Unwanted Company - Barbara Seranella (35 page)

Raleigh chuckled as he unlocked the door of the
Eldorado, threw the canvas bag full of money behind the driver's
seat, and slipped behind the wheel.

"Ah, me," he said out loud, rubbing his
hand across the seat. Nothing like the feel and smell of leather. He
reached over into the glove compartment and pulled out his FBI
identification just a few more loose ends to take care of, and then
he would be on his way.

He thought about the money
in the backseat. A man could live like a king in Mexico with that
kind of money. Hot- and cold- running señoritas. Well, forget the
running part. He laughed. He'd learned so much about himself in the
six months. The denial was over. It was time he stopped worrying
about everyone else and do a little something special for himself. A
third-world country was the ticket. Somewhere where the value of life
was cheap and all ages of female flesh plentiful.

* * *

Ellen was not surprised when she saw the face of the
man who had come to take her out of federal custody. She also knew
they weren't heading for county lockup.

"I see you got my message," she said as
they left the Federal Building.

"Where is it?" he asked. He led her over to
a new-looking Cadillac parked at the curb.

"Did you bring my money?" she countered.

"How much do you want?" he asked.

"Five thousand dollars," she said. "And
that is not negotiable."

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said, taking
her arm and helping her into the car. "Where is it?"

Raleigh's quick acceptance of her terms disquieted
Ellen. Either she had asked for too little, or the sucker had no
intention of paying. "You sure you can get the money?" she
asked.

He reached behind him and unzipped a bag stashed
behind the front seat. Her eyes widened when she saw the bundles of
hundreds revealed. He zipped it back shut and started the car.
"Where's the tape?"

"I'll have to go get it," she said.

"I'll take you," he answered, pulling away
from the curb.

"
N0," she said. "That is not the way
it is going to happen. I will go get it. You bring the money. We'll
meet at, uh, Mr. J's on Lincoln. You know it?" Raleigh had
stopped responding to her. In fact, his whole manner toward her had
changed from the moment the car got in motion. Without even asking
her what direction to go in, he got on the freeway. "It's
somewhere very safe. Your prints are all over it. Anything happens to
me, and my friend makes sure the D.A. gets it."

"
You've been very clever, haven't you?"
Raleigh said.

"
Why don't you pull off up here?" she said,
pointing at the next off-ramp. "Let me out, and I'll meet you in
an hour."

He made no move to get
over into the right lane. She started to say something else when his
fist shot out at her. She felt her lip split like a ripe plum. Hot
blood filled her mouth. He hit her again, this time above the bridge
of her nose. The world around her receded into echoes and blackness.

* * *

Steve Brown radioed Mace as soon as he saw Raleigh
Ward escort Ellen out from the federal courthouse. She wasn't
handcuffed and didn't look distressed. The two got into a
taupe-colored Cadillac Eldorado and jumped on the Hollywood freeway.
Steve took up a cautious pursuit. He read off the plate number to
Mace as they maneuvered through the crush of morning traffic. The
situation quickly got out of control as six lanes of commuter traffic
converged and merged. He knew that up ahead were several options.
Raleigh could stay on the 101, or he might break off and take the
Harbor or the Pasadena freeway. Just then a bus pulled in front of
Steve, temporarily blocking his view. By the time he was clear of it,
the Cadillac was nowhere in sight.

"
Fuck," he said
out loud, and then relayed the bad news to Mace.

* * *

Mace was waiting for Munch as she rolled out of the
driveway of the Parker Center Print Shed, where her limo had been
kept while criminalists searched for fibers and prints. The Print
Shed was located just behind Parker Center and adjacent to the
employee parking lot. She'd signed all the requisite release forms,
noting with resignation the black powder all over the bar, the
television, and the passenger control panels for all the car's
various bells and whistles.

As soon as she cleared the gate, Mace jumped in
beside her. "Raleigh has Ellen," he said. "Turn right
up here and jump on the freeway Munch floored the accelerator and
followed his directions. "Which way?" she asked.

"
Stay on the Hollywood," Mace said. "He's
in a late-model light beige Caddy Eldorado. Last seen heading north."

"Last seen?" Munch asked, running a red
light and swerving to avoid a Honda.

"
We lost him at the merge. Cassiletti took the
Pasadena, and we have another unit heading south on the Harbor."

Munch turned onto the on-ramp, ignoring the
twenty-mile-per-hour sign, making the tires scream as she took the
sharp curve at forty miles per hour. Mace clutched the hand-hold
above the door with one hand while he worked the mouthpiece of his
radio with the other. She steered onto the emergency shoulder lane of
the freeway and floored it. The limo jumped over the roadside debris.
The remains of a tire thumped the undercarriage. She heard glass
break as she rolled over an orange plastic bag full of garbage.

"
I see him," she said. She started trying
to merge into traffic. The shoulder up ahead was occupied by a pickup
truck full of plywood. As she got closer, she saw that the truck's
driveshaft was hanging loose.

"Possible suspect sighted," Mace said into
his mouthpiece. "He's on the Hollywood northbound."

"
He's getting off," Munch said. She rolled
down her window and signaled desperately with her arm. None of the
parallel traffic gave any indication of allowing her in. "Hold
on," she said, and cut the wheel hard. Horns blared. Brakes
shrieked in the fashion that usually precedes the sound of scrunching
metal. The limo jolted as it pushed aside a Volkswagen Rabbit. The
rest of the traffic magically cleared a place for her. "We're
losing him," she yelled..

Mace continued to relay their position. Munch fought
her way over to the two-lane Glendale off ramp. She was just in time
to see the rear of the Caddy making the curve at the top of the
overpass. "I don't see Ellen," she said.

She kept her foot on the accelerator and quickly
closed on the Cadillac. They pulled alongside, and she saw what
looked like blood smeared on the inside of the passenger window.

