Nobody Runs Forever (20 page)

7

I
t starts with technology, but it still ends with tracker dogs.

At first, Parker climbed up the slope through the thin trunks of the second-growth trees, wanting only to get high enough to see without being seen. He moved left and right across the slope until he found a spot where he could look down and get a clear view of the diner and its parking lot. The Dodge was still there. So was the police car. He leaned against one of the thicker trees to wait and watch.

So the bank said they’d been hit for two million. He knew from experience that that would be a lie. Because of the insurance, the company that got taken down always pumped the loss by between a quarter and a third. The money hidden back in the church would be closer to one million five.

That was less than they’d expected. What would Dr. Madchen have gotten out of it, if things had worked the way they were supposed to work? A third of Jake’s third, less the piece for Briggs. Two hundred thousand at most, probably less. He was better off giving the wife a little injection.

Down below, one of the cops got out of the police car and went into the diner. It had been twenty minutes since Parker had come up here.

What he wanted to do now was wait for them to decide he’d gone away, seen their car, and decided to leave his own. Once they were gone, he could come back down and decide what to do next.

The cop was inside the diner ten minutes, and came out with a paper bag. He got back into his car, but it didn’t move. Which meant they weren’t going away. They were waiting for reinforcements. They were going to start the search from right down there.

Yes. When the police bus and the enclosed police van drove into the parking area a good half hour later, he knew what it meant, and turned away, moving uphill. He didn’t have to stick around long enough to see the hounds come out of that van.

Soon he heard them, though. There was an eager echo in their baying, as though they thought what they did was music.

Parker kept climbing. There was no way to know how high the hill was. He climbed to the north, and eventually the slope would start down the other side. He’d keep ahead of the dogs, and somewhere along the line he’d find a place to hole up. He could keep away from the pursuit until dark, and then he’d decide what to do next.

He kept climbing.