No answer.
Selena grabbed the radio from her belt with her free hand.“Connor.Marlene attacked me at the Schmidt house.”
Static cracked.Then Connor’s voice came through, sharp and immediate.“My God.I’m already en route.Are you okay?”
Selena touched the back of her head.Her fingers came away wet with blood.
“I’m conscious.She’s running.”
“Stay put.I’m close.”
“Not happening.”
“Selena.”
She clipped the radio back to her belt and moved through the living room with the gun raised.
A lamp lay on the carpet near the couch, shade bent, base heavy enough to do the damage.The back door stood open.A chair had been knocked sideways in the kitchen.Beyond the sink, a window over the counter gaped outward, curtain shifting in the breeze.
“Marlene, stop!”Selena shouted.
No reply.
She crossed the kitchen, checked the back door, then looked through the open window.A narrow yard stretched toward a wooden fence.Beyond it, woodland crowded the property line.
Marlene was halfway over the fence.
Dark hair loose.Gray sweater snagged on the top board.One shoe was lost in the grass.
Selena ran for the back door and out into the yard.“Stop, Marlene!Get on the ground!”
Marlene looked back once, face white with terror, then dropped over the other side.
Selena reached the fence and climbed.The movement sent pain flashing through her head.She almost lost her grip on the top rail, caught herself, then swung one leg over and dropped into the rough grass beyond.
Branches cracked ahead.
The woods behind Victor’s house were narrow at first, then deepened where the land sloped toward a creek bed.Marlene moved badly but fast, crashing through brush, panic making her careless.Selena kept after her, gun low but ready, breath coming hard through her teeth.
“Marlene, stop!”
The woman did not stop.
Selena pushed through saplings and thorny weeds.Leaves slapped at her face.The ground pitched beneath her, roots twisting underfoot.Another pulse of dizziness hit, and she caught a tree trunk with her shoulder, biting back a curse.
Footsteps sounded to her right.
Not Marlene’s.Heavier.Coming fast.
Selena spun, gun coming up.
“Selena!”Connor shouted.
He broke through the trees with both hands raised enough for her to see them.His face changed when he saw the gun and the blood on her hairline.
She lowered the weapon, breathing hard.
“Where is she?”he asked.