"Wait for backup," Mace said. just stay
with him."

Raleigh looked over then, and their eyes met. His
expression didn't change as he swerved toward the limo, knocking his
right fender into the driver's side of the limo. Both cars , jerked.
Munch looked over in time to see Ellen's head flop backward. Her face
was bloody. Munch couldn't tell if she was just unconscious or—Bam!
He swerved into her again. Munch fought for control. The limo was
knocked over into the guardrail of the overpass. She pumped the
brakes and fought all survival instincts telling her to steer away
from the edge of the road. Instead she turned into the skid, an
action that made her feel as if she were heading for the edge and a
thirty-foot drop. Which indeed she was. But her action was also the
only way she could hope to regain control. She was only vaguely aware
that she was screaming. Mace also yelled. Then they hit a large
concrete stanchion, and the big car caromed back into the lane.

Mace started to speak into his radio, then threw it
down.

"
What?" she asked, her throat feeling raw.

"
It broke," he said, holding up the severed
cord. '

Up ahead, Raleigh took the first available off-ramp,
heading for the sleepy town of Eagle Rock. Munch again took up
pursuit. "The phone's in the back," she said. "In the
armrest."

Mace climbed over the driver's seat to get to it.

She took the same off-ramp Raleigh had disappeared
down, looking desperately for some glimpse of him. At the
intersection at the bottom of the ramp, she spotted a hubcap still
wobbling on the side of the road to their right. She followed in the
direction he must have gone.

"Hw do I get this thing to work?" Mace
asked from the backseat.

She spotted the Caddy making a left up ahead. She had
a clean shot at the driver's side.

"Hold on," she yelled again to Mace.

She aimed for the Caddy's front wheel well, thinking
that she would disable the other vehicle by wiping out the steering
linkage. Later, if it came to that, she would say that she must have
miscalculated the speed of the other car, she would swear to it if
she had to. The truth was that the last few seconds before contact
seemed to happen in slow motion. just before the two cars collided
she saw two hands to the right of Raleigh's head. One was his,
something glinted long and silvery in the second. Raleigh's Cadillac
swerved left. The front fender of the limo plowed right through the
wide driver's door of the Eldorado.

Both cars threw up showers of tempered window glass.
Steel screamed in protest as it was ripped from its bolted moorings.
She didn't hear the tires popping. Her chest hit the steering wheel,
and then the side of her head smashed against the window post. She
felt the thud of Mace's body being knocked around in the back. Then
all was still. A minute, maybe more, passed before she was able to
make sense of the world.

"You okay?" she asked Mace in the backseat.

"Yeah, yeah," he said. He let himself out
the back door as she shakily emerged from her side. They stumbled
over to the wreckage and looked in through the window of the
Eldorado. Ellen groaned. She was holding a bloody hand to her mouth.
Her eyes were glazed over. Raleigh seemed worse off A gash had opened
on his throat. The blood leaking out was a dark bright red.

"
Call for help," Mace said as he went
around to Ellen's side of the car.

Munch went back to the limo and used the mobile phone
to call the police. Within minutes, fire trucks and police cars
reached the scene of the accident. Cassiletti arrived just as the
first ambulance got there. Ellen managed to find a damaged smile for
the fireman who lifted her from the wrecked car.

"Would you just be a dear," Ellen asked
him, "and grab my bag from the backseat?"

The jaws of Life had to be used to remove Raleigh
from the wreckage. The rescue workers did what they could to stop the
flow of blood streaming from Raleigh's neck wound. They loaded him
onto a gurney and rushed to the waiting ambulance.

As they passed by her, Munch made a quick assessment.
He was still alive. His skin looked extremely pale, but she could see
his chest rise and fall. He made slight snoring noises as he exhaled.

One of his pant legs was ripped, and the sheath for
his odd knife that Ellen had described was plainly visible. Munch
noticed it was empty. She pictured the wound on Raleigh's neck—how
it had looked before the paramedics covered it. It looked just like
the wound she had seen on the Mexican woman's body in the Tijuana
morgue. Munch looked for her friend and saw her sitting on the curb.
Beside her was a storm drain. Ellen was wiping her hands on the grass
beside her. Fucking Ellen. You have to love her:

"Take him to County," Mace told the
ambulance driver. Munch looked at Mace. So did Cassiletti. Then they
looked at each other, and knew they were all of the same mind. How
could it ever be proved that any of them remembered Glendale
Memorial, less than five minutes away, whereas USC County was easily
three times the distance and twice the traffic? The bleeding man
would never make it.

Mace walked over to where Ellen was being ministered
to at the side of the road. "How are you?" he asked.

"I believe I'll be just fine," she said.

"I'll have an officer take you to the hospital
just to make sure."

Ellen winked at Munch. Munch could only wonder what
she had up her sleeve.
 

CHAPTER 30

After the limo was towed away, Cassiletti gave Munch
and Mace a ride over to the Bella Donna.

"You want to come in?" Mace asked
Cassiletti.

Caroline and Asia came out to the platform. "Mommy!"

Asia yelled. Munch waved and opened the car door
before the car came to a complete stop.

"
No, you go on," Cassiletti said. "I'll
start writing up our report. "

Munch jumped from the car and ran over to the steps
of the train car. She gathered Asia in her arms and hugged her until
the little girl squirmed and begged to be released. Caroline watched
with tears running freely. Even Mace was seen scratching the corner
of his eye.

"C'mon," he said, shooing them all inside.
"I need a drink."

They entered the parlor.

"
Mom," Asia said, "you should see this
place." She grabbed Munch's hand and showed her the brass lamps
with the Tiffany shades bolted to the small wooden tables. She
demonstrated how the green-satin shades pulled down over the
leaded-glass windows.