becoming painful to breathe with her chest pushed up hard against the
ladder rungs. For one terrifying moment she thought he had lured her
in here to rape her. Suddenly a blast of light hit her from above and
he moved away from her. She looked up, blinking rapidly. The view of
the blue sky was so wonderful after the terror of the darkness that she
felt like screaming in relief.
“Go up and onto the roof, but keep low. As low as you can,” Lee
whispered urgently into her ear.
She went up and through, dropping to her belly and looking around. The
roof of the old building was flat, with a gravel and tar base. Bulky
old heating units and newer air-conditioning machinery dotted the roof
in various places. They made for good hiding places and Faith slid
over and squatted next to the nearest one.
Lee was still on the ladder. He listened intently and then checked his
watch. The guy would be at his door right about now. He would buzz,
wait for Lee to answer. They had thirty seconds at most before the guy
realized no one was coming to the door. It would be nice to have a
little more time than that, and also a way to draw in the other forces
Lee knew were out there. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and
hit a speed-dial number.
When the person answered, he said, “Mrs. Carter, it’s Lee Adams.
Listen to me, I want you to let Max out in the hallway. Right, I know
I just dropped him off. I know he’ll head up to my apartment. That’s
what I want. I, uh, I forgot to give him a shot he needs. Please
hurry, I really need to get out of here.”
He pocketed the phone and pushed the bags up and out, then he hoisted
himself through the opening and closed the hatch behind him. He
scanned the roof and spotted Faith. Grabbing the bags, he slid over to
her.
“Okay, we got a little time.”
Down below they heard a dog start to bark loudly and Lee smiled.
“Follow me.” Squatting low, they made their way to the edge of the
roof. The building attached to Lee’s was a little shorter so that the
roof was about five feet lower. Lee motioned for Faith to take his
hands. She did so and he lowered her over the edge, holding tightly
until her feet touched the roof. As soon as Lee joined her, they both
heard shouts coming from Lee’s building.
“Okay, they’ve made their all-out assault. They’ll go through the door
and that’ll trip the alarm. I don’t have a call-back option with the
alarm company, so there’s no delay in sending the cops. A few minutes
and it’ll be a big mess.”
“What do we do in the meantime?” Faith asked.
“Three more buildings and then down the fire escape. Move!”
Five minutes later they were running through a back alley and then out
onto another quiet suburban street flanked by a number of low-rise
apartment buildings. The street was lined on both sides with parked
cars. In the background Faith could hear the thump of a tennis ball
being hit. She could make out a tennis court surrounded by several
tall pine trees in a small park across from the apartment buildings.
She watched as Lee eyed a line of cars parked at the curb. Then he
jogged across to the park area and bent down. When he straightened up,
he was holding a tennis ball–one of many that had landed there from
years of errant shots on the court. He walked back over to Faith. She
could see that he was working a hole in the tennis ball with his
pocketknife.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“Go up on the sidewalk and walk as calmly as you can. And keep your
eyes open.”
“Lee-”
“Just do it, Faith!”
She spun around and went up on the sidewalk, paralleling his movements
as he walked on the other side of the parked cars, his eyes scanning
each of the vehicles. He finally stopped at a new-looking luxury