Chapter 75

75

Shaw arrived at the bridge to see that the crane was still on, its diesel engine steadily rumbling.

He came in closer to the operator's cabin up atop its half-track crawlers, staring up at the shattered windshield.

"Shit," he said when he came close enough to see the door of it was open and no one was inside. He climbed up and looked in for blood splatter but, even up close, there was nothing.

"Shit," he said again. How did I miss?

He left the crane running and climbed down and hurried back out to the road. Doug was standing beside the fallen boom with two other SWAT cops, all of them jawing and looking around like tourists at an attraction.

"Get in that cab there and move this boom out of the way," Shaw said. "We also need to start a search on both sides of the river. They're probably already across."

"How do you know?" Doug said.

"Why would they drop the crane across the road? For kicks and giggles? Stop asking stupid questions. Just get in there and move the crane."

"How? I look like a construction worker to you?" Doug said.

"Improvise is how. Figure it out. Overcome."

Shaw climbed over the steel lattice of the crane onto the bridge. He went to the factory side of the bridge and stood looking at the back of the factory and at the water.

The river current was strong enough to throw up white water in the middle of it. No way had they crossed right here, he thought.

He looked north across the bridge up the river where it was open and then south down the river where the bank was covered in trees.

They had gone south under those trees, he decided.

"Where is the next bridge over the river south? Close?" he called into the mic.

"Not really," Doug told him. "Seven miles."

"I want a search team in the woods south of the factory," Shaw called as he headed back toward the dropped boom.

After he climbed over it again, he hopped over the Route 4 guardrail on his right and went down an embankment to the shore of the river beside the factory.

He walked along the back of the burning brick building and saw the open window where they had come out.

Walking south under the trees, he found a deer trail two minutes later. He was just about to head down it when he looked out over the water. The river had a bend here with a clearer view, and he thought he saw something. A mile away or so, there was a building.

He raised his night vision binoculars.

Then detected movement in the middle of the river.

It was a person on a cable.

Shaw dropped to one knee, raised the Barrett to his shoulder and put his right eye to the scope.