Last Girls Alive (Detective Katie Scott #4) - Jennifer Chase Page 0,106

to slip away again… He wasn’t going to hurt anyone else—ever.

Katie walked up to McGaven and whispered, “He’s in the fourth train car with the blue graffiti.” She backed away. “I’ll head back toward the car and go around the long way as backup. You and the deputies can confront him.”

“We can take care of this,” he said softly.

“I’m just the insurance that he’s not going to get away this time. There won’t be enough time to call in for more reinforcements. Besides,” she said, “there will be cops coming here because of the crime scene, but that will ten or twelve minutes. Every minute counts.”

McGaven gave her a look, a stern stare, before he jogged away to meet up with the two other deputies.

Dark clouds skirted across the sky, making the day darker than normal. A few drops of rain escaped and dappled the ground. Rolling thunder rounded out the gloomy day with a deep rumble. It seemed fitting to Katie as she moved silently through the weeds on the other side of the train yard.

Some of the area was piled with trash and plastic items wedged underneath the dried overgrowth. Katie kept her eyes focused on the train car. With no movement or voices, she thought that the deputies were searching farther away than the area she had explained to McGaven.

She came to a clearing where there were discarded canned goods and a pot. Looking closer, she found blankets and large trash bags filled with what she presumed were clothes and more bedding. It was a place that transients occupied and that made her pause. Where were they now?

Looking around cautiously, Katie realized that she was exposed and needed to take cover. She pulled McGaven’s gun from underneath her jacket and moved faster, zigzagging around old machine parts and equipment until she faced one of the train cars. She continued moving until she was behind the car in question.

Katie waited.

She heard steady heavy footsteps approaching. Pressing back against the train compartment wheel, she readied herself for an attack, or to become backup for her colleagues.

More thunder reverberated all around her, making her startle.

“Come out now!” yelled McGaven, shattering the quiet. “Let’s see some hands now!”

“I see you, Deputy,” came a voice Katie recognized. She knew that her assessment was correct and Weaver was hiding out, watching and waiting for his opportunity to slip away again.

“Put down the weapon, Weaver!” yelled McGaven again.

That’s all Katie needed to hear—that her partner and two other deputies faced being shot. With desperation she looked around the area, spying a ladder on the train car. Pocketing the gun, she climbed up the ladder without making a sound. It was rickety and she wasn’t sure if it was going to hold her weight, but she made it to the top.

Lying on her belly, she inched forward until she looked down on the top of Weaver’s head; he was waving a gun as McGaven and the deputies had their weapons trained on him.

“I’m not going to ask you again. Put the gun down!” demanded McGaven.

“You can’t tell me what to do,” said Weaver. “I have rights.”

“Your rights are going to be revoked. What you did to those women is despicable.”

“Deputy, I pity you. You are so delusional and quite defenseless, even with your gun aimed at me. Nothing can defeat me.”

Katie was listening to utter madness; it was clear that Weaver was beginning to unravel and he was capable of anything.

“Vi compatisco deputati. Io vinco. Hai perso,” Weaver said in Italian almost singing his reply of how he had won and they had lost.

The tension around them heightened with his eerie Italian words still hanging in the air. His desperation could mean catastrophe for anyone around him. Katie had to think quickly. There wasn’t a good enough shot to get him from her vantage point, so that meant she had to go to plan B.

Katie moved her aching body into a crouching position, but her foot slipped, making a scraping sound.

Weaver looked up, along with the deputies and McGaven.

It was a split second that meant life or death. Katie’s training taught her that was all you had at times, and you had better make peace with it.

In that split second she regained her balance, then pushed up and jumped off the train compartment roof. Within two seconds, she saw Weaver rotate and bring up his arm to shoot her. Katie landed directly on him, taking them both to the ground. The gun fired. Thunder crashed.