Making her way up to the main skybridge over Tallman, she remembered she’d seen another one closer to the emergency entrance, connecting the Tallman emergency building to the main building.
Code Blue’s last EMT victims and the violence of their deaths made her think the EMTs meant something more. Though he hadn’t started with them, the crime had felt more direct. Up close and personal. He’d fired without hesitation and with deadly accuracy.
Again, a detail that had been gone over to death—no pun intended—without results.
She climbed the stairs in the main building and reached the skybridge. People below came and went, unaware of being observed. Nothing too exciting. Inside the skybridge, a family and two couples clustered near the exit by the parking garage.
She decided to head to the bridge closer to the emergency room. Her scalp prickled. After a pause, she turned around.
A man in a hoodie and ballcap stood at the opposite end, staring down the street. A pair of people in scrubs and jackets walked under them, heading toward the emergency building.
He seemed to be watching them. Slowly, he lifted his head and, ignoring the older gentleman who’d just walked past Jane, looked directly at her.
Nothing about the guy in the hoodie would raise any suspicions.
Except she knew. It washim.
The Code Blue Killer.
She’d watched the videos of the EMT shooting so many times, she’d committed to memory the way the unsub moved, held himself, cocked his head.
Her heart raced, but she forced herself to act casual, glancing past him then back and raised a brow when she saw him still staring at her.
She couldn’t see the upper part of his face, masked by the shadow of a ballcap under his hoodie. But she swore she saw him smile before he turned and walked into the parking garage.
Jane didn’t have to think.
She started after him and called Rapp, hurrying so as not to lose their guy in the parking garage.
“This is Rapp.”
“It’s him. He’s here. Skybridge over Tallman Ave at Swedish in Ballard. Heading into the parking garage.”
She disconnected just as their unsub glanced over his shoulder, met her gaze once more, then bolted.
Jane followed, in hot pursuit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Jane had many talents,but running was her specialty. She ran for fun, and she ran to keep in shape. Her races with Joe kept her on her toes, and she gained on the fast-moving killer as he weaved in between parked cars and people, heading down to the second level.
Then the first.
“Stop,” Jane yelled and nearly knocked down a security guard who shouted after her.
But she had no time to chat.
She chased the unsub out of the garage and down Tallman, through the traffic, turning several corners.
Barely dodging an oncoming car, she gained on him. He darted away again, and she turned back onto Russell, barreling past an officer holding onto a man in cuffs. He yelled at her to stop, but she couldn’t, focused on entering the underground garage into which her perp had vanished before the metal gate closed and locked her out.
She slid underneath, rolled back to her feet and continued. She finally slowed, realizing Code Blue had nowhere to go. He couldn’t access the closed elevator, which looked like it neededa code to enter. He couldn’t exit through the now locked garage door they’d entered either. That also called for a code.
“I know you’re here,” she said between breaths. “Come on out. Talk to me.”
The killer couldmove.Granted, she’d seen him on video looking lean and limber, but his speed indicated fitness, and the shape of his jaw, what little she’d seen of his face, hinted at youth. Her age or close to it.
Shadows filled the dim garage. She peered into the darkness, listening hard.
