Ella listened to her gut.This was no ordinary group member.The way he alternated between blending in and observing suggested he was here for a specific purpose.
Lily was still speaking, but Ella’s attention was elsewhere.
The man slowly stepped back from the doorway, glanced at Ella one more time, then turned and disappeared into the hallway.
Ella’s heart rate spiked, and her intuition told her that this man wasn’t simply a reserved member of their circle.There was something else going on.
And Ella needed to find out what.
Without a second thought, Ella feigned a wave of emotion and covered her mouth with a shaky hand.‘Excuse me, I just need a minute,’ she mumbled, quivering her voice just enough to sell the act.She stood up and brushed past the chairs with hurried steps, never taking her glare off the dissolving shadow moving down the far corridor.She gave Lily and Derek an apologetic glance, and Derek gave her an assuring nod.
Ella stepped into the hallway.Twenty feet ahead, the man was pushing through the church's side exit.He looked back over his shoulder.
Their eyes met again.
This time, Ella saw it clearly: guilt.
‘Stop!Police!’
The man shoved the door open and ran.
Ella exploded from the church doors and locked her sight onto the blur that was fast moving across the cemetery.Her adrenaline surged as she pursued across the cold, uneven ground, reminding herself that innocent people didn’t run.
‘Freeze!’
He didn't stop.Didn't even slow down.
Ella had no gun, no backup, no radio.Just her and him and a field of tombstones between them.The suspect vaulted over a low gravestone, heading not for the main gate but toward the back wall.Ella followed.If the guy made it over that wall, he'd disappear into the woods.She couldn't let that happen.
She lengthened her stride and closed the distance.He was fast – tall, lean, built like a runner – but speed only mattered for the first thirty seconds.After that, it was about endurance.And Ella had run down suspects twice his size.There were two dead bodies out there, two people whose families would never see them again, and that alone was enough fire to keep Ella in pursuit all night.
He weaved between headstones, cutting left and right, trying to throw her off.But Ella had been doing this for years.She read his movements before he made them, anticipating each turn.
She was gaining.
He glanced back and panicked when he saw how close she was.He pushed harder, lengthened his stride, then stumbled slightly but composed himself.Ella pushed herself harder too, her lungs burning, her muscles screaming.She was close now, close enough to hear his heavy breaths, close enough to reach out and touch him.The suspect reached the wall and, in one swift motion, leaped at it and tried to climb.
But Ella was right on his heels.
She lunged forward just as the suspect found his first foothold on the wall.Her hand shot out and clutched an ankle.
'Get off me!'He kicked back.Ella jerked her head to the side.His foot missed by inches.He kicked again.She held on, digging her nails into his leg, bracing her foot against the wall for leverage.She summoned all of her weight into her shoulders, gripped the man's leg with both hands, and hauled him off the wall, down to the muddy earth below.
Ella went down with him, and the impact knocked the air from her lungs.The suspect landed beside her and immediately tried to scramble to his feet.
She swept his legs.
He went face-first into the mud, then pushed himself up onto his hands.Ella threw herself onto his back and drove him flat.He bucked beneath her, trying to twist free.His legs kicked wildly, and he managed to roll himself over.A fist came out of nowhere and connected with her ribs, but she didn’t let go.She raised her own fist, ready to bring it down.
That was enough.
‘Okay!Stop!I didn’t do anything wrong!’
Ella didn't lower her fist.Guilty people had a look.A feeling.This man had both.
‘No?’
‘No.I swear it.’
