It wasn’t the hardest blow ever but the guy winced audibly and he involuntarily shrunk back. Ryan didn’t wait, swinging his other arm, fist closed, upward. He made contact with his attacker’s jaw. The man fell backward, his body toppling off Ryan’s and onto the bathroom floor just outside the shower.
Ryan looked back for his gun. It was in the corner of the shower, mixed in with a heap of shattered glass. He reached for it anyway, grabbing it by the grip and giving it a little shake to free it from additional shards.
Gripping it firmly, he looked back toward his attacker, ready to pull the trigger. But the man was already up and scrambling out the bathroom door. Before Ryan could fire, the man disappeared from sight.
Ryan got to his feet, ignoring the slivers of glass that embedded in his hands as he pushed off the stall floor. He hurried out of the bathroom into the cabana, which was empty, and then out the door into the yard.
He saw that the larger man had already scaled the fence and was running south along the alley, away from where they’d found the dead woman. Ryan chased after him, holstering his gun as he prepared to climb the fence again. But as he reached up to grab the top of the pickets, he felt a sharp pain in his upper back.
He hopped back down and looked over his left shoulder, where he saw a shard of glass sticking out of his skin just above his shoulder blade. Reaching back with his right hand, he yanked it out, trying to ignore the searing sensation that nearly made his knees buckle.
He tossed the glass to the ground and looked back in the direction where his attacker had gone. But now the alley was empty. He considered trying to leap over the fence again but quickly decided it was a waste of time. The guy was gone. He’d be better off returning to the crime scene and giving the local cops a description so they could start a search.
Frustrated, and with his shoulder throbbing, Ryan returned to grab his sport jacket from just outside the cabana door. As he trudged over, a woman opened the sliding door to the main house and shouted out to him.
“Who the hell are you?” she screamed.
Ryan sighed deeply. Trying to keep his irritation in check, he reminded himself why he was here: to protect and to serve. When he was sure he could keep his tone calm, he forced a smile onto his face and reached for his badge. As he did, a sour thought entered his head.
I thought the beach was supposed to be relaxing.
*
It took several minutes to get Carl Landingham calm enough to talk. It was made doubly challenging by the fact that Jessie still hadn’t heard from Ryan.
Focus on what you can control.
She had taken Carl to the breakfast table, far from the dead body. But it was only now, after half the MBPD had arrived and locked everything down, that he was finally starting to speak. He looked nervously at the uniformed officer who had accompanied them to the kitchen, as if the man might shoot him at any moment.
“It’s okay, Mr. Landingham,” she lied soothingly. “The officer is here for both our protection. Now why don’t you tell me what happened while it’s still fresh in your mind?”
Landingham nodded but still didn’t speak. Jessie thought she was going to have to prod him again when he unexpectedly began.
“Her name’s Kelly. She’s not my wife. I was seeing her secretly. She’s a lingerie model. We’d been getting together for a few months. I just got back in town from New York. She was going to meet me here at the house to welcome me back. She had her own key. I came in and was about to go upstairs because I assumed she’d be in the bedroom. But when I got to the stairs, I saw…”
His voice trailed off at the memory. Jessie could see that he was in shock but needed to press him anyway. The longer she waited to get the details, the less she could count on their accuracy.
“You said you tried to help her because you thought she was still alive, right?”
“Yeah. When I touched her, she was warm. I thought maybe she was just unconscious. Her head was bleeding. I figured she’d fallen down the stairs. So I started to give her