She led Marc around the block, back to the alley that had proved their one-way path to dilemma in the first place.
Marc hung back. "What's the idea?" he asked.
"The taxi," Toffee explained brightly. "The one the cops arrived in. It's the only transportation for miles that isn't all tied up. And it's just waiting for someone to come along and snag it."
Marc shrugged wearily and followed without protest as Toffee crossed to the driver's window and stuck her head inside.
"Is this car for hire?" she smiled.
The driver, an open-faced fellow of obvious good will, smiled back. "I'm supposed to be waitin' here for a couple of cops, lady," he said. "They said I wasn't to leave till they told me. They said...." Suddenly he broke off, his eyes focused on Toffee's fiery red jersey. "Say! Ain't that one of Neopolitain High's sweat shirts you got on there?" Admiration grew in his face as Toffee nodded. "I gotta kid over at that school, lady. I bet you have too." Toffee maintained a discreet silence on this point. "Maybe you seen my kid play basketball sometime."
Toffee looked at the driver closely. "Is he a tow-headed little devil with searching blue eyes?" she asked.
"Could be, lady. Sounds like him. He's a real nice kid."
Toffee's answering laugh was brief and bitter, but the driver didn't notice. He was busy opening the rear door.
"Hop in!" he said grandly. "Anything for good old Neopolitain High!"