Samantha throug
g backward, the fear at last overcoming her, preventing her legs from taking another step. No more running, no place to hide. It emerged from the night-cloaked treeline
, and a single
lip
ugh to the sheets. Fading sunlight had peeked around the edges of her drawn curtains. A glance
red. This dream had been only slightly different from
night two weeks ago when she had been on a foot chase, pursuing a suspect through a backyard. She had taken a nasty fall, hitting her head... and there had been a dog. Luckily the irate anima
t was how it had been for as long as she could remember. Now her mind was just taking that
r a domestic violence incident. When she had arrived at the address, however, the home was empty. Sam had checked in with neighbors, who hadn't heard anything, waited for fifteen minutes and then notified dispatch that
known as "Hard Knox" because of the drug and gang activity, as well as the homeless population. Her windows were up to ward off the frosty
was satisfied with the result when she swun
d sweat pants and a ragged hooded coat. The scarf and hood kept his face
hands and arms we
rough the roundabout, turned onto Harris and spotted the man on her left side running through an overgrown corner lot.
ursuit, code 2. Harris Street,
subject was running toward the fence of an aba
through: "Copy echo
ge hole in the chain link fence. Sam followed, the flashl
the man could have gone was inside. There was the slightest second of hesitation: should she g
ld be dying
ckrock, echo six, entering the church through the south entrance
op
hed, leaving a devastated ruin that looked like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie. Sam had crossed her wrists, left under right, so the G
nly walls that were still intact, was a doorway l
Sam hurried through the doorway, glancing to either s
hearing a door crash open somewhere at the far end of the room. Casting her beam in that direction she saw an open doorway next to the stag
g a conscious effort to slow her breathing. The man was very clearly dead. There was a large, dark, wet vacancy where his throat should be and the face below it was ma
treet church, homic
rp stretched out over a large hole in the stage. The tarp was weighted at the edges with rocks, creating a reservoir beneath the corpse. That t
to the back wall behind the body. The b
ody letters two feet
LIP