Ultimate Courage (True Heroes #2)(76)
A phone rang, and Joseph pulled it out of his pocket. “Yes? We’ve left the restaurant. We’re heading toward the parking lot you are in. Have Quinlan come down the trail along the canal and meet us en route.”
The phone conversation continued, but Elisa only partially listened. Instead, her awareness centered on the way Joseph’s grip was loosening on her arm as he split his attention. There might not be another chance.
She yanked her elbow back at a downward angle, ripping free of his hold. Then she kicked out, aiming for his shins. The inside of her foot caught him just below the knee, and he stumbled away from her with a surprised yell. Inspiration took her and she risked shoving him.
He fell into the canal.
She sprinted for the bridge ahead of her. It was closest, the nearest set of steps back up to the street and other people. Because when Joseph came out of the canal he’d be angry. And he was a much faster runner than she was.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I’m sorry, sir, but she left.” The waiter looked genuinely distressed.
Rojas drew in a slow breath, struggling to remain and project calm. “Do you mind if I take a look around the table where we were sitting?”
“S-sure.” The young man indicated for Rojas to proceed ahead of him. “They’re clearing the table now.”
So Elisa and her friend hadn’t left too long ago. “Did the woman who was with me leave on her own?”
“I don’t know, actually. I was with another table when she stepped away.”
Rojas nodded to acknowledge the waiter’s answer and started scanning the area on and around the table where they’d been sitting. There, under the table, almost under the railing. He bent, grabbed Elisa’s napkin from the table, and used it to gingerly pick up his find. It was the phone he’d given Elisa, screen cracked from a sudden unceremonious dumping on the floor. Not good.
“Please work.” Rojas figured talking to electronics might yield more help than he’d gotten talking to random people.
The phone lit up despite the spiderweb fracture pattern across the screen. It’d been dropped mid-entry and the text was addressed to his number.
Its hium. Hes here. H
Garbled—it must have been done in a hurry. She’d been interrupted sending him the text. The last word could’ve been a lot of things, but he swallowed hard. His girl had been trying to ask him for help and he’d been out of reach. He never should’ve left her. Stupid to think she was safe with him a text away.
She’d said her friends and family hadn’t believed her when she’d gone to them for help, had even supported her ex. He should’ve remembered, kept that in mind.
He straightened and headed out of the café. Once he was out the front door, he turned to Souze. “Time to work.”
The big dog almost vibrated with eagerness to be given a job.
Good, because Elisa needed them, STAT. He bent to show Souze the phone. The big dog sniffed it over a couple of times, ending with a single long and low whuffling intake. Once he was sure Souze had Elisa’s scent, he gave the command. “Such. Such Elisa.”
Adding her name wasn’t standard, but Souze knew Elisa. If there was any chance Rojas could strengthen the command, it was using her name to emphasize who they wanted to find. Souze dropped his nose to the ground and got to work.
An onlooker might not notice, but Souze was systematic about the way he searched for scents. He went to work in the area Rojas had set him in, moving back and forth in a grid-like pattern. Checking the ground, any plants or walls a person might have brushed past, and even lifting his nose to the air to catch airborne hints. In less than two minutes, Souze froze to indicate he’d found her scent.
“So ist brav,” he praised Souze. Then he gave him the next command with terse urgency. “Revier.”
Souze ranged out ahead as far as the six-foot lead would allow him. Rojas desperately wanted to give Souze his head. Let him off the lead so he could get up to his full speed of thirty miles per hour. Too risky, no way to know who or what was ahead, and Rojas didn’t want to lose sight of the dog.
Souze had the trail for sure and led them unerringly across the street and to a set of steps headed down to the canal trail. They vaulted down them three, four, five at a time.
As they hit bottom, Rojas speed dialed Ky. Souze was getting into it now, taking in huge, loud snorts of air as he worked in a quick grid to re-establish the scent trail.
“Officer Graves.”
Souze froze for a heartbeat, flipped an ear, and without a word needed between them, the two moved fluidly back into a dead sprint north up the canal.
“Ky. Rojas here. Elisa’s stalker made a grab for her.” Rojas hated the pace he needed to keep to remain understandable. He needed to make this quick. “Get to the Delaware Canal Towpath between West Mechanic and Ferry if you don’t want anything permanent to happen to this bastard before he sees justice.” That duty done, he ended the call and began to focus on setting a personal record for speed.
You don’t believe me. Elisa had been hurt. By him. And he’d walked away from her.
Don’t let me be too late; please don’t let those be our last words.
Souze pulled on the leash, snapping Rojas’s full attention past the slight bend in the canal and the outgrowth of bushes obscuring the rest of the trail ahead. He had visual.