15 Seconds Read Online Free PDF

alongside of her, staring in futility and frustration. The woman leered back at me like I was some kind of nutcase and changed lanes.
    “Fuck!” I slammed my palm against the steering wheel. The killer was heading away on I-10. Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck fuck!
    All of a sudden reality sank back into me. I had to go back to the scene and tell the police what I knew. I had to face a bunch of pissed-off, angry cops who might well slam me onto the ground and slap the cuffs on me again.
    “I need your name, sir!” the 911 operator kept insisting.
    Would they buy for one second what I’d been saying? That I was chasing after a blue car. The killer’s car. With nothing concrete to identify it. These same cops who had just seen me in cuffs, in the back of Martinez’s car. Having argued with the very policeman who was now dead! And taken off from the scene!
    “You have to find the car,” I said to the operator. “It’s heading west on I-10. It’s a blue sedan. Out-of-state plates. I think the first letters were AMD . . . Some kind of image on it, a dragon or winged bird. I’m heading back to the scene. Someone has to have spotted it.”
    I hung up and began retracing my route along Lakeview, nervously going over what I was about to face. Up ahead, it appeared as if traffic was being diverted off the main road. By now they’d probably found Martinez’s car. They all knew who I was anyway and what car I was driving. I’d have some explaining to do. How I didn’t kill Martinez. Why I’d run from the scene.
    I decided to give myself up to the first policeman I saw.
    About a mile from the scene, police cars had blocked Lakeview and were pushing traffic onto a side street. I knew I’d need a lawyer. A good one. A criminal attorney. As I inched closer to the cops, to my impending capture, I started going over in my head who I could call. I inched to about eight car lengths away, and spotted two navy-clad patrolmen waving cars away.
    My eyes stretched wide.
    One of them was that asshole. Rowley. Baldy. The one who just winked at me maliciously and said, “Just never let me catch you again!”
    He’d wanted to rip me a new one over nothing more than a traffic violation. Now one of his own had been murdered.
    He was the last person on earth I wanted to hand myself over to!
    I thought about pulling out of my lane and finding someone else. But there wasn’t anyone. Not here. The line of cars kept creeping forward. I had no choice but to inch closer, or draw attention to myself. The kind of attention I didn’t need right now.
    Suddenly Rowley looked up and scanned down the line of cars, and to my dismay, his eyes seemed to lock like a magnet on the sight of my white Caddie.
    Then they fixed directly on me.
    Every cell in my body froze. I put my hands up where he could see them. I didn’t know what else to do.
    Then I watched as the sonovabitch shouted something to his partner and reached for his gun.
    To my horror, he started running up the line of cars toward me.
    I started yelling, “No, it wasn’t me! It wasn’t me!” And he was shouting something back, “Out of the car! Out of the car!”
    Oh, shit!
    And then he aimed!
    My heart almost clawed its way up my throat as I vividly recalled what he had warned me of if our paths ever crossed again. A warning bell inside me rang: Henry, you have to get the hell away from this guy! Now!
    I jerked on the wheel and forced the Caddie out of my lane.
    I turned around and saw Rowley’s weapon aimed directly at me! He’s going to shoot, Henry! My heart clawed its way up my throat. No way I could simply make myself a sitting duck for him.
    I hit the gas.
    Suddenly the front windshield exploded, glass raining all over me. He was shooting!
    Oh my God!
    “No, no,” I yelled back in horror. “It wasn’t me!”
    I whipped my head back and saw Rowley again, this time in a shooter’s position, two hands on his weapon, steadying, eyes trained directly at me.
    He’s going to kill me!