the torso and helped him sit up. Even that effort was almost too much; Doc almost passed out just getting upright. But a minute later Harris got Doc up on his feet, pulling Doc’s arm over his shoulder. Doc didn’t let him know how much that hurt.
They took the stairs as fast as Doc’s weakened, rubbery legs would allow. “We’re on the second floor,” Harris said. “Almost down. Gaby’s next-door neighbor heard enough to scare him and he rolled the cops. The real ones, I mean. I can hear a siren. Man, I’ve got to get you some medical help.”
Doc couldn’t lift his head but could shake it. “No,” he whispered. “They would kill me. By accident if nothing else. Get me clear of here.”
A dozen more bone-jarring steps and they were at the front door, then beyond. There was no traffic on the street, but the sirens were getting louder. Harris got Doc down the concrete steps and to the sidewalk, then turned away from the sound of sirens. “Easy does it. Look casual. Look drunk. If we can make it a couple of blocks, we can get to the subway and be away from here.”
Something stirred at the back of Doc’s memory. It was so hard to think . . . “Gaby Donohue was returning home.”
“Shit.”
“No need to curse.”
“Right, right. I’ve got no reason at all.”
Chapter Eleven
Gaby put down the phone, took a deep breath, and told Elaine and Jim, “We need to get out of here.” Then she explained.
It was a nerve-wracking ten minutes. They dressed, crept out the back door into the darkened yard and climbed clumsily over the back fence. A few minutes later and a block away, they were hammering on the back door to the house of one of Elaine’s suicide-hotline friends.
A good friend. She heard what Elaine had to say and volunteered Gaby her car with no hesitation. Then she set about opening up the bed in the couch for Elaine and Jim.
So her departure had come off without a problem. Her arrival at home was another matter.
When she pulled onto her own street, she saw the official vehicle, a squad car, parked right in front of her building. Something had obviously gone wrong here.
No parking available—as usual. She parked in a tow-away zone