Play Nice (11 page)

She shoved through the line of patrons at the front entrance, jumping over the turnstile before the attendant, a pimply college student, could do more than yell, “Hey!”

Once inside, a kaleidoscope of glass stared back at her, instantly distorting her sense of reality. She saw herself several times over mingled with snippets of images of other people in the maze. Though which direction they were coming from she couldn’t tell. Voices bounced off the glass, children screeching with laughter, men and women calling out to their companions swallowed up by phantom images. She tried to walk through an opening to her right, only to run up against a solid wall.

She bit her lip, took a deep breath, willed her body to calm down now. The fight-or-flight hormones had served her well running down the pier, but now she needed a level head and a steady hand to find her way out before Dade found her. She reached in front of her, feeling her way along the first wall, turning left around a corner. Two more false starts and she found herself turning left again, hoping she wasn’t going in circles.

She wasn’t sure how long she felt her way through the cool, sleek walls, but soon a new voice broke through the odd echoes surrounding her.

“Anya. I know you’re here,” came the calm, confident tone.

Anna froze, eyes instantly scanning the dozens of distorted images around her for Dade’s. Nothing. Just a pair of blond kids to her right, an Asian couple to her left. Or at least their images reflected from directions unknown.

Panic filled her as she felt her way left, then right, not sure if she was walking deeper into the maze, trapping herself, or closer to the entrance and freedom.

“Anya. I can hear you breathing.”

A chill ran up her spine.

He’s trying to rattle you. Scare you into answering, making a mistake.

She took a slow, steadying breath, willing her mind to ignore Dade’s taunts. If he wanted to find her, he’d have to do it on his own. She was not giving anything away. Instead, she closed her eyes, reached her hands out in front of her, and slowly felt her way forward.

She’d done the maze before, so logically she knew all she had to do was let her body feel its way out, let her fingers tell her where the walls were, let her feet follow the same path she had before. If she could tune out the panic and fear coursing through her limbs, she knew her body would remember the direction to go. She very slowly and deliberately breathed in then out, in then out. Clearing her mind of thoughts long enough to let her body take over.

It felt like an eternity later before she finally rounded a corner and saw the sweetest sight she’d ever laid eyes on—the green, glowing exit sign.

She quickly pushed through the door, blinking against the sudden sunshine. She didn’t waste time, knowing he could be right behind her. She bolted down the wooden stairs, two at a time, and raced toward the front of the pier.

Her feet pounded on the wooden boards, soles slapping on the ground, her ears perked, waiting to hear the sound of Dade chasing her.

The end of the pier was in sight. A woman in a flowy dress was playing a guitar, a guy with a sitar beside her, a music case open, dollar bills inside. Anna ran past them, hitting the pedestrian bridge, fairly flying over the traffic on The Embarcadero below. Once on the other side, her footsteps echoed in the parking garage, giving away her location to anyone nearby. But it couldn’t be helped—speed was more important than stealth now.

She took the stairs to the third floor, not waiting for the elevator. Dade’s SUV was parked at the end of the row at the back, just as she’d left it. Anna used the momentum propelling her forward, lifted her right foot and shot a powerful sidekick toward the driver’s side widow.

The glass shattered instantly under the force of her thick-soled boot. Lenny barked wildly in the backseat, bouncing up and down on the leather, though whether it was because of the noise or because he was happy to see her, she wasn’t sure.

Anna reached through the shattered window, unlocking the door manually. Ignoring the glass shards, she slid into the driver’s seat and looked under the steering column. The outline of a square panel sat just beneath the wheel. She stuck her fingernails into the crack at the side, pulling, only to break the nail painfully close to the skin.

Instinctively she slipped the injured tip of her finger in her mouth, sucking as she quickly looked around the cab for anything slim and rigid she could use to pry the panel open. She grabbed her duffel bag from the back, rummaging until her fingers closed around the credit card she’d swiped from her place. She inserted the edge into the crack between the panel and the steering column. On the second try, it finally popped off.

She grabbed at the wires exposed beneath the steering wheel, locating the two red ones she was looking for. She stripped down the ends of both with her teeth, then twisted the exposed metal together, connecting the ignition switch’s primary power supply to the car’s electrical circuits.

Feeling time slip away form her, she shot a glance out the window. No sign of Dade.

Yet.

Anna sifted through the remaining wires, locating a brown ignition wire, stripping it with her teeth as she had the others until she had a half inch of bare metal exposed. Taking care not to let her red wires touch anything metal along the column, she gently touched the exposed brown wire to the twisted section of the red. A cough sounded from the engine. She tried again, this time letting the brown wire sit for just a second more. A longer cough.

She hit the wires a third time, letting out a sigh of relief as the engine caught. Her right foot hit the gas pedal, revving the machine to life.

She quickly put the car in reverse, letting the exposed wires dangle at her knees as she backed out of the parking space, swerving right toward the garage’s exit.

Not a moment too soon.

As she pulled left into traffic on The Embarcadero, cutting off a station wagon with Oregon plates, she spied Dade on the pedestrian bridge above. The station wagon’s driver hit his horn in response to her line jumping, and Dade’s gaze immediately shot her way.

The last thing she saw in her rearview mirror as she drove away was the satisfying look of surprise on Dade’s face as he watched his own car race down the street away from him.

*   *   *

Shelli lived on a quiet street in a section of the City called the lower Haight, located along the famous Haight Street, just this side of Divisidero. East of the bohemian Haight-Ashbury, the neighborhood was home to trendy nightclubs, restaurants, coffee shops, and galleries, making it a popular neighborhood for studio apartments and single people craving a true urban experience.

