Whatever had districted Moni didn’t show any signs of impacting Skillings’ dogged pursuit of the suspect. Her patrol car had once again closed the gap and got into position for another run at him. Out of the corner of her eye, Moni saw a black figure swoop out of the sky above the lagoon. She saw them. They were unmistakable. The thing had purple eyes that gleamed in the night. It smashed through Skillings’ windshield. Her patrol car careened off the road and lost its grip on the ground. It buckled over the curb and rammed straight into the wide pillar of an office building. Shards of glass erupted from the car. Its frame bent as easily as aluminum foil.
“No!” Moni yelled. She slammed on the brakes and headed for the wreck, which let the Lagoon Watcher turn down a side street without anyone following him. She jumped out of her car and ran to the driver’s side of the battered patrol car. She saw a mess of feathers. The pelican whacked an unconscious Skillings over and over with its long bill. The officer wore a mask of blood and a badly twisted nose. Moni reached through the shattered window, grabbed the bird around the back of its neck and hurled it out of the car. Its feathers flew as it rolled across the pavement before it finally caught its feet under it. The pelican stood and stared down Moni with its glowing purple eyes. She drew her gun and put a bullet between them. The infected creature fell motionless.
It barely registered that Moni had a cut on her hand from the broken glass when she reached for the window. Sticking her hand in once more, she unlocked the door from the inside and felt Skillings’ neck. She hadn’t broken it and she had a pulse, but it wouldn’t last for long with her gushing blood from that gash on her forehead. Moni wrapped her arms around Skillings’ chest and started pulling her out of the wrecked car. A hulking figure swooped in and grabbed the officer’s feet. Clyde Harrison, Skillings’ usual partner, carefully helped set her down on the grass. He knelt over her in a concerned pose. Then he peered up at Moni-all but strangling her with his eyes. They had embarked on this chase together, but instead of watching her fellow officer’s back, Moni had played it safe and let her take the shot that could end her life.
Dozens of officers showed up over the next few hours. They all looked like they wanted Moni thrown headfirst into that building, but none more so than lead detective Tom Sneed. He didn’t care about the TV cameras hovering over the smashed patrol car and closely watching the officers on the scene. The moment he saw her, Sneed tore into Moni with a thunder that resonated for blocks away.
“There’s a damn good officer nearly dead because of you!” Sneed shouted as he lumbered his bulky frame toward her with his finger jutting in her face. “Why did you refuse her order to box him in?”
“She’s not my superior officer. I don’t take orders from…”
“The hell you don’t!” The torrent of hot air from his mouth nearly knocked her over. “Skillings has tactical training in automotive pursuit and tons more experience than you in that field. You know that damn well. If you had listened to her instead of playing dolls with your little friend in the back seat, Nina would be leading our killer into a holding cell right now.”
“I was trying. Look at my car.” Moni pointed out her trusty Taurus, which looked like somebody had gone to town on it with a sledge hammer. “That’s all from my efforts. I nearly got him.”
“So you ‘nearly’ caught him and got your ass kicked. That’s something to be real proud of,” Sneed said with a snarky smirk. “I pray to God that Nina wakes up, because when she does I wanna hear you give her that answer and see what she has to say about that bullshit. You could have easily ended this without any police casualties if you had done what any good officer would do.”
Moni knew he really meant, “What any white officer would do.” She bit her tongue and balled up her fists.
“Maybe I should put you on patrol of the nursery school,” Sneed said. “Or maybe not. You can’t even control that girl of yours. She has you on a leash like you’re her bitch. She’s the one who’s supposed to be doing the barking, but, instead, you are.”
“I did what any sensible parent would do, but you wouldn’t know that because your ugly ass doesn’t have any kids.” Moni shot a repulsed glare at Sneed’s bulging belly. “Don’t you think the DCF would have a problem with me if I got all Bad Boys on a police chase with an eight-year-old girl tagging along?”
“Girl, the DCF already has a problem with you, believe me.”
Something told Moni that he meant those words as a threat more than a warning. She sucked in her breath and finally disengaged from him. As she trotted back toward her car with Mariella peering out the window at all the frantic activity, Moni’s cell phone rang. She wished it was Aaron calling in the middle of the night to check on her. Instead, she got another man. Moni sent Darren straight to voice mail and then made her phone block his number. She had been damaged enough for one day without her ex-boyfriend pretending he gave a damn about her so he could peel her panties off.
“Douche bag,” Moni mumbled as she smiled for Mariella, who remained inside the car.
She welcomed the girl into the front seat with her. Moni put her arm around Mariella, who nestled her little head against her shoulder. As she stroked her bandaged fingers through the girl’s silky hair, Moni lamented how close she had come to harm.
Even though she couldn’t catch the man stalking them on that night, at least she had protected the most important thing in the world, Moni thought. She wished Skillings hadn’t gotten hurt in the process, but now she couldn’t tell anyone about the drawing of the burning man. When the other officers weren’t looking, Moni had fished the picture out of the wrecked car and pocketed it.
What am I thinking? It’s not a good thing that Nina got hurt. It’s a horrible thing.
As she drove home with Mariella on her arm, Moni knew she should feel terrible. She didn’t.
Chapter 26
Moni laid Mariella in her bed and shut the door. The girl didn’t look sleepy after getting woken up by a little car chase. Still, Moni figured Mariella needed all the rest she could get before another trying day at school.
She should have hit the sack too, but Moni’s rush of adrenaline wouldn’t settle down. She replayed every swerve and bump of the chase in her mind. If she had clipped him harder on that first hit, he would have spun out. Or if she had listened to Skillings and boxed him in, they might have slowed him and help would have arrived before he reached the lagoon. He would be behind bars right now and not out there as a threat that could spring at Mariella from any direction. Moni’s hands trembled as if they still held the wheel that guided an engine blasting over the asphalt.
She grabbed her wrist and steadied it. Moni opened the refrigerator door and gazed inside for a few long moments. She felt like cramming everything on the shelves down her pie hole. Instead, she settled on frying up a couple of eggs for some late night breakfast.
Moni sat down with her plate and grabbed the remote control. She couldn’t turn on the TV. She feared that the first thing she’d see would be a newscast of the crash scene. The cameras must have caught Sneed chewing her out. That’s why Darren had called hoping he could take advantage of her, Moni thought. He always waited for her to throw herself into his arms for refuge any time something went wrong in her life. Not this time.
Moni called up Aaron. She hoped he slept near his phone. He answered on the fifth ring with a groggy voice. “Hello?”
“What do you mean, ‘Hello?’ Don’t you know it’s me on the caller ID?”
“Moni? Aw, I’m sorry. My eyes are still adjusting. Is it morning already?”
“Well technically, yes. It’s four in the morning.”
“Oh shit. What happened?” He suddenly sounded more alert. “Are you okay? What about Mariella?”
She told him everything about the chase, save for the drawing of the burning man, and the strange feeling in her head when she approached the lagoon. She couldn’t even remember how it felt anymore. It seemed like a fleeting dream. Aaron asked her whether she knew for sure that Harry Trainer had been in that pickup. She told him that she didn’t get a clear look at his face, but the vehicle had Trainer’s license plate. He accepted the evidence. She knew his professor would seek another explanation, just as he would if they had caught the Lagoon Watcher with a machete in one hand and a severed head in the other.