Changing Woman Read Online Free PDF

sit tight until we have backup.”
    “If we do, and thesniper’s patient, he’ll have a lot more cops in his sights. But you’re right about getting in the unit or even staying near it. With the streetlight overhead, we’d be making ourselves great targets. Put some distance between you and the unit, but stay in the shadows and move quickly. I’ll go up onto the mesa on foot while you warn the residents to stay away from their windows. You can direct ourbackup when they get here.”
    “If you’re going up there, I’m sticking with you, Ella. You’ll need someone to divide the sniper’s attention. I’ll advise dispatch where the muzzle flash came from using the radio and, as far as the residents go, I’ll warn the ones in the closest house and have them pass the word.”
    Before Justine could grab her handheld, Ella realized that the lights inside the twoclosest homes had come on, and people were peering cautiously from the edges of their windows. “There’s a sniper! Stay away from the windows and doors and tell your neighbors to do the same!” Ella yelled at the person inside the home behind her. “And turn off your lights.”
    Immediately the figure watching them disappeared.The lights in the house were quickly turned off, and others down the streetfollowed suit a short time later.
    “Okay. Let’s go, and follow an unpredictable course. It’ll be harder for him to track two moving targets, especially ones who aren’t coming at him in a straight line. Let’s just hope he doesn’t get lucky,” Ella said.
    Ella led the way up the wide alley behind the row of houses, running the entire length up the slight incline, zigzagging at random intervals. Justinefollowed several steps behind, using the same tactics but different moves.
    They reached the last of the houses within five minutes, then came upon several stunted trees. Ella kept her eyes peeled on the outline of the mesa above, looking for an easy way up the fifty-foot-high cliff as they got closer. She paused at the foot of a well-traveled trail, probably used by the kids on the way back andforth to school, and took out her handgun.
    “Unless he’s moved over to the edge of the mesa, he can’t see us at the moment, and won’t know which way we’ll come up,” Ella told Justine. “Give me a ten-second head start,” Ella added, her breath rushing out in clouds of water vapor now, “and look around before you expose yourself at the top.”
    Ella was nearly out of breath by the time she approachedthe top of the mesa and peered over cautiously. A hundred feet ahead she could see a cluster of crosses and low stone markers surrounded by the remnants of a white picket fence. “What the . . .”
    “You don’t remember the graveyard?” Justine asked in a whisper as she caught up with Ella.
    “No. Did you?” Ella whispered back.
    “Yeah, I sneaked over on a dare when I was a kid, and I never forgot it.There was a church here once but it burned down and they never rebuilt it. No one comes into this area anymore, except maybe
chindi
and skin-walkers.”
    “Then why is that housing development so close by?” Ella asked, then shook her head, suddenly understanding.“Never mind. I get it. The residents are mostly modernists and new traditionalists, right? Even if they could see this place clearly inthe distance, they probably wouldn’t care.” Ella paused, her gut coiling into a tight knot. “I’m not thrilled about walking across a graveyard, but if we go around it, it’ll take too much time. The muzzle flash I saw came from that little rise over there. We have to cut through.”
    “Yeah, okay,” Justine said.
    Ella didn’t have to look to know her partner would follow her as she stepped over a sectionof flattened fence.
    “It’s not as big as I remember it,” Justine said, suppressing a shiver.
    “Less than twenty graves, I figure. But be careful where you step, so you won’t trip on one of the metal markers and fall on top of one of