Courage Under Fire. Sharon Dunn

holstered his weapon and leaped up the uneven brick facade that the suspect had used as a sort of climbing wall. His muscles strained as he pulled himself up. He glanced down only for a moment to see the throngs of people and metal of cars glinting in the early morning sun. He found another foothold as his hands wrapped around the protruding brick above him.

      Lani came out on the balcony. She groaned. “Are you kidding me.”

      Noah looked down at her. “Join the fun.” He scaled the rest of the wall and pulled himself up to the flat roof. The suspect raced from one corner of the roof to another. He was trapped.

      Noah pushed himself to his feet. He pulled his weapon just in time to see the man leap to the adjoining building. As chief, Noah was not out in the field enough to warrant having a radio. There was no time to make a call on his cell. He had to rely on Lani for backup. The suspect did not appear to be armed or he would have pulled a weapon by now.

      He raced across the roof. There was about a five-foot chasm between the two buildings. Without hesitation, Noah pushed off. He stretched his right leg out in front, watching the edge of the building looming toward him. He landed with a thud. His knees buckled screaming with pain from the impact. The suspect had reached the edge of the second building. He hesitated, glanced back at Noah and then disappeared over the side. The guy must have found a safer fire escape.

      Noah’s heart pounded against his rib cage as his leg muscles strained. He sprinted toward where the suspect had gone. He peered down and saw only the top of his blue baseball cap. The guy had already made it to the top floor down the fire escape ladder. Noah swung down onto the ladder. He’d gone down only four rungs when Lani’s voice reached him. She’d made up the distance between them pretty easily. “I’m going to look for a faster way down. See if we can cut him off.”

      He glanced up to see her head and shoulders as she looked down. Her bright expression and blue-eyed gaze met his. “Go find it.”

      She disappeared.

      The suspect had only a short way to go down the ladder before he reached the street. Noah climbed faster narrowing the distance between them. When the suspect was halfway down the last part of the ladder, he jumped the remainder of the distance.

      Lani emerged from the side of the building just as the man ran toward a crowded street market. She must have found an elevator in the building. Noah climbed two more rungs and then jumped, landing on his feet. He whirled around.

      He could see Lani’s blond head. She was in uniform but had lost her hat somewhere. The tight little bun on top of her head was easy enough to track in a crowd. He didn’t see the suspect anywhere, but Lani ran like she still had sight of him.

      He hurried past booths selling handbags and scarves. The aromatic scent of street vendor food swirled in the air, the mingling scent of salt, a heady sweetness and other spices. Noah kept his eyes on Lani. He didn’t see the suspect anywhere. Still running, Lani merged with a throng of people. She towered above them. She stopped, glancing side to side.

      He surveyed the area. Then he saw a blue baseball hat on the ground beside a food cart that sold gyros. The guy had ditched the hat knowing it would be an easy way to track him.

      Lani turned back to face Noah, shaking her head before pushing deeper into the crowd. She wasn’t one to give up easily even though he had a feeling the suspect had managed to give them the slip.

      Taking slow steps, he ambled past the vendors, scanning the crowd one more time while he caught his breath. He didn’t see the suspect anywhere. He retraced his steps, searching for the baseball hat thinking it might have DNA on it, but it had either been picked up or kicked out of view. He worked his way back to the edge of the street market, asking several of the vendors if they had seen the man in a blue baseball cap or seen a man take the cap off and throw it on the ground. All of them shook their heads.

      When he glanced over his shoulder, Lani was headed toward him. As she drew closer, he knew that wrinkled forehead indicated her frustration.

      She stood beside him and crossed her arms. “I guess that is that. I don’t know what gets into people thinking it’s okay to endanger public safety by pushing an air-conditioning unit out a window.”

      Concern niggled at the edges of Noah’s brain. Lani had been attacked twice in forty-eight hours. “You don’t think maybe that guy was aiming specifically for you?”

      Her face went pale and she didn’t answer right away. “He was probably just someone with mental illness issues or a drug problem. Don’t you think? Besides, how would someone know that I would be walking by that building at that time?”

      “You keep the same routine every day, don’t you?”

      “Well I...why would someone want to hurt me?”

      “Do you think it might be the same man from last night?”

      Her face blanched. “I didn’t get a good look either time.” She turned away from him. “I left Oscar back in that building by himself.” She took off at a jog.

      Lani clearly did not want to believe that the attacks were personal or connected. And he suspected she knew something she didn’t want to share. Noah followed her back to the open side door of the building. They stepped from the brightness of day into the dim gloom of the abandoned building. Even the big display windows were so covered in dust not much light got in.

      Oscar wagged his tail and yipped when he saw Lani. After untying him, she gathered the pup into her arms. “There’s my little guy.”

      “Little guy?” Noah kneeled beside her, so he could pet Oscar’s head and velvety ears. “Don’t go all mushy on him. We’re trying to turn him into a tough police dog.” The dog licked Noah’s face, melting his heart. So much for being tough.

      “Oscar did all right. He did freak when that unit nearly fell on us, but he didn’t seem too bent out of shape for having been left here.” She let the dog kiss her face. “Next time you’ll be a part of the action, won’t you?”

      Noah was concerned that Lani wasn’t being realistic about the attacks. But grilling her wouldn’t do any good. Right now, she was in denial. If he started slinging questions at her, she might become defensive.

      He needed to get information out of her without making her feel pressured. “What do you say that after we get the crime scene people over here, I grab Scotty and we get Oscar used to working around people and staying focused?”

      She put Oscar down on the floor and stood up. “That would be good for Oscar and for me. But do you have the time for that?”

      The last thing he wanted to do anyway was sit in that office on this beautiful fall day. “I’ll make the time.” Maybe the attacks were random. He needed to make sure one of his officers was not in danger. That someone would not come after Lani a third time.