The Echo Killing: A gripping debut crime thriller you won’t be able to put down!. Christi Daugherty

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       Chapter Four

      The shooting seemed to go on forever. When it finally stopped, the silence left a hollow feeling in Harper’s chest – a curious emptiness.

      Her ears ringing, she reached out blindly for Miles.

      He wasn’t there.

      ‘Miles,’ she whispered urgently, hands flailing in the air.

      ‘I’m alive,’ he hissed from a few feet away. ‘No thanks to you.’

      Blinking dust and glass from her eyes, she saw him, crouched by the trunk of the car.

      ‘You dead, five-o?’ one of the shooters shouted mockingly.

      Before Harper could think of an appropriate reply, a cool voice spoke from behind her right shoulder.

      ‘I am alive and very pissed off,’ it said. ‘Now drop your weapons or I will unload on you.’

      Startled, Harper twisted around. A tall, broad-shouldered man stood directly behind her. He had a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol trained on the three suspects.

      Luke Walker.

      He wore a black T-shirt and jeans. The badge hooked to his belt gleamed. His gun hand was absolutely steady.

      ‘You really are surrounded,’ he added, motioning with his free hand.

      As if on cue, a line of dark-clad undercover cops poured onto the street. Overhead, a police helicopter thundered across the sky, its blinding spotlight turning the night into cold, white day. Amid the sudden deafening confusion, voices shouted rough commands.

      The cavalry had arrived at last.

      Caught off guard, the three wanted men were pointing their guns wildly in all directions. But it was too late, and even they knew that.

      With slow reluctance, the tallest one dropped his gun. The short one gave him a look of disgust.

      But seconds later, as the police shouted commands and threats at him, he did the same.

      One by one, they knelt on the ground, putting their hands behind their heads.

      As the police swarmed them, Miles left the battered Toyota and ran over to get more shots.

      Harper stood cautiously. Her legs were a little shaky.

      That had been too close for comfort.

      As she turned to face him, Luke holstered his weapon.

      ‘Harper McClain.’ He didn’t sound happy. ‘Why am I not surprised to see you here?’

      ‘Because I’m always this intrepid?’ Harper forced a nonchalance she didn’t feel into her voice.

      She’d known Luke since she was an intern at the paper and he was a rookie patrol officer. At twenty, he’d been earnest and thoughtful. They’d both grown up in the same neighborhoods and they were the same age. So, when her editor assigned her to do a ride-along with him, it was almost inevitable they’d hit it off.

      They’d spent three hours racing from one fairly minor crime to another with the enthusiasm of ingénues. She’d written an excited article about his life as a new cop. They’d been friends ever since.

      So she knew him well enough to know he was genuinely pissed off as he strode toward her, boots crunching on broken glass.

      ‘Intrepid is not the word I’m thinking of,’ he said, a sharp edge to his voice. ‘Dammit, Harper, since when do you perform citizen’s arrests? You could have gotten yourself killed. You know that, right?’

      ‘What else was I supposed to do?’ she asked. ‘Backup never showed. Those guys were about to shoot Officer Flashlight over there. I had to do something.’

      ‘You could have waited for us,’ he said, his voice rising. ‘You could have gone to a safe place and called this СКАЧАТЬ