AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Is everything all right?” Amberasked him.
"Yes, yes, of course. Whywouldn't it be?"
Yet even with that, he seemed tosay it a little too quickly to really be believable.
Simon jumped in with the nextquestion straight away. “Was Alice Chan one of your clients?”
“Alice…”
“Chan,” Amber said. “She was aswimmer.”
“Ah, yes, yes,” Alonzo said. “Thatpoor girl. I heard what happened to her in the news.”
“But she was one of your clients?”Simon insisted.
“I’m not sure if I could call her aclient,” Alonzo replied. His nervousness hadn’t gone away. There was definitelysomething wrong here. Amber needed to know what was going on.
So she came out and asked it. “Dr.Star, I asked you before if there’s something wrong. Are you sure thateverything is okay here?”
“Oh, yes, everything is fine,”Alonzo said.
“Really? Because you seem verynervous.”
“Wouldn’t you be nervous if the FBIsuddenly came knocking at your door?” he countered.
Simon gave him a level look. “Ithink that would depend on exactly how much I had to hide. Do you haveanything to hide? Did you have some involvement in Alice Chan’s death?”
Alonzo was on his feet then, andthe suddenness of the movement was enough to knock over the glass-topped table.Amber and Simon had to jump up from their seats to avoid it.
Alonzo was already running. Mindywas in his way, but that didn't seem to matter to him. In fact, he shoved herout of the way hard enough that she slammed into the wall, her head hitting itwith enough force that Amber winced. The receptionist stumbled and fell,obviously stunned.
Amber cursed to herself because sheknew that a head injury like that could be worse than it looked. They couldn'tjust leave the injured woman alone here. Simon seemed to have the same idea.
“I’ll take care of her. You goafter him.”
Amber nodded and set off in pursuitof the astrologer. She ran after him through the reception area, but by thetime Amber got in there, he was already barreling down the stairs towards theexit. Amber set off after him, taking the stairs at a perilous speed, knowingthat she had to catch up to her suspect before he got away.
The astrologer burst out onto thestreet ahead of Amber, and she sprang down the last couple of steps, determinedto make it to the door. Amber made it out onto the street just a second or twobehind Alonzo, but he was already running across the street, heading for analley.
Amber started after him, then hadto dodge as a car barely missed her, blaring its horn as it did so. Amberdidn’t stop, but kept going, determined not to let Alonzo out of her sight. Hewas just paces away now, running in long strides down the alley, while Amberpumped her arms, determined to keep up the pace.
Finally, he was close enough. Amberthrew herself into a tackle and succeeded in getting her arms around theastrologer’s waist. Her momentum was enough to drag him down, the two of themhitting the ground hard together.
Amber landed on top of him, and sherecovered from the impact quickly. Alonzo, meanwhile, groaned and sent a weakpunch up towards Amber’s face. Amber deflected it, using the movement to wrenchhim fully over onto his stomach. Amber kept her weight on him, ignoring hisattempts to buck and thrash while she got out her handcuffs.
She cuffed his hands together,holding him in place as best she could until some of the fight started to goout of him.
“Alonzo Star, or Ruiz, or whateveryou’re called, you’re under arrest.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Simon stood outside theinterrogation room of the Keystone PD, looking in through the one-way glass andsearching Alonzo Ruiz’s face for any hint of the truth. Was this the man whohad killed two women so far? If not, why had he run?
He’d turned down the chance of alawyer, which caught Simon a little by surprise. Did Alonzo really think thathe could talk his way out of this alone?
Simon was a little frustrated athaving to wait, especially now that the sky outside the police department wasstarting to darken as it got into evening, but Amber wasn’t with him yet, andhe wanted to wait for her before he began the interrogation. She’d gone to lookdeeper into Alonzo. Simon just hoped that she’d found something that could linkhim to these crimes.
He saw her coming, hurrying downthe corridor that led to the interrogation room. What did it mean that Simon’sheart always leapt slightly when he saw her? That they’d kissed on theirprevious case, and now Simon didn’t have the words to work out exactly what wasgoing on between them?
