Page 5 of Justified Fear
“911, what’s your emergency?”a woman asked over the phone.
“I’m at a house and there’s gunfire inside.”She whispered the words even as a scream clogged her throat.
“I can’t hear you.Can you speak louder?Is it safe?”
Drawing in a deep breath, she repeated her last comment.“I’m at a house and there’s gunfire.”
“Ma’am, is it your house?”
“No.”She gave them the address just as she heard more gunfire and glass shattering.
“Are you inside the house?”
“No.I’m outside in the back hiding.”
“That’s good,” she said, her voice calm and reassuring.Keely’s eyes burned, and she blinked, surprised when she felt a tear slip down her cheek.Terror was screaming through her body, urging her to run, but she couldn’t move.“Are you safe?”
“I-I think so.”
“And your name?”
“Keely Templeton.I was hired to cook for a dinner party tonight.”
“Okay, Keely, I dispatched HPD, and they should be there soon.Are you still safe?”
Before she could answer, shouts reached her.“The chef is missing.Find her.”
The icy fear that had held her immobile dissolved into the need to survive.All the training she’d gotten when she was younger had her pushing away from the guest house and running toward the forest.She knew she could evade them better there than on the estate.Keely just prayed she survived in time for HPD to arrive.
Two
Ryan turned onto Tantalus Drive and headed to the address his captain had texted them.He had been almost home when the call had come through.That niggle never let him down.
When he was stopped by a patrolman, Ryan flashed his TFH badge and was waved in.There were cops everywhere.Lights flashing, with a few unmarked vehicles lining the narrow drive.
He parked and stepped out of the car, then went around to retrieve Maya.She paid no attention to the activity around her; although, he could sense she was agitated.She understood the job at hand, and she was ready to get going.
When he arrived at the front door, he once again had to show his badge, and then he was let in.Even with all his years of experience as a cop in LA and now here in Hawai’i, he had to swallow some bile.There was blood everywhere.The place was littered with dead bodies, now covered with white sheets.
“Be careful of the glass,” Seth called out.
Ryan nodded and headed in their direction.Seth stood talking to Rome Carino, HPD’s liaison to Task Force Hawai’i.Their teams did not operate within the Honolulu Police Department.They handled the bigger cases that crossed jurisdictional lines.While TFH were dressed in cargo pants and t-shirts, Carino was wearing a pair of jeans.It was Saturday night, so, apparently, he’d gotten called in on his day off, too.
“Hey,” he said.“Do we know who the target is?”
Rome nodded.“Keely Templeton, private chef.She called in the attack and stayed on the line until the call dropped.She was running around the forest reserve out back.”
“I need a scent point.”
He was handed a chef jacket, similar to the ones he had seen people wear on the Food Network’s competition show.
“We found it a few yards out,” Rome said.
As they walked out onto the lanai, he realized just how dark it was out there.There were no clouds in the sky, so the moon was bright, but he knew that it would be hard to find one's way in the forest at night.Even people who had been trained could get turned around.
Just as he was ready to head out, the rest of his team showed up.
“Do we know if there are any unfriendlies out and about?”Nikki Kekoa asked.The former Coastie and only Hawaiian on the team was the toughest of them, in Ryan’s opinion.
