“He’s going for the roof,” she said and ran through the garage to the rear yard, where Ochoa had his man down and cuffed. “Eyes high, Detective,” she said. “We’ve got a monkey.”
Heat walked the perimeter of the building, her head tilted up as she went. In the gap between the body shop and the auto glass place next door, she stopped. A small piece of torn cloth waved from the razor wire on the rooftop. Nikki stood on the concrete directly under the flag of cloth and looked down. Between her shoes were two bright red spatters of blood.
She turned and caught Raley’s eye from the yard, then hand signaled the arc of the biker’s jump to the next-?door roof before she trotted out the gate to the corner of the building. Heat peeked around it and pulled back. The sidewalk was clear. She figured her dude would not exit down the front but would stay up there as far as he could get before coming down.
As she ran along the fa?ade of the auto glass shop, she told herself to be grateful that this was an industrial area and that there was a heat wave, both of which made it so she didn’t have to deal with pedestrians. The end of the building marked the corner of the side street. She flattened her back against the concrete and felt it warm the back of her neck above her vest. Nikki peeked around the building’s edge. Halfway up the block, the biker was climbing down a gutter drain. Her backup was coming but was a building’s length away. Biker dude was using both hands to shimmy. If she waited, he’d be on the sidewalk with a free gun hand.
Heat pivoted around the corner, gun up. “Police, freeze!” She couldn’t believe it. Rook was strolling up the sidewalk between her and the biker.
“Whoa, it’s me,” he said.
“Move,” she yelled, and waved him to the side. Rook turned behind him. For the first time, he saw the man climbing down the pipe and dashed out of the way behind a parked oil delivery truck. But by then the biker was holding onto the pipe with only one hand and drew. Heat pivoted behind the wall and his shot went wide, punching into a stack of wooden pallets at the curb.
Then she heard boots landing hard on pavement, a loud curse, and the clatter of something metal on concrete. The gun.
Heat fast-?peeked again. The biker was standing on the sidewalk, ass to her, bending to pick up his fallen gun. She stepped out, Sig braced. “Freeze!”
And that was when Rook flew in from the side and blind-?tackled him. Nikki lost her clear shot as the two struggled on the ground. She ran to them with Raley and the rest of her backup following close behind. Just as she arrived, Rook flipped on top of the guy and held the gun to his face.
“Go ahead,” he said. “I need the practice.”
After they loaded the biker into the rear of a patrol car for transport to the precinct in Manhattan, Heat, Raley, Rook, and the backup officers herded around the corner toward the auto body shop. On the walk, Rook tried to speak to Nikki, but she was still fuming about his interference and strode to the head of the group, showing him her back.
Lieutenant Marr was making notes for his report when they entered the garage. “Hope you don’t mind me using your vehicle as a desk,” he said.
“It’s been used for lots worse. Everybody tucked in?” she asked.
“You bet. Our two rabbits are cuffed and loaded. These other two,” he said with a side nod to the pair who had been working on the LeBaron, “they seem all right. I think their biggest problem is no job here tomorrow. Congrats on nailing your biker.”
“Thanks. And thanks for the setup. I owe you one.”
He shrugged it off. “What makes me happy is the good guys are all going home safe for supper tonight.” He set his clipboard on the car hood. “Now, Detective, I don’t know about you, but I want a look inside that truck.”
Marr and Heat led the others out to the side yard, where the sun-?bounce off the truck came at them like a pizza oven. The lieutenant gave the word, and one of his patrol officers mounted the rear bumper and opened the double doors. When the doors parted, Nikki’s heart sank.
Except for a pile of quilted mover’s blankets, there was nothing in the truck.