Chapter 18            The Pine Valley squad car pulled ahead of the other vehicles and Trevor tumbled
     out, hearing the ambulance's wail in the distance but focusing all his attention on
     the overturned car. A couple of local cops jumped in his path; he fought to get
     past them. "We're from Pine Valley PD," Derek jumped in quickly. "This is the
     woman's fiancé."
         "Woman? What woman?"
         Trevor pushed on through and headed to the passenger's side. "This IS Axel Green's
     car, isn't it?" Derek asked.
         "So I've been told, but if there was a woman with him, there sure isn't now."
         Trevor discovered this for himself a few minutes later. He didn't know whether to
     be relieved or devastated.
         "Trevor... is it Axel?" Derek called to him. Trevor looked over and saw the all too
     familiar oaf, unconscious and on the verge of getting assistance. "If he wasn't
     already fighting for his life, I'd take over and make him lose the battle," he
     growled. "Yeah, it's him."
         "Is there any sight that Janet WAS in there?"
         Trevor cleared the remaining broken window away with the sleeve of his jacket
     and searched frantically for something to have fallen out of her purse, a lipstick,
     anything at all. What he came up with was proof positive. Derek caught up and
     found him with one brown leather pump; it appeared to be Janet's size.
         Trevor's rage was barely confinable. "Is he awake yet?" he shouted to the EMT's
     pulling Axel from the wreckage. "I want to know what the hell he did with her!!"
         Storming over to the other side of the car to shout uselessly at Axel, Trevor was held
     back by Derek and another cop. "Trev, you need to get a grip, man. Axel's no
     good to us right now."
         "He's no good to NOBODY!!" Trevor barked. "Derek, how are we gonna find her if
     she's knocked out too... or hurt in some other way... and can't get to a phone..."
     He took another helpless look at Axel as the medics loaded him onto a stretcher,
     then walked away in frustration. "And I'm only naming the GOOD things here!!
     What if it's worse??"
         Derek started to say something, but one of the local cops called him back. "We
     found these in the car too," he said, holding up the pistol and the open beer can.
         "Well that answers THAT question," Derek said with a sigh.
         "And your friend there's gonna need to give us that shoe he found, eventually..."
         "Just give him a few minutes, okay?" Derek looked sympathetically to Trevor
     clutching Janet's shoe to his chest. "No one's gonna miss that shoe but him for a
     while."          "Ouch... ouch... damn pebbles... why can't railroad tracks be built on something
     smooth... like a basketball court?" she muttered to herself.
         Derek was wrong. Janet was missing that shoe of hers something fierce, about 20
     minutes into her journey on foot. She'd run far enough into the maze of old
     warehouses to be safely hidden, yet was able to see Axel speed on into the
     darkness, no doubt discouraged from chasing her by the cars that had been
     approaching from both sides of the track. Fearing he might turn around and
     re-locate her if she walked down the road itself, she'd chosen to instead follow
     the railroad tracks that had permitted her to escape in the first place. So now she
     limped along, pantyhose off and tucked into the one shoe she'd successfully
     grabbed, wishing her reflexes had been just a little better when she needed
     them.
         But rounding the corner, she got an even better wish: a 7-11 sign glowing ahead,
     at the next intersection with a road. Limping or not, she was there in 5 minutes or
     less. No NOVA in sight... but no cops, either. Maybe they're all chasing Axel off the
     road, she with a dubious laugh.
         Eyeing the familiar convenience store greetings on the door, she pushed into the
     store cautiously. "Look... I know about the 'no shoes no service' thing," she told the
     cashier before he could even protest. "But in the time I explained to you WHY I
     have only one shoe, I could have made a couple calls and been out of here. So
     if you'll just please let me use a phone... any phone that'll reach Pine Valley..."
 
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