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Oscar’s tail wagged when a group of children walked past him. She gave the leash a slight jerk to let him know that as much as he wanted to, he couldn’t interact with the children.
“We’re on duty,” she said.
The crowd thinned as they approached an abandoned building that used to be a multistoried department store. She could feel the soreness from the attack. She increased her pace. Oscar’s little legs kept up with hers. If she slowed, he responded. The dog was sharp. She loved all the K-9 recruits, but she liked how quickly Oscar picked up on her cues. They seemed to be dialed into each other, a quality that was essential in working with a partner, K-9 or human.
She’d requested that he be brought out of foster care to see if he’d be good K-9 material. Not all dogs had the temperament to be K-9s. In her first encounter with Oscar, when he was just weaned at eight weeks, he had sat back on his haunches and looked up at her, tilting his head to one side as if to say, At your service, ma’am.
Oscar seemed to have alerted on something across the street. She followed the line of his gaze. Noah Jameson stood beside a coffee cart waiting for his morning cup. He offered Lani a small wave before he turned back toward headquarters. He must be busy today if he was getting his coffee from a street cart. Most of the officers went to Griffin’s diner for coffee. Scotty wasn’t with him. He must be back at Noah’s office.
“He’s all right, isn’t he, Oscar?” Noah had always struck her as being emotionally closed down. She had seen a more caring side to him after the training exercise fell apart. Maybe he was human after all.
A scraping sound above her caused her to tilt her head. A large square object came right toward her at a rapid speed, filling her field of vision. She jumped to one side, falling against the brick exterior of the building. The few people on the sidewalk scattered as well. In her panic, Lani had let go of Oscar’s leash.
An air-conditioning unit shattered on the concrete. Some of the pieces still vibrated from the impact.
An older man rushed toward her. “Are you all right?”
Dazed and in shock, Lani got to her feet with the man’s help. She brushed the dust off her uniform.
“What a bizarre accident.” An older woman approached Lani. She tilted her head. “It must have been loose or something.” The woman patted Lani’s shoulder. “Are you all right, dear? That was quite the scare.”
Lani’s heart raced a mile a minute. She glanced around. Where was Oscar? “Did you see where my dog went?”
Both the old man and woman shook their heads. People had begun to move past her on the street, stepping around the pieces of the shattered air-conditioning unit. She stared through the forest of feet, not seeing the puppy as fear gripped her heart all over again. The poor thing had probably gotten frightened and run off.
A yelp came from inside the building. She pressed her face against the dusty window. She could just make out Oscar’s face by a pile of scrap wood. The poor dog had been so afraid he’d run for shelter.
“Hang on, Oscar. I’m coming to get you.”
She tried one of the double doors that were the main entrance to the building. Locked.
Oscar had gotten in somehow. She saw then a hole in the display window. Not big enough for her to slip through. She walked around to the side of the building and found a door that looked like it had been jimmied. Someone desperate for a place to sleep on a cold fall night had probably done that. Knowing that she might surprise someone, she pulled her gun.
She rushed in. She heard Oscar’s whimper before she saw him in the dark corner. Broken display counters and pieces of mannequins still remained in the dust and debris.
A sense of relief flooded through her as she ran over to the puppy. She holstered her weapon and gathered him in her arms. “It’s all right, buddy. That was scary for me too.” The pup licked her face.
Thudding sounds came from the floor above her. Footsteps. Her heart beat a little faster. Maybe the air conditioner had had a little help by being pushed. Maybe the lock was jimmied by someone up to no good, not just looking for a place to sleep.
“Tell you what, buddy. You’ve had enough excitement for one day.” She wrapped his leash around a door knob. She still hadn’t been issued a new radio. Protocol would be to call for backup. That wasn’t possible right now. She’d neglected to get another cell phone after hers was damaged by the water last night.
Chances were she was dealing with a vagrant, nothing more. He or she could have leaned against the air-conditioning unit...or the destruction might have been on purpose. Or just someone so high or drunk, they didn’t know what they were doing.
