Kendra pressed hard on the accelerator. “Whoever they are, I don’t want to lead them to that bag. We’ll double back as soon as we figure out how to lose them.”

“Any idea how to do that?”

“I’m working on it.”

Kendra poured on another burst of speed, putting a bend in the road between them and their tail. The Caprice was hanging back about a quarter of a mile now, but she’d stretched the gap slightly. She looked ahead, searching … There was a small mobile-home park on the right, and beyond that, nothing.

“Hang on,” she said. “This is going to be a little rough.”

Kendra cut the wheel hard right and spun into the trailer-park entrance. She gave the accelerator another jolt. Her wheels kicked up a cloud of dirt and gravel as they sped toward the back of the park. She braked hard and cut the lights.

Silence.

A few seconds later, the Caprice roared past the entrance.

Kendra drew a deep breath and turned toward Beth. “It won’t take them long to realize what we did. They’ll be back.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“You’re acting as if I have one. I’m reacting purely on instinct. We’ll stay off the road and work our way down the hill from here. We can get back to the marker in just a few minutes.”

They threw open the doors and ran the length of the trailer park. They climbed a chain-link fence and worked their way down a steep hillside until they hit the relatively level desert floor.

Kendra motioned back toward the winding road. “This way.”

Beth cursed as the low branches scratched her face and caught in her hair. “Not so fast. Where did that moonlight go? It’s pitch-black now. I can’t see my hand in front of my face. I’m getting mauled here.”

“It’s okay. Just follow me.

Kendra darted in and out of the bushes and low trees, leading Beth over a clump of boulders that took them past the curve in the road above.

Beth grabbed Kendra’s arm to steady herself. “I can’t see, dammit. Did that surgery give you night vision, too?”

“Hardly.” Kendra was breathing hard, too. “You probably see better than I do.”

“Then how are you doing this?”

“Instinct. The air around objects feels differently to my hands and face. And there are aural differences when you’re faced with something as opposed to open air. Ask any blind person. It’s called acoustic wayfinding. It usually only comes in handy for me these days when I get up for glass of water in the middle of the night.”

“It’s obvious I’ve never developed that instinct.” She was looking around her. “But I think my eyes are getting used to the dark.”

“Good. Believe me, that works better.”

“How much farther?”

Kendra glanced up at the road. “We should start looking after another hundred yards or so. Be careful, it looks like there’s cactus on the ground here.”

They made a wide arc around a clump of cactus plants and pushed on, running alongside the hill that led up to the road fifty feet above.

“Damn.” Kendra pointed to the jagged hillside. “I hate to say it, but that bag could have gotten snagged anywhere on the way down.”

“Hey, I’ve got an idea. Let’s wait until Schultz gets back into town, and we’ll make him climb for it.”

“No time. And remember, you’re the one who wanted to play detective.”

“Don’t remind me. You know, I could be playing darts in a central California biker bar right now. More comfortable and less dangerous.”

“We both could be. After this is over, I say we—” Kendra stopped in the middle of the path.

Beth stopped with her. “What is it?”

“Get down,” Kendra whispered.

They crouched behind a large boulder. Kendra looked up. “Did you see that?”

“I didn’t see anything.”

“Look!” Kendra pointed to a pair of headlights gliding to a stop on the roadside above. The lights stayed on while two men climbed out of the car and looked down.

Kendra and Beth held their breaths and watched the men for a long moment.

“Who in the hell are these guys?” Beth whispered.

Kendra shook her head. The men were still only shadow figures. “I think the tall one is using binoculars. I don’t see a night-vision glow on them, so I think we’re okay.”

Almost simultaneously, bright flashlights powered on in the men’s hands. The high-wattage beams played across the hillside and darted over the brush where Kendra and Beth had been just moments before.

Kendra and Beth retreated behind a cluster of desert shrubs and watched as the flashlights continued to play over the area.

Kendra stiffened. “There it is.”

“What?”

She peered into the darkness. “I think I saw the bag. One of the flashlight beams went right over it.”

“Show me where.”

Kendra pointed to a spot at the bottom of the hill, about twenty yards from where they were hiding. Now that she knew where to look, she could see a reflection from the flashlight beams on the shiny black plastic. “It’s there.”

“I’ll have to take your word for it.”

At that moment, both men suddenly started down the hill.

“Shit,” Kendra said.

“Go get the bag,” Beth said.

“Are you crazy?”

Beth nodded toward the men, who were half sliding down the steep hill. “They’re using their flashlights to light their way down. Go now. I’ll meet you back at the car.”

“And what about those very determined guys who will try to intercept me?”

“Just get the bag and get out of here. They won’t be coming after us.”

“How do you know?”

“See you back at the car.” She disappeared into the bushes.

Kendra tried to stop her, but Beth was already sprinting toward the hill, several yards away from where the two men were still descending. What in hell was she thinking?

But one glance told Kendra that Beth was right about the men’s being focused on climbing down the hill. Now was her chance.

She sprinted toward the spot where the flashlight beam had briefly illuminated the bag’s shiny-plastic surface. Nothing but scrub brush and ground-cactus plants. Had it been just a trick of the light?

No. There it was!

She bent low and moved swiftly toward the bag.

She could hear curses and the sound of the men above her half sliding down the hill.

Quick.

She reached it an instant later. Not a trick of light. She picked up the large plastic bag, which was closed by a drawstring. There was lettering on the side that bore the logo of a downtown dry cleaner.

She had it.

Whatever the hell it was.

“Hey!”

She’d been spotted. Both flashlight beams swung in her direction!

She jumped to her feet and started running. The bag unbalanced her, and she fell to her knees.

“Get her. She’s down!”

She knew that voice.

Stokes.

Dammit, it had been the San Diego PD following them.

Stokes and … She couldn’t clearly make out the other officer on the slope, but she thought it might be Ketchum.

And there was no way she wanted them to confiscate this bag until she could look through it. She jumped to her feet and started running.

Slipped again.

Tumbled twenty feet. Hit hard.

Cactus. Stinging her face and neck.

But Stokes had slipped, too. He was struggling to get to his feet some distance away from her.

She got up and bolted back the way she and Beth had come.

Keep running. Keep ahead of him.

Screech. Crack.

The sound came from up above, on the road, in a groan of metal against rock. Before Kendra could look up, she was aware of the car’s headlight beams suddenly angled downward. She saw Stokes’s startled face caught in that beam as he stared up at the road.

Bam.

“No!” Stokes shouted, and started running up the hill as the Caprice rolled off the road.

Kendra stared at it in shock as she watched the car hurtling toward the desert floor.

What had happened?

They won’t follow us.