Page 82 of Girl, Fractured

All paths led to Sarah Webb.

But how?How had she managed to kill her own father when she was with Ella?A distraction?A premeditated setup?Ripley didn’t have all the answers, but she had enough.She had Sarah Webb in her sights, and that was a start.

The Nissan shot through a yellow light at an intersection.Ripley blew through the red, grateful that no cross-traffic materialized to complicate her pursuit.Her pulse raced as adrenaline flooded her system.It had been years since she’d engaged in a high-speed chase, yet the old instincts remained sharp as ever.Her body remembered what her mind had filed away.

Webb slowed unexpectedly at the next intersection, and Ripley nearly rear-ended her.At the last second, she stood on the brakes.The Explorer’s nose dipped as the anti-lock system kicked in.Then Sarah accelerated again.Her brake lights winked out like red eyes closing.

‘Playing games with me now?’Ripley shouted.

The road ahead opened up.Four lanes of smooth asphalt with minimal traffic.Sarah picked up speed again, pushing ninety, then a hundred.Ripley stayed with her, maintaining a steady fifty-yard gap.No need to close in completely.Not yet.She wanted Webb somewhere isolated, somewhere she couldn’t escape on foot if things went sideways.Ripley didn’t have a pistol anymore, so if she needed to threaten the subject with death, she’d have to deliver it via her fists.

Even better.

The Explorer’s high beams illuminated the Nissan’s rear license plate with crystal clarity.Florida tags.Registered to Sarah Webb, no doubt.Ripley wondered if the car contained evidence.Maybe Webb had the missing eyes, the missing head, the missing finger.Maybe there were more alabaster stones rolling around in the glove compartment.The thought made Ripley’s stomach turn.

They flew past the last outposts of commercial development.Fast food chains and gas stations and the occasional factory.Then the landscape opened up into darker territory.The buildings thinned out and scrubby palmettos replaced them and crowded the roadside.Ripley’s cell sat useless in her pocket.Each time her hand inched toward it, Webb would execute another serpentine turn.The Explorer’s radio remained silent too.Ripley had tried to reach dispatch three miles back, but out here, between jurisdictions, the channels crackled with dead air.Even if she could alert Bauer or Ella, what coordinates would she give?Webb’s erratic navigation had spiraled them through a dizzying sequence of unmarked roads and service lanes.Ripley’s mental map had dissolved into guesswork.Not to mention that the moment she divided her attention between pursuit and communication was the moment Webb might disappear into the Florida wilderness.

Where the hell was she going?Did Webb even know herself, or was the woman just driving until she found freedom, however long that might take?She was driving west, away from the coast.Away from civilization.

The digital clock on the dash read 9:17 PM.Max would be asleep by now, tucked into his crib at the safe house.Ripley pictured his chubby cheeks, the way his eyelids fluttered when he dreamed.Her son would be there too, watching over him.Would they miss her if she never came back?

The thought wrenched something loose inside her.When you were young, mortality was an academic concept.At her age, with a family that needed her, it became a lot more real.

‘You’re not taking me from them,’ she said to the Nissan ahead.‘Not tonight.’

As if in response, the Nissan swerved suddenly.Sarah took a hard left onto a narrow two-lane road with no name that Ripley could discern.The turn came so abruptly that Ripley nearly missed it.She cranked the wheel and felt the Explorer rock dangerously on its suspension.

The new road was poorly lit, with no streetlamps to guide the way.Only the moon and the headlights prevented total darkness.The asphalt was rougher here, full of potholes that the Explorer absorbed with its heavy-duty shocks.The Nissan ahead wasn’t so lucky.Ripley could see it bouncing and jolting with each imperfection in the road surface.

Then the Nissan’s brake lights flared again, more decisively this time.The gap between vehicles closed rapidly.Ripley eased off the gas, suspicious of another fake-out, but Sarah continued to slow.Sixty miles per hour.Fifty.Forty.

Up ahead, Ripley spotted what had caused the deceleration.The road curved sharply to the right, with a solid brick wall running along the outside edge.It looked like the perimeter of some long-abandoned commercial property.The wall was at least ten feet high and solid enough to stop a tank.

Sarah took the curve at thirty-five, still too fast for safety.The Nissan drifted wide, nearly scraping the wall.As the car straightened out on the far side of the curve, Ripley saw her opportunity.

The road ahead was straight for at least a quarter mile.No oncoming traffic.No witnesses.Just Sarah Webb, a murderer who’d killed Ripley’s mentor and friend.

Ripley floored it.The Explorer surged forward and closed the gap.She angled slightly to the left and aimed for the Nissan’s rear quarter panel.The PIT maneuver.Standard procedure for ending a pursuit when conditions allowed.She’d performed it in training a dozen times, though never at this speed, never for real.

The impact came with a sickening-but-satisfying crunch of metal on metal.The Explorer’s front bumper connected with the Nissan’s left rear panel.Ripley felt the shock travel up her arms as the steering wheel bucked in her hands.She maintained pressure, pushing the Nissan’s tail outward.

Physics took over.The smaller car’s back end swung wide as its front wheels lost traction.The Nissan spun ninety degrees, then one-eighty, all while maintaining its forward momentum.Sarah fought the spin, but inertia won.The car completed a full three-sixty before its passenger side slammed into the brick wall.

Ripley hit the brakes hard.The Explorer skidded to a stop twenty yards past the crash.Through the rearview mirror, she could see that the Nissan had come to rest perpendicular to the road, and its right side had crumpled against the brick.

No steam or smoke, though.None of the wheels had burst, either.Which meant the car might still be functional.

She threw the Explorer into park and reached for the door handle.Then she hesitated.Procedure dictated that she should call for backup, wait for additional units to arrive before approaching the suspect vehicle.But did anyone know she was out here?Sarah Webb might not stay put for long if the engine hadn’t seized up.

No.This ended now.

Ripley pushed the door open and stepped out into the cold Florida night.She took a moment to scan her surroundings.Trees.Wall.Road.No buildings in sight.No witnesses.Just her and Sarah Webb and whatever came next.

When she reached the driver’s side, Ripley could see Sarah through the window.She was slumped forward with her forehead against the steering wheel.Blood trickled from a cut above her right eye.The door had buckled slightly in the frame but looked operational.The airbag hadn’t deployed, which seemed an oversight for Japanese engineering.

Ripley grabbed the handle and pulled.The door resisted for a moment, then gave way with a metallic groan.Here she was.The monster hiding in plain sight, and now Ripley had her at her mercy.

‘Webb,’ Ripley barked.‘Show me your hands.’

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