Oscar yipped as if to offer encouragement. More footsteps sounded above her. She pulled her weapon and headed up the wide staircase in the center of the floor. The second floor was an open area with broken glass and display counters largely dismantled and probably used for firewood. Mattresses and dusty clothing scattered throughout the floor indicated the homeless had taken up residence at one time. Maybe they were still here. None of the big front display windows on this floor contained air conditioners.
She scanned the open floor area one quadrant at a time. There were places someone could hide, behind the piles of busted furniture and boxes and the display counters. She detected no movement. She held her own breath and listened, sensing that someone was watching her. Her mouth went dry. “NYPD. Please show yourself.”
Turning quickly and aiming her weapon, she thought she saw someone in her peripheral vision. She let out a breath. Just a mannequin. She shook her head and dryly laughed.
There were smaller rooms on the south side of the building that might have been offices or storage spaces. Some had doors, some did not. With her heart drumming in her ears, she made her way toward the rooms.
Her own footsteps seemed to echo on the floorboards. The first room had no door, she peered inside seeing only empty shelving. She lifted her weapon and made her way to the second room. She held her gun in one hand while she opened the door with the other.
A hand went over her mouth and jerked her back. The attacker had come up from behind. “I got you.” He pinched the nerves on her wrist. “Drop the gun.”
Pain shot up her arm, but she held on to the gun. She angled her body side to side trying to escape his iron hold on her. In the struggle, she dropped her gun. She broke free, whirled around and slammed him hard in the stomach. The man, who was wearing a blue baseball cap, bent over. She scrambled to get her weapon.
The man recovered quickly and took off running just as she picked up her gun. Footsteps pounded behind her. Not another one. She whirled around aiming her weapon just in time to see Noah coming up the stairs.
On reflex, Noah pointed his gun at her. “Whoa.”
Unable to form the question, she shook her head as if to ask what he was doing.
“I saw movement on the third-floor window where that thing fell out. I was just getting ready to walk around the corner to headquarters, but there was a construction accident that blocked the sidewalk, so it took me a minute to run back over here.”
But he was here. That’s what mattered.
She pointed. “He went toward the stairwell leading up.”
They both raced across the floor. The culprit must have been trying to get out via the first floor when Lani had interrupted him on the second floor. Noah took the lead as they headed up the stairs.
The third floor consisted of a hallway and a series of rooms that were probably offices and storage. There was no obvious exit.
Lani pointed, signaling that they could work their way from either end toward the middle, clearing each room. She moved into the first room, cleared it and stepped back into the hallway just in time to see Noah disappear into a room on the opposite end of the hallway.
She stepped into the second room, which featured a large window that looked out on the street. A knocked-over file cabinet and pieces of a desk that must have been quite beautiful in its time cluttered the floor. This could have been the CEO’s or store manager’s office. There was no evidence a transient lived here, though she did see the hole that likely contained the air-conditioning unit that now lay in pieces on the street.
She shuddered. What was in the mind of someone who would push something out a window knowing there were people down below who could be hurt?
She heard the thunder of footsteps. Heart racing, weapon drawn, Lani stepped back out into the hallway just in time to see Noah sprinting toward the far end of the building.
Noah looked over his shoulder. “He’s headed up to the roof.”
Noah disappeared around a corner. Lani followed after him, praying they would catch their suspect.
Moments before, Noah had stepped out on a fire escape and spotted the suspect climbing out on a different fire escape and taking a ladder up toward the roof. He had raced back inside to see if there was an easier way to get to the roof. That’s when he’d seen Lani and told her the suspect was headed up to the roof.
He hurried out to the landing where the suspect had gone. The fire escape, which looked like it was hanging by maybe one bolt, was clearly not a safe route down. He peered up just in time to see the suspect’s feet disappear over the top of the building.
Noah holstered his weapon and leaped up the uneven brick facade that the suspect had used as a sort of climbing wall. His muscles strained as he pulled himself up. He glanced down only for a moment to see the throngs of people and metal of cars glinting in the early morning sun. He found another foothold as his hands wrapped around the protruding brick above him.
