Bad Habit (23 page)

Clem gazed at Teri, shaking her
head. “Aren’t you angry that they killed your
boyfriend?”

As Teri stood staring at Clem, a
shaft of pain replaced the fear that had moved her to such rash
action. “Yes, I am.” Teri glanced back at the two men at the rear
of the car. “Clem, I left a package under the pavilion. It’s on the
seat by the ticket booth. Please take it to Father Conlyn. Tell him
it’s for the scholarship fund. Get going!” She gave Clem a gentle
shove and slid onto the seat. She turned to the men and raised the
blue bag before placing it on the seat beside her.

Clem gripped the brown paper
grocery bag wrapped in tape with both hands and watched Teri as the
train lurched into motion.

As the train gathered momentum,
Clem saw two men running across the grass toward the
station.

#

Angel spotted Sister Clem standing under the
Pavilion. He raced toward her with Arturo on his heels.

“
Sister Clem! Where’s
Teri?”

Clem had both arms wrapped around a
brown paper package. She pointed, wordlessly, to the tail end of
the train as it snaked away.

Angel stared open-mouthed at the
plume of steam rising from the smokestack to punctuate the blue sky
above the park.

“
There are two men in the car with
her. I’m afraid they’ll kill her.”

Angel experienced a crushing
sensation in his chest. “I hope you’re wrong.”

He ran to a golf cart driven by two
park employees and flashed his badge. The uniformed men ceded the
motorized vehicle and stepped back. Angel motioned Arturo inside
and took off, skidding gravel. He stared through the bug-spattered
plastic windshield at the end of the caboose engaging in a
desperate slow-motion pursuit of the woman he loved.

Angel kept his foot floored on the
pedal, grinding down on it in a vain attempt to give it
speed.

Arturo sat patiently. “Relax, son.
You can’t make this cart go any faster and you’re giving me motion
sickness.”

“
Why, Pop? Why would she go after
these guys by herself? She knows how dangerous they
are.”

“
Women, son.” Arturo shook his
head. “We’re not allowed to know what they think.”

Angel gritted his teeth and slammed
his open palm against the steering wheel. He checked his weapon and
made sure he had a spare clip filled with bullets. “Pop, when we
get to the next stop, I’m going to be looking for Teri. If she’s
there and not in danger, I’ll make her return with us, I’ll
sacrifice the arrest. If he’s holding her, I’ll have to figure it
out as we go. Whatever happens, Pop, I don’t want you to get in the
way. If we can get her, great, but if not, I want you to take cover
and stay safe.” He handed his father the back-up gun from his ankle
holster.

Stoically, Arturo tucked the weapon
in his jacket pocket. “Don’t worry about me, son.” Arturo pointed
his finger at Angel. “But, if anything happens to you, your mama
would make me wish I was dead...so take good care of Isabel
Garcia’s oldest son.”

“
Sure, Pop.”

#

The train slowed as it approached
the station above the main entrance to the San Antonio Zoo. Teri
let all the other passengers disembark before she stepped out of
the train car. The two men stood a few feet away, squinting at her
in the bright sunlight. Teri steeled herself for whatever was to
come.

She walked toward them. “I’m Teri Slaughter,” she
said.

“
I know who you are,” the taller
man said. He was the one she’d seen outside the nun’s apartment.
The other man was shorter, not more than five foot six or seven,
and much stockier. She’d seen him before, when she’d been hiding in
Colin’s closet. This was Frank Altman, Colin’s murderer. He
glowered at Teri from under the brim of a brown felt hat.
Definitely not a San Antonio hat.

“
Here you go,” Teri said. She
hurled the bag as far beyond the men’s reach as
possible.

They turned, watching the bag arc
in the air and tumble down the side of the ridge. The ridge was
criss-crossed with well-worn walking paths and small quaint
shops.

