Changing Woman Read Online Free PDF Page B

the graves.” Ella looked around cautiously. “The problem is that not all of the graves have permanent markers.”
    “Great. Just what I needed to hear,” Justine replied,stepping around a wreath of all-weather plastic flowers that must have been blown away from a grave.
    They made their way across the concrete pad that was once the floor of the church, crouching low. As they left the church ruins and the graveyard behind them, the wind carried the sound of a truck engine starting somewhere down the hill, then a heartbeat later, screeching tires on asphalt at thehighway below. The roar of the engine quickly faded away to the north.
    “That’s probably him,” Justine said, slowly standing to full height. “I have a feeling he was watching us all the time from the truck, wondering if we’d cross the graveyard or not.”
    “Maybe, but he’s long gone now. The only chance we had of taking him by surprise was to come up on foot.” Ella holstered her weapon, unhookedher radio from her waist, and advised Dispatch.
    Once finished, she took out her flashlight and madeher way to the area of high ground that would have made the best vantage point for the sniper. Working methodically, she searched the ground with Justine’s help. “Let’s see if we can find the spent cartridge or something that will help us track the sniper, the weapon, or both.”
    After several minutesof fruitless searching, Justine looked up, teeth chattering as the wind whipped against them. “I’ll come back tomorrow after daybreak. If there’s anything here, I’ll find it then.”
    “There’s the Stop and Go further ahead, on the north side of the bluff near the main highway,” Ella said, pointing. “You can see the parking lot sign easily from this high spot, and I think the tire marks veer offin that general direction. Once we get back to your unit, we’ll go talk to the night manager. Maybe he saw the guy racing by.”
    By the time they’d walked back down to the neighborhood and had reached Justine’s unit, backup was already at work. Most people had stayed inside, not willing to risk having a sniper use them for target practice—all except for Myrna Manus, who was walking toward themnow.
    Ella heard one of the officers who was searching the intersection for evidence speak to his partner. “I knew she was itching to come out. A woman like that doesn’t fear anything. Hell, one look from her, and the bullets would fly into each other.”
    “I can’t believe this! Somebody is taking potshots at us down here and our alleged police force is standing around in the street chatting! Whatare you people waiting for? Go and arrest whoever’s doing this.”
    “We will as soon as we know who to take into custody,” Ella said patiently. She couldn’t help but notice that Justine had slipped away and was doing her best to avoid eye contact with her. She was trying hard to appear as busy as possible near the stop sign as she helped the ongoing search for evidence. “Since we were unable tocatch the sniper, we’ll have to collect what evidencewe can find here and up on the hill, and search for clues and a motive.”
    “Then get busy!”
    “As a concerned citizen,” Ella added pointedly, “do you happen to have any useful information you can share that will point us in the right direction? I know this is a real reach, but does anyone have a reason to consider you their enemy? Or maybe youknow of someone else in the neighborhood who’s pissed someone off recently? Do you know anyone who might be inclined to pick up a gun and start shooting at people?”
    “From what I heard, the sniper was shooting at
you,
not one of my neighbors. Of course he might have easily hit any one of us. If I had to lay odds, I’d say it was a recent vandalism victim upset because none of you cops are doingyour job.”
    Seeing other people starting to come outside, Ella hardened her expression. “Go back inside, Myrna, and quit distracting us with your