Arizona Dreams (David Mapstone Mystery 4)

I picked up Washington’s Crossing and opened the book. I did it to piss him off. I could almost hear his internal boiler start to go critical. “It’s a good book,” I said. Then: “Why did y

our wife come to see me last February, Supervisor?”

“She didn’t. What the hell are you talking about?”

“She claimed she had been one of my students at Miami University.”

“You’re insane. She attended Mesa Community College. She’s never even been to Florida.”

“Ohio.”

“She’s never been!” He was shouting again. It made me glad my end of the building was deserted except for my office.

“First Dana said she had discovered a letter from her late father, and he was admitting to murdering a man and burying him out in the desert. Then Dana claimed she was being blackmailed, and she was trying to protect you.”

“Her father is still alive,” he said, in a softer, hoarse voice. He was watching me closely.

“That makes sense,” I said. “Because that desert land belonged to a pair of brothers named Bell. One of them was buried out there. We wasted a lot of taxpayer money clearing that one up. But it was a chance to see some pretty desert at least. Valuable, too, I’d guess.”

Earley had drifted back toward the big windows facing First Avenue. His color had gone from scarlet to ashen even before I said, “I’m sure you know about that property, Supervisor.”

Earley started to walk toward me when there was a blur in the hallway, and then we weren’t alone anymore. The tall man with the shaved head was wearing a long-sleeved work shirt, and then I realized why he might want to conceal his prized tattoo: to make an easy escape, with no identifying characteristic. Funny the trivia your mind cooks up when facing oblivion. He had a black pistol in his hand. It looked like what you’d get if you mated a semiautomatic pistol with a machine gun, producing an unwieldy long magazine and a thick barrel with holes like Swiss cheese. In other words, it was a Tek-9, and it could easily be converted from semi- to fully automatic.

“No sap this time?” I asked.

“Don’t even think about it,” he said, indicating the Python on my belt. The nasty-looking Tek-9 was in a clean line with my heart, which was now thumping like a washing machine on imbalance. “Pull it out slow, with your left hand, and put it on the desk, with the butt facing me.”

He’d obviously done this before. Right then I had a lot of wishes. I wished I were in my wife’s arms in a safe place where it rained. I wished I wasn’t sitting down, and that the damned history book was not still in my right hand. I said, “I’m not giving up my weapon. Be a bad habit to get into.” I didn’t recognize my own voice, but my body obeyed the first rule of Peralta’s training.

The thick barrel came up toward my face. I think the tattooed man would have killed me right then, but Earley spoke and said, “Adam, what are you doing?”

The man he called Adam said simply, “You” and turned the pistol toward Earley’s head. Earley let out a whimpered “Wait!” but it was enough time for me to fling Washington’s Crossing at Adam. I hit him right between the eyes and his head and shoulders lurched back like a puppet whose limbs were attached to rubber bands. Instantly there was a sharp explosion from the Tek-9, but I was diving under the desk and drawing out the Python. When I came up, Tom Earley was still standing, his swoosh of hair in place, and Adam was already halfway to the stairway atrium.

35

By the time I got out the front door of the old courthouse, the tattooed man was halfway to Washington Street. He turned and pointed the thick barrel, which had its desired effect: I dived to the ground behind one of the columns. The heated sidewalk burned my hands. You never can find a cop when you need one. There were probably more police officers, deputies, and U.S. marshals in the few blocks surrounding me than anyplace in the entire Southwest. But I saw no uniforms on the street; heard no commands to stop. I lifted myself off the concrete and raced down the steps. He ran into the one-way street, provoking screeching tires and honking horns. Somebody rear-ended a taxi. The horns stopped abruptly when they saw the hardware he was carrying. Then he was on the north side of the street, by the front entry to the Wells Fargo Tower. But no bankers appeared. It was so hot that the sidewalk was deserted. I cut through the desert plantings and shadows in front of the courthouse. He was jogging east, concealing the gun inside his shirt, and momentarily not checking his rear. I saw a chance.

I holstered the Python for better running and sprinted diagonally across the intersection with First Avenue, somehow avoiding a mail truck that didn’t see me. Then I was pumping my arms, beating the pavement with my feet, coming up behind him fast. He didn’t see me before I tackled him, ramming him hard into the railing at Tom’s Tavern. We went over, crashing into tables and chairs. I landed on him, and saw the Tek-9 skitter across the floor toward the restaurant door. That triumph lasted all of a few seconds before a fist smashed into my nose. Somehow he had managed to wriggle and turn and get me at a disadvantage. But there was no analyzing going on at that moment. It was all shock and pain. I fell backward into a capsized table; that brought another jolt of pain. Somehow a reflex back in my brainstem had my hand reaching for the Python. But by the time I focused, he was gone.

“Call nine-one-one,” I said, sounding very congested, when a restaurant employee stuck her head out the door. “Tell them a plainclothes deputy is pursuing an armed suspect.” I got to my knees, then to my feet, and wobbled off up First Avenue. I was dizzy and my shirt was dappled with blood.

The sun went behind a skyscraper, but the heat was starting to beat me down. Now that the original adrenaline rush had worn off, I was conscious of being covered in sweat, my lungs were burning, my stomach bloated with heat nausea. It was probably only one hundred seven degrees out, magnified by the concrete. I tried to focus on the suspect, waited to hear sirens or see uniforms. Adam had been slowed down, too. I saw him a block ahead, crossing the street. His head snapped to the west: He was thinking about going into the Orpheum Lofts. Then he changed his mind, running and limping back across the street. Then we were going east on Adams Street. I’d like to say it was like Manhattan, and he couldn’t see me behind him for all the crowds on the sidewalks. But this was Phoenix, and nobody was out here with us. The sun brutally re-emerged, glaring off the storefronts, cooking the street. He kept looking back at me, but for some reason didn’t shoot. I stayed as close to the walls and alleyways as I could, so I could find cover quickly. Maybe he thought he could just outrun me.

Then he was gone.

A tectonic cramp cut through my middle. I leaned against the wall beside Quiznos and barfed on the sidewalk. The suave David Mapstone. I thought my guts were going to come out onto the concrete. I couldn’t catch a breath. Everything was hot. My sweat-soaked shirt hung on me. I felt out of shape. I felt old. I looked around. Nothing. I cursed the sidewalk.

Then I saw movement across the street. It was the Central Avenue entrance to the Wyndham Hotel. Maybe the door had just finished swinging shut. It was worth a try. I did my best to jog across at the light, ignoring a voice inside that said, “wait for the cavalry.”

Then I was in the darkened corridor of the hotel entrance. The air conditioning collided with my superheated skin. The heavy-duty hotel carpet felt like the greatest luxury my feet had ever known. But the heavy weight of the Python reminded me of the task at hand. I hastily hung my badge on my belt so some trigger-happy rookie didn’t take me out. I moved slowly toward the front desk. It was quiet and I began worrying about the dark potential of the man with the Tek-9 in downtown Phoenix. I slowed my pace, looked toward the lobby, which looked as deserted as the street outside. I knelt down ahead of where the wall opened up into the larger space of the lobby. It was an old trick, to look around a corner from a level where someone wouldn’t naturally notice. My knees hurt like hell.

“Sir, are you all right?” This came from a perky blonde behind the counter. So much for my subterfuge. I asked if she were safe. She said she was. Everything seemed normal. I stood up and approached the desk.

“Oh, my God! Do you want me to call an ambulance!”

I must have looked quite a sight. “Did

a man come through here?” I asked. “Tall, wearing a work shirt?”