Baldacci snorted in disbelief and said something, but a car was roaring up South 16th Street behind him, and he couldn't hear.
And suddenly Baldacci was running toward him. He was rooted to the spot; it was well known that his response to the unexpected was glacial and then ill-advised.
He watched as Baldacci collided with him.
Baldacci shoved him into the recessed doorway of an office building, and then they both watched as an enormous black car tore past the doorway shaving a layer of brick off said building and shooting sparks as it passed.
The car slowed only slightly as it caromed off the building, but he did note a dark shape in the driver's seat. He thought the dark shape looked at him before regaining the street and continuing pell-mell up South 16th Street.
He opened his mouth but no words came out.
Baldacci said, "What the Hell!"
He was going to fall over. Well, he would if Baldacci wasn't holding onto him; as it was, he slid to the sidewalk as boneless as a jelly fish.
So Cory's FBI partner, Matt Bornheimer, had made it clear he would hurt one Gabe Bergeron if he stuck his nose into that partner's life. He didn't see what Matt's problem was. He just wanted to know about his family and any possible girlfriends and any other interesting minutiae.
But he had taken Matt's warning seriously and had been on his best, non-nosy behavior. And it absolutely wasn't his fault that that a stranger named Ruth Justice had asked him to investigate the disappearance of her father, who just happened to be Uwe Bornheimer. Who just happened to also be the father of Matthew Rilke Bornheimer.
But Matt Bornheimer wouldn't try to pulp him beneath the steel-belted radials of a Cadillac Sedan De Ville. He was sure of that. So who was trying to kill him? Was it even Bornheimer related?