Lani came out on the balcony. She groaned. “Are you kidding me.”
Noah looked down at her. “Join the fun.” He scaled the rest of the wall and pulled himself up to the flat roof. The suspect raced from one corner of the roof to another. He was trapped.
Noah pushed himself to his feet. He pulled his weapon just in time to see the man leap to the adjoining building. As chief, Noah was not out in the field enough to warrant having a radio. There was no time to make a call on his cell. He had to rely on Lani for backup. The suspect did not appear to be armed or he would have pulled a weapon by now.
He raced across the roof. There was about a five-foot chasm between the two buildings. Without hesitation, Noah pushed off. He stretched his right leg out in front, watching the edge of the building looming toward him. He landed with a thud. His knees buckled screaming with pain from the impact. The suspect had reached the edge of the second building. He hesitated, glanced back at Noah and then disappeared over the side. The guy must have found a safer fire escape.
Noah’s heart pounded against his rib cage as his leg muscles strained. He sprinted toward where the suspect had gone. He peered down and saw only the top of his blue baseball cap. The guy had already made it to the top floor down the fire escape ladder. Noah swung down onto the ladder. He’d gone down only four rungs when Lani’s voice reached him. She’d made up the distance between them pretty easily. “I’m going to look for a faster way down. See if we can cut him off.”
He glanced up to see her head and shoulders as she looked down. Her bright expression and blue-eyed gaze met his. “Go find it.”
She disappeared.
The suspect had only a short way to go down the ladder before he reached the street. Noah climbed faster narrowing the distance between them. When the suspect was halfway down the last part of the ladder, he jumped the remainder of the distance.
Lani emerged from the side of the building just as the man ran toward a crowded street market. She must have found an elevator in the building. Noah climbed two more rungs and then jumped, landing on his feet. He whirled around.
He could see Lani’s blond head. She was in uniform but had lost her hat somewhere. The tight little bun on top of her head was easy enough to track in a crowd. He didn’t see the suspect anywhere, but Lani ran like she still had sight of him.
He hurried past booths selling handbags and scarves. The aromatic scent of street vendor food swirled in the air, the mingling scent of salt, a heady sweetness and other spices. Noah kept his eyes on Lani. He didn’t see the suspect anywhere. Still running, Lani merged with a throng of people. She towered above them. She stopped, glancing side to side.
He surveyed the area. Then he saw a blue baseball hat on the ground beside a food cart that sold gyros. The guy had ditched the hat knowing it would be an easy way to track him.
Lani turned back to face Noah, shaking her head before pushing deeper into the crowd. She wasn’t one to give up easily even though he had a feeling the suspect had managed to give them the slip.
Taking slow steps, he ambled past the vendors, scanning the crowd one more time while he caught his breath. He didn’t see the suspect anywhere. He retraced his steps, searching for the baseball hat thinking it might have DNA on it, but it had either been picked up or kicked out of view. He worked his way back to the edge of the street market, asking several of the vendors if they had seen the man in a blue baseball cap or seen a man take the cap off and throw it on the ground. All of them shook their heads.
When he glanced over his shoulder, Lani was headed toward him. As she drew closer, he knew that wrinkled forehead indicated her frustration.
She stood beside him and crossed her arms. “I guess that is that. I don’t know what gets into people thinking it’s okay to endanger public safety by pushing an air-conditioning unit out a window.”
Concern niggled at the edges of Noah’s brain. Lani had been attacked twice in forty-eight hours. “You don’t think maybe that guy was aiming specifically for you?”
Her face went pale and she didn’t answer right away. “He was probably just someone with mental illness issues or a drug problem. Don’t you think? Besides, how would someone know that I would be walking by that building at that time?”
“You keep the same routine every day, don’t you?”
“Well I...why would someone want to hurt me?”
“Do you think it might be the same man from last night?”
Her face blanched. “I didn’t get a good look either time.” She turned away from him. “I left Oscar back in that building by himself.” She took off at a jog.
