CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
Kate pressed her foot harder against the accelerator, her sedan's engine straining as she fought to keep pace with Margaret Holloway's van.
She cursed under her breath as she navigated around a Mercedes, her side mirror clipping the luxury car's bumper with a sharp crack.
The streets in this part of Richmond were lined with mature oak and maple trees that created a canopy overhead, their branches reaching across the roadway in some places and leaving narrow channels for traffic.
Margaret had already showed how difficult it was to maneuver the van down these thin thoroughfares. And now, the interstate was right there, just several hundred yards ahead. But even before the van veered toward the exit, Kate knew Margaret was going too fast to take the sharp turn.
Margaret's van took the next corner too fast, its higher center of gravity causing it to lean dangerously to one side. Kate could see the vehicle's left wheels lift slightly off the pavement before slamming back down with a bounce that sent Margaret veering into the opposite lane.
That's when Kate saw the oncoming car.
A dark blue sedan was driving toward them in the opposite lane, its elderly driver unaware of the high-speed chase bearing down on him.
Kate could see the man's relaxed posture and casual grip on the steering wheel, suggesting he was probably heading to the grocery store or some other routine errand with no idea that his morning was about to become a life-or-death situation.
"She's going to hit him," DeMarco said, her voice tight with tension.
Margaret must have seen the oncoming vehicle at the last possible moment.
Her van swerved violently to the right, missing the sedan's front bumper by what couldn't have been more than inches.
Kate caught a glimpse of the elderly driver's terrified face as Margaret's van roared past him, so close that she could see him mouthing what was probably a prayer.
But Margaret's desperate evasive maneuver sent her van careening toward the edge of the exit ramp.
Kate watched in a mixture of relief and horror as Margaret lost control completely, the van's front wheels striking the curb and launching the vehicle partially airborne.
She hit the sign that warned drivers to slow down for the ramp, knocking it down.
And then it half-flipped into the massive oak tree a few feet behind it.
The impact with the tree was devastating. The van's front end crumpled like an accordion, the hood folding upward as the engine block was driven backward into the passenger compartment. The windshield exploded in a spider web of cracks, and steam began rising from the destroyed radiator.
Kate hit her brakes hard, feeling her sedan slide across the asphalt as she fought to avoid colliding with Margaret's destroyed van.
She managed to bring her vehicle to a stop about twenty feet behind the crash site, cutting her hazard lights on as her heart pounded from the adrenaline that had been coursing through her system during the entire chase.
The sudden silence was almost deafening after the noise and chaos of the pursuit. Kate could hear her own breathing and the tick of her sedan's cooling engine, along with the distant sound of sirens that were finally getting closer to their location.
"Are you okay?" Kate asked DeMarco, who was already unbuckling her seatbelt.
"I'm fine,” her partner said, though her eyes looked wide and wild. “Let's check on her."
They both got out of the sedan and approached Margaret's van cautiously, their hands resting on their weapons in case the crash hadn't ended the threat.
With its front axle bent at an impossible angle and one front wheel lying several feet away from the vehicle, the van was clearly not going anywhere.
DeMarco moved to the driver's side window while Kate positioned herself so that she could see both Margaret and the surrounding area. The van's windshield was so badly cracked that it was impossible to see inside clearly, but there was no movement from the driver's seat.
"Margaret Holloway," DeMarco called out, tapping on the window with her knuckle. "This is the FBI. Can you hear me?"
No response.
DeMarco tried the door handle and found it jammed from the impact. She cupped her hands around her eyes and peered through the damaged window, then looked back at Kate with a grim expression.
"She's out. Bleeding from the forehead, but I can see her chest moving, so she's breathing."
Kate pulled out her phone to call for emergency medical services while DeMarco continued trying to assess Margaret's condition through the damaged window.
The irony wasn't lost on Kate that they were working to save the life of the woman who had methodically murdered three innocent people.
Behind her, the wail of police sirens filtered closer, turning the morning into a field of chaos.
Kate could see the flashing lights of multiple emergency vehicles approaching their location.
The cavalry was arriving, though the chase was over.
Kate looked at the destroyed van and thought about how close they had all come to disaster during the pursuit.
The elderly driver who had narrowly avoided a head-on collision, the jogger who had pressed herself against the mailbox, the young children who might have been playing in yards along their route.
At her age, with her responsibilities to Allen and Michael, she needed to find ways to do her job that didn't involve so much physical risk.
But today, the risk had paid off. Margaret Holloway was in custody, though in bad shape from the looks of it, unconscious and injured, but alive to face justice for her crimes.
The families of Carol Bennett, Thomas Rodriguez, and Linda Harper would finally have answers about what had happened to their loved ones.
As the first police cars reached the crash site, Kate felt the familiar mixture of satisfaction and exhaustion that came with closing a difficult case.
The adrenaline was already beginning to fade, leaving her aware of the various aches and bruises she'd accumulated during the chase.
She wished things could have gone smoother at the end, but at least they had their killer off the street.
But even above all of that, she was thinking about Allen and Michael as her heart beat like a kick drum in her chest. She’d made it through yet another dangerous series of moments, making it far too easy to imagine how good it would feel to go home to them once all the paperwork and debriefing sessions were finally complete.
And that feeling, in that moment, was all she needed to convince herself that it was time to walk away from the bureau once and for all.