Page 68 of Girl, Bound

Ella didn’t have timefor this. ‘Then nothing. But what if I’m right? And another body shows up whileyou’ve got your so-called killer in a holding cell? You’ll look like thebiggest chumps going.’

Another beat, the linecrackling dead air. Then Holbrook again, his voice tight as a snare drum.

‘Alright.’

‘We’re both in thisfor the same reason. We took an oath to serve and protect. I worked for thecops once too. What do you say?’

A sigh, so heavy itcrackled down the line. ‘I’m outside the precinct. How far away are you?’

‘Two minutes,’ Ellasaid as she fired up the ignition.

The community centeris two blocks away, on Belfort Avenue. I’ll meet you there.’

Ella sped off. ‘On theway. Get a BOLO on Adam Draven’s vehicle while you’re at it. And get some ofyour guys to canvas the streets.’

‘On it.’

Her foot twitched onthe gas. The car rocketed through a sea of taillights and traffic signals, theworld outside blurring into one endless smear of desperation, depravity anddrive.

They would find AdamDraven. And they'd make him pay. For Eric Saunders. For Kara Murphy. ForChristian Maddox.

And God willing,they'd peel him off Ava Schofield like a leech before he drained her dry.Before he sealed her up in her body bag.

‘Hang on, Ava,’ Ellamurmured, her knuckles ivory on the wheel. ‘We're coming for you.’

CHAPTER THIRTY SIX

They made it to thecommunity center in record time, the car rocking to a stop in a cloud of dustand burning break pads. Ella was out in a flash, Glock in hand, Holbrook andtwo of his boys hot on her heels.

But the place wasdark, lifeless. The windows were black holes, the doors sealed up tight.

No sign of a struggle,no hint of the sick sideshow they knew was playing out somewhere in the night.

‘Dammit,’ Ella hissed,slamming a fist on the hood. The metal crumpled like tin foil under her fury.‘We're too late. He's got her.’

Holbrook grabbed hershoulder, spun her around. His eyes were flint, his jaw set like concrete.‘Where's she live? The Schofield girl. Maybe she made it back, maybe he grabbedher there.’

Ella reeled off theaddress, the numbers searing her tongue like hot coals. Holbrook nodded.

‘Back in the car, bothof you,’ he said to Ella and Ripley. ‘There's a shortcut. Little access road,runs behind this place straight to her street. If she was hoofing it home,that's the route she'd take.’ Holbrook turned the officers he’d brought along.‘You two stay here, scope the place, just in case our man comes back.’

Ella was alreadymoving, diving behind the wheel and throwing the car into reverse. ‘Let'sroll.’

They peeled out with asqueal of tortured rubber, the rear end fishtailing as Ella muscled the beastaround. She punched it down the access road, the suspension groaning like atorture victim as they bounced over potholes and washboard ruts.

The road was a blackribbon that wrapped them in a cocoon of suffocating dark. The trees pressed infrom both sides, grasping branches clawing at the windows like skeletalfingers. The headlights carved a weak tunnel through the gloom. Ella surveyedthe darkness for any sign of life. A flicker of movement, a flash of pale skinagainst the black.

But there was nothing.Just the endless, oppressive night and the sound of her own heart.

And then she saw it.

At first, she thoughtit was a trick of the light. A phantom conjured by her own fevered desperation.

But as they drewcloser, the shape resolved itself.

An obscene smearagainst the gray gravel.

Lying on the side ofthe road like a giant, black slug.

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