AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Backup would be arriving any minute as soon as she'd confirmed the coast was clear and that he didn't have a lookout watching for the police.
They needed to corral this man, this killer. She had her gun and handcuffs under her jacket. She was ready.
Juliette looked around again, taking in every detail, every aspect of the scene. Movement caught her eye and her gaze sharpened. But it was only a cat, jumping down from a side wall and then leaping up, through the window of a neighboring apartment. For a moment, as she watched the animal, her face softened and she felt some of the tension inside her ease.
The cat had a collar, he looked well fed, and he was clearly going where he belonged. He had a home and he was okay, so she could put it out of her mind. In the past, she had been known to arrive back from takedowns with rescue animals in tow. Two of her police friends now had new pets as a result of strays she'd picked up, after the criminals were caught. But hopefully, she'd only be going home with one living thing today - and that was Goldenface, around whom, finally, the net was closing.
Turning her attention away from the cat, she refocused on the scene. Her phone buzzed, and after another check, she answered it discreetly. Nobody was watching her. She had good instincts and could usually tell if someone’s eyes were on her. And nobody had come out of, or into, the apartment that was now in her sights.
"Any sign of him yet?" a man’s voice queried.
"Nope. No sign," she answered. The caller was her boss, Mark Ebury, who had just landed from a high-level meeting in Atlanta. "We're watching the apartment. Awaiting the warrant. Backup’s on its way."
"You sure it's the right place?" he asked.
"Yes. We got the lead earlier today. We've been tracking him down via his purchases. The stage make-up store in Newark was a definite match. Unfortunately they didn't get video footage, but they alerted us last week, and told us that he’d called again, asking if there was more gold paint in stock. It was definitely the same person because the saleswoman asked him when he’d last bought from them. The store did a good job; they thought fast, and he slipped up.”
It had been a stroke of luck for the team.
“So, we were able to get a cellphone number for him. We tracked it immediately, but it was turned off,” she finished.
"How did you trace it there?"
"We kept checking up on it, every day, many times. We didn’t leave it alone. The team kept working on it," Juliette said in a low voice. "We didn't give up on that phone number, and on Monday morning, we saw it was turned on and had come onto the network again. It wasn't on for long, but it was long enough for us to triangulate it, and now, here we are."
Juliette wished this could have been done faster, but it had taken a couple of days to pull this raid together. They’d watched the apartment on and off, but had seen no movement, no comings and goings. They’d concluded he was holed up in there.
Today, Thursday, they’d finally been able to go ahead with it.
"Sounds good," her boss said. "I'd better let you get on."
Her phone buzzed again with an incoming message.
"The warrant's just been issued, so we can go in," she told Ebury, her heart now beating faster because at last, after a frustrating delay, this raid could begin. The next few minutes would be where she could make a critical difference.
"Good luck. I'm sure I don't have to tell you how important this is," he said.
"I won't let you down," she promised. She hung up, and sent the message that would start this operation moving.
"It's clear," she messaged. "We can go in."
A lot rested on her shoulders now, and she concentrated hard on calming her mind, channeling the pressure she felt into a positive force. This was about saving the lives of future victims she didn’t even know. She knew firsthand about the consequences of a violent murder. The families would suffer pain, grief, and loss that would never leave them.
A minute later, she saw the two armed officers who would provide backup approaching. Dressed in Kevlar vests, and with their weapons at the ready, she knew she had an experienced team behind her and drew confidence from that fact.
“Morning,” she greeted them. “Let’s get this done.”
Now, it was time to go in. That also meant things could go badly wrong. She took off the plainclothes jacket she'd used for her ruse, and put on a Kevlar vest herself.
Her hand brushed against the holster that held her gun, and she felt ready.
This was it. Time to move into the place where he was hiding, and see what was there.
The officers nodded at her, and they all moved in. The door was locked, but Juliette had no intention of alerting the suspect by knocking on it. Instead, she backed up, and the officers took position.
The door was old and battered looking, as if this wasn't the first time in its long life it had met the edge of a boot. Juliette sized up the lock. At five-six, she was tall enough to kick in a door effectively, and she'd had lots of practice in the past. She might not be overly muscular in build, but she was deceptively strong for her size.
She jogged at it, then coiled herself, sprang, and let her foot lash out in a brutally hard, accurate kick.
