Luke didn’t have much sympathy because he saw plenty of people texting and sending e-mails instead of paying attention to the road like they should. The girl was lucky the woman driving the minivan was on her way to pick up her kids and only had a sore neck, and that her children hadn’t been in the car, which was exactly what he’d told Missy Davis, teenage texter.
“You don’t understand,” she said, tears still streaming down her face. “My dad will take my keys away. I won’t have wheels ever again. He’ll probably even take my phone.”
The last two words were spoken at a high decibel level, followed by another round of racking sobs. One would think Missy’s entire life was over. Of course being seventeen, she probably thought it was.
When Missy’s father arrived at the scene, the girl’s eyes widened. Dad didn’t look happy at all.
“Officer, I’m Howard Davis, Missy’s father. Can you tell me what happened?”
Luke explained the accident, and Mr. Davis’s face grew more grim the further Luke got into his recounting of the scene.
“I see. Thank you.” Mr. Davis turned and headed toward his daughter, who appeared to have shrunk several inches as she leaned against the car. Luke kept an eye on the two of them to make sure no violence broke out. But all Mr. Davis did was hold out his hand. Missy dropped her car keys into it. He said a few more words, Missy opened her mouth as if to object, but then gave Mr. Davis her phone and dejectedly headed over to her dad’s car.
Maybe she’d learn a lesson from this. Luke hoped, anyway.
By the time the wrecker came and removed both vehicles from the scene, it was past eight and Luke was dragging. He stopped at the local convenience store for a cup of coffee, then headed down the main town highway to do a patrol.
That’s when his radio started squawking. The dispatcher came on with a burglary-in-progress code, the location not too far from where he was. He got on his radio and indicated he’d be heading there, one minute out. He hit his sirens and stepped on the gas.
It was the urgent care center, just across the parking lot from Emma’s vet clinic. A quick glance at the time showed that Emma should be just closing up. He hoped she and her staff were still inside. And safe.
He was the first car to arrive and reported his arrival, then slid on his bulletproof jacket and grabbed his rifle.
No alarms were going off, at least not audibly, which didn’t mean a silent alarm hadn’t been triggered. Backup was due to arrive in less than a minute. He hauled ass out of his car, opening the back door for Boomer. He gave Boomer the appropriate commands, indicating they were in search-and-stealth mode. Boomer stayed right by his side. The dog knew his job.
The front door of the clinic was locked since they closed at seven, so he hurried down the sidewalk of the shopping center so he could head around the back.
He could see Emma’s clinic from where he stood at the side of the shopping center. And just as he shifted around the corner, she came outside, by herself, no doubt locking up.
Something must have caught her eye, at the same time Luke heard a sound from the back. Emma’s gaze tracked the sound and Boomer emitted a low growl.
Luke gave him the command to silence. Now Luke hesitated, warring between wanting to shout out to Emma to go back inside and lock her door or staying quiet so he could continue to stalk the perp. Emma’s safety was paramount. She stood frozen to the spot, and that’s when Luke spotted the dark figure darting into the woods behind the shopping center.
He gave the Go signal to Boomer, who tore past him and into the woods at high speed. Luke called in that he was in pursuit, gave his location, and headed out after Boomer. He held up his hand, waving at Emma to go back inside. When he was sure she was going to follow direction, he took off after Boomer and the suspect.
He heard the sirens pull up at the front of the urgent care center, communicated his location as he entered the thick wooded area. Boomer barked, as he was trained, giving Luke the ability to track his whereabouts. Left, about fifty yards ahead. Breathing heavily, sweating under his Kevlar jacket as he ran like hell, Luke pushed through the dense brush, not wanting to use his flashlight in case the suspect had doubled back.
“Location, McCormack.”
It was one of his fellow officers; Luke gave his best guess as to where he was. “I’m not using my flashlight. Keep an eye out in case the perp doubles back out of this brush. I have Boomer in here with me. I sent him in when we saw the guy make a break for the woods.”
An hour later, there was no sign of the suspect. Luke, Boomer, and several of the Hope police force had combed the area, to no avail. The perp either had a foolproof escape plan or a car hidden nearby. Hell, maybe he’d hopped into the river and taken a boat. With all of them tramping through the woods, forensics likely wouldn’t be able to get decent shoe impressions.
His captain had shown up to review the scene, inside and out. This time the perp had set off the silent alarm. With the rash of burglaries lately, the urgent care center had beefed up its security, and cutting the outside alarm system had set off a backup. So when he broke in, the silent alarm had gone off.
They’d also wired in additional video surveillance, so they’d finally have something to look at, once the tech guys were able to download it.
In the meantime, Luke told his captain about Emma standing there watching the whole thing go down.
“A potential witness?” Pete asked.
“And a former victim of this dickhead.”
“Go talk to her.”
Luke nodded and headed across the parking lot. He pulled on the door, which Emma had wisely locked, so he knocked. Daisy came running to the door first, followed by Emma, who unlocked the door and let him in.
She was wide-eyed and pale, just like that night when she’d been burglarized. He wanted to put his arms around her and tell her everything was going to be all right, but he was on duty and there were other cops milling about outside who could see them.
“Are you all right?” he asked as she led him into her office.
She nodded, took a seat in one of the chairs across from her desk. “Yes. How about you? I saw you and Boomer run like crazy into the woods after that guy. Did you catch him?”
He shook his head. “Unfortunately, no. But we’re closing in. This is the first time we’ve gotten close enough to him to catch him in the act.”
“Except that one time he actually burglarized my place while I was here,” she reminded him.
“Yes. There was that. Too bad you’re not a cop.”
She laughed, clasping her hands together.
“You’re shaking.” He took a seat and put his hands over hers. “It’s going to be all right, Emma.”
