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There was a figureon the stairs. It was tall, probably a man, although the shapeless clothes hewore made it hard to tell. His features weren’t visible in the light of theflashlights.
“Freeze!” Simonshouted, seeing them at the same time that Amber did. “FBI!”
The figure didn’tfreeze in place, though, but instead took off up the stairs at a run.
Amber followed oninstinct, gun ready as she ran. The sound of footsteps echoed in her ears asshe sprinted up the stairs after the fleeing figure. She could hear Simon andFrancesca behind her, their own footfalls pounding against the stairs.
They were runningat top speed, and the chase was on. As they ran up the stairs, Amber could hearthe sound of a door slamming shut somewhere above.
“We need to splitup and search each floor,” Amber called out, realizing that they were runningout of time. “If that was Boon, he might try to kill the victim before we getthere.”
She took thestairs two at a time, heading for the next floor up. There, she found a widehallway with a couple of doors leading off. One was ajar. More than that, Ambercould see light coming from within. With her gun held ready, she advanced onthe door.
Amber kicked itopen, and instantly found herself faced with half a dozen people, all roughlooking, all clearly high on something.
They were allstartled by her sudden intrusion, but mostly seemed too out of it to evenreact. Amber quickly scanned the room, seeing no sign of Steven Boon or anypotential victims.
“Down here,” Ambersaid.
It was as if thesound finally drew the attention of the people in the room. They looked up atAmber, and a couple of them started to advance toward her. One had a knife,another a nasty-looking length of chain.
Amber heard thesound of running footsteps close by. Simon and Francesca were there then, theirguns leveled at the advancing addicts.
“Police,”Francesca said. “The next one of you to take a step gets a bullet.”
That seemed to getthrough to them. Amber could see the fear in their eyes as they quickly backedaway. They knew they were outgunned and outmatched.
“Did you seeanyone come through here?” Amber asked, her gun still raised.
The addicts shooktheir heads, mumbling incomprehensible responses.
Amber turned toSimon and Francesca.
“What do you wantto do?”
“We’re not herelooking for them,” Simon said.
Francesca didn’tlook comfortable, this was her town, after all, but she nodded after a fewseconds.
“All of you, getout. I’ll be sending beat cops to watch this place from now on. Go!”
The addictsscattered, moving past them and running for the exit.
“Do you think Boonwould have risked setting up somewhere occupied?” Francesca asked, once theywere gone.
Amber saw Simonshrug. “Maybe, they were all pretty out of it. They might not have noticed himsetting up his winch. They might not care. The top floor is clear, though.”
“Same with themiddle,” Francesca said.
That left theflooded basement. Amber didn’t like the thought of having to go down into it,but she knew they needed to make sure.
Amber turned toSimon and Francesca. “We need to keep moving. We’re running out of time.”
They made theirway down to the basement, the water up to their ankles as they sloshed throughthe murky darkness. Amber shone her flashlight around, trying to find any cluesas to where Steven Boon might have stashed his victim.
The smell of rotand decay was heavy in the air, and Amber had to struggle not to gag.
The flickeringlight of their flashlights revealed a dimly lit space. The water made it hardto see much, but they could make out the outline of what looked like some oldmachinery.
