Holman said, “You’d better tell me what you want me to do so I don’t fall.”

“We’re going around the front of the car.”

“We going to the front door?”

“Straight down the drive to the carport.”

Holman had already guessed they would use the carport. The front door was open, but the kitchen probably opened under the arch. The door would be hidden. Holman wasn’t going to let them bring him into the house. He figured he would die in the house. If he was going to die he wanted to die out in the open where someone might see, but Holman didn’t plan on dying that day. He glanced at the powerboat again and then at his Highlander.

Holman stepped away from the car. The driver closed the door, then nudged him toward the front. Holman slowly shuffled forward. Tom waited for them at the drive, then walked a few paces ahead, and would reach the door first.

The driver said, “Jesus, you can walk faster than that.”

“You’re bumping my feet. Why don’t you back off and give me some room, for Christ’s sake. You’re going to trip me.”

“Fuck that.”

The driver moved up even closer behind him, which was what Holman wanted. He wanted the driver as close behind as possible in the narrow space between the house and the blue sedan.

Tom stepped under the arch between the house and the car and went to the door. He waited for Holman and the driver, then opened the screen. When the screen door was open, Tom was on one side and Holman and the driver were on the other, sandwiched between the house and the blue sedan.

Holman didn’t wait for the door to open. He swung his right foot high against the house and shoved the driver backwards against the sedan as hard and fast as he could. He jerked his left foot up to join with his right, and crushed hard with both legs, pressing so hard the sedan rocked. He slammed his head backwards and the solid bone-on-bone impact made his eyes sparkle. He hammered backwards again, driving with his thick neck and shoulders and felt the driver go limp as Tom realized what was happening.

“Motherfuck-hey!”

Tom scrambled to get the door closed, but Holman was already running. He didn’t look back. He didn’t run across the street or away from the yellow house. He cut hard across the front yard, then turned again, racing for the backyard. He wanted to get out of sight as quickly as possible. He plowed headfirst through bushes and shrubs and fell across a fence. He heard someone shouting inside the house, but he didn’t stop. When he reached the rear of the house he rolled over another fence into the neighbor’s backyard and kept going. Limbs and branches and sharp things tore at him, but he couldn’t feel their claws. He sprinted across the neighbors’ yard head-on into a wall of shrubs and kicked his way over another fence like an animal. He landed on a sprinkler head. He struggled to his feet and ran, falling over a tricycle as he cut across their yard. Inside, a small dog snarled and snapped at him through a window. He heard shouts and voices two houses away and knew they would be coming, but he moved up along the side of the house toward the street because that’s where he had seen the boat. The boat was in the drive.

Holman crept to the corner of the house. Vukovich and Tom were in the street by their car, Vukovich holding a radio.

Holman crept forward to the boat with its big Mercury outboard motor. He twisted around to push the plastic tie onto the edge of the propeller blade and sawed as hard as he could, hoping that con was wrong about these things being stronger than steel.

He pushed with all of his weight and sawed the tie back and forth. He pushed so hard the tie cut into his skin, but the pain only drove him to push harder and then the tie popped and his hands were free.

Fuentes and Tom were now moving in the opposite direction, but Vukovich was walking down the middle of the street in his direction.

Holman crabbed backwards away from the boat, then slipped across the backyard in the direction from which he had come. They were fanning away from the house and wouldn’t expect him to double back, but this was an old trick he learned as a teenager when he first started breaking into apartments. He jumped back over the fence into the next yard and saw a stack of patio bricks. He took one, and he would need it for what he had planned. He continued across the yard, not crashing across as he had before, but moving quietly and listening. He eased over the fence and was again behind the yellow house. The backyard was empty and quiet. He slipped along the side of the house toward the street, stopping, starting, listening. He couldn’t take too much time because Vukovich and the others would return when they couldn’t find him.

Holman slipped along the side of the yellow house, staying beneath the windows. He could see the Highlander sitting in the street. They would probably see him when he made his move, but if he got lucky they would be too far away to stop him. He edged closer, and that’s when he heard a woman’s voice coming from inside the house.

The voice was familiar. He slowly raised up enough to see into the house.

Maria Juarez was inside with Random.

Holman should never have looked. He knew not to look from years of breaking into houses and apartments and stealing cars, but he made the mistake. Random caught the movement. Random’s eyes widened, and he turned for the door. Holman didn’t wait. He lurched to his feet and crashed through the shrubs. He only had seconds, and now those seconds might not be enough.

He ran for the Highlander as hard as he could and heard the front door open behind him. Vukovich was already on his way back and broke into a run. Holman shattered the Highlander’s passenger-side window with the patio brick, then reached in and unlocked the door, Random screaming behind him.

“He’s here! Vuke! Tommy!”

Holman threw himself inside. Chee had given him two keys, and Holman had left the spare in the console. He jacked it open, fished out the key, then pushed himself into the driver’s seat.

Holman ripped away from the curb and didn’t look back until he was gone.

41

HOLMAN WANTED to dump the Highlander as quickly as possible. He turned at the next intersection, punched out of the turn, and powered up the street. He resisted the urge to turn again at the next cross-street because turning and zigging were sure ways to lose a pursuit. Amateur car thieves and drunks fleeing arrest always thought they could shake the police in a maze of streets, but Holman knew they couldn’t. Every turn cost speed and time and gave the police an opportunity to draw closer. Speed was life and distance was everything, so Holman powered forward.

Holman knew he had to get out of the residential neighborhoods and into an area with businesses and traffic. He hit Palms Boulevard on the fly, turned toward the freeway, and jammed into the first and largest shopping center he found, a big open-air monster anchored by an Albertsons supermarket.

The Highlander was large, black, and easy to spot, so Holman didn’t want to leave it in the main parking lot. He turned into the service lane behind the shops and stores, and drove along the rear of the shopping center. He pulled over, shut the engine, and looked at himself. His face and arms were scratched and bleeding and his shirt was torn in two places. Streaks of dirt and grass stains striped his clothes. Holman slapped off the dirt as best he could, then spit on his shirt tail to wipe away the blood, but he still looked like hell. He wanted to get away from the Highlander, but the remaining plastic restraint was still attached to his left wrist. Holman had cut the right loop on the boat’s propeller, and now the strands from the severed loop dangled from his left wrist like two strands of spaghetti. He studied the clasp. The restraints worked like a belt except the buckle only worked in one direction. The tongue of the belt could be slipped through the buckle, but tiny teeth prevented the tongue from being withdrawn. The plastic ties had to be cut, only now Holman didn’t have a blade.