Read Night of Fear for Free Online Page B

What if he fired one, fatal shot before T.J. ever had a chance to ask the minivan driver for help?
    I’ll have to move fast, T.J. decided. He inched his head up just far enough to see the traffic light turn yellow.
    He jumped out of the truck, slammed the door behind him, and, crouching low, ran around the back of the truck. As he went past the back of the minivan, he banged on the rear window.
    The music was louder now, a heavy rock beat that swirled in the air around T.J.’s head. The minivan driver swayed in time to the beat.
    T.J., still crouching so he was out of Brody’s sight, reached up and thumped on the driver’s window.
    The light turned green.
    T.J. stood up. “Help!” he cried. “Let me in.” He tried to open the door but it was locked.
    The blue pickup drove away.
    The startled minivan driver peered through his window at T.J.
    T.J. banged again.
    “Hey, man!” the driver said. “Knock it off.”
    “Help!” T.J. said. “I need help.”
    The driver reached toward the dash and turned a knob. The music stopped. He rolled his window down an inch.
    “Give me a ride,” T.J. pleaded. “I need to get to a phone, to call the cops.”
    “Where’d you come from, kid? What you doin’ out here all alone at night?”
    “Can’t I tell you after you let me in? I can talk while you drive.”
    “I’m not lettin’ some stranger in my car without a good reason. What do you think I am, crazy?”
    “You saw that blue pickup that was next to you?”
    The driver nodded.
    “That guy robbed a bank today and killed the teller. He was hiding in my neighbor’s barn and I found him and he made me go with him. I jumped out just now, while he was stopped at the red light. He’ll probably be back for me any minute. Please! Let me come with you.”
    The driver stared at T.J. for a moment. His eyes were narrow, as if he were thinking about what T.J. had said.
    “What bank?” he asked.
    “Pine Ridge Bank. He still has the gun in his pocket.”
    The man shook his head. “You’re pretty young to be involved in some kind of scam,” he said.
    “This
isn’t
a scam. I need help!”
    “Sorry, kid,” the driver said. “I just listened to the news and you weren’t kidnapped by any bank robber.”
    “It wouldn’t be on the radio yet about me being kidnapped,” T.J. said. “It just happened a little while ago.”
    The man pointed a finger at T.J. “I don’t know what you’re tryin’ to pull, kid, but you aren’t pullin’ it on me.”
    He cranked the window back up. He reached for the radio knob and the rock music came back, full volume. The minivan took off. It turned left, accelerating quickly.
    “Wait!” T.J. shouted. He ran after the van, into the middle of the intersection, but it was clear that the driver wasn’t going to stop.
    Why didn’t the man believe him?
    He couldn’t stand there and wonder why. He had to get away, in case Brody came back, looking for him.
    T.J. ran to his right and started down the sidewalk. At least, he thought, I got away from the murderer in the pickup. I may not know where I am but wherever it is, it’s better than being in that truck. Another car is certain to come along soon. They don’t have traffic lights in areas where there isn’t any traffic. Or I’ll come to another phone booth, one that works.
    He jogged along, past a used bookstore, a yarn shop, and a child-care center, all of which were closed. He’d gone less than a block when he heard a vehicle approaching from behind him. He looked over his shoulder as he ran but he was looking directly into the headlights and couldn’t tell what kind of vehicle it was.
    Should he dart alongside one of the buildings and hide, in case it was Brody? Or should he take a chance that it was someone else, someone who could help him?
    Maybe the minivan driver had thought it over and had a change of heart. Maybe he realized that T.J. didn’t look like the sort of person who would be involved in a scam so hewent around the