Less than ten minutes later, the two men—both out of breath—came hurrying up to the front of Jeremy’s apartment building. It was already getting dark.
“Looks peaceful enough,” David said.
“I’ll believe that when I’m inside and see that Melissa’s okay,” Jeremy said grimly.
The two walked up the steps quickly.
Jeremy stopped. “Quiet. I think I hear something,” he whispered.
There was a shuffling of feet from the landing overhead.
“Yes!” Jeremy cried. “Hurry!” He charged up the last flight of stairs, David lagging a little behind.
At the top of the landing he stopped. There, in front of him, with his hand on the doorknob of his apartment, was a short man in a gray hoodie.
“You!” demanded Jeremy. “What are you doing here?”
The man in the gray hoodie paused and turned part way around. He hesitated for a few seconds and then charged at Jeremy and David, pushing his way past them and hurling himself down the stairs.
Just then Melissa opened the door. “What’s wrong? What’s going on?”
“Who was that?” Jeremy said, breathing heavily. “Do you know him?”
Melissa paused for a second. “I’ve never seen him.”
“After him!” yelled Jeremy and bounded down the steps after the man. “C’mon!” he yelled over his shoulder to David. David hesitated briefly, glimpsing Melissa’s startled face, and then followed.
The man in the hoodie moved very rapidly. He was to the ground floor and out the door of the apartment building several seconds before Jeremy and David. He paused to look left for an instant and then headed to his right, almost knocking over an older lady clutching on to a shopping bag. Within seconds he had covered half a block.
Jeremy flew out the apartment building door with David right on his heels.
“Which way?” Jeremy screamed frantically, turning his head quickly in both directions.
David looked only to the right. “I think I see him!”
“Where?”
“That way!” David pointed violently to his right and started after the man. Jeremy soon caught him and passed him by.
The man in the hoodie jerked his head around to track his pursuers. He then sprinted across the street to the other side, stopping traffic and provoking curses from several drivers.
Jeremy and David followed the man across the street, but had to wait for a few seconds until the traffic presented a gap. The man in the hoodie chuckled and slowed down slightly as he watched Jeremy and David pause for the traffic.
Seconds later, Jeremy and David were across the street and in pursuit once again.
“Jeremy!” yelled David, panting heavily. “We should call the cops! Get some help!”
“No!” Jeremy demanded. “No cops!”
The man in the hoodie, who had slowed down to a trot as he dodged around the pedestrians milling about the sidewalk, looked back and saw Jeremy and David once again making up ground on him. “Screw them!” he muttered to himself. He looked quickly to the right and left and then dodged into an alley shooting out to his left. He made his way down the alley, pausing when he saw what appeared to be an abandoned garbage truck sticking out part way into the alley. He quietly climbed up into the back of the truck and waited.
“Where’d he go?” David said, puffing violently.
Jeremy slowed down to get his bearings. “I don’t know. Maybe he slipped into one of these stores,” he said, indicating several lighted storefronts with a sweep of his hand.
“I don’t know,” David said, starting to catch his breath. “Maybe, but those shops are all pretty small. I don’t think he’d have any place to hide in there.”
“Well, I don’t see or hear anybody moving ahead of us,” Jeremy said. “I think he’s here somewhere.”
David looked to the alley to his left. “Jeez, I hope he didn’t go in there. I can’t see a thing down there.”
“Probably a pretty good reason to go in there from his point of view,” Jeremy said calmly. “Let’s take a look.”
“Now wait a minute,” David said. “Is this a good idea? If he is in there, he has all the advantages.”
“Maybe, but there are two of us,” Jeremy said.
“Somehow I don’t see that as a great advantage since neither of us knows what he’s doing.”
“C’mon,” Jeremy said and began walking into the dark alley.
“If you say so,” David said, keeping a couple of steps behind him.
The two made their way slowly through the alley. Suddenly, a light blinked on toward the back of the alley, showing in silhouette the hooded man with a gun standing in the back of the dump truck.
David saw him first. “Oh crap! He’s got a gun!” David ducked down behind a metal trashcan.
“It’s alright,” Jeremy whispered. “I’ve got a gun too.”
Jeremy signaled for David to keep his head down while he pulled a small handgun from the inside of his jacket.
“You’ve got a gun?” David barked. “For Chrissakes, you’re a musician! You’ll kill both of us!”
Just then the man in the hoodie dove out of the back of the garbage truck and took off back toward the end of the ally.
“After him!” Jeremy commanded, slipping his gun back into his jacket pocket, and plunging ahead.
“This is so stupid,” muttered David as he began to follow Jeremy deeper into the alley.
When both men were about halfway through the alley, Jeremy pointed and said, “Look. It’s a dead end. He can’t get out of here.”
“Jeremy,” David said, trying to sound calm. “He’s got a gun. He can just walk over our dead bodies.”
“Shh!” Jeremy whispered. “Just follow me.”
Just then the single light illuminating the space went dark.
“Did he do that?” David said in an urgent whisper.
“It doesn’t matter. Follow me.”
The two men were almost at the end of the alley where more than two dozen barrels were stacked up on three levels.
“Careful now,” Jeremy whispered. The words were barely out of his mouth when several of the barrels began tumbling off the stack. One swept Jeremy off his feet and another hit him hard on the head. David rushed to his side and he could feel—rather than see—the man in the hoodie brush past him and disappear into the darkness behind him.