She turned and started for her car.
This time there was no possibility that she had imagined the sound. The footsteps were at a distance, but she could hear them running. She saw the figure coming toward her, wearing scrubs and a surgical mask.
She turned and ran, hitting the panic button on her clicker. Nothing! There were too many cars in the way, blocking the signal. She kept running, aware that her pursuer was close, that the garage was empty, that the footsteps were amplified, as if her pursuer were running across a cement tomb.
The stalker ran after her, his footsteps louder.
Closer.
CHAPTER 10
Ashley neared her car and hit the panic button on the remote again. This time the lights flashed and the alarm went off loudly.
She could no longer hear the footsteps and didn’t know how close the stalker might be. She raced for the car, wrenched the door open and jumped into the driver’s seat, slamming the door shut and starting the engine. She backed instantly from her space and spun her car around, aware that her pursuer might be carrying a gun, or a crowbar ready to smash in her window. She hit the gas.
As she did so, her eyes searched the garage. She saw nothing. The person in the scrubs and mask was gone. Gone…
Or hidden in shadow.
Shaking, she drove far too fast to the exit then she stopped at the gate to tell the attendant what had happened.
“You sure you were chased, lady?”
“Yes!” she said indignantly.
“Want me to call the cops?”
“Yes, I want you to call the cops. The person might be lying in wait up there, ready to attack someone else!”
Angry, she pulled her car to the side, got out and waited.
Two uniformed officers arrived. The first, Officer Mica, starting writing a report. When she described the person, he stoppedwriting.
“The person was in hospital scrubs?” he said.
“Yes. And a surgical mask.”
He had quit writing.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
He shrugged. “Garages can be scary at night, Miss Montague. Footsteps echo, the lighting isn’t great. Are you certain the person was chasing you?”
“Yes.”
He still wasn’t writing.
He sighed. “It might have been just a worn-out surgeon trying to get to his car. Or a nurse. It’s easy to imagine things.”
“I told you, Officer, I’m in the academy myself. I’m not easily spooked or prone to imagining boogeymen in the shadows. I was being chased. Somebody might get held up or raped because they expected to see someone in scrubs in a hospital parking lot.”
She was losing her temper, which wasn’t going to get her anywhere.
“All right,” Officer Mica said. “We’ll take a look for someone in scrubs. We’ll be stopping an entire shift change, but don’t worry, we’ll look into it.”
He scribbled more on the page and gave her the report to sign. He had put it down as she had said it, but she knew he still thought she had imagined a worn-out doctor walking after her because his own car was parked near hers.
“Thank you,” she told him, her words to him as sincere as his promise to her. She felt completely frustrated, but she had done all she could do.
Officer Mica repeated wearily that they would do a search. He gave her his card, telling her she was welcome to call and he would inform her if they’d managed to find her stalker.
“If this person really was up to no good, most likely he’s gone by now,” Mica’s partner told her gently. “And if he was in scrubs…all he’d had to do was slip back into the hospital. But we’ll call you if we find out anything at all and warn hospital security to keep a lookout.”
Ashley looked at his badge. Officer Creighton. She liked him much better than Officer Mica.
“Thanks very much,” she told him. “May I have your card, as well?”
He obliged. Mica held his tongue.
Not at all reassured, Ashley drove home. Now that the danger was over, she was more angry than scared. She’d gotten away. Someone else might not be so lucky. And she was really irritated by Mica’s attitude. She tried to rationalize that her story might have sounded strange. And she realized even if they had believed her, looking for a stalker in hospital scrubs in a hospital was a pretty absurd task.
When she reached Nick’s, she saw that someone had parked in her spot, despite the “Reserved” sign that usually kept it vacant. She swore and parked farther down, aware that her car was past the reach of the security lights.
She might leave the academy and have to turn in her gun, but she had the damned thing now and knew how to use it—why the hell hadn’t she brought it with her?
Because she’d lived here all her life and had never been in a situation when she needed a gun, she reminded herself.
Still…
When she got out of the car, she automatically looked around, mistrustful of the shadows.