As Sarah came into the building, though, she saw Malick at the far end of the corridor. He hadn’t seen her and as she looked at him there was something surreptitious about him that she didn't like. It was something she hadn't seen before. Sarah stayed still so as not to draw attention to herself and when he disappeared off down another corridor, she ran to the end to see where he was going.
Malick turned another corner and as Sarah came up after him she tried to guess where he might be going. Wherever it was, he seemed to be taking the long way there and they came to another corridor that he could have gotten too much faster by an alternate route he would know well.
Then she understood.
There was only one reason Malick would be so sly in the Academy building. He was scoping out the routes to the firing range. He wanted to be sure no one else was on their way down there so he could have the place for himself. That had to be it. A pang of sorrow came over her and it mixed sourly with guilt at her following him. She was about to turn on her heels and go back the way she came when curiosity got the better of her. She wanted to see how he was getting on, if he had made any progress.
Sarah backed off a little to give him the chance of building up more of a head start and then she made her own way to the shooting range by a service door on the side of the building. From there she would be able to peer in through a small glass panel in the door and if she was careful he wouldn't see her. He would never know she was there at all.
As she came down the service hall, narrow and smelling of old steel and plumbing, Sarah noted that she hadn’t heard any shots yet. Was he not set up yet? He’d had plenty of time. As she came close to the door she bent down and then edged her cheek to the cold steel and looked with one eye into the glass panel (which she had to assume was bulletproof if it ran alongside a shooting range).
Malick was at one of the booths, alone, and there didn’t seem to be anyone else there at all. He had his ear protectors and glasses on. Sarah watched with bated breath. Inside she was rooting for him but she felt nervous too. She had no desire to see her friend fail and feel weak.
“Come on, you can do it,” she whispered as she saw him raise his gun and take aim at the target.
It was clear at once, however, that this was not going to have the happy ending she’d been so hopeful of. The gun rattled about in his hand like it weighed two hundred pounds and when he drew his supporting hand up it didn’t make all that much of a difference. Sarah found herself hoping again that this door and window was bulletproof because the way he was waving that gun around there was no telling where a bullet might end up if he managed to pull the trigger.
No bang came and Sarah felt a deep sadness in the pit of her stomach as she saw Malick drop the gun on the counter in front of him and burst into tears. His body was shaking and his eyes were clenched closed. It was somehow even worse than when she saw him huddled up cowering beside the car in the store parking lot.
He wasn’t going to be able to get past this. As well as everything else that was going wrong in her life, she was now going to lose her partner, the only person on the force she actually felt she could trust. It just wasn’t fair.
Tears came to Sarah’s own eyes as she stepped back from the window. Turning to place her back against the metal, she slumped to a sitting position with her head in her arms between her knees. She was very thankful of not being able to hear his crying, as that would have sent her over the edge and she would have gone to him, thus exposing her own sneakiness and distrust of him.
She moved away from the door and without looking back walked away. This was the lowest she had been since Marcus left and it was not going to be easy to shake this off tonight.
Chapter 24
THE DINER WAS QUIET when Tyler arrived and at first glance it didn’t look like Carson was here. Tyler had been in enough situations with scared informants to know not to worry yet. He ordered a coffee and steak sandwich and took a seat in a booth away from the window but that afforded him a view outside.
It wasn’t long before a man wearing a hoodie came from an alley across the street and came in. He walked straight down to Tyler and sat down across from him.
“Take your hood down,” Tyler whispered with a smile on his face for the benefit of the nervous looking staff, “You’re drawing attention to yourself.” Carson’s eyes widened but he did as he was told, not turning to look at the staff behind him.
“Can we get another steak sandwich and coffee over here, please?” Tyler called to the waitress before she could come over. She nodded and went to the counter to relay the message to the counter girl.
“I shouldn't have come here,” Carson said, sweat thick on his brow and his eyes darting out the window to the street.
“Take it easy,” Tyler said, “The FBI are still looking for you in Washington.” This seemed to have a slight-very slight- calming effect on him. “Meeting me now is
