"Any idea how far up he is on you?" I asked.

Five answered. "Probably not more than a mile. I'm doing about sixty, and it's really hard to stay on the road. His tracks look like he's fishtailing a lot on the curves, so he's probably about sixty too."

"Ten-four, and where's Nine at?"

"Ah just tried to cut 'em off and missed…" came Nine's familiar drawl. "Ah'm behind Five somewhere, I think…"

Out of the picture, in other words. Damn.

"You think I can get to the intersection by Ullan's farm, Five, before the suspect gets there?"

"Close…" he said. "Could be close."

I was still on paved roads, as opposed to the gravels the chase was on, so I was able to take a few more chances. I pushed it up to about 75 on the straight stretches… but had to back off pretty far on the downhill curves.

I figured I could cut the chase off. I hate that. No lonelier feeling in the world than to have a pursuit coming right at you. It had to be done. If not, the suspect would be in Ossian County in two minutes after turning onto the paving.

"Comm, Three," I said, after switching the radio to the INFO channel, "you might see if Ossian County has a car anywhere near this area."

A few seconds later, as I descended a long, straight hill, I could see the intersection by Ullan's farm. No lights visible except the golden glow of the yard light near Ullan's house.

"Three's comin' down the hill to Ullan's, and nothing yet…"

"Three, Five… he's gotta be close, because I just passed the quarry…"

The quarry was less than three miles from the highway.

"Ten-four, Five." I slid to a halt with my car across the gravel road at the intersection. "Uh, you got anything good on this guy, or what?" I had to know if there was any sort of a confirmation of a crime, hopefully a felony.