|
 Murder's
Madness
Standing, he thrust his hands
into her armpits and lifted her to her feet. He opened the
back door and bent down to pull her head and torso over his
right shoulder, her legs over his left. Then he stood erect,
one hand holding her arms, the other her legs.
Cassidy gasped, her chest so
tight she could barely breathe. Has to kill me. There's
no way he could let me go now.
He went out the door and down
the porch steps, then raced toward a big black sedan at the
curb. Cassidy raised her head and stared west on Briar. She
saw two police cars a block and a half away.
He threw her in the backseat
of his sedan and climbed behind the wheel. From the car's
rumbly sound, she could tell he'd left the motor running. He
stomped on the accelerator and sped toward the cul-de-sac
that cut Briar off from Austin Boulevard.
Cassidy heard a siren start
up behind him. Thank God! The police saw him! They know
it's a kidnapping. She squirmed around until she was
sitting on the torn vinyl of the car's bench seat. Through
the back window she saw one squad in pursuit. Through the
front window she saw a line of tall bushes marching across
the width of the cul-de-sac. She expected him to turn into
the alley behind her house, but instead he shot straight
ahead. Her eyes widened and her mouth went dry.
The car lurched as it went
over the curb, throwing Cassidy down on the seat. A crash,
bushes scraping the windows on both sides of the sedan. He
gunned the motor and the car plowed forward over the bush
he'd knocked down. As the car bumped over the second curb,
Cassidy went rolling to the floor.
She had just managed to drag
herself back up on the seat when the sedan burst into the
dense traffic on Austin Boulevard. Horns blared and tires
squealed as vehicles came to a screeching halt, missing his
car by inches. He charged into the left-turn lane at Chicago
Avenue. The light was red but that didn't even slow him down
as he sped into the intersection.
Watching two lanes of
westbound traffic come rushing at them, Cassidy's heart
seized with panic. Amidst a firestorm of horns, the
westbound traffic skidded to a stop. It looked like the car
would emerge unscathed. Then she heard a crunch of metal.
Her head whipped around and she saw a van skidding away from
the sedan's right rear fender. The sedan fishtailed to the
left, then rocked violently. Within seconds the driver had
it under control again and was speeding eastward on Chicago
Avenue. She looked at the backseat doors, noting that the
handles had been removed. |
