“End of the hall!” Jessie shouted as loud as she could. Her words seemed to jumpstart Cunningham, who ran toward her.
She didn’t hesitate, stepping over Officer Shaw and rushing to meet him. He was just raising the club again when she lifted her small flashlight and shined it in his face. It had at least part of the desired effect as he squinted and turned his head away. But he didn’t stop moving. Before Jessie could dodge him, they collided hard.
Cunningham was shorter than Jessie but had at least fifty pounds on her and she got the worst of the impact. They both toppled over, Jessie backward again, this time with Cunningham on top of her. Shaw was somewhere in the mix as well.
A searing pain cut through Jessie as her raw back landed heavily on the hardwood floor. Through her watery eyes, she saw that Cunningham had apparently lost the golf club in the fall. But that didn’t stop him from wrapping his hands around her throat and squeezing.
At first she was so stunned, she didn’t even process the fact that she couldn’t breathe. But a half-second later, the reality of the situation kicked in. Without making the conscious choice, she swung the small flashlight, still in her left hand, upward.
It connected with Cunningham’s right temple but didn’t seem to do much damage. Her left hand was her non-dominant one and weaker than her right. Still she swung again. This time Cunningham was ready and blocked the blow with his raised right elbow. The light flew out of her hand into the corner of the room.
The only positive was that when he’d lifted his arm to protect himself, Cunningham’s grip on her neck loosened slightly, allowing her to get a gasp of air before he crushed down again. Ignoring her throbbing back, Jessie fixed her blurry vision on Cunningham’s doughy, enraged face and concentrated. Then, with all the strength she could muster, she swung both of her now balled-up fists toward his head, simultaneously smashing them into his ears.
He howled in pain, again loosening his grip briefly. Jessie used the respite to thrust her head up hard and fast and felt the top of her skull connect with something hard on his face. When she fell back, she saw that blood was already starting to drip from his nose.
Despite his screechy bawling, Cunningham stared down at her with furious intensity and swung his fist toward her face. Jessie closed her eyes in anticipation of the contact. None came.
She opened her eyes again to find that Officer Carrie Shaw had managed to crawl onto her knees and grab his fist with both her hands. Cunningham was frantically trying to yank it free while shoving at the cop with his other hand.
Though her torso was still pinned down by his weight, there was no longer anything constricting her throat. Jessie took another quick breath and swung her fists up again, this time pummeling Cunningham with repeated punches to the nose and eyes. He flailed at her with the arm Officer Shaw wasn’t clutching but couldn’t stop the barrage of strikes she rained up on his face.
A moment later she heard a deafening crunch and looked over to see Ryan smash through the door like a blitzing linebacker. He rolled to his feet, took stock of the situation, and aimed his weapon at Pierce Cunningham.
Everyone tangled up on the floor froze.
“Wait!” Jessie shouted. “He’s unarmed!”
There was another moment of unmoving silence from the three people on the ground.
“In that case,” Ryan said as he marched toward them. Without breaking stride, he lifted his right leg and kicked Cunningham, still atop Jessie, sending him careening across the room. The man slammed into the far wall and collapsed into a heap. Ryan moved quickly toward him, pinned his arms behind his back, and cuffed him.
“Can I borrow your cuffs?” he asked of Officer Shaw.
She tossed them to him and he used them to attach the man to a bedpost.
“I think she broke my nose,” Cunningham wailed.
“Are you two okay?” Ryan asked, ignoring him.
Shaw nodded. Jessie did the same as she rolled gingerly onto her stomach and slowly got to her feet. Ryan grabbed her arm to steady her. She smiled to let him know there was no permanent damage before turning to Shaw.
“Thanks for the assist,” she said with a raspy voice.
“Thank you,” Shaw replied, her voice equally strained. “He caught me by surprise. If you hadn’t shown up, I’d