Chapter 66

 

New Haven, CT

10:50 p.m.

 

“He’s dead,” Bruce announced after reaching over the seat to check for Barnhardt’s pulse.

Glancing at the body slumped over the center console, McCann had no doubt. Turning on the siren and lights, he gunned the ambulance along Church Street, swerving between cars. Checking the side view mirror, he could see the black SUV was right on his tail.

“Check his pockets. He must have something on him. What did he mean by leaving you a present?”

“Whether he was lying or telling the truth,” Sarah said from the back, “everything he told us is worthless without proof. There’s no way we can repeat any of this to Admiral Meisner without having him hand our heads back to us.”

“Can you trust this Admiral Meisner?” Amy asked.

Neither of the two working for the admiral answered the question.

Nearing the end of the city green, the SUV pulled beside them. Jerking the wheel of the ambulance to the right, McCann buffeted the car into the far right lane and then cranked the wheel to the left, his vehicle bouncing up onto the sidewalk in front of the courthouse before racing along the north side of the green.

Thankfully, most of the foot traffic for the demonstration was in the center of the green. The only things McCann hit were a couple of newspaper boxes, a sign or two, and a mailbox.

Bruce pulled a few things out of the dead man’s pockets. “Wallet, cell phone, pocket knife, house keys. Damn it! There’s nothing.”

McCann took another look in the side mirror. Two cars were chasing after them, now. Both unmarked SUVs. Very much government type, he thought. A police car followed them.

“We can’t get away from them in this thing,” McCann warned them. “And it’s only a matter of minutes before the hospital reports the ambulance stolen. Then, every police car in the state will be after us, too.”

“Remember what Barnhardt said about reporters and cameras?” Amy asked.

McCann spotted a Channel 8 News van in the center of the crowd.

“Police, reporters, cameras,” he repeated. “I wonder how they’re going to explain this chase to them.”

As McCann cranked the wheel again to the left, the ambulance jerked up onto the sidewalk. McCann floored it across the green with his siren blaring.

“What are you going to do?” Sarah asked.

“You two better call someone you trust. You’ve got one minute,” he ordered.

McCann steered around groups of pedestrians toward the parked news vans. Behind them, the black SUVs were making their way more cautiously across the green.

Church Street was ahead, and on the far side, the steps of the newly renovated City Hall were brightly lit.

“Hold on,” he told them as the ambulance crashed through the wrought iron fence bordering the green, tearing across the wide sidewalk.

McCann drove straight into traffic, narrowly missing two cars coming from the right before smashing into two police cars that sat in a line of squad cars at the curb.

Cops came running from everywhere, swarming around the ambulance in seconds.

Bruce turned on his cell phone and started to make a call.

~~~~