
I hang up the phone and look over at Philip. “How long will that buy us?” I ask.
“No more than five minutes. They’re probably getting a copter airborne now. They’ll be able to keep surveillance on us from the air.”
“Any ideas?” I ask.
Philip thinks about it a moment. “There’s a big factory outlet center up ahead in a few miles. It has an underground garage. We’ll be out of sight for maybe ten seconds. You can jump out then without them seeing you. There’s a Hyatt attached to it. They used to have a taxi stand, but I don’t know if it’s still there with Ubers or whatever. From there, well, you’re on your own. It’s the best I can do. There’s a train and bus station a mile away, if you want to try that.”
I don’t like it. “When they see us go underground, won’t they know what’s up?”
“I don’t know, to be honest.”
I look behind me. I don’t see any cop cars, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any. I open the window and stick my head out. No sign of any helicopter. No copter sound yet either. I could call Semsey back and make more threats about staying away so that maybe they won’t see us going into the mall. But would that work? I don’t know. Police aren’t magicians. We think that when we watch them on TV, but we do have time. The helicopter isn’t in the air yet. If they were using long-range surveillance—telescopes, cameras, whatever—they take time to set up. The same with getting some kind of location lock on either Adam’s or Philip’s mobile phone.
I have time. But not a lot of it.
“How far out are we from that underground garage?” I ask.
“Maybe three, four minutes.”
An idea comes to me. It’s not a perfect idea by any stretch, but my father the beat cop, who worried about my obsessive need for perfection, used to quote Voltaire to me: “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” I’m not even sure this idea would qualify as good, but it’s all I got.
I still have the car window open. Now we both hear the sound of a copter.
“Shit,” Philip says.
“Give me your wallet, Philip.”
“You have a plan?”
“Keep heading for the underground garage. I’m going to get out there. I’ll have stolen your wallet. Tell them you only had like twenty dollars. Adam should say the same. They’ll put traces on your credit card, but I’ll use the cash.”
“Okay,” he says.
“I’m going to call Semsey back on your cell phone and start making crazy demands.”
“Then what?”
“We go into the underground garage while I’m talking to him. I’ll get out quickly, like you didn’t even stop. The only difference is, I’m going to keep your phone with me so I can keep talking to him.”
Philip nods, seeing where I’m going with this. “They’ll think you’re still in the car.”
“Right. You keep driving. The copter is above us, but they won’t be able to see me get out. If I keep talking, they may still think I’m with you. Drive as far away as you can. In exactly ten minutes, I’ll hang up. Find another underground area—is there another mall like this? Or some kind of office complex?”
“Why?”
“You drive though. Then you stall a few seconds. Pretend I made you stop there and that’s where I ran off.”
“Meanwhile you’ll be here,” Philip says.
“Exactly.”
“Then I pull out of the underground area and signal to them that you’re gone. I can’t call because you took my phone.”
“Right.”
“So they go searching for you there, not here.”
“Yes.”
Philip mulls it over. “Hell, it might work.”
“You think so?”
“No, not really.” He glances at me. “This distraction won’t last long, David.”
“I know.”
“Get on the first train or bus or whatever. You any good with the survivalist stuff?”
“Not really.”
“The woods would be a good place to hide. They’ll send dogs, but they can’t be everywhere. Don’t visit your father. I know you’ll want to, but they’ll have the place covered. Same with your ex-wife’s or sister-in-law’s. All relatives. You can’t rely on anyone close to you. They’ll be watched.”
I have no one close to me anymore, but I get his point.
“I’ll talk to your dad. I’ll tell him I believe you—that you didn’t do it.”
“Do you believe that?”
Philip lets out a deep breath as he makes a right at the exit sign for the Lamy Outlet Center. “Yeah, David, I do.”
“How bad is he, Philip?”
“Bad. But he’ll know the truth. I promise you that.”
I check behind me. Still no cop cars. Now or never. My pockets are stuffed—Adam’s phone, Adam’s wallet, Philip’s wallet, the cash they gave me.
“One more thing,” Philip says.
“What?”
“Leave the gun behind.”
“Why?”
“You plan on using it?”
“No, but—”
“Then leave it behind. If you’re armed, they’ll be much more likely to not bring you in alive.”
“I don’t want to be brought in alive,” I say. “And why would I leave the gun behind? Who’s going to buy that? They’ll know you were involved.”