Body Rides Read Online Free PDF Page A

my shirt .
    And a dead man’s shoes .
    As he jogged by her side, he glanced all around. So far, so good. Still nobody in sight. Still no cars coming.
    Doesn’t mean we aren’t being watched .
    Doesn’t matter, he told himself. In this light, somebody’d have to be right in our faces to get a good look.
    A block to the left, the street suddenly brightened with the lights of a car approaching the intersection. ‘Watch out,’ Neal gasped. Moments later, the headlights appeared. No turn signal, but the car started to make a left-hand turn.
    Elise dropped. Neal dropped.
    They were both flat on the ground before the headlights swept by.
    Neal kept his head down as the brightness washed over him and went away. Not moving, he listened to the car’s engine. A steady, windy noise.
    What if it’s a cop car?
    What if it stops and the cops get out?
    The thoughts sickened him.
    But the car kept on moving. As its engine sound began to diminish, Neal raised his head. Just a regular passenger car. Near the stop sign at the corner, its brake lights came on, doubling the red brightness of its rear end. Though no turn signal started to blink, the car turned right and headed for the underpass.
    In front of Neal, Elise rose to her hands and knees.
    The shirt tail covered less than when she was standing. A lot less. Neal glimpsed the pale curves of her buttocks, the dark split between them, the backs of her legs. He turned away quickly, feeling guilty.
    Looking over his shoulder, he saw the car disappear into the underpass.
    When he faced forward, Elise was scurrying up. The shirt tail slid down and covered her rump.
    Neal scrambled to his feet and ran after her.
    Watched her leap the railroad tracks. Watched her duck through the gap in the chainlink fence. Watched her crouch by the side of the van.
    A few seconds later, he crouched facing her.
    They both huffed for air. His heart was slamming.
    ‘What’ll we do . . . with his van?’ Elise asked.
    ‘What’s in it? Anything of yours?’
    ‘Blood, sweat, whatever.’
    ‘Clothes?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Jewelry? Purse?’
    ‘Nothing.’
    ‘Fingerprints?’
    ‘My hands were tied behind me. I was on a mattress.’
    ‘What’s in there?’
    ‘I don’t know. It was dark. Should we drive it away? We could leave it a few miles from here, or something.’
    ‘We didn’t bring the keys.’
    For a few moments, Elise didn’t speak. Neal heard her quick breathing. Then she said, ‘One of us could go back for them.’
    ‘That’d be fun.’
    ‘Yeah. Any volunteers?’
    Neal imagined himself running all the way back, entering the darkness of the trees, creeping over to the body, reaching into the bushy mound, feeling blindly, digging a hand into a pocket of the dead man’s leather pants. All alone.
    And what if he’s not dead, after all?
    And if he is dead – a corpse?
    I’m all alone in the dark, digging into the pocket of a corpse.
    And while I’m busy at that cheerful task, Elise is waiting for me here, all by herself. God only knows who might happen to come along . . .
    Have her wait in my car.
    Big improvement.
    Neal was not about to let her go for the keys while he stayed behind. If it came to that, he would go instead.
    ‘We could both go back,’ Elise suggested.
    ‘Let’s just leave the thing here. Even if we had the keys . . . The less we have to do with the van, the better. You never know. We try driving it someplace, we’re just asking for trouble. Somebody might see us. We might get stopped by a cop. We’d have to worry about leaving prints inside – hair, blood. Let’s not bother. It isn’t all that conspicuous here, anyway. It could probably sit here for a week without anyone giving it a second thought.’
    ‘You’re probably right about that.’
    ‘Besides,’ Neal said, ‘there might be something inside that’ll incriminate the guy. Which would be good for us, in case we do end up getting caught.’
    ‘Okay. So we leave it here?’
    ‘Might as well. I’ll