Page 14 of Her Last Vow

He didn't sit down. Instead, his eyes flicked toward the back of the unit, toward a metal door partially hidden behind the soundproofing panels. Rachel saw the decision form on his face a half second before he moved.

He shoved the folding table hard into Novak's legs, sending the laptop and hard drives scattering across the concrete, and bolted for the back door.

“Jesus…” Novak muttered as he stumbled to his feet. "Tanner!" he shouted, stumbling back to catch his balance.

Rachel was already moving. She cleared the table in two strides and hit the back door just as it slammed shut behind him. She shoved it open into a narrow loading dock area lined with dumpsters and pallets. Tanner had a head start of maybe fifteen feet, sprinting toward a chain-link barrier at the far end of the lot. She didn’t even consider drawing her weapon because things could go badly once it was out. He looked to be in good shape, so she knew she had a chase on her hands, but she welcomed the challenge. If he did manage to get too far ahead, she may pull her gun and fire a warning shot.

"Stop before you make this worse!" she called out, knowing he wouldn't, and pushed harder anyway.

Her shoes hit the cracked asphalt of the loading area in a fast, even rhythm, and she felt the burn start low in her legs almost immediately. Tanner glanced back once, his face pale with panic, and put on a burst of speed toward the barrier. He got both hands on top of the chain-link and vaulted it in one motion. He was more agile than Rachel had given him credit for, landing hard on the other side and stumbling before he caught himself.

Rachel didn't slow down. She hit the fence at a dead run, planted one hand on the top rail, and swung herself over in a single fluid motion. She landed on the other side without breaking her stride, but she was old enough now to know that she'd be sore in her calves and lower back tomorrow. She instantly closed the gap between them fast, focusing on nothing but the space between her and his back. She was aware of the sounds of Novak somewhere behind her, also catching up.

Tanner cut hard to the left around a parked delivery van, and she cut with him. She was now close enough to hear his ragged breathing. He tried to angle toward a gap between two dumpsters near the edge of the lot, and Rachel put on one final burst of speed, closing the last few feet. She timed it just right, executing a lunge that caught his shoulder and drove them both sideways into the metal side of a dumpster. She’d known it was coming, though, and managed to skid to a stop before her entire left side slammed into the dumpster.

Tanner, on the other hand, was not as lucky. He hit the ground hard, and Rachel came down on top of him within a few seconds. Tanner was groaning and gasping for air as she pinned one arm behind his back before he could twist away. He thrashed once, tried to buck her off, and she used her weight to press him flat against the pavement.

"Stop moving," she said, breathing hard. "Right now."

Behind her, she heard Novak's footsteps approaching fast across the loading dock, his own breathing labored.

"Jesus, you're fast," he said, kneeling to help pin Tanner's other arm while Rachel got the cuffs around his wrists.

Rachel smiled briefly at the compliment, but kept her attention on Tanner.

"Get off me," Tanner said, his voice thin and shaking. "I didn't do anything. I swear to God, I didn't do anything."

Rachel pulled him up by the arm and turned him around so his back was against the dumpster, his chest heaving. His face had gone gray, and his eyes darted between them, wide and unfocused in a way that looked less like guilt and more like raw fear.

"Then why'd you run?" Rachel asked.

"Because I knew you'd think it was me," Tanner said. "The second you said Reston, I knew. They’d twist the story, point fingers at me. I knew you'd think it was me."

"Think what was you?" Rachel asked.

Tanner's breathing hitched, and for a moment it looked like he might be sick. "I didn't kill anybody. I swear to you, I didn't kill anybody. But I know things I shouldn't know. And now two people are dead, and I've been telling everybody I know things, and I think..." He stopped, swallowing hard.

Rachel understood without having to dig deeper. He was worried that the inner circle at Apogee might be coming after him. Still, it was no reason to run from federal agents, and they already had him cuffed.

“Well, you can explain it a bit more back at your place,” Novak said.

"Fine. But can you take the cuffs off? I'm sorry, I mean…really."

“No. The cuffs come off when we’re done talking,” Rachel said.

Tanner said nothing else as she turned him around and pushed him gently back in the direction of his studio. With his shoulders hunched and his head lowered, he remained quiet as Rachel and Novak escorted him along.

CHAPTER NINE

Tanner sat across from them at the folding table, which Novak had set back up when they’d re-entered the studio space. Novak had righted the table and gathered the scattered hard drives, though the laptop screen had a fresh crack running through one corner. Tanner kept glancing at it like he wanted to say something about the damage and knew better than to try. His hands were cuffed behind his back, causing him to scrunch up his shoulders.

Rachel sat back down where she had been just fifteen minutes ago, but Tanner remained standing. Novak stood directly beside him, in the event that he might try something stupid again.

"Let's start over," Rachel said. "You're not under arrest. Running from federal agents isn't a crime by itself, but it's not smart, either. Right now I want to know why you did it."

"I told you already." Tanner's voice had steadied some since the parking lot, though his knee still bounced under the table. "I thought you’d think I did it…that if you went to Reston first and talked to them that they’d point fingers at me to shut me up.”

"We showed you credentials," Novak said. “You knew we were FBI.”