Nerves strung tight, Kristi waited on the balls of her feet, ready to match wits and weapons with whoever it was.

But if he had a gun…?

Footsteps descended and she counted off the steps…ten, eleven, twelve…

And then a pause.

At the second story.

Crap! He must’ve seen her. She hugged the building, straining to hear, squinting up at the staircase where a bulb glowed in the ceiling of each level. Come on you bastard, she thought. The footsteps resumed, but they were light and quick, farther away. Not descending.

What?

Oh, damn! He’d slipped off the stairs at the second level and was moving along the wide portico of the building to the far staircase, the one located near the crosswalk that led to All Saints. She was off in a shot, springing from the shadows just as a pickup screeched into the parking lot, bright beams of headlights flooding the front of the apartment house.

Jay!

He was out of the truck in a second, his face taut and drawn. “What happened?”

“He’s getting away!” She heard whoever it was clamor down the stairs at the far end of the building, vault over the railing, then run across the street. “That way!” She only got a quick glimpse of a figure in black before he ducked behind the large house and disappeared.

There was a squeal of breaks, an angry honk of a horn, and a man’s shout: “What the fuck kind of idiot are you!” the driver shouted.

“Who is it?” Jay demanded, catching up to her as she ran.

“Don’t know.” She crammed her cell phone and her can of mace into the pocket of her sweatshirt. Her bag flopped at her side as she sprinted, her feet pounding the cement and uneven asphalt. Damn it, she was going to catch the creep!

Running easily alongside her, Jay whistled sharply, and from the open window of the truck’s cab, Bruno sprang, landing on the pockmarked pavement with a soft woof. Kristi and Jay rounded the building together as the angry driver’s car, a red Nissan, disappeared at the next light, veering toward the freeway.

The street in front of the campus was suddenly empty.

“No!” Kristi cried as she dashed across the two lanes and the sidewalk before shooting through the main gate of the college. Damn, damn, damn! He couldn’t get away.