Texas Outlaw (Rory Yates #2) - James Patterson Page 0,61
the Cruiser forward. The engine stalls, and she has to start over. Everything about the vehicle is tough. There are no power brakes, so she feels like she’s working out her calf muscles pressing down on the pedal. And there’s no power steering, so she has to wrestle with the wheel.
Finally, she pulls the Land Cruiser around the house and stops at the edge of the street. Not fifty yards away, Chief Harris’s cruiser is headed her way, with Rory in the passenger seat.
“Oh, shit,” Ariana says, ducking down.
After the cruiser passes, she peeks up over the dash. It begins to slow down as it approaches her house. Ariana puts the Land Cruiser in gear and turns onto the street, heading the other way.
Her hands tremble as she shifts gears.
She’s a fugitive.
“Rory,” she says aloud, “I sure hope you know what the hell you’re doing.”
Chapter 66
CHIEF HARRIS ROLLS his police cruiser to a stop in front of Ariana’s house. Tom Aaron is on the sidewalk, engaged in an argument with the patrolman stationed out front.
When we exit the car, Tom approaches the chief, hammering him with questions.
“Chief, is it true that Detective Delgado is a suspect in the murder of Skip Barnes? Is she also a suspect in the death of Susan Snyder? Are you here to arrest her? What kind—”
“Tom!” Harris says, practically shouting. “What the hell are you doing here? How did you hear about Ariana?”
“So it is true,” Tom says, making a note.
“You didn’t answer my question,” Harris says.
“You haven’t answered mine.”
Harris huffs. “Answer mine and I’ll answer yours.”
“I’m a journalist,” Tom says. “I have my sources. You know I can’t reveal them.”
Harris glares at me, accusing me without saying a word.
“Don’t look at me,” I say, holding my hands up.
It feels weird—wrong—to lie to a member of law enforcement, but compared to what I’ve already done, this is a small transgression.
The chief turns back to Tom. “Yes, Ariana is a suspect in the murder of Skip Barnes. No, she is not a suspect in the death of Susan Snyder—which we still believe was accidental,” he adds.
“Are you here to arrest Ariana?” Tom asks.
The chief nods toward the point-and-shoot camera hanging around Tom’s neck.
“Get your camera ready,” Harris says. “Maybe you’ll find out.”
With that, Harris and I approach Ariana’s front door. He knocks forcefully. No noise comes from inside the house. It’s the kind of silence that feels like absence. You can tell no one’s home.
“Shit,” Harris snaps, drawing his gun.
“I’ll go around back,” I say, and before he can agree or disagree with my plan, I take off.
A minute later, I hear Harris kick in the front door with a loud bang. The back door is unlocked, and I let myself in. Harris and I meet halfway in the house, in the living room where Ariana and I sat last night. When we’ve cleared every room and found no sign of her, Harris holsters his gun and stares at me.
“Let me see your phone,” he sneers.
“Why?”
“I want to see if you warned her.”
I hand over my cell. Not the burner phone—that one is hidden under the seat in my truck. He scrolls through my calls and texts, seeing the only call I made today was early in the morning.
“Whose number is this?” he says.
“My dad.”
He thrusts the phone back to me and then gets in my face.
“Did you have something to do with this?” he says, his teeth clenched. “You’re in some serious shit if you did.”
Instead of answering, I say, “We better call the highway patrol. There aren’t but a handful of ways out of this part of the county. If we hurry, they can get roadblocks up.”
He doesn’t stop glowering at me.
“She could still be on foot,” I say, acting like his glare isn’t bothering me. “You ought to get your patrol officers doing sweeps around town. We’ve got work to do, Chief. Let’s get to it.”
Finally, he looks away and storms out of the house. I follow, keeping back far enough that when Tom starts snapping pictures of the chief walking out looking furious, I won’t get in the frame.
“Go home, Tom!” Harris roars, pointing his arm down the street toward Tom’s house.
An hour later, back at the station, Harris and I have reported the fugitive to the highway patrol and the county sheriff’s office, and we’ve got the local patrol officers searching the Rio Lobo streets and neighborhoods. Harris took a break at one point to go into his office and make