Hotline to Murder

She was running away from her house, but in the other direction the street ended in a cul-de-sac. He must have been waiting for her there. At the first intersection, she turned in the downhill direction, toward the beach. She had to get out of his line of sight.
    She went one block downhill and stopped behind a lamppost, panting. This wasn’t a good hiding place, but she didn’t hear any sounds of pursuit. A car went by, but not that of the kidnapper. What should she do? She couldn’t go back to her house as long as the man was in the neighborhood.
    She decided to go to Jane’s house. Jane’s father should be there now, and he would protect her. Their house was several more blocks north and two blocks uphill from here. Shahla crossed the hilly street and ran along the street parallel to her own. She would go another block north and then cut uphill. She slowed down to a jog, wanting to conserve her energy. It was a good thing she ran cross-country. Training in the hills had greatly improved her wind.
    At the next intersection, Shahla looked uphill. A car was moving farther up, but it was harmless. She started up the hill at a fast walk. Before she had gone halfway up the block, a car went through the intersection above, on Sandview Street. It was his car. She stopped, frozen. Then she heard the sound of a car backing up. That thawed her. She turned and ran back downhill.
    In a few seconds, she heard the sound of the car approaching her from behind. She kept running downhill, trying not to go so fast in her panic that she tripped and sprawled on the steep sidewalk. Her speed didn’t matter much because he could drive much faster than she could run. But here, close to the beach, cars were parked along the curb and he couldn’t get near her without leaving his car.
    He drove alongside her. Shahla didn’t look at him. She hoped he didn’t have a gun. Then he pulled ahead and stopped the car in the middle of the street. He opened the door and jumped out. She was on the right sidewalk so he had to run around the back of the car to cut her off. Her first instinct was to try to outrun him, but he squeezed between two parked cars and blocked her path.
    He was wearing a baseball cap. Shahla couldn’t see his face in the dim light. Was this the Chameleon? He was an apparition, more ghost than real, with his arms up and his body braced to intercept her, like a football player. She couldn’t reverse direction and go uphill. By the time she stopped her forward momentum and turned around, he would be able to grab her.
    She had a strong desire to barrel into him at top speed. She was within a few feet of him, close enough to see him flinch at the prospect of impact. At the last possible instant, she put on the brakes and slowed enough so that she was able to slip between two parked cars. She headed out into the street to go around his car.
    Caught by surprise, the man went through the next space between the parked cars and reached for her as she ran by. He got hold of her arm. Desperate, Shahla tried to keep running, dragging him with her. As she steered just to the left of his car, he was off balance and hit the back of it. He released his grip on her. She lurched forward and thought she was going to tumble head over heels.
    She desperately tried to get her center of gravity over her legs and regain her balance. She bounced off a parked car and careened through a complete 360-degree turn before she got her body under control. Then she found herself running down the middle of the street, almost to the dead-end at the beach.
    She ran past the end of the street for a few feet to the concrete beach path and turned right on it, heading in the opposite direction from her home. She didn’t hear footsteps behind her, so she looked over her shoulder. The man wasn’t in sight, and a beach house blocked her view of the street she had come down.
    Shahla continued north on the beach path at a slower pace and immediately saw the benefit of being here. The path was well lit by lights on poles, and there were other joggers and walkers going in both directions, even at night. She didn’t think he would dare to follow her here.
    But where could she go? She might be safe on the beach path, but she couldn’t stay here all night. She couldn’t go home because the kidnapper might stake out her house. The police station was too far away from the path to get to safely. She couldn’t call anyone because she didn’t have her cell phone or