Phantom Prey

and Davenport would be at the Porsche before she could get close. Then he’d see her, and if he saw her . . .
    “Shit! This was so stupid,” Alyssa said. “What were we thinking? If he sees us coming, he’ll know what’s up. He’ll kill us.”
    “So we take him home,” Fairy said. “Hey: he’s a cop. This is a first time we’ve done a cop. Let’s calm down. Calm down and take him home.”
    Lucas said to Del, “Okay, Cheryl’s appointment’s at ten? Let me know what happens.”
    “I will—I’m a little scared,” Del said. “She’s always been healthy as a horse. God only knows what you can get in a hospital now. They’ve got all these weird germs. And she used to assist with angiograms, who knows how much radiation she got? And she’s really been feeling rocky. I thought she was better last week, but now it’s back.”
    “Let me know,” Lucas said. And, as Del turned away, “You’re all right? About the shooting?”
    “Pretty sure,” Del said. He shrugged. “Maybe people like us can forget it. Let it go. Go get a cheeseburger.”
    “You’ll think about it for a while,” Lucas said. “I believe you’ll be okay, but if you aren’t, tell someone. They got pills.”
    “Yeah. Pills. Check you tomorrow, big guy.”
    Lucas called Weather from the car.
    “Are we all over the TV?”
    “Everywhere. Networks, cable. Lucas—we’ve gotta talk. This has been crazy, first you get shot, and then this.”
    “We’ll talk,” he said. “Maybe I’ll become a humble carpenter. Or I could become the skate sharpener for the Gopher women’s hockey team.”
    “Lucas . . . really, how’re you feeling?”
    “My ass is kicked, but I’m okay,” Lucas said. “I’m still a little worried about Shrake and Del, but they say they’re okay.”
    “See what happens tomorrow,” she said.
    “Yeah.”
    “So. Would you have time to stop at the SA? I just dropped a bottle of milk and it’s all over the place. We’ll need some for breakfast tomorrow. ”
    “Sure. See you in twenty minutes.”
    He took it easy heading home. He had a Super America convenience store in mind, and headed down Maryland on remote control, thinking about the day. The Siggy investigation had been mostly a BCA deal, but when the final explosion occurred, St. Paul had carried a lot of the weight. They’d also been the guys in the sharp-looking BDUs and armor and helmets with the big guns, and they were the ones who’d gotten the TV time.
    Which was fine with him.
    Idled through a green light, heading down the hill toward the SA, flashed on the first animal he’d ever killed while hunting. It’d been a rabbit, and he was shooting a .410 single-shot shotgun, the first gun of his life. The bunny broke cover thirty feet ahead of him, at the edge of an empty, harvested bean field.
    He remembered how cold it was then, in late October, and how he’d shucked one mitten and his father had said, “Take him.” The rabbit ran away, as they do, but then, as they also do, began turning, a long curved run, as though the rabbit were inscribing a circle with Lucas as the center point. He led it by a foot or two, pulled the trigger, and the rabbit tumbled head over heels, dead before it hit the ground.
    He thought about it because it was exactly the way that Del had shot the runner. Lucas had been watching it, the rest of them had too much background to risk a shot after him, and then he saw Del swinging with the man’s pace and the single shot and the man went down like the shot bunny.
    Lucas found himself standing in front of the SA store, hardly knowing how he got there.
    He nodded at the counterman going in, got a bottle of one-percent and a couple of bottles of diet Coke. Checking out, the counterman said, “Looks like rain.”
    “Spring’s coming,” Lucas said.
    “Wouldn’t be surprised to see a little more snow.”
    “Won’t last,” Lucas said.
    “Take it easy . . .”
    He went out to the Porsche, carrying the grocery bag, popped the passenger-side door so he could put the bag on the floor . . .
    Fairy whispered, to all of them, “Go, go . . .” And she was out the door, the car idling by the curb, across the verge of damp grass, coming up to the gas pumps where he’d parked, behind them, actually, out of sight, the gun heavy in her hand, around the pumps, and he was right there and he stood up and saw her and she was six feet away, the gun swinging up . . .
    Lucas caught a flash of urgent motion between the pumps