Lani clearly did not want to believe that the attacks were personal or connected. And he suspected she knew something she didn’t want to share. Noah followed her back to the open side door of the building. They stepped from the brightness of day into the dim gloom of the abandoned building. Even the big display windows were so covered in dust not much light got in.
Oscar wagged his tail and yipped when he saw Lani. After untying him, she gathered the pup into her arms. “There’s my little guy.”
“Little guy?” Noah kneeled beside her, so he could pet Oscar’s head and velvety ears. “Don’t go all mushy on him. We’re trying to turn him into a tough police dog.” The dog licked Noah’s face, melting his heart. So much for being tough.
“Oscar did all right. He did freak when that unit nearly fell on us, but he didn’t seem too bent out of shape for having been left here.” She let the dog kiss her face. “Next time you’ll be a part of the action, won’t you?”
Noah was concerned that Lani wasn’t being realistic about the attacks. But grilling her wouldn’t do any good. Right now, she was in denial. If he started slinging questions at her, she might become defensive.
He needed to get information out of her without making her feel pressured. “What do you say that after we get the crime scene people over here, I grab Scotty and we get Oscar used to working around people and staying focused?”
She put Oscar down on the floor and stood up. “That would be good for Oscar and for me. But do you have the time for that?”
The last thing he wanted to do anyway was sit in that office on this beautiful fall day. “I’ll make the time.” Maybe the attacks were random. He needed to make sure one of his officers was not in danger. That someone would not come after Lani a third time.
FOUR
Lani and Noah waited for the forensics team to show up at the abandoned building before heading back to headquarters. Lani loaded Oscar into the backseat of Noah’s patrol car where Scotty already waited. Scotty remained at attention while Oscar jumped and nipped excitedly.
She laughed and shook her head. “Talk about the senior officer putting up with the rookie’s misplaced enthusiasm.” She ruffled the top of Oscar’s head. Scotty let out a groan of protest. She reached across the seat past Oscar and stroked the Rottweiler’s ear. “I love you too.”
Scotty remained in position but licked his chops and leaned into her touch.
Lani climbed into the passenger seat. Noah already sat behind the wheel.
“The park is always a nice place to do training. Teach the dogs to deal with the distraction,” he said.
She buckled herself in. “Yeah, sure.” Her throat constricted. Noah was up to something. He wasn’t in the habit of dropping his desk duties to hang out with her or any other rookie. Any of the other officers could have trained with her today. He’d wanted to know if she thought her attacker from the refuge and the one they’d chased in the abandoned building had been the same guy. The question made her chest feel tight.
While it was true, she hadn’t got a good look at the attacker either time, there were similarities. Same height and build. But it was the assailant’s unusual strength both times that made her wonder if they were dealing with the same man. Though she was a black belt and more agile than her attacker, he was an equal match for her due to his level of fitness. He’d spoken to her both times. She couldn’t say for sure if the voice was the same. Why would anyone want to harm her though? That was what didn’t make sense.
Noah pulled out onto the street and into traffic just as a call came over the radio.
“Missing child at the GallopNYC stables, Forest Hills.”
“That’s right up Scotty’s alley.” Noah picked up the radio. “This is unit twelve. Depending on traffic, I can be over there shortly with a K-9.” Noah glanced over at Lani. “So much for a training exercise. This is the real thing.”
Lani’s heart beat a little faster. Though she was concerned about the missing child, the prospect of working a real case was exciting. She said a prayer of gratitude that she wouldn’t have to deal with Noah’s questions right away.
Maybe it was just the bliss of ignorance that she could be in denial a little longer. If the attacks were personal, would they let her continue in her K-9 training? She’d worked hard to get to this point. She didn’t want to lose all that or even have it be delayed.
Noah wove through traffic with a high level of skill by slipping into the pockets between moving cars and avoiding construction by taking side streets.
Noah checked his rearview mirror. “What’s with this guy?”
Lani craned her neck at the line of cars behind them. “I don’t see anything.”
