Read Online Chasing Darkness by Danielle Girard - Free Book Online Page B

clearly frightened. Then, squeezing the doll tight to her, she
raced up the steps and inside the house, screaming.
    Sam
stopped at the curb. Nick could see her checking the street for signs of their
suspect.
    “Anything?”
    “Nada,”
she said.
    Nick
exhaled. He had started to turn around when he noticed a crawl space beneath
the deck of the girl’s house. Walking slowly, he pulled out his flashlight and
turned the light toward the deck.
    Silently,
he crossed the grass and started to kneel.
    “What
the hell are you doing?” someone hollered.
    Nick
jumped back.
    A
woman, holding a bat, stood above him, leaning over the deck. “Get the hell off
my lawn. Where do you get off scaring my girl that way?”
    Nick
raised his hand. “I’m a police officer, ma’am. I didn’t want your daughter out
here because I’m looking for a suspect in a murder case.”
    The
woman didn’t lower her bat. Instead, she took a couple of steps backward and
scanned the area. “Let me see some I.D.”
    “Ma’am.”
    She
waved the bat around in a small circle like she was winding up to hit one home.
“I’ll go back in that house and call the police ’less you show me your goddamn
badge.”
    Sam
came forward, her badge drawn. “Special agent for the Department of Justice.”
    The
woman frowned, and the dark lines of her face suddenly looked painted on. “Not
you,” she said to Sam and then pointed to Nick. “Him.”
    He
took a careful look around for Lugino. By now, he was probably on a bus for the
next county.
    “I.D.,
mister,” the woman repeated.
    Sam
was right behind him now. “You’re clear,” she said.
    “Okay,”
Nick agreed. Still holding his gun, he found his badge with his left hand and
brought it out, handing it to the woman.
    He
looked around again and slowly holstered his gun.
    The
woman studied his badge, then looked at him.
    Nick
sensed movement in the crawl space under the porch behind him.
    The
woman screamed.
    “Freeze!”
Sam commanded.
    Nick
spun around, reaching for his gun.
    Lugino
stood behind him, swinging the tricycle.
    Nick
ducked, unable to reach his gun in time. The tricycle missed his head but hit
him hard against his right shoulder. He moaned, falling forward.
    “Drop
it and freeze,” Sam repeated.
    Lugino
didn’t listen. He took off down the street.
    The
woman ran back into the house.
    “Fuck,”
Sam cursed, taking off after Lugino.
    Nick
forced himself up and cupped his right arm to his chest. He shook it loose
slowly, the pain already starting to pulse in his muscles.
    Lugino
was moving, but not fast, and Sam reached him easily. When Sam was within arm’s
reach, Lugino dove right, but Sam caught his arm and whipped him around.
Without giving him a chance to pause, she kneed him in the balls and watched
him drop to the ground. He moaned and rolled to his side, bringing his legs up
in the fetal position. She put her hand in his hair and pressed his face into
the ground, her gun at his back.
    “Nice
cover,” Nick said when he reached Sam. “I thought you were watching my back.”
    She
didn’t answer him but instead got on her knees and straddled Lugino. Her gun
holstered, she pulled out a pair of cuffs and slapped them on Lugino. Nick
wished again that he was alone out here. Watching her work was too much.
    When
she was done, she stood up and turned toward him. “You okay?”
    He
nodded.
    Lugino
moaned as Nick pulled him to his feet. “My nuts, man. That bitch crushed my
nuts.”
    “You
shouldn’t have tried to crush my head,” Nick muttered, leading him toward the
car.

Chapter
Six
    Nick
ran a hand over his face and took a long drink of his cold coffee. It was after
ten and they had been talking to Lugino for more than three hours. Sam had left
early on, promising to come back later. Lugino hadn’t been responsive with a
woman in the room. And since she’d kneed him in the balls, he seemed to be
particularly against talking to her. She’d gone to make some phone calls, and
Lugino