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On the seventeenth floor when she stopped to listen, she heard an odd sound above—like a heavy metal door, not the typical fire door that protected the staircases. The roof?
She ran as fast as she could, past the eighteenth floor, and saw that the cage door leading to the roof was ajar. She didn’t think twice and pursued with increased caution. She walked slowly up the final staircase, her heart pounding with adrenaline, trying to remain as silent as possible.
The door at the top was closed. She pulled out her phone, texted Matt.
He’s on the roof.
Matt immediately responded.
Do not pursue! Backup coming.
Kara ached to go after him, but there was no place for him to go. She responded: I’m guarding the door, southeast stairwell.
She waited and watched for any sign that the suspect was coming back this way. A full minute later she heard several sets of footsteps on the stairs below her.
She identified herself and shouted down the stairwell, “Suspect on the roof.”
“Sheriff’s department,” one of the men responded.
The door in front of her started to open.
Kara stood her ground. She kept an eye on where his hands would be, looking for a weapon—gun, knife, anything that could disable her.
He was silhouetted against the bright sky that partially blinded her.
“Freeze—LAPD!”
He threw something into the stairwell and slammed the door shut.
Smoke began to fill the stairwell. A foul, sulfuric stench hit her nostrils as the smoke entered her lungs. The two deputies called for a status.
“Smoke bomb!” she said. “Suspect still on the roof. I need cover.”
No way was she running away and letting the bastard slip out and hide in the building.
“Backup is on the way,” the deputy said. “Jones, you okay?”
His partner was coughing. “He’s trapped up there,” Jones said, coughed and spat. “Does he have a weapon?”
“He stabbed Dyson. I don’t know if he has a gun.”
Kara didn’t like this situation. The guy on the other side of this door could be waiting to ambush them, take as many out as possible before he was killed, or he could have another plan, another idea. The ventilation system? Another way to get out?
Jones listened to his radio, then said, “All cameras are down, Newman.”
Matt and Michael ran up the stairs, followed by two more deputies who each carried shields. Jones said, “Helicopter is on the way, ETA four minutes.”
Matt identified himself but before he could say anything else, the power went out.
“Suspect took out the security cameras,” Newman said.
The fire alarm rang, a piercing whirl, whirl, whirl. Emergency lighting powered on.
Michael asked for one of the shields.
“I go first, you follow,” Michael said to Matt, taking over the tactical command. “Deputies, Quinn, behind us.”
Matt took the other shield and the two cops went to the rear.