Teri made a break for the trail. She ran as fast as
she could on the rough, hard packed dirt trail. She sprinted around
a young couple struggling with a collapsible stroller. She ran and
kept running, her breath burning in her lungs. She didn’t stop to
look back lest she trip over a root or rough place in the
trail.

Keep running!

#

Angel slowed the cart when he
caught up to the train at the top of the ridge above Brackenridge
Park. He saw Teri. She had her blue nylon bag and was talking to
two men at the next train station.

“
Those men are killers,” Angel said
under his breath. “They don’t know you, Pop. I want you to get out
like any other tourist and if I can distract them, you grab Teri
and take cover.”

“
Do my best, son.” Arturo gazed
intently at the two men.

Angel stopped the cart and sprang
out. Teri had disappeared, but he recognized the man Teri’s drawing
identified as Hugo Ludwig and the other, shorter man, Frank Altman.
He watched them struggling to reach something that appeared to be
just out of reach.

“
Teri ran down that way,” Arturo
said, pointing to the trail.

Angel called Tolliver and waited
for him to answer.

“
Where the hell are you, Garcia?”
Tolliver’s voice boomed over the line.

“
I’m at the top of the ridge at
Brackenridge Park and the kidnappers are here. Can you spare some
back up?”

“
Right behind you, Detective.” He
hung up.

Angel glanced at his father and
nodded toward the foot path leading down the side of the
ridge.

Arturo gave his son a meaningful glare and strode
quickly down the path.

Ludwig reached for something. It
was Teri’s blue bag. He hung onto an oak sapling growing out over
the cliff and fished the bag back to the top of the ridge. When he
got it close enough, he swung back onto firmer ground. His
hawk-like face was red from the exertion.

He unzipped the bag and gritted his
teeth together, screaming at Altman in rage as he spilled Teri’s
clothing out onto the pavement. There was the lacy nightgown lying
in the dirt.

Angel couldn’t help but smile when
he realized he wasn’t the only man to be infuriated by Teri
Slaughter today.

The sound of a siren split the air.

“
That’s Garcia, the cop,” Ludwig
shouted. Altman pulled a nine millimeter from his
jacket.

“
Get down!” Angel yelled as the
people milling about screamed and ran in all directions. A bullet
whizzed by his head as he jumped behind a concrete pillar. He
waited a second before he stepped out. He fired his weapon and
Altman fell to the ground. Ludwig ran down the path behind
Arturo.

A police cruiser skidded to a halt
and Tolliver emerged with two of his men.

“
That’s your man, Frank Altman,
Sergeant. Ludwig got away.” Angel ran full tilt, in pursuit of
Altman, his father and Teri.

“
Wait a damned minute here, Garcia,”
Tolliver called after him.

The rest was lost as Angel raced
down the hill, hoping Teri was somewhere ahead, hoping Hugo Ludwig
didn’t catch up to her or Arturo before he did.

#

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

Somewhere behind her, two shots
rang out.

Teri ran with her mouth open,
gasping for breath. The sharp pain in her side made her regret
giving up her daily jog through Central Park.

Really out of shape...

She rounded a bend in the trail and
encountered a batch of small shops and a number of tourists ambling
around. One very large woman held several shopping bags. Her head
was turned to her friend and she walked directly into Teri’s
path.

“
Look out!” her companion screamed
as Teri impacted with the largest bag and it went flying out of the
woman’s hand to land in the middle of the path. She heard the
distinct sound of shattering glass.

“
Oh, no!” the woman
moaned.

Teri was too out of breath to
apologize and too frightened to stop. She glanced back and saw the
two women bent over the litter in the path. The sound of footsteps
running hard behind her gave her renewed energy. She took off with
greater speed but knew she couldn’t last at this pace.

A pond with a large flock of
flamingos on the other side lay to her right. A chain link fence
separated the flamingos from the path. Further ahead the pink birds
were safe beyond a deep moat and a concrete and rock
half-wall.

Teri hoisted herself up on the
fence, gripping the chain link and gaining a toehold as she
climbed. She gained the top of the fence and threw her leg over the
rail.

