Free Innocent Bystander by Glenn Richards Page A

needing a recharge.
    “You think we lost them?” she asked.
    Burnett bit his lip and shook his head with uncertainty. Cars crowded the street. She accelerated the Leaf and passed an SUV. He watched and waited, hoping none of the vehicles behind them would follow suit. Ten seconds later another car duplicated their maneuver. The headlights fell in line behind them.
    “Why are they following us?” she asked and smacked her palm against the wheel. “Why aren’t they looking for that scrawny little bitch?”
    “You know why. They don’t believe she exists.”
    “How can she not be on any security videos? How can no one have seen her?”
    A familiar answer tried to sneak into his mind.
    “It’s not fair, goddammit,” she said. “You tried to help him. You tried to save him.”
    She stared straight ahead while the Leaf traveled slower and slower. He prepared to ask if she was okay when without warning she stomped on the brake. An instant later she jerked the wheel to the left. The Leaf skidded to a stop across the street and blocked both lanes. She shoved open the door.
    “What are you doing?” he asked.
    She didn’t reply. She jumped out and marched up to the black sedan idling thirty feet behind them. The sedan lurched backward. A box truck thwarted its retreat.
    Burnett exited the Leaf but remained by the open door.
    “Leave us alone, goddammit!” she screamed at the sedan’s windshield. “Go find that little bitch. She did this. You hear me in there? You find her.”
    Burnett stood, frozen. He needed to race over and drag her back before she further complicated matters, but he couldn’t will himself forward.
    “Come out here and talk to me face to face, you little weasels,” she yelled.
    No one exited the sedan.
    Car horns honked. Drivers and passengers cursed at her.
    She didn’t seem to notice. “You find that little skank. You find her and you ask her why she killed Henri.”
    Cars had stopped in both directions. She pivoted her head and appeared to realize she’d become the center of attention for dozens of people.
    Head lowered, she backed away several steps. “You find her.” She glanced up. “And you get some answers from her.”
    She returned to the Leaf. Burnett fell into his seat. She entered without a word, thrust the Leaf into gear, and drove off in silence.
    The sedan did not follow.
    * * *
    Emma and Burnett sat across from Mr. Frank’s desk. The office was a room attached to the side of his house. She noted the homemade bookshelves, bursting with everything from mysteries to travel guides to self-help books, that filled three of the four walls. A flat Staples calendar covered a third of the desk, and a wobbly stack of books teetered on a corner.
    Doesn’t this guy own a computer? she wondered.
    Mr. Frank, the PI, glanced at the note he’d just scribbled. “She actually told you she was from the future?” he said and chuckled.
    A prickle of fear flashed through Emma’s chest. What would she do if he actually tracked Audrey down? At that moment, seated beside Burnett in the office, she believed she might kill her. Why turn her over to the police? No doubt she’d be tried as a juvenile and slapped on the wrist. She didn’t push Henri off the balcony, but she might as well have, considering his state of mind after her story.
    “I bet the cops got a rise out of that,” Mr. Frank said. He rolled his chair back, then forward.
    “That’s why we came to you,” she said. She estimated the man to be between fifty and fifty-five years old. Judging by the paint chips strewn across the floor and the water-damaged ceiling, she also guessed a couple extra bucks would be a priority.
    “You believe us?” Burnett asked.
    “I believe a girl showed up at his apartment and told you that story.”
    “That’s more than the cops believe,” Burnett said.
    Curiosity spread across Mr. Frank’s face.
    “Nobody saw her but us,” Burnett said.
    The PI jacked up a suspicious eyebrow. Without