Hotline to Murder

thinned, away from the Strip. Fewer people between them and the pursued made their chances of being spotted greater. Shahla dropped his hand and slowed down beside him. He noticed that she wasn’t even breathing hard. She must be in good shape from cross-country.
    Paul and the girl walked past the lot where Tony’s car was parked.
    “We’re going to need a car if we want to follow them into the hills,” Tony said, hesitating as they approached the entrance to the parking lot. “But if we get the car now, we’ll lose them.”
    “You get the car,” Shahla said. “I’ll stay behind them.”
    “How will I know where you are?”
    “I’ll call you. My cell phone is in my purse. Give me your number.”
    Tony always carried a pen with him. He scribbled the number of his cell phone on the back of a business card he pulled from his pocket and gave it to Shahla. He said, “Be careful. Don’t let them know you’re following them.”
    “Don’t worry.”
    She took off at a trot to regain the distance she had lost. Tony hoped Shahla wouldn’t attract too much attention by running in a dress. He had misgivings about leaving her and almost called her to come back. He’d better get the car as fast as he could.
    He ran to the car and started it. Another car was backing out of a parking space behind him—and the driver was taking his sweet time. Tony fumed, but he knew that blowing his horn would only aggravate the situation. When he finally drove out onto the street, Shahla and the other couple had disappeared. Where were they? He had promised Rasa to protect her. He warded off a surge of panic. He had to trust her. She was a smart girl.
    He drove slowly, looking for a sign of any of the three. When he figured he had driven farther than they could have walked by now, he circled the block. Five minutes went by without a sighting. Why hadn’t he written down Shahla’s cell phone number? He stopped the car to work on a plan.
    His cell phone rang. He punched the talk button and said, “Tony.”
    “They’ve gotten in a car and driven toward the hills.”
    “Where are you?”
    Shahla gave an intersection. Tony remembered that one of the streets she named crossed the street he was on. He was only a few blocks from her. Relieved, he gunned the engine and took off. He spotted her within two minutes. He pulled the car up beside her, and she jumped in.
    “Quick, write down their license plate number before I forget it.”
    Tony took the card she was still holding and wrote the number Shahla dictated.
    “Which way did they go?”
    “Toward the hills.” Shahla pointed. “They’re in a gray Honda.”
    “So is the rest of the world.”
    “I think I’ll recognize it.”
    Tony drove as fast as the traffic would allow. The sun was just setting behind the hills they were approaching, so spotting the car would be that much more difficult. Still, there only seemed to be one road that went up into the hills. And Paul had to go in that direction if he was going toward a cliff. The traffic was heavy enough so that Tony doubted that he could catch Paul. Maybe it was just as well. They would drive uphill for a while and then turn around and go home.
    The views got better as they drove. This must be the right direction. Paul had mentioned a view of Las Vegas. But what chance did they have of actually spotting the car?
    “I think I just saw it,” Shahla said.
    “Where?”
    “Parked beside the road.”
    She must have sharp eyes. It was now quite dark. Tony said, “Do you want to check?”
    “Yes.”
    It took him several minutes before he found a place wide enough to allow them to turn around. He pulled off the road, waited for traffic to go by, and swung a sharp U.
    “Go slowly,” Shahla said, as they rounded a curve. “I think it’s near here. There it is.”
    Tony stopped opposite the car Shahla pointed at and pulled off the road as far as possible. They got out and crossed the pavement to a turnoff where the car that Tony now could identify as a gray Honda was parked. He compared the license plate number to the one he had written down. They matched.
    “Good work,” he told Shahla. “Now where did they go?”
    “There’s a path,” Shahla said. “It leads up that hill.”
    The dirt path disappeared into the desert foliage and the dark.
    “You wait in the car,” Tony told Shahla. He handed the keys to her.
    She refused to take them. “I’m not going to let you go up there by yourself.”
    He knew from