Page 33 of Go Now
‘Wait,’ said Kate.‘We should -’
The rest of her sentence was cut off by a loud bang from the hallway.
‘He’s out the door!’
Marcus ran out after him, losing valuable seconds as he grappled with the door latch and emerging from the apartment to see Caldwell moving with surprising speed down the row of apartments.
‘Stop!’
Caldwell reached the end of the row then, to Marcus’s amazement and horror, climbed up on the ledge of the breezeway, wobbling slightly as he straightened up. Marcus came to a stop.
‘James.Don’t be stupid.You’ll kill yourself.’
Caldwell turned and looked at him, open-eyed, open-mouthed.Then he launched himself into the air.
‘No!’
But instead of plummeting to the ground, Caldwell had jumped onto the next row of apartments, which ran along the top of the adjacent building.
Marcus headed back towards the stairs, intersecting with Kate and Chen on the way.
‘He jumped onto the next building!’
They ran down the stairway, slowed down again as they tried to squeeze past a young mother and a child in a stroller.Back on the sidewalk, they ran down towards the next building. There was an identical stairway leading to the top-floor apartments, and Marcus bounded up it, three steps at a time, expecting to crash straight into Caldwell on the way.Eventually, he made it to the top, where he peered over the rail to see Kate and Chen on the sidewalk below, struggling with the massive Caldwell, as a small crowd of onlookers gathered.
Cursing, Marcus headed back down the stairs, joining his colleagues on the street just as Caldwell flung Chen several feet into a collection of trash cans.Much to the delight of the onlookers and their outstretched cellphones, the big man now had Kate in an armlock; she was kicking backwards, vainly trying to connect with his shins, or get her leg around one of his and twist, but his strength and agility were formidable.
Taking a split second to assess the situation, Marcus decided against drawing his weapon; there were too many bystanders, too close, and more were coming out of the laundromat, one avid spectator with a pile of wet clothes still in his hands.Instead, Marcus jumped on Caldwell from behind and the two of them finally managed to bring the big man to the ground, though he kept struggling and kicking and cursing until the cuffs were snapped on.
‘This is police brutality!’Caldwell roared.‘This is happening, this is happening your streets right now!’
‘You’re hurting yourself, Caldwell,’ Kate said, through gritted teeth, as she tried to haul him upright.
‘I’m in pain!’Caldwell shouted.‘I had back surgery just last week!’
‘Two on one,’ commented one of the street film crew.‘Nasty.’
There were shouts of agreement from the crowd as another onlooker shoved his camera right in Marcus’s face.‘Tell me why the Feds fight dirty, man.’
Marcus put his hand up to the lens and told the cameraman to get lost.Then, to the hoots and jeers of the street, they limped back towards their vehicle with their captive, a sorry spectacle, feeling little pride in their arrest.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Caldwell was almost superhuman, Kate thought, as he grabbed the steaming hot cup of coffee in his paw, registering no pain or discomfort.He brought it to his lips and swallowed the lot in one gulp, the sort of feat you could only achieve if you were made of asbestos. There was a further possibility, of course, which was that he was extremely high on some kind of stimulant, but there were no other signs of that; the man's breathing was regular, his eyes focused.
She took a cautious sip of her own brew, praying for inspiration.Checked the clock, although she knew it would be roughly a minute later than when she’d last done so. The interview was going nowhere.
‘Why did you run?’Marcus asked, for the third time.
‘You took a serious risk,’ Kate added.‘Jumping onto the next building.Why would you be so desperate to avoid talking to us?’
‘I’ve done it before,’ Caldwell replied.‘Plenty of times.I knew it was possible.’
‘Why would you have done it before?Are you often being chased, James?’
‘You don’t like being followed, but it’s okay for you to do it to other people?’
Caldwell said nothing. It had been like this for the past 43 minutes.He'd occasionally answer a tangential question, but when faced with anything deeper, pertaining to the blog, or his stalking of the artists, or his whereabouts at the time of Ashworth and Vasquez's deaths… Zilch.He just sat there like a boulder, staring at his own huge hands.
