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Suspect, she decided. Ripley could comfort the soldier, reassure him there was no threat.Ellasprangintomotion, racing towards the fleeing suspect who now was inches away from the exit. He reached the door handle, pulled it open and got one foot into the stairwell before Ella shoulder-tackled him against the door frame. The bodies bounced off the wood like two rubber balls, momentum carrying them back into the room and onto the floor. Ted gained the upper hand by rolling on top of Ella, deflecting her blows with his elbow, and pummeling her mid-section with his fist.
But the therapist’s blows were weak and out of practice. These were the attacks of a man in unfamiliar territory, and so Ella pressed her knees against his ribs and shoved him off of her in one thrust. She jumped to her feet and trained her pistol on the wheezing gentleman, locked onto his lower section.
“Shoot me,” Ted screamed. “I dare you.”
“I really don’t want to do that,” Ella said. She turned side-on and glimpsed her partner, who was now clutching the innocent man in the corner. He looked terrified, shook up, as though he’d been transported back into the jungles of Vietnam.
Ella sheathed her weapon, not wanting to put the man through any more distress.
But as she did, Ted seized the moment and fled again towards the exit. Ella rushed into action again, cutting him off at the pass, colliding with him at the peak of the stairwell. She grabbed him by his blue shirt, threw him against the wall, lodged her knee in his abdomen. Ted curled over, clutching his stomach, coughing violently. Ella spun him around and gripped his wrists behind his back.
“Why are you running, Ted?” she shouted in his ear.
Ted laughed, maniacally. “Because you know.”
“What do I know?”
“You know… that you want to throw me down those stairs.”
Ella tightened her grip. “You want to go to court with two broken legs?”
“No,” Ted spat. “I’d rather die than go to prison.”
“Why’d you do it?” she asked, calmer this time.
Ted said nothing as the arrest became inevitable. Ted wasn’t getting out of here. His game was up. The murders were over. Ella breathed a sigh of relief, remembering those victims, the poor souls that were already down and their luck and then euthanized by this man’s hand. Rage burrowed inside her at the thought, realizing that this was her opportunity to exact a measure of vengeance for the friends and families of those who’d been cruelly slain. Certain people would give anything to be in this position with a triple-murderer. She was here, living it, breathing it.
Exploding back to life, Ted made one last ditch effort. He flung his foot backwards into Ella’s groin, but Ella scouted it and deflected the blow with her ankle. The pathetic attempt to immobilize her enraged her. Her fury boiled over, all willpower to keep this man safe suddenly deserting her, as though she’d begun channeling God’s will herself.
She didn’t even believe in God, really.
But she did believe in gravity.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“I can’t believe you threw him down the stairs,” Ripley said.
Ella watched the man from outside of the interrogation room. This precinct wasn’t lavish enough for a designated interview room with one-way glass, so a regular office with a locked door would have to do. Ted Kowalczyk was forced to watch his captor, Ripley, and Sheriff Hale confer on the other side like images from a silent movie.
“Me neither,” Ella said.
“You could have killed him, Dark. You better hope he hasn’t broken anything or there’ll be hell to pay. Killer or not, he’ll be suing your ass.”
“He was a runner. Had to stop him running.”
“You definitely did that.”
“It was just some good old fashioned gravity, and he doesn’t look too hurt to me. Was the soldier okay?” Ella asked.
“Yeah. PTSD from Vietnam. Apparently he was working with Ted over here to overcome it, but the results had been minimal.”
The sheriff interrupted, “What are our chances of this guy being our man? Is it likely? Should I put the bubbly on ice?”
Ellabit her tongue, refusingtoeven whisperthedreadedwords out of fear that saying them aloud might contaminate the truth. However, she was ninety-nine percent positive that Ted Kowalczyk was their killer. When backed into a corner, people had a way of showing the face beneath the mask, and what Kowalczyk had said in that stairwell spoke to her core. He was a man with dark secrets. He’d done something illegal, something treacherous, and Ella had a good feeling that it involved the murder of three innocent people.
“If I was a gambling woman, I’d put a bag of sand on it,” Ripley said. “Kowalczyk has links to at least two of the victims. He’s violent and aggressive. He’s a coward. He fits the psychological and the physical profile. He has a motive. He has a criminal past. He’s the missing piece of a very large puzzle and he fits perfectly.”
The sheriff’s grin was interrupted by an incoming phone call. “Excuse me,” he said.
