Part 5 (1/2)
And since there's no room on the fourth floor, he'II be coming up here! d.a.m.n!
Charles went into the stairwell and down to the fourth floor. He opened the door a crack, saw nothing, and then pushed it open wide enough to get through.
He went to DeZego's Cadillac, unlocked the door, put the Remington on the floor, and got behind the wheel. He started the engine and drove down the vehicular ramp. He stopped at the barrier, put the window down, handed the attendant a five-dollar bill and the claim check, waited for his change, and then for the barrier to be lifted.
Then he drove out onto the street and turned left. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw the Pontiac pull away from the curb and start to follow him.
”d.a.m.n, here we are already,” Matt Payne said as he turned the Porsche into the Penn Services Parking Garage behind the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in downtown Philadelphia.
”How time flies,” Amanda said, mocking him gently.
He stopped to get a ticket from a dispensing machine and then drove inside. He drove slowly, hoping to find a s.p.a.ce on a lower floor. There were none. He searched the second level, and then the third and fourth. They finally emerged on the roof.
Matt stepped hard on the brakes. The Porsche shuddered and skidded to a stop, throwing Amanda against the dashboard.
”My G.o.d!” she exclaimed.
”Stay here,” Matt Payne ordered firmly.
”What is it?” Amanda asked.
He didn't answer. He got out of the Porsche and ran across the rooftop parking lot. Amanda saw him drop to one knee, and then for the first time saw that a girl was lying facedown, on the roadway between lines of parked cars.
She pushed open her door and got out and ran to him.
”What happened?” Amanda asked.
”I told you to stay in the f.u.c.king car!” he said furiously.
She looked at him, shocked as much by the tone of his voice as by the language, and then at the girl on the floor. For the first time she saw there was a pool of blood.
”What happened?” she asked, her voice weak.
”Will you please go get in the G.o.dd.a.m.ned car?” Matt asked.
”Oh, my G.o.d!” Amanda wailed. ”That's Penny!”
”You know her?”
”Penny Detweiler,” Amanda said. ”You must know her. She's one of the bridesmaids.”
Matt looked at the girl on the floor. It was Penelope Detweiler, Precious Penny to Matt, to her intense annoyance, because that's what her father had once called her in Matt's hearing.
Why didn't I recognize her? I've known her all of my life!
”I'll be d.a.m.ned,” he said softly.
”Matt, what happened to her?”
”She's been shot,” Matt Payne said, and looked at Amanda.
You don't expect to find people you know, especially people like Precious Penny, lying in a pool of blood after somebody's shot them in a garage. Things like that aren't supposed to happen to people like Precious Penny.
He found his voice: ”Now, for chrissake, will you go get in the G.o.dd.a.m.ned car!” he ordered furiously.
Amanda looked at him with confusion and hurt in her eyes.
”This just happened,” he explained more kindly. ”Whoever did it may still be up here.”
”Matt, let's get out of here. Let's go find a cop.”
”I am a cop, Amanda,” Matt Payne said. ”Now, for the last f.u.c.king time, will you go get in the car? Stay there until I come for you. Lock the doors.”
He stooped, bending one knee, and when he stood erect again, there was a snub-nosed revolver in his hand. Amanda ran back to the silver Porsche and locked the doors. When she looked for Matt, she couldn't see him at first, but then she did, and he was holding his gun at the ready, slowly making his way between the parked cars.
I don't believe this is happening. I don't believe Penny Detweiler is lying out there bleeding to death, and I don't believe that Matt Payne is out there with a gun in his hand, a cop looking for whoever shot Penny.
Oh, my G.o.d. What if he gets killed?
FOUR.
With difficulty, for there is not much room in the pa.s.senger compartment of a Porsche 911 Carrera, Amanda Spencer crawled over from the pa.s.senger seat to the driver's and turned the ignition key.
There was a scream of tortured starter gears, for the engine was still running. She threw the gears.h.i.+ft lever into reverse, spun the wheels, and turned around, then drove as fast as she dared down the ramps of the parking garage to street level.
She slammed on the brakes and jumped out of the car and ran to the attendant's window.
”Call the police!” she said. ”Call the police and get an ambulance.”
”Hey, lady, what's going on?”
”Get on that phone and call the police and get an ambulance,” Amanda ordered firmly. ”Tell them there's been a shooting.”
A red light began to flash on one of the control consoles in the radio room of the Philadelphia Police Department.
Foster H. Lewis, Jr., who was sitting slumped in a battered and sagging metal chair, a headset clamped to his head, threw a switch and spoke into his microphone. ”Police Emergency,” he said.
Foster H. Lewis, Jr., was twenty-three years old, weighed two hundred and twenty-seven pounds, stood six feet three inches tall, and was perhaps inevitably known as Tiny. For more than five years before he had entered the Police Academy, he had worked as a temporary employee in Police Emergency: five years of nights and weekends and during the summers answering calls from excited citizens in trouble and needing help had turned him into a skilled and experienced operator.
He had more or less quit when he entered the Police Academy and was working tonight as a favor to Lieutenant Jack Fitch, who had called him and said he had five people out with some kind of a virus and could he help out.
”This the police?” his caller asked.