Tick,Tock,Trouble (A Seagrove Cozy Mystery Book 5) by Leona Fox Read Free Book Online Page A

back against the wall. Stalemate.
     

Chapter Five
     
    Mr. Woo was looking a little wide-eyed and unpredictable. Sadie backed around the corner where she could still see, but the chance of Mr. Bradshaw getting shot was eliminated. She knew she should take him to safety, but Zack was in danger and she couldn’t face leaving.
     
    “Psst.”
     
    Sadie looked behind her to see the back door of the evidence room cracked open and Officer Smith becking her.
     
    “In here,” he whispered and took her arm, pulling her through the doorway.
     
    “It’s bulletproof,” he said locking the door behind them.
     
    “So you don’t have to worry about gunfire. I’d put money on there being gunfire.”
     
    He led her to his desk. It was next to the door and faced a window into the hall.
     
    “Bulletproof glass,” he whispered.
     
    The lights were off in the evidence room. It was almost like watching TV, viewing the drama behind the glass. Smith held his finger to his lips and flicked a switch. The conversation in the hallway flooded into the room.
     
    “Franklin,” Zack was saying, “let Ms. Brown go. You’ll never forgive yourself if she gets hurt. Are you okay, Carol?”
     
    The older woman nodded grimly. The set of her mouth made Sadie think of an old time schoolmarm. Not that you would expect her to be cheerful while being held captive.
     
    “Are you nuts?” Woo asked.
     
    “The minute I let her go you all will put a thousand bullets in me. I’m getting out of here in one piece.”
     
    There was a noise from down the hall and Sadie looked at Smith with her eyebrows raised. He clicked off the intercom.
     
    “A bunch more officers came in through the back door,” he said.
     
    “See here? You can see them on the monitor.”
     
    He pointed to a monitor to the left of the desk that Sadie hadn’t noticed. There were at least ten more officers in riot gear standing where she had been a few minutes before. Smith clicked the intercom back on.
     
    “Use me as a hostage instead,” Zack was saying.
     
    Sadie noticed he had moved slightly to Woo’s left. To focus on Zack, Woo had turned slightly away from the stairs. Wilson was there with a taser in her hand. She held it low and to her side so Woo wouldn’t see it.
     
    “Come on, Franklin,” Zack said. “Let’s make a trade.”
     
    He reached out toward Carol Brown, which forced Woo to drag her closer to him and the movement served to expose more of his back. Wilson fired. Zack reached out and jerked Carol from his grasp as the electricity coursed from one prong, through his body, and out the other prong. The firearm Woo had been holding dropped from his hand.
     
    Then Woo collapsed to the ground. Wilson cuffed his hands behind his back while Zack passed Carol off to an officer behind him and retrieved the dropped gun. It was over quickly. Woo was taken away down the hall, to the holding cells, Sadie assumed. Carol Brown was escorted away by a female officer. Zack spotted Sadie in the evidence room when Officer Smith turned on the lights. He motioned her to come out.
     
    “I thought I told you to stay in the car,” Zack said when he had Sadie alone in the hallway.
     
    Alone except for Mr. Bradshaw, who didn’t like Zack’s tone and told him so with a quiet growl. Zack raised an eyebrow at Mr. B and the grumbling stopped. Sadie was impressed, although she didn’t say so. She was on Mr. Bradshaw’s side.
     
    “Come on,” Zack said when Sadie scowled in response to his comment. “Let’s get you home.”
     
    “Mr. Bradshaw and I can walk,” Sadie said. “We don’t need a ride.”
     
    She turned away and started quickly down the hall toward the outside exit. Zack trotted along beside her.
     
    “Sadie,” he said. “Please let me drive you. I want to be sure Hamilton isn’t lurking around.”
     
    Sadie stopped and Mr. B stopped with her. “Chief Woodstone,” she said, “I am a grown woman. ‘I thought I told you to stay in the