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Danni pulled up to the gate to the mayor’s house and saw that Moore had driven right through this barrier as well. She wondered if the security officer fared better here. He was probably unarmed like the guards at her brother’s house were.
Danni pulled slowly through the opening, tires crunching over the pieces of the broken gate. Up ahead stood the SUV; she could see the back end. As she got closer, she saw the driver’s door was open, and smoke was pouring out from under the car’s hood. The front end was all smashed up. As she parked her car, shots rang out from inside the house.
Tense and afraid she was too late, Danni got out of the car, gun in hand. As she came around the SUV, the acrid smell of burning oil assaulting her nostrils, there was the security guard, looking as if he’d been hit by the SUV. He was moving, trying to crawl away.
Danni knelt next to him. “Stay put. Paramedics are on the way.”
He turned toward her and tried to sit up. His face was scratched and bloody from the pavement and one leg looked mangled. Danni helped him sit up and move to a more comfortable position.
“The mayor,” he said. “Panic room.”
“She has a panic room? Do you think she made it there?”
He gave a half shrug and groaned. “In the master bedroom hopefully.”
“Hang tight. Help is coming.” Danni stood and turned toward the house. More gunshots rang out, coming from the back of the house, it sounded like. At the master bedroom maybe? she wondered.
“Get that guy,” the injured man rasped as Danni reached the entry.
The front door stood open. Danni could hear someone yelling, but it was far away and muffled as if he was at the farthest end of the house. She also heard moaning, closer.
Gun up, she moved into the house. She walked down a short hallway and the moaning got louder.
Danni found a blood trail and followed it. She heard more gunshots; then a man yelled, “Come out, come out!”
She came across Ira HoffmanJr., his right knee looking as if it had been blown wide-open, trying to crawl across the kitchen floor.
She went to him. “Mr. Hoffman.”
He jerked away in fright and then howled in pain.
“It’s Detective Grace.”
He twisted toward her, cursing. “He’s crazy—crazy!” His breath came in shudders, like a toddler in a sobbing fit. “He sh-sh-sh-hot my kn-kn-knee.”
Danni grabbed some kitchen towels and handed them to him. She helped him to sit up, back supported by the kitchen cabinets. “Put pressure on the wound.” She started to stand but he grabbed her arm.
“Please, don’t leave me. Please.”
She gently removed his hand. “Help is on the way. I have to find your sister.”
He began to sob. “All my fault... all my fault.”
Danni left him there in the kitchen and went toward the sound of Moore’s voice. It was obvious White had made it to the panic room. Moore sounded frustrated. There was probably no way for him to get to her. Danni considered her options. The mayor was safe. Hoffman and the security guard were not. She was about to go back to the kitchen and try to get Hoffman out of the house when she heard Moore coming her way.
She had only one option now: face him and try to keep him away from Hoffman.
He appeared in the hallway.
Danni raised her gun. “Police. Freeze!”
Surprise showed in his face but not surrender. He backpedaled and started shooting. Danni dove for cover. He’d made his weapon fully automatic and bullets sprayed the windows behind her. She moved low across the living room in a hail of glass.
He stopped shooting and she heard the unmistakable sound of someone reloading.
“You’re the reason I lost my payday!” he yelled. “I was all set to get a cool tenmillion and you blew it for me.”
Danni stood, turned, and fired. He jerked and disappeared back down the hall he’d come from. She made for the hallway in front of her where there was a door to the outside, maybe to a patio or a courtyard.