Or looking to pose as one.

Shelli’s building had once been a motel, since converted into cheap housing. Four units on the ground floor faced a courtyard of square concrete tiles flanked by flowering agapanthus, three more stories above making a total of twelve units.

Anna circled the block, scanning the windows of all twelve for any sign of Dade, her attackers, or anyone else who might add their name to the list of people who wanted her out of the picture. Nothing jumped out at her as out of place, ditto the surrounding buildings. She circled around the back and parked a block and a half down on a side street. Afraid to leave Lenny in the car with a busted window, she clamped a leash on his collar, taking him with her as she walked back toward Shelli’s place.

As much as she wanted to believe Dade was wrong, Anna knew the second he had mentioned Shelli’s employment timing that he was right. She was the one person who might have been close enough to Anna to learn the truth about her identity. She’d been painstakingly careful about building Anna Smith. But no one was infallible. Wherever she’d made the mistake, whatever had tipped them off to her real identity, it would have taken someone close to her to be sure that Anna was a fake. Why they cared and who “they” were, she had no idea. It amazed her that after all these years, anyone would care. Anya had known lots of secrets about lots of people then. But that had been a lifetime ago, or so it seemed to her. In some twisted way, it almost made her feel important. Her disappearance had not gone unnoticed, had not been business as usual at the KOS. At least to someone.

She wondered at the timing. Had someone been looking for her all this time, or was there something special about now? What she’d told Dade about her current life was true—she’d done nothing important enough to upset anyone. So why now? Why decide she was such a threat today? She didn’t know.

But she was damned well going to find out.

She followed the uneven sidewalk to Shelli’s apartment complex and paused at 2A, the ground floor unit on the far right. It was a simple wooden door with a brass number affixed beneath a peephole. A window sat to the left, white, plastic blinds shut tightly. None of the interior was visible from the outside, no sound from beyond the door giving a clue to its occupant.

Anna rang the bell, ready for just about anyone to open the door. Shelli, a masked gunman, a gang of thugs. At this point not much would surprise her.

She found herself clenching and unclenching her fists as she counted off the seconds, alternating between feeling brave and ready to fight and being terrified at the unknown and the fact that she stood unarmed against it.

Ten Mississippi, eleven Mississippi, twelve …

She rang again, listening to the chimes echo inside. But again no movement greeted her, no sound at all indicating Shelli was there.

Anna turned around, her eyes scanning the small courtyard. A cool breeze from the Bay ruffled tall, decorative grasses planted between the buildings. A car drove by on the street beyond, sounds of a trolley two blocks over echoing in the distance. A dog barked from somewhere nearby.

Anna stiffened.

A small, scared, yelping bark. She couldn’t be sure, but it sounded a hell of a lot like the dog Shelli had left the shelter with that morning.

Anna cocked her head to the side, putting an ear to Shelli’s door. But as the dog continued to bark, she realized the sounds were not coming from Shelli’s apartment, but from 1A—the unit across the courtyard.

Anna quickly crossed the paved distance and knocked on the opposite door.

A minute later it opened to reveal an Asian woman in her sixties, gray mingling with jet black in hair that hung loosely to her waist.

“Yes?” she asked, blinking up at Anna, her eyes squinting ever so slightly as if trying to call up a name to go with the face before her.

“I’m sorry to bother you,” Anna started, “but I’m a friend of Shelli’s. I work with her at the shelter. Anna.” She stuck her hand out, doing her best to present a friendly, causal demeanor.

Despite the panic and fear that had been tumbling inside her all morning, she must have pulled it off as the woman’s features softened, her hand reaching out to shake Anna’s.

“Karen. Nice to meet you.”

“You, too. I was wondering if you’d seen Shelli today? She doesn’t seem to be answering her bell.”

The woman nodded. “Yes. She was here just a little while ago. She asked if I could watch a dog for her.”

“I thought I heard Fido in there.” Anna forced a smile. “Why did she need a pet sitter? Was she going somewhere?”

The woman nodded. “She said she’d be out of town for a few days. Needed to clear her head or something like that. I take it this was a sudden decision, since she was only home a few minutes before she left with a backpack over her shoulder.”

Anna forced the smile to stay on her face, forced herself not to display any of the sickening betrayal seeping into her belly. Shelli had fled.

Maybe she was just scared? Maybe she’s staying with a friend. Going home to family.

Or maybe she was fleeing before the police realized she was involved in the shooting. Before Anna had a chance to put two and two together.

And come after her.

“I don’t suppose Shelli told you where she was going?” Anna asked the woman.

She shook her head, hair falling softly over her shoulders. “Sorry, she didn’t say. But she said she couldn’t take a dog on the plane with her.”

“The airport,” Anna said, more to herself than the neighbor.

“That’s what I’d guess,” she answered.

“Thank you,” Anna said. “Listen, if she comes back, can you tell her that I’m looking for her? Anna?”

She nodded. “Sure. Does she have your number?”

Anna nodded. Unfortunately, in more ways than one, it seemed.

She heard the woman’s door close behind her, but Anna was already jogging back to her stolen SUV, Lenny bounding happily alongside her.

If Shelli had been there recently, it was possible Anna could catch up to her at the airport before she boarded a flight.

The San Francisco airport was actually located south of the City, down Highway 101 toward Silicon Valley. Anna wasted no time, pointing the car in the direction of the freeway.

Lenny started pacing the backseat, and Anna had a bad feeling that the bag of dog chow he’d been flirting with all morning was finally catching up to him. Unfortunately, a bathroom stop was something she couldn’t take right now. She crossed her fingers that the dog could hold it as she merged onto the freeway.