Page 21 of So Twisted

Faith bit her lip. “Okay, you got me there. It might be a delusion, though.”

“No, because he had the presence of mind to free that one animal, and the presence of mind to escape before he was killed himself. Let’s say Saul’s right and the jaguar’s a sweetheart. Idoubt like hell the black mamba was. I looked it up. They’re supposed to be one of the most aggressive snake species on Earth. You walk within striking distance of one of them and they bite.”

Faith sighed. “You’re right. About the presence of mind. Still… I guess call it a hunch.”

Michael shrugged. “Fair enough. Well, we have this lead now, so let’s focus on Alex and deal with our hunches later.”

She nodded. “Sounds good.”

They reached the address eight minutes later. There were several cars parked in the driveway and on the street in front of the house. Faith noticed with a dry smile that they were all expensive sports cars.

“Not too concerned about the environment, I guess,” Michael said.

“Doesn’t look that way,” Faith agreed.

They approached the house slowly, weapons drawn. Hopefully that was overkill, but they were clearly going to be outnumbered.

They made it to the driveway when the door burst open. People poured out of the door, vaulting over cars, shrieking and crying, “Run! The cops!”

The agents looked through the group for Alex Forrester. No one Faith saw matched the description. Maybe he was still in the house.

“Faith!”

Faith turned to Michael to see him pointing at the fence separating this house from its neighbor. A lanky young man straddled the fence and looked back at the agents with shocked wide eyes staring through wire-rimmed glasses.

“Get him, Turk!”

Alex swore and vaulted the fence. Faith and Michael followed. Behind them, they heard the chorus of high-revving engines roar to life as Alex’s friends made their escape.

Faith leapt over the fence while Michael stayed on the other side with Turk. Alex was trying to hide underneath a low table in the backyard. He swore when he saw Faith chasing him and stood, throwing the table behind his back.

Faith nearly caught him on the other side of the fence, but he shook her off and vaulted into the next backyard. Faith followed and dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding a lawn ornament that Alex hurled at her. It shattered behind her, and her eyes narrowed.

“That’s assault on an officer!” she shouted after Alex. “All you’re doing is racking up charges, Alex!”

“Suck my dick!” he called back.

All right, then.

Faith followed him through two more backyards. In the last one, they surprised a family. Alex leapt over a child sitting on a trike in the middle of the yard while Faith dodged the toddler’s older sister. The mom shrieked obscenities at them, and Alex, thankfully, chose to leave the backyards behind.

He landed straight in front of Turk and Michael.

“Shit!” he cried out, “Damn it!”

Turk ran in front of him and brought him to a halt, teeth bared, ears flattened. Michael grabbed him and tried to push him to the ground, but Alex twisted his hips and tossed Michael to the ground. He nearly landed on Turk, and the dog’s momentary confusion allowed Alex to leap another fence into a drainage ditch. Faith followed, and called back to Michael, “Find a gate and send Turk through! And call Cuthbert! We need units!”

“You need this unit!” Alex called behind him.

Real original, kid, Faith thought drily.

She sprinted after him, keeping pace with the taller, younger student but not catching up. She ran for several miles every day and was confident her stamina would hold, but it would be really nice not to be five miles from her car when this was over.

Outside of the fence, Turk rushed forward until he was even with Alex. He barked at the fleeing suspect, a warning that he was still there, still saw Alex, and was coming for him.

Faith looked behind to make sure that Michael was keeping up. She sighed in relief when she saw him behind, still running and apparently unharmed from the throw.

“Alex!” she called. “We have police coming! You will not get out of this. You know it! We know where you live and where you go to school! Your friends all have records, and their addresses are on file! Stop fleeing now!”

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