Free Last Call by James Grippando Page B

law-enforcement tap on the telephone tied his tongue in knots.
    “What’s the matter with you, boy? Say somethin’!”
    Isaac wasn’t even trying to sound cool anymore. Sirens blared in the background.
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    James Grippando
    “Knight, answer me already! You hear me? I know you can hear—aw, fuck you, then.That’s all I got to say to you. Just—”
    Theo waited for a click on the other end of the line, but it didn’t come. He couldn’t tell if Isaac was still there or not.
    The sirens were only getting louder.
    Chapter 9
    I saac left the pay phone’s receiver dangling from its metal cord.
    He was off and running with no idea where he was headed—a dangerous place for a fugitive to be.The dark cover of night was his only ally, and even that was betraying him. Moon over Miami—
    the city was famous for it.Tonight, it was like a spotlight.
    Could the damn thing be any brighter?
    Thankfully, the sirens had blown right past him. Two Miami-Dade Police Department vehicles were speeding west through the city of Homestead’s business district, toward the turnpike. Isaac tried to tell himself that maybe they’d been called to a holdup at a liquor store or a domestic disturbance, but he was certain that the cops were hot on his trail. Choppers whirred overhead, their searchlights cutting like lasers through the night sky. It wasn’t just a routine pass.They kept circling back, covering a defined urban and suburban area that included several square miles, but they seemed to be narrowing in on Isaac’s present position. The canine units couldn’t be far behind.
    It was time for a new plan.
    He sprinted down a dark alley in a strip mall and found himself at the loading dock behind a grocery store. He had to rest.
    Months of extra weightlifting in prison could only carry him so far. He hadn’t focused nearly enough on cardio training.The side-stitch in his abdomen felt like a knife in his belly.Traces of smoke in the air from those brushfires in the Everglades were starting to bother him. Damn drought. He couldn’t even make a run for the wilderness. Not that he would have wanted to go anywhere near 70
    James Grippando
    that place after dark. It was Alligators vs. Pythons out there, nature’s classic showdown between reptiles for the Everglades’ title of chief predator.And the fires worked to the advantage of the police; they didn’t waste their time trying to hunt him down in the middle of nowhere.
    Exhausted, he stopped and hid behind a towering stack of flattened cardboard boxes. He sat with his head between his knees, searching for a second wind.
    “Shoulda’ killed him,” he muttered beneath his breath. The smart thing would have been to take that hammer and bash the old man’s brains in, just like he’d done with that little barking fur ball. Isaac’s best advice inside the correctional center had come from a lifer who escaped from a Texas jail and got recaptured less than 300 yards from the Mexican border. “You wanna stay out of prison, you gotta take no prisoners,” said the voice of experience.
    “It’s their bad luck if they cross your path, but it’s you or them.”
    Isaac couldn’t know for sure, but he figured that the old man had wiggled free from the rags that bound his wrists and ankles, run to safety, and dialed 911. The cops might not have thrown every resource into south Miami-Dade County based solely on a tip from Theo Knight, an ex-con. But a second sighting cinched it. All that could have— should have—been avoided with just one swing of the hammer.
    Fool!
    He kicked over a stack of boxes in anger, then calmed himself.
    None of this was his fault.A measly two thousand bucks was what he had expected from Theo’s cash box. He got less then three hundred.That wasn’t nearly enough for a new identity and safe trans-port out of the country. And some OxyContin. Grind those pills to dust and snort ’em. Oxycotton. One dollar per milligram on the street. A quick but expensive high,