Page 71 of Alex Cross Must Die

The doors slammed shut and the car took off through the red light, barely missing an oncoming van.

Holmes looked to his left. They were just one block north of the police perimeter. He could see the portable white barriers and the blinking blue lights on the police SUVs.

He turned back just in time to see Poe disappear into the front lot of an auto body shop. When Holmes reached the entrance, a 1990s vintage Ford was pulling out.

“Get in!” shouted Poe. He reached across and pushed the passenger door open.

Holmes slid into the seat. The interior smelled like mold. He glanced at the steering column and saw a screwdriver jammed into the ignition slot.

“Couldn’t find the key,” said Poe.

He cranked the wheel and careened onto the street, just making it through the intersection on a yellow light. The chassis rattled and the engine whined.

“There!” shouted Holmes.

The Mercedes was a block ahead, inching through another red light, angling for an opening. As soon as the driver found room, he gunned the car through the gap.

“Dammit! Move!” Poe shouted. Holmes was jammed back against his seat as Poe floored the accelerator, following the Mercedes up the ramp onto the 278 Expressway. They were pushing 70 now, heading toward Sunnyside. Holmes glanced at the dashboard just as the oil pressure icon started blinking.

“Hold on!” Poe shouted. “This thing could seize up or blow.”

The Mercedes swerved onto an exit ramp, barely missing the barrier. Poe slammed on the brakes. The Ford went into a skid. A pickup careened around to the left, clipping the rear bumper. Poe jammed his foot down on the accelerator. He fishtailed across the white stripes bordering the exit, then straightened out on the ramp.

“Left! Left!” shouted Holmes, leaning forward to keep the Mercedes’s taillights in sight. Poe roared down the incline and yanked the wheel hard into the turn, tires squealing. They were just three cars behind.

The Mercedes made a sharp right onto a one-way street. Poe followed.

“Wrong way!” Holmes shouted.

“No choice!” Poe shouted back.

When they rounded the corner, a delivery truck was barreling toward them, horn blaring. Poe swung the Ford onto the sidewalk. Holmes ducked as the passing truck knocked the mirror off his side.

Poe gunned the Ford off the curb and accelerated down the narrow street. The sound of the engine echoed off the building walls. One block. Two blocks. Then a hard right onto another main drag. Holmes leaned forward onto the dashboard. He spotted the Mercedes’s taillights a block ahead.

“On the right!” he shouted.

The Mercedes was sitting at an angle, having crashed halfway through a set of elaborate wrought-iron gates. The hood was crumpled, and the front car doors were hanging partway open. Poe pulled to a hard stop a few yards behind, then kicked his door open and jumped out, pistol raised. Steam was pouring from under the Ford’s hood. As Holmes scrambled out of the passenger seat, he saw Poe sweeping the interior of the Mercedes.

“Empty!” Poe shouted. He looked to the right. “This way!”

Holmes sprinted down the sidewalk and followed his partner through the gates. He looked up and saw:

CALVARY CEMETERY.

CHAPTER 79

“THERE!”

Holmes pointed toward a pair of moving shadows about twenty yards ahead. He heard a loud pop as a shard of stone stung his cheek.

Poe ran forward and ducked behind a huge obelisk. Holmes ran up beside him and pressed his back against the thick pillar. He peeked around the corner, making a quick scan through the bleak forest of stone.

Nothing moving.

“Let’s go!” said Poe. “Stay close!”

They moved in a crouch across the patches of green between the monuments.

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