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“The prosecutor lost her case,” he said, “and took her own freaking loser life. It’s the money shot. Get it? Bang. Clean shot to the temple and another big chunk of dough goes into my bank account —thanks to your dramatic, tragic, movie ending.
“Plus, Yuki, it is personal. I’ve really come to hate you.”
“What time is it?” Yuki asked, blinking up at the starburst pattern that was somehow Twilly’s face.
Chapter 98
I WAS FRANTIC.
The audio had been coming in loud and clear from the transmitter in Yuki’s wristwatch, but now we’d lost her! We’d gone out of range! I grabbed Conklin’s arm, stopped him in the path that had petered out onto a small clearing before snaking out in three directions.
“I’ve lost the transmission!”
“Hold it,” Conklin said into his mic to the SWAT team that was moving through the woods in a grid formation.
And then the static cleared. I couldn’t hear Yuki, but Twilly’s voice was tinny and clear.
“See, when I was thinking about this earlier,” Twilly was saying, “I thought I could get you to spread your wings and fly off this cliff. But now I’m thinking, you’re going to shoot yourself, Yuki.”
Yuki’s scream was high-pitched. Wordless.
Twilly was threatening to kill her! Why didn’t Yuki use her gun?
“Up there. Top of the ridge,” I shouted to Conklin.
We were at least two hundred yards away from the summit. Two hundred yards! It no longer mattered if he heard us. I ran.
Brambles grabbed out at me, branches snapped in my face. I stumbled on a root, grabbed out and hugged a tree. My lungs burned as I ran. I saw their forms between the tree trunks, silhouetted against the sky. But Twilly was so close to Yuki, I couldn’t get a clean shot.
I yelled out, “Twilly! Stand away from her now.”
There was the crack of gunshot.
OH, GOD, NO! YUKI!
Birds broke from the trees and flew up like scattershot as the report echoed over the hillside. Eight of us boiled out of the woods into the clearing at the ridgeline. That’s where I found Yuki, on her knees, forehead touching the ground.
The gun was still in her hand.
I got down on the ground and shook her shoulders.
“Yuki! Yuki! Speak to me! Please.”
Chapter 99
TWILLY HELD HIS HANDS in the air. He said, “Thank God you showed up, Sergeant. I was trying to stop her, but your friend was determined to kill herself.”
I pulled Yuki into my arms. The smell of gunpowder was in the air, but there was no blood, no wound. Her shot had gone wild.
“Yuki. I’m here, honey, I’m here.”
She moaned, sounded and looked dopey. There was no liquor on her breath. Had she been drugged?
“What’s wrong with her?” I shouted at Twilly. “What did you do to her?”
“Not a thing,” Twilly said. “This is how I found her.”
“You’re under arrest, scumbag,” Conklin said. “Hands behind your back.”