She heard the slap of hard leather
on the trail behind her. More than one person was in
pursuit.

Teri dropped down inside the fence.
The area was marshy and she sank into the mud. Once white, her
sneakers were quickly soaked and muddied. She spied a man-made
opening in the wall at the far side of the flamingo exhibit and ran
toward it. Opting to sidestep the birds, she ran close to the wall
and crouched as she ducked into the opening.

Clutching her side when the
stabbing pain threatened to bring her to her knees, she ran through
the employees section of the bird habitat. She stumbled, fearing to
look over her shoulder. The smell of birds in close quarters filled
her lungs, gagged her. She ran out into the public area where a few
clumps of people strolled the winding paths or sat on concrete
benches. She side-stepped them, zigzagging until she reached the
far side of the aviary.

Heart pounding in her ears, she made herself as
small as possible and tucked into a niche in the concrete wall. A
large bougainvillea spilled out of the wall above her and hid her
from the casual passer-by. She tried to slow her breathing by
inhaling through her nose for a long count and exhaling even more
slowly. The ripping pain in her side was abating, but her legs
still quivered with exhaustion.

Her cell phone rang. She grabbed it
and flipped it open.

“
Teri? It’s me.” Bernie sounded
excited.

“
I...I can’t talk now,” Teri
whispered. She peered around the bougainvillea
cautiously.

“
Okay, just listen. The new janitor
isn’t a janitor at all. Our old janitor is coming back next
week.”

Teri felt like throwing the phone. “I’ll call you
later.”

“
But just wait until I tell you. The
new janitor is really a policeman and your Angel sent him to watch
over me. A man tried to kidnap me and Klaus arrested him. It was so
amazing.”

“
Okay, great,” Teri whispered.
“Goodbye.” She closed the phone and turned it to vibrate before
tucking it back in her pocket.

Where was Angel? What if one of the shots she’d
heard hit him? What if he was wounded or... No! She couldn’t bear
to think of the unthinkable. She peeked out from behind the
flowering shrubs, but didn’t see the man who kidnapped Clem. She
didn’t see the man who killed Colin either.

A high-pitched scream pierced the
air. It reverberated off the high glass ceiling. The hairs on her
arms stood on end. She gripped the wall with her palms, listening
intently. Another scream, closer this time. Teri flattened herself
against the rough concrete. She peered around the edge of her
hiding place as the peacock screamed again.

Teri exhaled, leaning her head
against the cool wall as she willed her heart rate to
slow.

#

Angel heard footsteps falling hard
on the sun-baked path ahead of him. He kept up his pace, sensing
that he was gaining ground. Teri’s sneakers would make little
sound. The footfalls ahead had to be Ludwig.

He rounded a bend in the path and
found two large women squatting in the middle of strewn packages.
They turned to gape at him and screamed at the sight of a six-foot
Hispanic running at them with a gun. He leapt over them, recalling
everything his track and field coach had taught him about
hurdles.
Those are some wide
hurdles.

He rounded the next bend, skidding
on loose pebbles as he managed to avoid smacking into his father.
Arturo stood at the side of the path cautioning him to be quiet, a
finger to his lips and the handgun in his other hand.

He tucked in close behind Arturo,
giving him a quizzical look.

“
She climbed over the chain link
fence into the bird area.” Arturo gestured with the gun. “The
kidnapper is trying to climb in after her but his feet are too big
and his leather shoes slip on the fencing.”

Angel nodded. “Where is she?”

“
In the aviary, and she’s running
like hell.”

Angel edged forward until he saw
Ludwig struggling to climb the fence. He stepped out, holding his
gun on Ludwig.

“
Hugo Ludwig, you’re under arrest
for kidnapping and murder,” he shouted.

Ludwig froze for a moment, glancing
over his shoulder at Angel. “You’re out of your jurisdiction here,
Garcia.”