She looked down at their hands, then back up at him. “I saw the guy, you know.”
Luke’s gut tightened. “How well did you see him?”
“Not all that well. He was wearing black pants or sweats, and a black hoodie pulled up over his head. I know he had blond hair, or maybe white hair. He paused for a fraction of a second, like maybe he heard something, and he looked my way. He saw me looking at him. Then he took off like he was running for his life and disappeared into the woods.”
Luke let go of her hands and pulled his notepad out of his pocket. “Okay, let’s go over this from the beginning so I can make this a part of my official report.”
Emma took a deep breath and tried to quell the shaking that had seemed to settle in every bone, every nerve ending of her body, from the moment she’d stepped outside to lock up. It was when she’d turned around that she’d caught a glance, a flash of someone coming out from the back of the shopping center in the other parking lot.
And then she’d seen Luke and Boomer hugging the side of the building, illuminated in the lights. She’d known immediately what was happening. Someone was burglarizing the urgent care center, the only facility in that center that carried drugs. Her gaze immediately tracked back to the burglar.
In that split second, she’d seen him, and he’d seen her watching him. It had only taken a few seconds at most, but the image, what had happened, was burned into her memory like it had all happened in slow motion.
“He was wearing jeans, now that I think about it. Very dark jeans. Tennis shoes, I think, though I can’t be positive about that. A black hoodie that he wore over his head, and he had gloves on. He carried a backpack, a black one. It was slung over his back. His hair was blond, kind of a yellow-blond, not a normal color, but maybe from some kit that bleaches hair.”
She lifted her gaze to Luke’s. “You have to remember this was from a distance, maybe forty or fifty yards away, so I can’t be certain of anything, but he looked fairly young. Not teenager young. I’d say early twenties. Anyway, when he froze after seeing me, it was like instinct kicked in because he must have seen me slide my gaze over to you. Then he started running for the woods.”
“You didn’t see anyone else with him,” Luke asked.
Emma shook her head. “No. Just him.”
“Did you get a close enough look that you could identify him?”
“I doubt it. It was mostly a blur, and the only reason I could see hair color was because it was so yellow-blond, so unusual. But no facial features.”
“Was he tall or short?”
She pondered the guy’s height, stacking him up against Luke. “Tall. And slender, but not skinny like he wasn’t eating. Just . . . lean, like maybe he was a runner. But his clothes were baggy, so I could be off a bit on build.”
“Race?”
“I could definitely see that he was Caucasian.”
“Anything else you can think of?”
She shook her head. “I think that’s it.”
He slipped his notebook into his pocket and squeezed her hand. “You did good, Emma. Really good. Most witnesses are so frozen with fear they can’t remember anything. You did a remarkable job.”
“Did I? I hope so. I want you to catch this guy.”
“I want to catch him, too. You helped. This is more than we’ve ever had before.”
She stood. “I guess I should get the dogs home.”
He walked outside with her and helped her put the dogs in her truck, then radioed for one of the cruisers to come around. “Listen. I need to file this report. But I’m going to have one of our officers escort you home.”
“That’s not necessary. I’m fine.”
“I know you are. But I’d feel a lot better if someone went with you.”
She cocked her head to the side. “Luke. Your suspect doesn’t know where I live.”
“No, he doesn’t. But we don’t know how he got away, or if he had a vehicle nearby. And he doesn’t know how much of him you saw, so until I’m sure you’re safe, I’m going to come stay with you.”
She cocked a brow. “Inviting yourself over to my house?”
“You got a problem with that?”
She had missed him. A lot. And if she were honest with herself, she was more than a little freaked out that she’d had a stare-down with the crazy guy who’d been stealing drugs from several businesses. Who knew whether he was high or not? And people on drugs did desperate things sometimes. “Okay. I’ll wait up for you.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
She so wanted to touch him, but there were still police cars everywhere. And the sheriff’s department, and now the news crews. Poor Luke had his hands full.
“I know I don’t need to wait up. I want to.”
A police car pulled up alongside Emma’s. Luke went over and talked to the officer inside, who nodded and waved to Emma.
“Then I’ll see you in a few hours,” Luke said.
“All right.” She locked up the clinic and climbed into her truck.
Luke was already walking across the parking lot toward the crime scene. Emma so wanted to stay there with him, but she also had a lot to do at home, and the dogs needed to be fed and let outside. They were wound up from all the activity.
She needed to do a little unwinding herself. The officer, whose name was Bill, followed her home. He even came inside with her and did a check of her house, something she thought was totally unnecessary, though she was secretly grateful. He told her he’d drive around her neighborhood a few times to make sure she was okay. She thanked him and closed the door, went into the bedroom, and changed clothes.
A part of her wanted to fall into bed and obliterate this day by falling asleep, but she had some paperwork to do. So she took some chicken out of the freezer, defrosted it, sliced some vegetables and started a pot of chicken noodle soup. She let the dogs outside to play after they ate, while she sat down at the table and worked on paying bills.
She periodically checked the simmering soup while dealing with her paperwork.
When the doorbell rang, she glanced down at her phone to check the time, not realizing so much time had passed since she’d been home. She shoved the pen in her hair and got up from the table to answer the door.
Luke was there, looking as worn out as she felt.
“How did it go?” she asked, petting Boomer when the dog came up to shove his head under her hand.
Luke dropped his duffle bag at the front door. “It went okay. Video surveillance didn’t show much more than what you said. He kept his head down and his hoodie covered his face, so we didn’t get any facial recognition. Since he wore gloves, we won’t have any prints, either, but there are still some leads. Oh, God, what’s that smell?”
“I figured you probably hadn’t eaten a decent homemade meal in a while, save what you can grab at Bert’s. I made chicken noodle soup. Are you hungry?”