“That black sedan two cars back has been doggin’ us since we left the station.”
Her muscles tensed at the sight of the car.
Sensing her unease, Oscar leaped up and licked Lani’s hand where she rested it on the back of the seat. She gave him a hand signal indicating he needed to sit. Oscar complied but shifted his weight from foot to foot as he sat back in the seat. He stretched his chin out indicating that he wanted affection from Lani.
Lani shook her head and waved her finger at the pup.
“He’s a little unfocused to be good K-9 material,” Noah said.
“He’s still young. The initial testing showed he had a strong defense drive.” She glanced one more time at the dark sedan. Encroaching fear made it hard to get a deep breath.
Noah hit his turn signal and slipped around a corner. After he’d driven several blocks, he checked the rearview mirror. She didn’t need to look over her shoulder at the traffic behind them. Noah’s expression, the tight lips and narrowed eyes, told her the sedan had turned as well.
The fenced dirt arena for the therapeutic horse stable came into view with the stables behind it. City apartment buildings and homes surrounded the little oasis for horses. She had volunteered here as a teenager. “I know the layout of this place.”
A cluster of maybe ten people with two uniformed police officers stood on the edge of the arena. A rider—a young girl—with three adults, one on each side and one by the horse’s head, trotted alongside the horse skirting the edge of the fence on the other side of the arena.
Noah pulled onto the grass beside the other patrol car where there was no fence. “I’m glad you know the layout. Let’s go get the details from the uniforms.” He got out, opened the back door and gave Scotty the command to hit the ground. Noah hooked the Rottweiler into his leash and headed toward the crowd. Lani glanced at the forlorn-looking Oscar. “You gotta stay in the car, buddy. Be good. We’re both being tested.” She shut the door just as the pup’s tail thumped on the seat.
One of the officers noticed Noah and Lani. He broke away from the crowd. Lani recognized him from the academy. He’d graduated the same time she had.
She stepped forward. “Officer Langston.”
Scotty sat at attention at Noah’s feet.
Officer Langston was short and maybe twenty pounds overweight. His physical stature was deceiving. He’d played football in high school and was strong and quick on his feet. He smiled. “Officer Branson, good to see you.” He tipped his hat toward Noah. “Chief Jameson. Just want you to know all the street patrol units have kept their ears to the ground for any news about your brother’s killer.”
A shadow seemed to fall across Noah’s face at the mention of his brother’s name. “Thank you, Officer.” The change in mood was momentary. Lani wondered if she was the only one tuned into it. “Time is of the essence in finding this kid. What is the story here?”
“More tracking dogs and search-and-rescue dogs are on the way.” Officer Langston held up a child’s red coat. “Brendan is five, he’s autistic and deaf. He comes here for lessons. The usual thing. His mom was distracted for just a second. She turned back around and her son was gone. They searched the grounds for twenty minutes before calling us.”
Lani didn’t have to have Brendan’s mom pointed out to her. It was clear the woman who gripped her purse to her chest with glazed eyes and an expression that looked like it was chiseled from stone was the distraught mom. They didn’t need to make her more upset by peppering her with questions she had probably already answered. Officer Langston would give them all they needed to know.
Lani said a quick prayer for the mother and son.
“The mom says the son might think he’s in trouble, so he’ll hide,” Officer Langston said.
And if the child was deaf, he wouldn’t hear people calling for him.
Noah grabbed the coat and let Scotty sniff it. “Let’s head up there and see what he can find.”
“Two more dogs are on their way. I’m just glad you were able to get here so fast.”
They made their way across the grounds toward the stables. Lani stared out into the streets that surrounded the little oasis of peace. Her throat tightened with fear. A five-year-old could wander out into the street pretty quickly.
“We’ve got a unit circling the block and officers on foot as well.” Officer Langston explained before breaking away and heading back to where the cluster of concerned people huddled together.
Eager to work, Scotty lurched forward, causing the long leash to go taut. They headed into the stables where the boy had last been seen. A teenager stabbed hay with a pitchfork and tossed it into a stall.