Riley stifled a sigh.
She said, “It’s getting near time to call it a night. Give yourteam another hour. Then call them all back to the station, and we’ll send themhome.”
“OK,” Wightman said. “I talked to your partner a little whileago. Do you want me to contact her, or do you want to do it yourself?”
Riley squinted with surprise.
“My partner?” she asked.
“Yeah. The last time I talked to her, she was over at the highschool. There was a party going on there, and she was keeping watch to makesure everybody there stayed safe. Do you want to call her, or should I?”
Riley stammered, “Uh … I’ll do it.”
They end the call and Riley stood staring at her cell phone.
Ann Marie is still in Winneway.
*
With a burst of sheer animal terror, Ann Marie fled down thehallway.
Don’t panic, she told herself.
But she’d lost her gun and a madman was chasing her. She didn’tdare look back to see how close he was. She couldn’t even hear his footstepsover the sound of her own.
She just had to keep moving.
I’ve got to get a grip on myself. I’ve got to think.
What was there to think about? What sort of plan could she comeup with? What was there to do except run and try to stay away from her pursuer?
The hallway seemed to stretch longer in front of her, and shethought she was moving much too slowly.
She knew he could see her. The dim, intermittent ceiling lightsgave her enough light to run by—but also enough light for the killer to see herby. The throb of her pulse felt like both her head and her chest were about toexplode.
Her soft soles skidded and she almost lost her balance as shewhirled and turned at the first hallway corner she came to.
Had he seen her make that last turn?
Surely he must have.
But she still didn’t dare slow down to look behind her.
She ran until she came to another corner and turned again. Itdawned on her that she was running blind. She didn’t know the layout of theschool, and in this maze of hallways, the killer could be either in front ofher or behind her. Tearing through the hallways like this was pointless. Forall she knew, she might be running directly into his clutches.
Ann Marie slowed to a walk and struggled to bring her breathingunder control, listening as well as she could. If he was anywhere nearby, shecouldn’t see or hear him.
She fumbled in her pocket for her cell phone, hoping she couldcall for backup, or at least punch 911 for help. But then she felt a new joltof panic as a gleeful voice echoed around her.
“Why are you running? There’s no need to run.”
She flattened herself against the row of lockers along the wallas the voice spoke again. Where was he? What could she do?
“Pan just wants to be friendly,” the voice said.
The eerie voice seemed to be both everywhere and nowhere. Try asshe might, Ann Marie simply couldn’t tell which direction it was coming from.
“You dropped something. A gun, I believe. Pan and I just want togive it back.”
Ann Marie stifled a moan of despair.
My gun, she thought. He’s got my gun.
And who on earth did he mean by “Pan”?
Did he have someone else with him—an accomplice of some sort?Suddenly the stakes in this chase seemed much more dire than even before. Shehad some vague recollection of a mythological figure with that name, but shecouldn’t pin it down.
“You can trust me,” her pursuer said. “I would never shoot you.That isn’t Pan’s style.”
His words were obviously meant in a mocking way.
No, he wouldn’t shoot me.
Her pursuer surely had a much crueler death in mind. And since he’dkilled at least four other people, she knew better than to underestimate eitherhis prowess or his viciousness. He knew how to hunt as well as how to kill.
Staying tight against the wall, she crept around another corner.
She felt a surge of hope at the sight of an EXIT sign at the farend of this hallway.
A way out! she thought.
She broke into a run again. But this time, she heard a clangingsound and a masked figure leapt in her way. It was the very man she’d beenfleeing.
Where had he come from?
Then she saw a large locker door hanging open, and she rememberedthe kid named Saul mentioning that he’d hidden in a locker.
That was exactly what her pursuer had done. As she’d feared, he’dcircled around to get ahead of her and waited there for her. He obviously knewthese hallways well.
She stood frozen in place, staring at him. Now that she got a goodlook at him, she recognized his werewolf mask, and also the leather satchelslung over his shoulder. It was the man she’d confronted a little while agooutside the school.
I should have known, she thought. I should have beenaware that he was dangerous even back then.
A voice from behind the mask demanded, “What are you going to donow, little girl?”
Ann Marie was sure there was a sneer behind that mask, and sheheard a note of challenge in that voice.
He considers it my move, she realized.
He was standing squarely in front of her, just waiting for her todo something. But Ann Marie was paralyzed with indecisiveness. The EXIT sign atthe end of the hallway suddenly looked much farther away than it had before.She almost turned around to break into another mad dash away from him.
But then she felt a surge of resolve.
She remembered how she’d taken down Brad Cribbins yesterday. EvenAgent Paige had admitted that Ann Marie had pretty good fighting skills. ThoseKrav Maga classes she’d taken in high school had really paid off.
Eyeing the EXIT sign, Ann Marie decided that she wasn’t going torun away from the killer.
I’ll run right through him.
She broke into a run again, toward her tormenter this time.Everything seemed to slow down as she got closer. With her
