An Absence of Light

Burtell was good at what he was doing, keeping all four of his tails off balance, though none of them had been able to determine if he had even picked them up. From all indications he did not know they were there. Even so, the game continued, across the south side of the city through neighborhoods and expressways, through one, two, three, four, five massive interchanges that took them west and then north, suddenly cutting right to the heart of downtown and careening back out again on another angle to take them once again on 1-10 and, incredibly, once again onto the Sam Houston Tollway. Then to everyone’s amazement he suddenly pulled aside on the same overpass as before and lifted the hood of his car again.

This time it was Connie and Li who shot past him and Murray and Remberto who caught the stall on the access road. When Burtell got back into the car the second time, he pulled off on the access road, doubled back under the tollway, and headed into town on Richmond.

MURRAY: “Well, kids, this is looking different. Something’s up. Connie, Li, where are you guys?”

CONNIE: “We’re off the tollway at Bellaire headed for Southwest Freeway. Keep us posted, and we’ll intersect you as soon as we can.”

The drive down Richmond was without any evasive maneuvering by Burtell. He was a model driver, going exactly the speed limit, never going through an amber traffic light But this was deceivingly dangerous. Now they were down to only two vehicles, and they couldn’t stay on him long. Remberto passed him.

MURRAY: “We’re leading and following, Connie. Where are you?”

LI: “We’re hauling ass on Southwest. What’s your cross street?”

MURRAY: “Coming up on Ann Arbor. But he’s just puttering along.”

LI: “With luck we’ll see you at Chimney Rock.”

Which was exactly what happened. As soon as they came on Murray pulled off but Remberto remained in the lead. Nothing changed for another five minutes, Burtell the model driver staying with the flow of traffic which had gotten increasingly sparse. Then:

CONNIE: “He’s turning left on Sage.”

Connie, behind him, and Remberto, ahead of him, kept going. Li fell in behind him, but dropped way back because the street was almost deserted. In front of them only blocks away was the Galleria complex and slightly to their right the Transco Tower and its attendant fountain and park. Burtell turned right on Hidalgo and pulled to the side of the street across from the Transco Fountain. Li and Murray both continued by out of sight, and then Murray doubled back and entered Sage himself. He also turned on Hidalgo, but drove by and turned onto Post Oak and then into Bercher, where he parked.

MURRAY: “Be damned. He’s going to the fountain.” He looked at his watch. Burtell’s evasive maneuvers had lasted a marathon hour and five minutes.

The Transco Tower was the tallest office building outside downtown, a perfectly symmetrical tower of sixty-four stories topped by a rotating beacon that was lighted every night from dusk to midnight and was powerful enough to be seen twenty miles away. On the south side of the tower was a long, mall-like park having a sunken lawn with grassy slopes. At the end of the lawn was the Transco Fountain, a granite wall several stories high and ten or twelve feet thick built in a half circle and facing the tower. Water gushed out of the top of the wall and fell down the sheer, grooved sides of the granite semicircle in thin roiling sheets to a stepped stone base and pool. Standing on the inside of the semicircle, as the water thundered and sprayed around you, produced the strange sensation of levitation.

A few feet away from the fountain another wall stood between the fountain and the lawn, a neoclassical facade with three Roman arches through which the lower portion of the lighted fountain could be viewed from the lawn. In the evenings the lighted fountain and sloping sides of the sunken lawn were a favorite site for strollers, Frisbee-throwers, and families who let their children play along the long, grassy slopes that were lighted obliquely from the rippling reflections off the fountain.

By the time Burtell got out of his car and started walking casually toward the fountain and the scores of milling people along the mall and around the fountain, Murray’s drivers had parked at strategic places on opposite sides of the fountain complex, watching Burtell work his way slowly into the crowds.

MURRAY: “Everybody stay put There are a lot of people out there, but not enough. We’d need a swarm of people to keep from getting nailed. Boyd, Cheryl. How you guys lined up?”

CHERYL: “If they don’t go to the fountain I think I’ll be able to pick them up okay.”

BOYD: “I’m okay for now.”

MURRAY: “Okay, go ahead and shoot.”

Burtell strolled to the sidewalk that ran around the perimeter of the sunken lawn and began walking around it, beginning on the west side of the water curtain. As he walked he took something out of his suit coat pocket and began to eat.

MURRAY: “What the hell’s that?”

BOYD: “Looks like peanuts.”