Collins, Max Allan - Nathan Heller 14 by Chicago Confidential (v5.0)

Author:Chicago Confidential (v5.0) [Confidential, Chicago]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Published: 2011-09-13T05:00:00+00:00

Since no getaway car was in sight down the alley, I figured the shooters had jumped a backyard fence to cut over to either Addison or Eddy, where their vehicle would be parked, possibly with a wheelman waiting.

As I backed out into Wolcott—catching a break: no cars in either lane—I craned around looking left and right, checking both streets and saw a maroon coupe, a Ford, go flying east on Eddy, the driver hunkered forward, like he was in a goddamn stockcar race.

That was good enough for me.

I swung the Olds around and took pursuit—twilight had faded fully into nighttime—but when I turned onto Eddy, the maroon coupe was not in sight. That was no surprise—after going under the El, Eddy dead-ended just half a block off Wolcott. I could see taillights glowing like red eyes in the darkness, about a block down Ravenswood, a deserted-looking street to my left, and that had to be the coupe, although I’d have to get closer to find out for sure.

I took the left onto Ravenswood, and followed the taillights, warehouses and factory lofts to one side of me, an embankment on the other. The maroon coupe—if that was the coupe up ahead—had slowed down, and I stayed back; unless I wanted a full-blown chase, I needed not to attract their suspicion, which on this desolate stretch wasn’t easy. I cut my headlamps.

Three blocks down Ravenswood, the vehicle turned right on Roscoe, as if tracing the path of the El tracks; in doing so, the coupe revealed itself definitely as the maroon Ford, gliding under a streetlight. The driver wasn’t sitting forward now, and the car was moving along at a legal twenty-five miles per hour. No sign that they’d spotted me….

Soon the coupe had turned right onto Lincoln Avenue, and we were no longer alone, or in the dark—this was a busy shopping district, rich with German bakeries and small shops of every stripe, dominated by a huge Goldblatt’s department store, the sidewalks crowded, the streets clogged with traffic. I put the lights back on, though I hardly needed them. This wide busy thoroughfare allowed me to put several cars between my Olds and the maroon coupe—they still hadn’t made me, it appeared—but when we approached the Lincoln/Belmont/Ashland intersection, I got worried.

This was one of Chicago’s patented crazy three-way intersections, with Lincoln cutting diagonally across Ashland and Belmont, the kind of crossing that can give a tourist an instant nervous breakdown…and even a veteran Chicago driver the shakes….

The coupe did not take the sharp left onto Belmont, but the easier, saner one onto Ashland. That made my life easier, too, if not saner—this was a four-lane boulevard, sharing space with the streetcar line, and gave me more maneuvering room. I was now having no trouble maintaining a tailing distance of almost a block, keeping cars between us. Most of the time I was driving one-handed, as I had never let loose of the nine millimeter in my fist; and no other drivers

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