Double Take

out of one of the cops who thought it was all a big joke, who knows?”
    Sherlock said, “Ruth said the reporter mentioned a source at the SFPD.”
    Julia pounded Cheney’s arm. “Oh no, Cheney, he’ll go after Kathryn, you know he will.”
    Cheney quickly dialed Kathryn Golden’s phone. One, two rings, then, “Hello?”
    “Ms. Golden? This is Agent Stone. Listen to me now. The media gave out your name on the news. I want you to leave your house right now, do you understand? Pick up your car keys and go get in your car. Drive to the police station, all right? Do you understand me?”
    “Yes, yes, I understand.”
    “Go, now! Leave your phone on. I want to be able to hear you.”
    He heard her breathing, heard her footsteps as she ran through her house, heard her say, “Where are those damned car keys?”
    He heard her breathing hitch, then the blessed rattle of a key ring, her feet pounding loud. She said, “I’m nearly out, leaving now. Oh God!”
    He heard the front door bang open, heard her scream. There was the sound of scuffling, and a thud, then there was nothing at all, only the silence of the open line.
    “Oh God, he’s got her. But how could Makepeace have gotten to Livermore so fast?”
    Savich said, “He was hiding nearby, that’s how. But why would he choose Livermore as his base?”
    “I don’t know why, but he got her, just that fast,” said Cheney, snapping his fingers.
    Sherlock said. “Julia, call the Livermore Police Department, tell them to get over to Kathryn’s house. I’m calling Dix and Ruth, she said they both wanted in on this.”
    While Savich gunned Judge Sherlock’s BMW, he imagined Dix driving his father-in-law’s old black Chevy Blazer like a madman, Ruth giving him directions as best she could. Cheney called Captain Paulette.
    “First David Caldicott disappeared, and now Kathryn’s taken,” Sherlock said. “I surely do hate this.”
    Cheney said into his cell, “It isn’t good, Frank. I called her, told her to get out, told her to leave the phone line open. I heard him take her.”
    “Yeah, Cheney, the wife told me how the damned media bleated it all out. I’ve got some calls to make, then I’m on my way out there. Damnation, I’m going to kick some major butt about the leak. Let’s hope you’re wrong, but of course you’re not.”
    Since Savich didn’t have a siren and he didn’t want to get stopped by the Oakland cops, he kept the Beemer right at the speed limit.
    Julia grabbed Cheney’s arm. “You know he’s killed her, Cheney, you know it, the moment he burst through her front door.”
    “Not necessarily, I didn’t hear a gunshot.”
    “But you have his gun! He could have strangled her or stabbed her or hit her on the head.”
    “No, I didn’t hear anything like that.” A lie, but it wouldn’t help her to hear about the thud. “Hang in there, Julia, we don’t know, simply don’t.”
    Sherlock turned in the front seat to face them. “What should we know about Kathryn Golden?”
    ‘Sorry, let me give you guys some quick background.” And he did. “—and when she called me this morning, she told me she’d had another vision, that Makepeace was coming in a car. I rolled my eyes, I’ll admit it, but it made me look in my rearview every other second, and I spotted him.
    “I would have sworn most everything from the so-called vision she treated us to yesterday, any of us could have known or guessed—and for the rest, she probably had a source inside the SFPD.”
    “What do you think, Julia?”
    “Kathryn’s always bragged about all the insiders she knows. A cop too? Why not?”
    “Savich, you’ve got maybe twelve more minutes,” Cheney said. He paused, looked down at his cell and punched in Kathryn Golden’s number. A man answered on the first ring. “Is this you, Agent Stone? A little late, aren’t you? Too late. Oh yes, tell the bitch you’ll be too late for her too. I’m coming for her,” and he punched off.
    “Makepeace answered,” Cheney said. “I don’t know Golden’s status. I heard a bit of an English accent this time, which means he wasn’t trying to hide it.”
    Sherlock said, “Or he’s rattled and he couldn’t control it.”
    Savich looked at Julia’s face in his rearview mirror and pushed the Beemer to eighty miles per hour. They streamed around cars and drivers’ startled faces. He grinned. “Okay then, let the cops chase us to the psychic’s house if they want.”
    They pulled into Kathryn