He was scrambling to get out, but Nancy was too quick for him. She threw her full weight against his open door and slammed it on his fingers. She saw his face contort with pain before she took off.

Nancy looked quickly around. She was somewhere downtown, but she couldn’t tell where exactly. She dashed around the corner, where the traffic was heavier, and scanned the block frantically for a blue uniform or a squad car. But there were none in sight. Nancy kept running until she saw a man getting out of a cab.

“Taxi!” she yelled and darted toward it. It seemed like forever before the cab’s passenger retrieved his briefcase from the back seat and paid his fare. Nancy was terrified that she might be seen. But finally the passenger was gone, and she was safely in the cab.

“Where to?” the driver asked, turning around.

Nancy found herself staring into the brightest blue eyes she had ever seen, causing her to hesitate. The sunlight streaming through the taxi’s window made the driver’s thick, light hair shine.

Quickly regaining her composure, her first thought was to go to the movie house, to get her car and then go to the police.

“The Grand Cinema on Shepherd, please.”

“You got it.” The driver pulled away from the curb and reached for the mike hanging from the dashboard. “Two-nine-seven,” he said into it.

“Go ahead, two-nine-seven.”

Nancy frowned. The dispatcher sounded very much like the man she’d heard over the CB in the other car. Perhaps it hadn’t been a CB, but a two-way radio like this one. There’d been no cab light on the roof of that car, but considering how beatup it had been, it might have been a taxi at one time.

“Two-nine-seven going to the Gr-”

“Wait.” Nancy stopped him, speaking softly.

“Say again, two-nine-seven,” the dispatcher said. “You cut yourself off.”