Page 46 of Absent Reason

She guessed that would make the killer angry. That was good. Amber wanted him angry. She wanted him to react on instinct rather than thinking.

"You know that this is over for you, don't you?" Amber said. "Sooner or later, Professor Arran is going to sober up enough to talk, and then, all we have to ask him is who helped him with the puzzle. Then we'll have a name. After that, there won't be anywhere for you to hide."

Amber kept walking over the bridge, kept her eyes facing forward, even though it was almost impossible not to look around for the killer, for any sign that he was coming.

Amber kept walking, knowing that the killer could be hiding behind any of the girders that held the structure up.

She was almost back across the bridge now, almost to the far side. A few more steps and she would reach the far shore. She would finish walking the bridge, finish going wrong in the problem the killer had set.

Amber heard a sound somewhere behind her. She looked around, hand going for her gun, but it was too late. A figure was there in front of her. He looped a rope around her neck, which seemed to be dangling over one of the girders. He hauled on that rope, pulling Amber from her feet.

Even as Amber gasped and scrabbled at the rope around her neck, struggling to breathe, she realized that she knew him.

Dr. Iain McCloud stood there, staring at Amber with utter hatred as he tied off the rope, leaving no give in it.

"I shouldn't have pointed you at Professor Arran," he said. "I thought that he would take the fall nicely for this. As it is, though, I guess it's enough that you'll die."

Amber continued to fight against the strangling power of the rope.

"Another bitch who thinks she's so clever. Another woman who wants to think she's better than me, who wants to laugh at me, who wants to try to control what I do. I wonder, did you tell anyone else about your theory that someone else wrote Professor Arran's problem? I'm guessing not. Which means that when he has an accident, when he kills himself and leaves a confession... I'll be free to do what I want."

Amber wanted to tell him that he wouldn't succeed, that he would be stopped regardless of what happened to her, but she didn't have the air to do it right then. There was nothing but the awful pressure of the rope around her neck, the darkness drawing in around her.

Amber reached down for her gun. Her fingers felt for it, fumbling as they sought it. She could feel her body twitching in midair as the rope held her, but Amber managed to draw the gun.

She raised it and fired, not at Dr. McCloud, but at the rope above her. The sound of the gun was deafening in the night, echoing through the hollow space of the bridge.

The rope snapped, and Amber fell to the ground, gasping for air as she tore the noose from around her neck.

Amber struggled to her feet, gun still in hand, trying to bring it to bear. Dr. McCloud was already moving, slamming into Amber, sending the gun spinning from her hand out over the edge of the bridge to plummet into the water below.

Amber and the academic struggled there, each hitting out at the other. Dr. McCloud slammed a fist into Amber’s ribs, then struck out at her jaw. Amber covered up, then slammed the heel of her hand into McCloud’s chin, making him stumble for a moment or two. She managed to hook a foot behind his leg, and the two of them went tumbling to the surface of the bridge together.

They both scrambled, trying to avoid getting caught there. Amber was on top for a moment or two, hitting out with one fist, trying to get Dr. McCloud to turn away from her so that she could pin him down and cuff him.

He kicked out at her instead, lashing out, his foot catching the side of Amber's head. She saw stars for a moment, falling back, struggling to rise. Maybe if she hadn't almost been strangled to death by the noose Dr. McCloud had dropped on her, Amber might have been fast enough to get clear of him.

Instead, McCloud got on top of her, his hands reaching out for Amber’s throat. They fastened around her neck, starting to squeeze, cutting off the air as tightly as the noose ever had.

“I might not be able to hang you, but I can still strangle you,” McCloud snarled, his weight bearing down on Amber, the pressure on Amber’s neck immense.

Amber tried to buck him clear, trying to create enough space for herself to breathe, if only for a moment. Yet she couldn't do it, couldn't move Dr. McCloud's weight from atop her. She was too hurt, too exhausted, to be able to be able to move him as his weight bore down on her, his hands squeezing tight around her throat.

Amber found herself thinking about Joseph, lying in his hospital bed, wondering where she was. She thought about Simon too. Would he blame himself if she died here? Would he feel the agony of losing a partner, or would it be more than that for him? Amber could feel herself starting to fade from consciousness but still fought back, managing to shake Dr. McCloud off her for just a second.

In that second, Amber thought that she could see a shadow up above, in the girders of the bridge. A figure dropped down from them, slamming into Dr. McCloud, dragging him off of Amber. Even as Amber gulped in life-giving air, she recognized Simon.

He and McCloud fought, the two of them throwing punches at one another. Simon was obviously stronger, but the academic attacked with a degree of ferocity that almost made up for it. He seemed to ignore the punches Simon threw, striking back with ones of his own that made Simon wince.

Amber struggled to sit up, then to stand, ignoring the pain in her throat and the way her body complained at having to act again so soon after almost being strangled to death.

Still, as Simon and the killer academic closed in to grapple with one another, Amber forced herself to stand and stagger over to the two of them. Dr. McCloud got in a couple of good punches then, one of them staggering Simon. He pulled his arm back for a third.

Amber caught hold of his arm, gripping it as tightly as she could. It was all she could do to hang on, as weak as she felt right then, but at least she could buy Simon a second or two in which to act.

He took advantage of the opportunity that Amber gave him, tackling McCloud from his feet and taking him to the ground again. Simon and Amber both jumped on the academic, trying to pin him down as he thrashed to get free. Amber wrenched on McCloud’s arm, forcing him to turn over with a sound of pain and anger. She and Simon managed to pull his arms behind his back, and Simon held him there while Amber fumbled for her handcuffs. After everything she’d just been through, it was hard to perform even the simple action of clamping them down his wrists. Finally, Amber managed it, kneeling down next to him so that she could look him in the eye.

“You’re under arrest, Dr. McCloud.”

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