The Twelfth Card

closer.
    “You got a badge?” one girl asked.
    Bell tamped down his anxiety, kept smiling and flashed his shield.
    “Wow.”
    “Yeah, we saw ’em,” one tiny, pretty girl offered. “They went up that street there. Turned right.”
    “No, left.”
    “You weren’t looking.”
    “Was too. You gotta gun, mister?”
    Bell jogged to the street they’d pointed to. A block away, to his right, he saw a car pulling away from the curb. He grabbed his radio. “Units responding to that ten two nine. Anybody close to One One Seven Street . . . there’s a maroon sedan moving west. Stop it and check occupants. Repeat: We’re looking for a black female, sixteen. Suspect is black male, forties, K. Assume he’s armed.”
    “RPM Seven Seven Two. We’re almost there, K . . . . Yeah, we’ve got a visual. We’ll light him up.”
    “Roger, Seven Seven Two.”
    Bell saw the squad car, its lights flashing, speed toward the maroon sedan, which skidded to a stop. His heart beating fast, Bell started toward them, as a patrolman climbed from the squad car, stepped to the sedan’s window and bent down, his hand on the butt of his pistol.
    Please, let it be her.
    The officer waved the car on.
    Damn, Bell said to himself angrily as he jogged up to the officer.
    “Detective.”
    “Wasn’t them?”
    “No, sir. A black female. In her thirties. She’s alone.”
    Bell ordered the RMP to cruise up and down the nearby streets to the south, and radioed the others to cover the opposite directions. He turned and picked another street at random, plunged down it. His cell phone rang.
    “Bell here.”
    Lincoln Rhyme asked what was happening.
    “Nobody’s spotted her. But I don’t get it, Lincoln. Wouldn’t Geneva know her own uncle?”
    “Oh, I can think of a few scenarios where the unsub could get a substitute in. Or maybe he’s working with the unsub. I don’t know. But something’s definitely wrong. Think about how he speaks. Hardly sounds like the brother of a professor. He’s got some street in him.”
    “That’s true . . . . I want to check with my team. I’ll call you back.” Bell hung up then radioed his partners. “Luis, Barbe, report in. What’d y’all find?”
    The woman said that the people she’d canvassed on 118th hadn’t seen either the girl or the uncle. Martinez reported that they weren’t in any of the common areas of the building and there’d been no sign of intruders or forced entry. He asked Bell, “Where’re you?”
    “Block east of the building, heading east. I got RMPs sweeping the streets. One of y’all get over here with me. The other keep the apartment covered.”
    “K.”
    “Out.”
    Bell jogged across a street and looked to his left. He saw the homeless man again, pausing, glancing toward him then bending down and scratching hisankle. Bell started in his direction to ask if he’d seen anything.
    But then he heard the sound of a car door slamming shut. Where had it come from? The sound reverberated off the walls and he couldn’t tell.
    An engine began grinding.
    In front of him . . . He started forward.
    No, to the right.
    He sprinted up the street. Just then he saw a battered gray Dodge pull away from the curb. It started forward but skidded to a stop as a patrol car cruised slowly into the intersection. The driver of the Dodge put the car into reverse and rolled backward over the curb, into a vacant lot, out of sight of the RMP. Bell believed he saw two people inside . . . . He squinted. Yes! It was Geneva and the man who’d claimed to be her uncle. The car bucked slightly as he put it in gear.
    Bell grabbed his radio and called the RMPs, ordering them to blockade both intersections.
    But the patrolman at the wheel of the closest squad car turned into the street, rather than just barricading it; Geneva’s uncle saw him. He slipped his car into reverse, flooring the accelerator and skidding in a circle around the vacant lot and into the alley behind a row of buildings. Bell lost sight of the Dodge. He didn’t know which way it had turned. Sprinting toward where he’d last seen the car, the detective ordered the squad cars to circle the block.
    He ran into the alley and looked to his right, just in time to see the rear fender of the car disappearing. He raced for it, pulling his Beretta from his holster. He sprinted at full speed and turned the corner.
    Bell froze.
    Tires squealing, the old Dodge was racing in reverseright toward him, escaping from the squad