Two more shots cracked from the radio. Then Chase’s voice came through and Luke’s shoulders slumped in relief. “We have an APD officer down. Suspect escaped.”
She got away. Again. Goddammit. “I’m coming toward you.” Luke led a pale Susannah around the corner and down another hall and met Chase coming through a door from the outside. He was still talking into his radio, his expression murderous. Off to the side sat a uniformed cop, white-faced, clutching his thigh, his hands covered in his own blood. Another officer had started emergency first aid.
On the floor by the rear door was a black trench coat.
“It was Bobby,” Chase said. “She fired at the cop, then ran. She had a car waiting for her. We’re in pursuit.” His gaze narrowed on Susannah’s sweater. “You’re hit.”
“So was Bobby,” she said, her jaw clenched. “I got her right arm just before she shot at me again. That’s the coat she was wearing.”
“Well, she shot with her left hand without much of a problem. Her first two shots hit the cop on his vest, her third, his thigh. I’ve got medics on the way. The officer fired twice, but she was already through the door.”
“You fired at the car?” Luke asked, and Chase’s brows crunched.
“Yeah. Missed. The car was weaving like a stunt driver.”
Luke pulled a pair of gloves from his pocket and snapped them on, crouching next to the coat. “Three holes in the pocket,” he said. “She fired all those shots from inside her pocket.” He looked up, met Susannah’s eyes. “One hole in the sleeve. Lots of blood.”
“She’s wounded,” Chase said. “She can’t go to a hospital. Where will she go?”
“Not back to her house on the river or her house in Dutton,” Luke said. “Susannah?”
“I don’t know who she’d trust to help her now. Did you see who was driving the car?”
Chase’s jaw tightened. “I didn’t get a good look.” Then he sighed heavily. “Bobby was wearing a GBI jacket.”
Luke’s stomach turned over as he stood. “Your leak. Bobby has an accomplice.”
“You have a leak?” Susannah asked quietly.
“Yes,” Chase said heavily.
“You did get a good look at the driver,” Luke said, even more quietly.
Chase shook his head. “No, but I recognized the car. It was Leigh’s.”
“Leigh? Leigh Smithson? Her car was stolen?” Then he saw Chase’s face and understood. “Shit. Leigh’s the leak. Damn, Chase, I never would have… Shit.”
“Yeah.” Chase rubbed his forehead. “I put out a BOLO as soon as I saw her car.”
“It makes sense,” Luke said slowly. “Especially the nurse at the hospital. Leigh brought me the message to meet her.”
Susannah went still. “Nurse Ohman said she’d been waiting outside for an hour.”
“Enough time for Leigh to take her call, inform Bobby, then draw you out with a false message from me,” Luke murmured. “Hell. Why? Why would Leigh do this?”
“Blackmail?” Susannah asked. “But what secret could be so bad that she’d do this?”
Chase blew out a breath. “I don’t know. Luke, let’s get the team together and debrief. We need to figure out where Bobby will go. Where’s your gun, Susannah?”
“Luke took it.”
“Where’d you get it?”
“It was my father’s,” Susannah said without missing a beat. “I took it from his house.”
Luke held back what would have been a weary sigh. She was protecting Leo and she lied very well. He wasn’t sure how he felt about either. He’d worry about it later.
Chase just nodded. “Don’t do it again,” was all he said.
Susannah lifted her chin. “Catch Bobby Davis, so I won’t have to.”
Chase’s smile was grim. “Fair enough.”
Bobby was thrown against Leigh Smithson’s car door as they careened around a corner. She bit back the cry of pain as the throbbing in her arm trebled. “I see your driving skills have not improved,” she gritted out, and Smithson shot her a glare.
“I hate you.”
“Yeah, I know. Then again, I’m not the one who murdered three little kids.”
“Sure you have,” Smithson said bitterly.
Bobby chuckled. “You can let me off here.”
Leigh Smithson stopped the car and grabbed Bobby’s arm. “Shoot me.”
“So you can pretend I forced you? No. But this might help.” She pulled Marianne Woolf’s wig from her head and tossed it. “Knock yourself out.” Bobby slammed the door and started walking, shivering. It was cold. She’d dropped her coat when that cop started shooting at her. She still had her gun, but not her cell phone. Dammit. She’d have to get another phone and another car. That wouldn’t be too hard to do.
Her arm hurt. It continued to bleed sullenly, but at least she’d stopped most of the flow. She’d felt around enough to know the bullet was still in there.
I need a doctor. But a hospital wasn’t an option and Toby Granville couldn’t help her because he was dead, because of Daniel Vartanian. Damn him to hell.
She thought of Paul sitting in Charles’s kitchen. Charles had stitched him up. She hated to call Charles. Hated him.
This time she didn’t have a choice. She had to call Charles. Tanner could have fixed you up. But he was dead. By my hand. Because of Susannah Vartanian. If she hadn’t chased them to the rest area… Damn the woman. She needed to die. And soon.
But first I need a place to hide. To recharge. To heal.
She knew just the place. I’m going home.
Chapter Twenty-one
Atlanta, Sunday, February 4, 6:15 p.m.
The cameraman and Gretchen are both in serious, but stable condition,” Chase said when they’d regrouped. “The cop Bobby shot is already home and resting.”
“Thank God,” Talia said. “Poor Gretchen has been through a lot in the last week.”
“Haven’t we all?” Susannah murmured, very quiet now. Luke recognized the signs of adrenaline crash, knowing he would soon follow. But for now he was still on edge, his heart racing every time he thought about the hole in her sweater, right over her heart.
She now wore a GBI sweatshirt. Luke had entered her sweater into evidence, along with the gun she’d had in her purse. Luke knew from where it had come, just as he knew Leo would have made sure there was no way it could be traced back to him.
Luke would be indebted to Leo for the rest of his life.
“The cameraman was actually thrilled,” Ed said. “When he dropped his camera, it fell lens up. He got footage of Bobby’s face. It’s already on CNN.”
“We found Marianne Woolf’s car. Marianne was in the trunk, tied and gagged,” Luke said. “She’d been there since before this morning’s press conference. She got a call from Bobby asking to meet her and when she did, Bobby overpowered her and shoved her in the trunk. She stole her press pass first.”
“How did Bobby get a gun?” Pete asked. “Everyone went through a metal detector.”
Luke and Chase shared a look. This would not be pleasant for any of them.
“The gun came from our evidence room,” Chase said.
There was dead silence. Every expression was first disbelieving, then horrified, then furious. Then suspicious. “Checked out by whom?” Pete asked darkly.
Hank Germanio’s face hardened as Pete and Nancy threw wary glances his way. He said nothing and Luke actually felt sorry for him.
Chloe’s eyes narrowed at Chase, then Luke. “You know who it is. Tell us. Now.”
The hurt was still in Chase’s eyes. “Atlanta PD found Leigh’s body in her house, in her bathtub. She’d…” He swallowed audibly. “She’d eaten her gun.”