Tee investigated the driveways as well. Progress was torturously slow, especially since he was tormented with the thought that the delay in this part of the town was only allowing McNeil to conduct his business somewhere else. But McNeil was out there somewhere, Tee was convinced of that.
It had been many years since he had patrolled the town at this time of night and he was being slowly mesmerized by the unchanging innocence of the drive when his radio crackled to life.
"You still there, ChieP" Metzger asked.
"I'm here."
"I think I've spotted McNeil's car."
"You think you've spotted it?"
"No, I've spotted it. I mean, I'm pretty sure. I don't know his license plate, but it looks like it-"
"Where?" Tee interrupted. "There's this long drivewayjust off of Kettle Creek.. "That's in my neighborhood. I know the one. Is the car there now?"
"Yes sir. Do you want me to-"
"Are you anywhere near it?"
"Well, actually, Chief, I'm parked right beside it."
"Do you see McNeil?"
"No sir."
"Then get away from it, drive away right now. Go to the spot on Hillspoint where we set up the radar trap. Turn off your lights and watch. You can see the entrance to Ketthe Creek from there. If McNeil comes out before I get there, call me and tell me which way he went.
Otherwise, just sit there and watch. If I pass you without pulling up, just stay there. Just keep watching until you hear from me. Clear?"
"Sure, you bet, Chief."
"What are you doing right now, Metzger?"
"Waiting for your instructions."
"I justgave you my instructions. Drive away from his car, now. Go to Hillspoint and wait."
"Right."
"Is your car moving, Metzger?"
There was a slight pause. Tee could imagine Metzger putting his car into gear and pulling back onto the road before answering. "Yes sir," he said.
"I'm on my way," said Tee.
Tee mentally ran through the houses on Kettle Creek that McNeil might possibly be visiting. The road was close to Tee's home; he and Marge had taken Sunday walks there in happier days, indulging in loose fantasies of buying other, grander houses, and together they knew or knew of virtually every homeowner on the road. Tee could think of none who had all pairs. Several of the couples were grandparents, one was a gay couple: two middle-aged men. None of these seemed within Johnny Appleseed's range of interests. The rest of the houses belonged to couples in their thirties and forties, some with preteens and several with adolescents, but none with children young enough to require nannies or mother's helpers or all pairs. The driveway could be just a drop spot for the car, of course. His quarry did not have to be on Kettle Creek. Johnny liked to go through the woods and he could be on a half-dozen other streets in ten minutes via the route through the trees.
Tee drove up the long hill, saw the reflector under Metzger's headlight, sticking out, typically, about eight inches farther than it should. When he came within Metzger's view, the idiot flashed his lights in recognition. Tee denied the impulse to pick up the radio and yell. He drove past the cruiser without glancing at it and turned into Kettle Creek. A shadow raced across the road in front of him and Tee flinched, remembering the deer that he had killed. The shadow was gone almost as soon as he saw it, and he tried to forget about it and concentrate on the problem of McNeil. He slowed as he passed the entrance to the long driveway. There was nothing he could do at the car itself, particularly not while in his cruiser. He would have to park and take to the woods himself, hoping to… The radio crackled again. "Chief? Chief?"
"Go ahead, goddamnit."
"Sorry."
"What is it, Metzger?"
"Somebody just came out of Kettle Creek and ran across the road. "
"McNeil?"
"I couldn't tell. I don't have my headlights on."
"Which way are they going?"
"Up the hill."
Tee reversed the car in a three-point turn and streaked back down Kettle Creek.
"Stay where you are and keep watching for McNeil's car," said Tee, already back at the entrance to the road. Metzger flashed his lights once more. Tee cursed and started up the hill, fast. This time he saw the shadow from behind, caught the shape that cast the shadow for a second before it ducked behind a tree.
Tee kept driving, trying to control his breath. It was a trick of the light, he said. He was seeing things, he told himself.
He topped the hill, turned left until he was out of sight for anyone climbing the rise, and slammed the car into the nearest driveway and doused the lights. Moving clumsily, he cut back on foot at an angle to intersect the person he had overtaken running up the hill. When he reached the spot he wanted he crouched at the base of a tree, panting and praying silently that he was wrong. The noise of the runner came in less than a minute, cutting across lawns, brushing hedges, and taking fences with practiced ease. Tee saw the shadow first, hugely elongated in the moonlight, looking like a monster crossing the town in giant strides, and then the substance, surprisingly petite. His daughter ran gracefully to her bedroom window and hauled herself in without a sound.
She looked as if she had done it hundreds of times. Tee stayed at the base of the tree, not knowing whether to weep or explode.
Metzger flashed his lights again as he saw Tee's cruiser racing down the hill, but this time it was Tee who spoke first on the radio.
"Just stay there," Tee growled. "Do you want backup?" Metzger asked.
"It's just McNeil," Tee said, trying to keep the fury from his voice.
"Why would I need backup?"
"Right you are. What should I do?"
"Just stay there, keep watching the road."
"But McNeil's already left, I told you."
Then stay there until he comes back," Tee said, clicking off the transmitter. He did not want backup. He did not want help. He did not want witnesses. Tee slewed the car around the curve leading into Ketterfield Road, a lengthy stretch through one of the few truly flat areas in Clamden, and caught sight of the taillights in the distance. He slammed the accelerator to the floor and turned on his flashing lights.
McNeil saw the cruiser bearing down on him in his rearview mirror. No siren, he noted. Old Tee wants me to see him but he doesn't want the rest of the town to hear him. Not good. He toyed for a moment with thoughts of trying to outrun the cruiser, then dismissed them as pointless. He kept driving at the same safe speed, stalling for time as he pressed a number on his car phone.
Tee knifed the cruiser in front of McNeil's parked automobile and ran back to it, grabbing the driver's-door handle as if he intended to rip it from its frame.
"Hi there, Tee. You're working late."
Tee hit McNeil in the side of the face with his fist, then pulled him out of the car and pushed him to the ground.
"Whoa," said McNeil. "Take it easy."
"You sonofabitch!" Tee knelt on McNeil's back and struck him in the kidney with his hand. McNeil groaned but did not move. "You dirty filthy sonofabitch."
"You wanna talk?" McNeil said, unable to keep the sarcasm from his tone. "Just ask."
Tee put his hand on McNeil's head and forced his face into the pavement.
"She's fifteen, you asshole! Fifteen years old! I'll arrest you for statutory rape."
"You don't want to put her through that," McNeil said, sneering.
"You think you're safe, don't you? You think no one will turn you in because of that, don't you?" Tee pulled his service automatic from its holster and pressed it against McNeil's ear. McNeil went as silent as stone.
"There's another way to deal with scum," Tee said. He cocked the automatic with an audible click. "Resist me, you sonofabitch," Tee growled. McNeil carefully did not move a muscle except to close his eyes.