The Rook by Steven James

Author:Steven James [James, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Published: 2011-02-04T02:00:00+00:00

59

I’d made it halfway to the warehouse’s far wall when I heard footsteps to my right. I crouched low. Shooting stance. My heart hammering. “Stop right there.”

“Pat,” Ralph’s voice shot back. “I lost him.” Then Ralph let a string of curses color the air.

“We found Cassandra,” I said. “She’s OK.”

Just then, a flash of movement in the shadows caught my eye. I swung my light. Saw a glimpse of pale skin.

A face.

“Hey,” I yelled. The guy jumped to his feet. Bolted. Closer to Ralph than to me. I pointed my flashlight. “Ralph, take him down!”

Without hesitation Ralph exploded toward the cluttered center of the warehouse. I hurried toward the nearest door to block the suspect’s escape but kept my light trained on him as best I could.

From outside the warehouse, the whine of ambulance and police sirens told me the officers and paramedics had finally arrived. As the suspect neared the staircase I’d descended earlier, he grabbed a tool of some kind from a nearby workbench. “Ralph, he’s got a weapon!”

The man stopped suddenly, whipped around, and swung a clawed hammer at Ralph’s head. Instead of ducking, Ralph stuck out a hand, snagged the hammer in midflight, and wrenched it from the man. Tossed it into the blinking darkness.

That would have intimidated me, but not this guy. Unfazed, he leapt at Ralph and unleashed a vicious packet of swift karate chops to Ralph’s neck and chest that stunned him for a moment, but Ralph landed an uppercut to the guy’s jaw that sent him toppling backward, and then Ralph was on him, crushing him to the concrete. A moment later Ralph had rolled him over and cuffed the guy’s hands behind his back.

Law enforcement and medical personnel were streaming past me. Ralph heaved the suspect to his feet, and the SDPD officers swarmed around him. “Nice timing,” Ralph said sarcastically, handing the guy off to them. Then he rubbed his neck where the guy had karate chopped him. “He’s a frisky little fellow.”

As Ralph brushed himself off, I shook my head. “Ralph, why didn’t you just pull your weapon on him?”

Ralph held up a huge meaty fist. “I did.”

As he held up his hand, I noticed that his little finger was angled sideways, dislocated either from punching the suspect, or perhaps from tackling him. I pointed toward the finger, and Ralph stared at it for a moment. Then he wrapped his other hand around it and, with a slight grimace, yanked the finger forward and then sideways, popping the joint back into place. “Just the way I like it,” he said. “Fast and clean.”

I think Ralph needs to get a hobby. Yoga maybe. Or one of those little Japanese rock garden deals. That, or a good therapist.

Then he jogged toward Cassandra and the shattered tank, and I noticed Detective Dunn coming my way. “What do we have?” he asked.

“There’s at least one more,” I said. “Could be anywhere in the building.”

“Flare out,” Dunn ordered his men. “Cover the space. Bring him in.

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