driver’s side door and pulled out the startled driver. “Sorry about this, but I don’t have time to get my car.”
The driver, stunned, looked dazedly toward the police officer for help.
Jessie didn’t wait for him to decide whether or not to make that plea verbal. She climbed in, started the limo, and peeled out of the driveway. She ignored the red traffic light and roared across Highland to the U.S. 101 entrance ramp.
“Think maybe we should have brought some muscle?” Kendra asked.
Jessie squinted at the cars ahead of them. “No, I’ll have to be the muscle,” she said absently. “I didn’t want to wait for the cops to get their act together. Every minute we spent back there increased the risk of losing them.”
“If we haven’t already.”
Jessie shook her head. “Don’t say that.”
“One way or another, we’ll find her, Jessie.”
An ocean of brake lights appeared on the freeway in front of them.
Jessie drew a relieved breath. “L.A. traffic. This could work for us.” She cut the wheel hard right and sped down the shoulder. “Keep on the lookout for a black Ford van.”
Kendra had already risen in her seat as she scanned the six lanes of traffic. “I’m on it. So far I’ve only seen two white Toyotas and a Subaru.”
Jessie cursed. “Damn, I wish I had my motorcycle.”
Kendra pointed ahead. “See that?”
Jessie’s gaze flew a few hundred yards in front of them, where a van had abruptly cut into the shoulder. It peeled out and roared into the distance. Jessie jammed hard on the accelerator. “It’s a Ford Transit 250. Call 911 and make sure the police know. Late model, high roof option. Tell them the suspects are taking the Santa Monica Boulevard exit.”
Kendra was already speaking into the phone before Jessie finished talking. She left the connection open and dropped the phone into the cup holder.
“Hang on,” Jessie said. She spun the wheel as they swerved down the Santa Monica Boulevard exit ramp. There was no sign of the van. “Shit. Where is it?”
Kendra leaned forward as they reached the bottom of the ramp. There, less than half a block to their left, were the familiar taillights of the Transit van, frantically weaving in and out of traffic.
“There!”
“I see it.” Jessie turned the wheel and gunned the engine, roaring down the street. “Keep your eyes on that van. I need to play some bob and weave here.”
“Got it.”
Jessie raced through the cars, at one point even jumping the curb and taking the sidewalk for a half-block stretch.
“It’s turning right at the light,” Kendra said. “Onto Sunset Boulevard.”
“I’m on it.” Jessie spun onto Sunset, now only a few yards behind the van. She put on an extra burst of speed and pulled even with the heavily tinted driver’s side window. The window lowered slightly, and the streetlights caught the glint of a gun barrel.
BLAM!
But Jessie had already dropped several feet behind. The van swerved and sideswiped the limo’s front right panel, pushing them into oncoming traffic. Jessie pulled back into her lane.
The van picked up speed.
“Don’t lose it,” Kendra shouted frantically.
“No way.” Jessie gripped the wheel harder. “Those guys are really starting to piss me off.”
They followed the van down Sunset until, without warning, it cut a hard left.
“Silver Lake Boulevard,” Jessie said as she followed. “Where in the hell are they taking her?”
The streets narrowed, and the traffic thinned, leaving them almost alone with the speeding van.
Suddenly a blinding shaft of light struck the van from above, startling both Jessie and the van’s driver. Both vehicles swerved as they continued down the street.
A helicopter roared overhead, its searchlight locked on the van.
“It’s a police chopper,” Kendra said. She nodded toward the phone. “They’ve been listening.”
“Good. Now if they’ll just get some police cruisers here to cut these guys off.”
A black void had suddenly appeared to their left. “What the hell is that?” Kendra asked.
“The Silver Lake Reservoir. It goes on for almost a mile.”
They were now on a two-lane road, with a chain-link fence bordering the reservoir on their left, and single-family homes on their right. The helicopter dipped lower, its rotors blowing the trees on both sides of the road.
The van put on an extra burst of speed as if trying to break free of the helicopter’s searchlight. But as the road curved, the van appeared to lose control. It swerved one way, then the next, then finally crashed through the reservoir fence. The van went airborne, launching over and into the dark water below.
“No!” Jessie screamed.