Page 15 of The Girl He Crowned

For now, she andChristopher slipped through the party, but she suspected that it was onlybecause the people there were so high or so drunk that they weren’t payingattention. It definitely wasn’t because the two of them blended in with therest of the party. All the others were either in brightly colored party clothesor swimwear, while Paige and Christopher were both wearing almost identicaldark suits. They should have stood out instantly to the people there, but mostof them were so caught up in the party at this point that they simply didn’tcare.

At least it meantthat they could pass through the house easily. There was no sign of Tom Wrightanywhere, so Paige stepped out into the bright sunlight of the back yard. Therewas a pool there, with plenty of lounge chairs and inflatables set out aroundit, most of them occupied. The music was at its loudest here, and there werepeople everywhere Paige looked, drinking or swimming or dancing. There weremore drugs out here, and a lot more alcohol too.

People looked herway, and now Paige had the impression of drink fuzzed brains trying to work outthe meaning of her and Christopher being there, little by little. She realizedwhat was going to happen next, but it seemed impossible to stop. The music cutout in a sudden silence that was broken almost immediately afterwards by awoman yelling at the top of her voice.

“5-0! Scatter!”

Instantly, therewere people running in every possible direction, running past Paige and awayfrom her, some of them almost crashing into her. Christopher stood there like arock in the middle of it all so that they simply flowed around him, but forPaige, her smaller size meant that it was like being a pebble bounced around ina stream.

Or, she realized,something like being in the midst of a panicking shoal of fish. That wasprobably closer to the truth because the goal here was the same: to create somuch confusion that she and Christopher couldn’t focus on any one person longenough to grab them and arrest them, increasing the odds that most of thepeople there would get away safely.

Maybe if they’d justbeen there to break up the party and arrest whoever they could get their handson, that would have worked, but Paige wasn’t just looking for anyone she couldgrab. She was there for one specific person.

“Tom Wright!” shecalled out, above the noise of the fleeing crowd.

That got areaction, as she’d suspected that it would. It was human nature to react to one’sname, and in this case a single figure in the crowd hesitated, glancing back. Paigehad a moment to take him in, tall and broad shouldered, wearing swim shorts andsandals. It was definitely the same guy who had been diving into the pool onhis social media just a few short minutes ago.

His hesitationdidn’t last long, though. Instead, he sprinted as fast as his sandals wouldallow towards the fence at the edge of the property, jumping up and over it inone smooth movement into the yard beyond.

Paige set off inpursuit and saw Christopher doing the same, running after Wright. She vaultedthe fence and kept running, determined to chase Wright down. Her more sensibleshoes meant that in those first few moments she was slowly gaining ground onher suspect as he sprinted across another garden. He seemed to realize that,and tore off his sandals while still running, throwing them at Paige as if thatmight do something to slow her down. She dodged them easily and kept running.

Wright was movingfaster now, jumping another fence. Paige leaped after him, quickly finding herselfin another yard. This one had a couple of small dogs, which yapped and snarled,lunging, and nipping at Paige’s heels until she made it to the next fence.

She had to admitthat Wright was in good shape, keeping up his attempt to flee in spite of thespeed and the obstacles. Most suspects didn’t train for this kind of thing,which meant that they quickly lost their pace, making it easy to catch up tothem. He seemed to just keep going, though, up and over another fence, intoanother yard, this one having another pool.

Paige sawChristopher vault the fence, but his foot snagged on it, sending him briefly tumbling.A part of Paige wanted to go back to help him, but she knew that she had tofocus on catching up to Wright. Christopher would be fine and they couldn’t lettheir suspect get away. Paige ran forward, putting on a burst of speed and throwingherself at the fleeing suspect.

For a second,Paige felt certain that she’d misjudged it and that her tackle was going tofall short, but then her hand snagged his ankle, sending them both tumblingtowards a pool. Because she saw it coming, Paige had a moment to take a breathbefore she hit the water along with Tom Wright. The shock of hitting it still madeher gasp out a stream of bubbles as she plunged under the surface.

Wright wasstruggling against her now, but those struggles were more like wild flailing,trying to deal with the fact that he’d just been tackled into a pool as much astrying to get away. Paige came up for air first, and Wright tried to surface,kicking out at her, but she shoved his head back under when he did it, holding himthere for a second or two longer.

Now she draggedhim up, sputtering and gasping for breath. His dunk under the water had takenthe fight out of him. Christopher was at the side of the pool now, and hegrabbed Wright, hauling him out of the water and turning him onto his stomachto cuff him.

He grabbed a towelfrom a nearby lounge chair, tossing it to Paige as she pulled herself from thepool. Paige caught it gratefully.

Paige started todry herself off as best she could as she walked over to Wright.

“Tom Wright,you’re under arrest.”

CHAPTER NINE

They took TomWright back to the Eddis sheriff’s department, putting him in an interrogationroom while Paige changed into some dry clothes. She hadn’t expected that kindof sudden immersion in a pool in the course of the chase, but thankfully, shehad packed spare clothes for the investigation.

Once she wasdressed, Paige headed back to the interrogation room, where Christopher andSheriff May were both waiting outside. A sheet of one way glass showed Wrightin there, sitting at one side of a desk waiting for them, swallowing nervouslyas he waited. Someone had found him a t-shirt and some slip on shoes. He lookedpretty twitchy sitting in there, looking around from time to time as ifexpecting them to burst in there at any moment.

“I’ve beenbringing Sheriff May up to speed,” Christopher said as Paige approached.

The sheriffnodded. She looked both pleased and determined.

“I’ve sent peopleto go back to the party and make arrests for the drugs,” Sheriff May said,although that wasn’t the main part that Paige was interested in right then. “Ialso got a local judge to give me a warrant for those gloves you were lookingfor. We’ll get them tested against the samples the coroner found.”

Paige wasn’t usedto the local police being quite that helpful, or having the kind of resourcesthat might let them do it quickly. Sheriff May was obviously eager to help,though, and Eddis’s wealth meant that she had plenty of local resources forPaige and Christopher to use, without having to rely on what they could getfrom the more distant FBI. That was probably just as well, when there wasn’t afield office here for them to get help directly.

“What about Wright?”Paige asked. “Is there any sign of his lawyer yet?”

“He says hedoesn’t want a lawyer,” Christopher replied. Christopher didn’t sound happyabout it.

Paige couldunderstand why. That could be both a good thing and a bad thing. On the onehand, it meant that there wouldn’t be someone constantly trying to shut downtheir interrogation or trying to close off lines of questioning. On the other,Paige and Christopher would have to be careful not to do anything that a lawyermight pick apart later.

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