Murder in the City: Blue Lights by Clare Tatum Read Free Book Online Page A

it downward as she hurried toward the path.
    “Hello.” She walked down the dirt ribbon.
    Another soft moan pulled her forward.
    She rounded a corner. The pulsing blue, police light bounced through the trees, illuminating the scene in a crazy jig jag pattern, off then on, off then on, like an old fashioned movie scene. She inched further down the path and then saw a body.
    A uniformed officer lay on the dirt.
    She ran forward, kneeling beside him. “It’s okay. Help is coming.”
    His eyes were closed. She took his hand, grasping it reassuringly.
    “Can you hear me?”
    His eyes flickered open, full of fear.
    “You’re okay.”
    Blood covered the side of his head. She gripped his shoulder, reassuringly. Should she run back up the path to make sure the ambulance and other police officers knew where she was? But, she didn’t want to leave him alone. Had she asked for an ambulance? She reached into her pocket to retrieve her phone.
    A slight brushing in the shrubbery behind her alerted her to movement. The police officer’s eyes fixed on something behind her, terror flooding his face.
    She whirled around and as she did so, she lost her footing, falling backward. Her hand hit a branch as she fell and her gun flew out of her hands, off into the dark.
    Someone was running toward her and she had no time to look for the weapon.
    Instantly, she reacted, jumping up, moving so fast that she was headed down the path before the person could reach her.
    But they were right behind her. A hand grasped for her shirt, clasping a handful. She swiveled and jerked to the side, causing them to lose their grip.
    Blood surged though her, adrenaline giving her so much strength that she charged into the underbrush as if it weren’t there, running off the path, desperate to get away.
    Her heartbeat pounded in her ears as Lainey ran, bushes slashing across her body, grabbing at her almost as if assisting the person who chased her.
    Rabbiting through the woods like a wild animal fleeing from a predator, her heart beat faster than any scared beast’s could. The person chased her like a wolf hungry for blood. He preyed upon the unaware, first the cop, now her.
    God, she wished for the baby Glock. She would love to turn and surprise this jerk. But for now, he was in control. She was certain it was a man by the sheer volume of the person she’d glimpsed behind her.
    He was seconds behind her, crashing along in her wake. She sensed his hands as if at any instant he might latch onto her—grab her by the neck and squeeze the life out of her.
    A burst of siren and a second blue light blared out into the night like an emergency beacon offering help and she spurted toward it.
    The crashing in the bushes behind her stopped and changed directions, running away. Thank God.
    She slashed through the final bushes that separated her from the road, stepping onto the warm asphalt.
    “Lainey,” a voice called. Registering that it was Brice, she ran toward it. His powerful frame stood out in the night and she’d never been so happy to see such a big man.
    As he ran toward her, he held his gun in both hands, pointed away toward the ground.
    He stepped around her, putting himself between her and danger.
    He pointed the gun toward the dense underbrush, at the same time backing away, pushing her with him. Finally, when they’d reached his car, he took her by the arm, walking around to put the car between them and the brushy darkness.
    He turned, his expression on high alert but calm, reassuring, his gun still directed at the woods.
    “What happened?”
    She could barely hear his words over the blood pounding in her ears. “Someone was chasing me,” she gasped out between strangled breaths. She looked all around, registering every blade of grass and every tree branch, emblazoning them into the registry of her senses, noting anywhere that a man could hide.
    “Why were you in the woods?” He grasped her by the shoulder, to get her attention.
    She almost