She said, “This guy drives weirdly. He started off pretty briskly on Venice, then turned north onto Sepulveda and gradually slowed down. I thought he might be looking for something or preparing to stop but he just kept going and slowing, all the way to the Sepulveda Pass, which he just got onto…uh-oh, hehaspulled over…just past that two-lane 405 on-ramp…nothing here, why would he—nope, wrong about that, just a momentary stop. Heisdifferent.”
Milo said, “Maybe he prepped a weapon.”
“God, I hope not…but you’re right, that makes sense. Okay, I’m appropriately nervous and hanging back—you get that, Raul?”
Biro said, “Totally. I’m half a block behind you.”
“Stay that way unless something changes,” she said. “All right, he’s back in motion. Crawling. The Pass is totally open but he’s doing twenty. Wonder if that’s good or bad.”
Milo looked at me.
I said, “He could be in planning mode and getting closer to his goal.”
He passed that along.
She said, “Okay, we’ll be super-careful. Can you call everyone else and catch them up? I want to concentrate on every move Flick makes.”
Milo said, “Will do, then we’ll set out ourselves.”
“You and Alex? Good. Flick’s for sure not normal. He goes total-freakin’-psycho after we nab him, we could use the help.”
I kept my smile to myself but Milo felt it.
Grinding his teeth, he said, “Don’t gloat,” then he texted Alicia, Sean, and Moe to go on Tac Four and radioed them to keep their phones active in order to stay aware of Petra’s location.
They all lived in the Valley, which could turn out to be a bit of luck, cutting the drive-time if Flick’s northward drive ended up in one of the bedroom communities on the other side of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Moe: “Copy, L.T.”
Alicia: “Ditto, L.T.”
Sean: “Ready, Loot.”
Chapter
44
It was nearly eleven when we left.
The best way to access the Sepulveda Pass from my house is to climb up the Glen and hook westward on Mulholland. The trip winds through miles of S-curves and past high-priced housing developments unseen from the road. Beyond that, two churches and a synagogue and a couple of expensive prep schools.
Seeing the schools tensed Milo up even further. “Hope the bastard’s not planning some ugly headline thing,” but when he radioed Petra, she said, “Nope, he’s beyond any access to Mulholland, still on Sepulveda and we just crossed Ventura. There’s that stretch a few miles up where the hookers hang out so maybe this’ll turn out to just be his night for dirty fun…oops, wrong again, he swung right onto a side street called…Green Briar Lane, is hurtling east at…fourteen miles per. Now eleven.”
Milo said, “Sounds like he’s looking for something. Maybe a place he hasn’t been before.”
“Makes sense,” said Petra. “Street’s hilly and curvy and not well lit, I turned off my headlights, am going by the moon and his brake lights.”
Milo said, “All residential?”
“Nothing but. Decent houses, quiet even though Ventura’s not far. One of those places you’d have to know about—okay, he’s down to five miles per…has stopped and pulled over to the south and parked. Turned off his engine, no more brake lights, he’s basically invisible. I’m too far to see the address but it’s the eleven five hundred block of Green Briar Lane. Can someone map it and tell me if it can be approached from the opposite side?”
Alicia said, “On it, Sarge…yes it can but you’d need to exit Ventura on Haig Terrace then take two little short streets that discontinue…Escondido Drive, Ramsey Drive, Ramsey becomes Green Briar maybe a…third of a mile from where you are. You want me to take that position? I can be there in about ten.”
Moe said, “Same here.”
Sean said, “I’m closer…yeah, I see it. I can be there probably in five.”
Petra said, “All three of you do it, Raul and Milo will back me up at this end.”
