The Narrows

but I found comfort in it. I found the strength to hold on.
    There were tools and a spare tire in the compartment, nothing that would work. Then, beneath the tire, through the design holes in the wheel, she saw black and red cables. Jumper cables.
    She put her fingers through the holes in the wheel and yanked it upward. It was large, heavy and awkward but she was not deterred. She pulled the wheel up and out and just dropped it on the road. She grabbed the cables and ran back across the road, causing a car to slide sideways as its driver hit the brakes.
    At the railing she looked into the river but didn't see Bosch at first. Then she looked down and saw him clinging to the support beam, the water backing up against him as it grabbed and pulled at him. His hands and fingers were scratched and bloody. He was looking up at her and had what she thought might have been a small smile on his face, ahnost like he was telling her that he was going to be all right.
    Not sure how she was going to complete the rescue, she dropped one end of the cables over the side. They were far too short.
    "Shit!"
    She knew she had to go over. There was a utility pipe running along the side of the bridge. She knew if she could get down to that she could lower the cables another five feet down. It might be enough.
    "Lady, are you all right?" She turned. There was a man standing there. He was under an umbrella. He had been crossing the bridge.-
    "There's a man down there in the river. Call nine-one-one. Do you have a cell? Call nine-one-one."
    The man began pulling a cell phone from his jacket pocket. Rachel turned back to the railing and started to climb up on it.
    That was the easy part. Going over the railing and climbing down to the pipe was the risky maneuver. She put the cables around her neck and slowly reached one foot down to the pipe, then the other. She slid down with one leg on either side of the pipe like she was riding a horse.
    This time she knew the cable would reach Bosch. She started lowering it to him and he reached for it. But just as his hand grabbed it, there was a blur of color in the water and Bosch was struck by something and knocked loose from the support beam. In that moment Rachel realized it was Backus, either alive or dead, that had knocked him loose.
    She hadn't been ready. When Bosch was knocked loose he kept his grip on the cable line. But his weight and Backus's weight and the current were too much for Rachel. The other end of the cable was jerked out of her grasp and it went down into the water and under the bridge.
    "They're coming! They're coming!"
    She looked up at the man under the umbrella at the top of the railing.
    "It's too late," she said. "He's gone." I was weak but Backus was weaker. I could tell he didn't have the same strength he'd brought to the confrontation on the river's edge. He had pulled me loose from the bridge because I hadn't seen him coming and he'd hit me with all his weight But now he was grabbing at me like a drowning man, just trying to hold on.
    We tumbled through the water, drawing down to the bottom. I tried to open my eyes but the water was too dark to see through. I drove him down hard into the concrete floor and then shifted behind him. I wrapped the cable I still gripped around his neck. I did it again and again until his hands let go of me and went to his own neck. My lungs were burning. I needed air. I pushed off him to move toward the surface. As we separated he made a last grab for my ankles but I was able to kick away and break his grasp.
    In the last moments Backus saw his father. Long dead and burned, he appeared alive. He had the stern set of eyes that Backus always remembered. He had one hand behind his back, as if he was hiding something. His other hand beckoned his son to come forward. To come home.
    Backus smiled and then he laughed. Water rushed into his mouth and lungs. He didn't panic. He welcomed it He knew he would be reborn. He would return. He knew evil could never be vanquished. It just moved from one place to another and waited. I surfaced and gulped down air. I spun in the water to look for Backus but he was gone. I was safe from him but not from the water. I was exhausted. My arms felt so heavy in the water that I could barely bring them to the surface. I thought about the boy again, about how scared he must have been, all alone and the claws grabbing at him.
    Up ahead I could see where the wash emptied into the main river channel. I was fifty yards away