His cell phone began ringing, and he dug it out of his pocket and glanced at the caller ID. Payne was amazed the earbud was still in his ear. When he answered the call, he wondered if all Harris would hear would be his siren wails and horn honks.
“Tony, how’s Charley? All okay?”
“He’s fine. We’ve got the scene under control. Where the hell are you?”
“Southbound Delaware Expressway, about to Vine. Hot on the tail of the white minivan. You want to call in for units to try to head off this guy? He’s running hard, and about to make a big mess out here.”
Payne, closing the distance between them, watched the Ford minivan make jerky movements as the driver tried getting around four vehicles that were driving abreast and effectively forming a wall across the expressway. They did try to get out of the way, but every time a driver anticipated the minivan’s next move, another driver wound up blocking him again.
The minivan was in the far right lane, and when it came up to the two-lane split leading to the exit for the Vine Street Expressway, it shot the gap and accelerated.
“Tony, he just took the Vine exit. Hell, we’re almost to the Roundhouse, about a quarter-mile out. Maybe he’s going there to give himself up.”
He heard Harris snort, then start relaying that updated information.
Payne made the exit for the Vine Street Expressway, and as the two lanes of the elevated concrete thoroughfare widened to four, Matt looked in the distance and saw the minivan heading toward the Center City skyline.
Also ahead, at the point where the expressway crossed over Fourth Street, there was a series of flashing caution lights and signage that read: CAUTION! ROAD REPAIR AHEAD! YO, GIVE US A BRAKE!
The minivan was now just passing the first of the flashing lights.
The lights and signs became thicker as the expressway approached the Fifth Street overpass, and Payne remembered that that was where two eighteen-wheelers had collided a few weeks earlier. The mass of them together had taken out five sections of the three-foot-tall concrete divider that separated the eastbound and westbound lanes.
As a temporary patch, a double line of fifty-five-gallon drums, orange with reflective tape, had been put in place with more caution signage. And a temporary speed-limit sign had been posted.
Matt saw ahead of the Ford minivan that traffic in all the westbound lanes was slowing to a stop just past the construction crew.
“Looks like the Vine Expressway is shut down, Tony.”
The minivan was beginning to make jerky moves from lane to lane, looking for a route around the slow traffic.
Matt moved into the far outside lane behind the minivan and eased up on the accelerator as he closed the distance between them.
No exit here. Nowhere to run.
Looks like the end of the road.
But then he saw that not only was the minivan not slowing to the posted twenty-five miles an hour, it was accelerating.
And then it suddenly shot from the right lane and across the other three—then went right through the orange barrels, scattering them and causing the construction workers to dive for cover.
“Jesus H. Christ!”
“What, Matt?”
“He just crossed into the oncoming lanes.”
“How the hell did he do that?”
“He blew through a hole in the construction zone.”
; More important, how the hell did he miss those oncoming cars?
At least they’re driving slow because of the roadwork.
The minivan then drove to the far left of the expressway and turned left onto a lane that was carrying oncoming traffic coming off the Benjamin Franklin Bridge. The vehicles swerved to miss hitting the minivan head-on.