owned by Garrick Bexholt, headquartered in Maryland.
“Witnesses told Officer Malone how Palumbo came barreling through the intersection like a bat out of hell. Palumbo swears she didn’t see the red light, didn’t see Sherlock until it was too late, said she tried to stop, but maybe her brakes failed. We’ll check out the brakes. Sherlock saw her coming at the Volvo passenger side at the last second and instinctively jerked the wheel left, so she was hit at an angle, and that sent her into a parked car, then into a spin. Thankfully there wasn’t a lot of traffic in either direction, but still, in all she clipped a Tesla, a Ford F-150, and two sedans before spinning backward to smash into the fire hydrant. The airbag saved her life.
“As for Palumbo, the paramedic told Malone he thought she would be fine. Still, they’re doing a tox screen, checking to see how badly her leg and arm are injured. After she hit Sherlock, she swerved and crashed into a kiosk, injured a couple of passersby and the man selling newspapers. She’ll pay a hefty fine for reckless driving, but she won’t go to jail unless she was on drugs or drunk. It’ll be ruled an accident. I don’t know anything more yet. I’ll forward her insurance information.”
“What about the blood on the windshield, Ben?”
“Now, there’s a question I can’t answer yet. All we know for sure is that according to a couple of witnesses, a man ran out into the street in front of Sherlock as she was spinning and she struck him. He was thrown up onto the hood and into the windshield, bounced off the other side. It wasn’t her fault, of course. But after that bounce, he disappeared, seems to have run off. There was pandemonium, as you can imagine, people calling 911, rushing to help, shooting videos, you name it. So far he’s not on any of the videos. We don’t know who he is.”
“You have a description?”
“We know it’s a man, age undetermined, but young enough and fit enough to run fast. He looked like a tourist—shirt, jeans, sneakers, a watch cap. We have people out looking for him, checking with other ERs to see if he took himself to one. One woman told Officer Casspi the guy was running out of an alley between two buildings, looking back over his shoulder, like someone might be chasing him.
“Obviously he has to be hurt, what with the hard impact, all that blood on the windshield. Maybe there was someone chasing him, they picked him up and hauled him away? Don’t know yet. No one’s reported seeing anything like that, but again, all the attention was on Sherlock.
“I have two men backtracking him, checking to see if there was a robbery, anything hinky to set someone after him. If he did manage to walk away on his own, there’ll be a blood trail. I hope. We should find him soon.”
Ben saw Savich’s hands clench, flex. “Listen, Savich, when Palumbo is cleared from the ER, the officers will take her to the Daly Building until her tox screen comes back. I’ll have control.” Again Ben touched his shoulder. “A favor, Savich, don’t get involved with Palumbo, it’ll keep things cleaner. It sounds like she wasn’t paying attention, probably looking off at something, got distracted. If she was high, I’ll clap the irons on her myself and haul her to a cell.”
Savich managed a ghost of a smile. The two men sat side by side, quiet now. Savich couldn’t get the image of Sherlock’s beautiful hair soaked with blood out of his mind. He wasn’t about to call her parents until he knew more. He swallowed, he had to call his boss, Jimmy Maitland.
Within twenty minutes FBI agents began to arrive, among them Davis Sullivan, Lucy McKnight, and Shirley Needleham, the CAU secretary, with Mr. Maitland at their head. Ben had to repeat what had happened three more times. When Dr. Loomis walked in an hour later, the surgical waiting room was full, everyone coming to their feet when she appeared in the doorway. She smiled at them. “Agent Sherlock’s CT scans were completely normal, except for the superficial injuries. No intracranial bleeding, no broken bones, no sign of internal bleeding. She suffered a concussion, of course, and a cut on her head we stitched, and as Agent Savich knows, there are considerable upper-body contusions and bruising. But with some luck, she’ll be fine.” Given the photos a police