But as she skidded around the side of the behemoth, she found the way ahead mercifully clear.Croon hadn’t made it to high ground after all.Instead he was trapped in a dead-end with nothing but a sheer concrete wall boxing him in on three sides.He whirled to face her.
‘Nowhere left to run, Darryl.’She trained her Glock on him.Her lungs burned, legs ached, and head throbbed with the rush of unexpected cardio.‘Get on your knees, hands behind your head.’
Croon grinned.A rusty spike had materialized in his hand, probably off the same pile Ella had nearly landed on.
‘You think I’m going down that easy?’he spat.‘Think I’m gonna just roll over?’
‘Don’t bring a knife to a gunfight.’
Croon was breathing heavy breath.He was starting to flag; she could see it in the stumble of his gait.His burst of manic energy was burning out.She just had to wait him out and run him to ground like a dog after a rabbit.Soon, he’d realize his game was up.
Ella stepped closer.Croon backed further against the wall, and five more steps later, Ella was within grabbing distance.Croon frantically looked left and right for an escape or a weakness to exploit.
‘Don’t even think about-’
But before she could finish the threat, Croon moved again.He feinted to the left and suddenly he was hurtling past her.He slipped through the gap between her and the excavator with the agility of a snake.
Ella pivoted but Croon was already gone.She gave chase, cursing herself for underestimating him, for thinking even for a second that he’d go quietly.
But as she skidded around the excavator, Ella caught sight of a streak of wavy hair speeding towards the fleeing suspect.It happened almost too fast for her brain to process.One moment Croon was sprinting full-tilt towards freedom, the next he was clotheslined by an arm like a steel cable.His feet flew out under him, and Ella was certain that Croon somehow managed to flip backwards before smashing into the concrete.A part of her had to wince at the sound.
Ella was on him before he could move.Knee in his back, cuffs out, one wrist and then the other.The metal clicked twice.Croon’s face was pressed into the ground and he was making a noise that was half groan and half laugh, which was a combination Ella had never liked hearing from anyone.
Ripley stood over them both, breathing hard but not as hard as Croon.She shook out the arm she’d used to flatten him and flexed her fingers experimentally.
‘That’s going to bruise,’ she said, though it wasn’t clear whether she meant herself or Croon.
Ella hauled Croon to a sitting position against the excavator’s tread.Blood was running from a scrape above his eyebrow where the concrete had taken a layer off.
Then he said, ‘Alright detective, you got me.You got me fair and square.’
And damn if he didn’t sound amused about it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Ella let Croon fester in the back of the cruiser for a moment.Once heart rates had slowed down, she’d throw the initial questions at Croon before taking him back to the precinct for an official interrogation.Once perpetrators got to the box, that’s when the ‘I’m not talking without a lawyer’ comment reared its head, and Ella could live without that.
Ripley put a hand on her shoulder, ‘Good job not discharging.I was worried about that.’
‘Couldn’t risk a bullet around here.Nice clothesline, by the way.’
Ripley rolled her shoulder then massaged her bicep.‘I’m going to feel that in the morning.’
‘Worth it though.’
Ripley jerked her chin towards the rear window, where Croon was still trying to bore holes through the glass with the force of his glare.‘What now?We just going to let him stew back there or are we going to put the screws to him?’
Procedure dictated they haul Croon back to the station for booking and a formal interrogation.But her gut was telling her they might not have that kind of time.If Croon was their guy – and circumstantial evidence suggested he very well could be – then he might clam up the second he had a chance to get his story straight.
‘I don’t anticipate we’ll get much from him, but we should fire some questions at him before the suits get involved.Plus, I’ve never had an innocent person threaten me with a spike before.’
‘True.Did you hear what he said when you slapped the cuffs on him?You got me fair and square.’
Thoughts hurdled through Ella’s brain, and her gut told her that Darryl Croon was guilty ofsomething, and that something wasn’t already logged in his extensive rap sheet.
'He's got a long criminal history, he works for an appraiser right by Amber Holloway's house, and we're half a mile from the theater where Eddie Foxall worked.There's a lot of coincidences going on here.'
Up near the entrance, a swarm of PPE-clad workers milled about, trying to look busy clearly ogling the spectacle of justice in front of them.The foreman broke through the crowd and stomped towards Ella and Mia.
