AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“And you killed her,” Amber said.“You drugged her and you strangled her. Then you put up the symbols… why?”
“To show the world that the will offate can’t be ignored,” Russel said. Was he further away from Amber now? Shethought so, and that meant that she had to push through the trees, movingfaster.
“But then you stopped,” Amber said.
“The stars didn’t require moredeath,” Russel said. “They urged caution. But now, with my life’s work fallingapart… now I must act.”
That last word came from closer toAmber than she’d anticipated. She heard movement near her too and turned,spinning towards the sound, trying to bring her weapon to bear.
Amber was too slow. A heavy stickslammed down on her arm, knocking the gun from her grasp. It went off in theprocess, the sound echoing through the night.
The branch swung back and PeterRussel hit Amber again, this time in the head, hard enough to send hersprawling to the floor, her head spinning. For a moment, Amber lay on the floorof the woodland, looking up at the night sky, the stars seeming to swirl untilnone of the constellations made sense.
Then Amber remembered that she wasmeant to be doing something. Something important. Something… something life anddeath.
The reality of it came back to heras she realized that Peter Russel would be going for Loretta again, trying tofinish what he’d started. Hitting her with a stick wasn’t the same as crushingher with a statue, but she would still die. He would still fulfill his twistedneed to kill.
Amber forced herself to her feet,ignoring the sick feeling that came as she did it, ignoring the pain in herskull. She groped around for her gun but couldn’t find it immediately in thedark, and there was no time to go hunting for it when Loretta’s life was indanger.
Amber staggered the first couple ofsteps, but then she was running after Peter Russel, trying to beat him back toLoretta. The dizziness was passing, suggesting that she wasn’t as concussed asshe should have been, having taken a hit like that.
Amber made it out of the trees andsaw Russel running back towards the fallen statue. He could have tried to makehis escape after he hit her, could have left in his Lexus while Amber was stillstunned and been well out of town before Amber managed to organize a search forhim.
It would have been the sensibleoption. With a head start like that, he might have been able to keep runningfor months, if not years. It would have been the kind of extended manhunt whereit would have been difficult to track him down. With his money, he might evenhave made it out of the country.
Instead, he’d run back to try tokill Loretta, like doing it was the most important thing in the world. Like itmattered more even than his own safety. Amber couldn’t let that happen.
She sprinted forward, trying tointercept him. Peter Russel was standing over Loretta now, next to thefountain, and Amber charged him, shouting as she went, trying to distract him.The sound made him turn towards her, but Amber didn’t slow down. She charged athim, tackling him because there was too much momentum for her to do anythingelse. Amber was smaller than Peter Russel, but the force of the impact wasstill enough to send both of them tumbling into the fountain.
It was deep. For a second, Amberwas underwater, the cold of it hitting her like a punch that drove most of theair out of her lungs. She surfaced, and Russel came up too, branch raised tohit her. Amber moved inside the blow, blocking the swinging arm and punchingthe killer as hard as she could. She was in close with him then, hitting outwith her palms, her elbows, her knees. Anything to keep him off balance. A blowfrom the branch struck across her back, but Amber ignored it. She managed tohook a leg behind Peter Russel’s, plunging them both back into the water.
Amber was above him then. She heldhim under, grabbing a breath of her own before he pulled her down with him. Thetwo of them were under the water together then, each fighting to make it to thesurface, each trying to force the other to stay under.
Amber saw bubbles coming from PeterRussel’s mouth, saw him lose his grip on the branch. Amber bust up to thesurface, held Russel under a moment longer, then dragged him up after her.
He came up gasping and sputtering.Amber hauled him from the fountain, throwing him down on the grass beyond it,ignoring the water dripping from her. He was still gasping for air, and thatgave her a chance to pin him down, reaching for her handcuffs and using them torestrain him. He fought and bucked then, but with his hands cuffed, Amber wasable to hold onto him, pinning him down and waiting for the fight to slowly goout of him.
“Peter Russel,” she said at last.“You are under arrest for the murders of Katrina van Nuit, Alice Chan, andRosalind Elm.”
CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
“A few scrapes and bruises, but Ithink you’ll be fine.”
Amber nodded her thanks to thedoctor. She sat in the hospital, grateful that the doctor had finally finishedchecking her over. She was itching to get going, to make sure that the case wasall wrapped up and that Peter Russel wasn’t going to be able to talk his wayout of any of this.
“Is Loretta Kane okay?” Amberasked.
The doctor nodded. He was in hisforties, with slightly greying hair and spectacles.
“We’ve been able to counteract thesedative in her system. We’ll keep her in overnight for observation, but sheshould be fine.”
Amber felt a wave of relief atthat. She’d done it; she’d saved Russel’s last victim, prevented him fromcontinuing his murderous spree. Amber wouldn’t have felt the same satisfactionat catching him if Loretta hadn’t survived. Stopping a killer was important,but saving lives was the part of this that truly mattered.
“Have you seen my partner around?”Amber asked. “Agent Phelps?”
Simon was usually here with her atmoments like this, but she hadn’t seen him since she set out to take down PeterRussel. Was he deliberately keeping his distance to try to avoid the complexrelationship that had sprung up between them? Was he simply helping to makesure that they got a confession from Russel? Was he angry with Amber for notgoing along with him over Mich as a suspect?
Amber didn’t know, but she wantedto see him, wanted to speak with him, wanted to tell him… what? Amber knew theanswer to that question. She wanted to tell him that what she felt for himwasn’t going to go away, and that she wanted to be with him, even if it meantthat they wouldn’t be able to work together.
