My brain couldn’t accept it, but from the quickened pulse, my heart knew what I didn’t want to accept.
It’s always Katy.
I dropped the bag of popcorn at my feet, the kernels spilling out against the white tile floor, and then ran deeper into the school at a full tilt. I hit the first hallway full of classrooms and slowed to look into the little window by each closed door. On my pursuit, I pulled my cell phone for my back pocket and texted Lee who should have still been following Katy.
Yes, it was wrong of me to keep a guard on her, but Katy knew of his presence, and until they caught the killer, I had a feeling Katy wouldn’t forget.
PIERCE: Katy’s in trouble.
Lee: No, she’s at the game. I just watched you walk in.
Once again he underestimated Katy’s potential for finding herself in dangerous positions. Who was I kidding? For putting herself in dangerous positions.
There was no time to waste arguing with him.
PIERCE: 911 in the school.
If he didn’t take a hint from the text and get his ass in here, I’d fire him myself.
The lights were off in the second hallway and I lingered on the tile floor, peeking into each room. They were empty, and I stopped for a moment listening all around me. I heard nothing in the hallway, so I backed out heading for another. In the middle where four hallways converged sat a door to the exit, and as I turned my back to it, a knock sounded on the glass. Lee stood outside it waiting for me to let him in. The door didn’t have an emergency exit label, but I still said a prayer of thanks when an alarm didn’t sound as I pushed it open.
He stood next to me, slightly out of breath, his eyes scanning the empty halls. “How in the fuck did she get herself in trouble at a high school basketball game?”
I gave the only acceptable response when Katy was involved. A shrug. “Who knows?” But I lied. It didn’t take a genius to figure out how Katy found herself in trouble this time. We were in the same building where the two of us found a dead body. Katy was on the hunt and more than likely snooping through classrooms or old files.
Katy was always snooping.
I pointed to the third hallway, and we walked into it together. This one was lined with tall gray lockers and only a few classrooms. I checked the first room we came to on our right but it was empty, the lights off. A janitor’s cart sat parked in front of the room on the left and I inched forward, my heart rate picking up even faster. Katy definitely wanted to harass the janitor.
Lee pulled his weapon and pointed it at the ground in front of him. I totally needed to get a gun.
No. I was too close to Katy at this point. She’d definitely steal it, and the last thing Pelican Bay needed was an armed Katy Kadish.
A crash came from inside the closed-door room and I flinched. Lee jumped into action and kicked the classroom door open with one swoosh of his foot. I ran in before him and came to a dead stop at the scene in front of us.
Katy clung to the giant of a man’s back as he flailed around, trying to grab her and grunting with each miss. I recognized the man in an instant, the school’s janitor. He was the police department and Ridge Jefferson’s chief suspect in the murder of Chip. Katy had one arm wrapped around the man’s throat like she wanted to try and choke him. The other she used to pull on his hair, her aggressive actions twisting his head back with each of her thrusts. She kicked him with her legs but didn’t jump away. She wanted this. Jason tried his best to wrestle free of her hold, but he couldn’t keep her still long enough to grab on.
Lee stopped beside me as we watched the melee for two seconds while he figured out what to do. “What in the fuck? Who is this woman?” he asked, just as unsure about where to jump in as me.
Jason’s gun waved in the air and his arm flew to the side, his finger pulling the trigger and a shot rang out. The bullet took out one window at the top of the room. There was no time to waste, and I ran at the man, kicking him in the knees and swiping with my foot at his ankles. He teetered and then seconds before he tumbled, I reached out and snatched Katy from his back.
We fell and my back hit the tile floor with a heavy thud, but I held Katy in my arms. Her cheeks were red and her hair flew in every direction as she continued to thrash, unaware she’d been saved. By me. Once I guaranteed we were safe, I’d never let her forget it.
“I’ve got you,” I said holding on to her as hard as possible.
Another shot rang out to the small room, burning my ears as Jason fired wildly. I crawled to the side, bringing Katy with me to hide behind a toppled desk. Lee aimed his weapon and shot once at the janitor before seeking his own safety behind a different desk.
The room fell silent and after a few seconds I peeked my head out from the top of the desk as Katy tugged on my arm to keep me lower.
“What are you doing?” she asked in a voice she wrongly considered a whisper.
Lee and I made eye contact across the room from one another and then our gazes both fell to Jason. He laid sprawled out on the classroom floor, his gun lying beside him. Lee ran at him and kicked the gun to the side. It slid across the tile floor and stopped underneath the teacher’s desk.
“Pierce, what are you doing?” Katy asked again her nails cutting through the material of my jeans to pull on my leg.
“It’s okay,” I said checking the room one more time. The man’s chest raised and lowered, but he wasn’t moving, and his weapon was on the other side of the room. Lee leaned down to check his pulse, and I used my cell phone to dial a number I’d become much too comfortable using.
“I’m calling 911.”
