Chapter Thirteen

That excitement was short-lived. After losing her job at Pacific Audio Solutions, Elena had apparently gotten a job at a local supermarket. When she didn't answer her home or cell numbers, Faith tried her work phone to have the manager on duty tell her that Elena had taken the day off.

"Got it," Faith said, suppressing her anger. She buried her face in her palms and sighed.

"Not at work. Not at home. So, what now?" Michael asked.

Faith lifted her eyes above her palms but kept her knuckles planted on her cheekbones. "I think we go to her home anyway. I think we also stake out her workplace. Maybe we call Wanda and get police help to do that."

"Stakeouts? Really?"

"Unless you have a better idea, I really don't want to hear it right now."

"I'm not arguing, I'm commiserating. Stakeouts are almost never effective. If Elena figures out we're looking for her, then she might just not come home. She could disappear into the wind, and we'll never find her."

"I'm aware of the risks, Michael. I just don't know what else to do right now."

He sighed. "Yeah. Me either. All right. I'll call Wanda. You want her home or her work?"

"Home. It's her day off. I doubt she's going to be near work. We'll have Wanda stake the supermarket out just in case I'm wrong."

"Sounds good."

"That's not what I'd call it, but it's something."

They headed to Elena's home in a neighborhood of Seattle that wasn't quite modest enough to be working class and wasn't quite upscale enough to be wealthy. The houses had the same cookie cutter appearance as the ones in Emily Chen's neighborhood but had slightly larger yards and stone walkways that meandered unnecessarily to red-brick porches. Michael parked the car across from the house and said, "All right. Now we wait."

"Yep," Faith agreed.

"Any idea where a woman her age would be on her day off which is a…" he checked his phone. "Thursday?"

"How old is she?"

"Thirty-eight."

She shook her head. "No idea. If it was evening, I'd say she was on a date. I guess she still might be on a date if she's in a long-term relationship."

"Well, let's hope not, because if she's on a date, that date might end with her spending the night at someone else's house."

"Better that than out killing someone."

"Good point."

A rattling on their window caused both of them to jump. Faith's hand flew to her pistol in her shoulder holster, but she stopped when she saw a mousy-looking woman of around fifty standing outside their car with a grin that looked almost salacious. It occurred to Faith that they were staking out Elena's home in a police cruiser. Probably not their slickest move.

Michael rolled down the window, and the woman asked, "Are you guys looking for Elena?"

"And you are?" Michael asked, a little testily, still shaken by the startling knock on the window.

"Mrs. Kendrick," the woman replied with a smile, "Joanna Kendrick. K E N D R I C K."

Faith smiled slightly. The woman was an archetype, the neighbor. She was the one who said, "Mr. Thompson was such a quiet man," or, "there's never any trouble around here." The woman was this neighborhood's self-appointed librarian of gossip and knowledge.

Faith could imagine no type of person on Earth more annoying than that, but such an individual might prove useful right now.

"As a matter of fact, we are," Faith said. "Do you know her?"

"Of course I do," Joanna said, grin widening. "Everyone knows everyone around here."

"Do you know where she is?" Michael asked.

"Well," Joanna said, "I don't like to gossip…"

She left her words hanging and looked expectantly at the agents. Faith knew she was waiting for them to tell her why they were looking at her, ostensibly to give her a reason to spill the tea on her neighbor, but really because people like her lived for moments like this. She was about to learn why the FBI was after her neighbor, and she was not going to let an opportunity like this pass her up.

Once more, the need to discover where Elena was outweighed Joanna's irritating personality. "We believe she has information pertaining to an investigation of ours," Faith said.

"Ooh!" Joanna exclaimed with unrestrained delight. "What sort of investigation?"

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say more."

Joanna's disappointment was as unrestrained as her delight. Faith was about to resign herself to spilling the full story to the nosy neighbor when Turk barked suddenly.

Faith turned to her K9 to see him staring out of the right side of the car. She followed his gaze and saw Elena just about to leave her own vehicle. She stared at the police cruiser in shock, her face white as a sheet.

"Oh my goodness!" Joanna said with something akin to glee.

Elena got back in her car and sped off, tires screeching.

Michael put the car into gear and followed her, engine roaring as the cruiser accelerated.

The cruiser was indeed significantly faster than the typical cruisers they drove. In most other cases, they would have caught Elena within seconds.

But the burgeoning electric age was fast, rendering the world of internal combustion a thing of the past. Elena's Tesla wasn't the top-of-the-line performance model that advertised supercar performance in a straight line, but it easily outpaced the police cruiser's V-8.

"Damn it," Michael swore. "Screw these electric cars."

"For once, you and I are in agreement about something automotive," Faith said.

She grabbed the police radio and quickly put out a bulletin for Elena's car. When she finished, the radio crackled almost immediately, and Wanda's voice came on. "She did a runner, eh?"

"Yep. She's rounding the corner heading east onto…" Faith waited until the cruiser pulled close enough that she could read the street sign. "Harding Avenue."

"Got it. I'll get units to cut her off at Robinson Boulevard."

"No idea where that is," Faith said.

"Five miles east of where you are. If she turns again, let me know. We'll box the sucker in."

Faith detected an excitement in Wanda's voice that was disturbingly similar to Joanna's excitement at the potential for gossip. As for herself, she was…

"Damn it, Michael!" she cried out as Michael swerved down another corner, tires screeching as the car fishtailed.

"I'm sorry," Michael said irritably. "Was that too fast? Should I have slowed down to follow traffic laws."

Faith glared at him and tried to calm her stomach down. Ordinarily, Michael drove like a grandpa and groused about Faith's driving, but when it came to a pursuit, he turned into Jeff Gordon, and Faith… well, Faith liked cars, but that didn't mean she enjoyed car chases.

"Heading south now on… Jesus!" A minivan just barely avoided t-boning them as they rocketed through a red light after Elena. "Uh… Pembroke Street."

"Got it. She's probably heading for the I-5. I have units on both on-ramps. Don't worry, she won't get far. At these speeds, she'll run out of battery in less than a hundred miles."

The idea of driving like this for a hundred miles terrified Faith. She watched Elena's Tesla pull even farther away and seriously considered asking Michael to pull over and let the police handle it.

But this woman might have killed three other women. Considering her immediate choice to flee as soon as she saw their cruiser, Faith thought it very likely she was their killer.

"Can this thing go any faster?" she asked Michael.

"I don't know. Let's find out."

The engine roared and Faith's head slammed back into the seat. Elena's Tesla was faster than they were, but that didn't mean Elena was willing to drive it like it was. Faith felt her stomach twist nauseatingly as Michael weaved through traffic, tires screeching and sirens blaring as the poor civilian populace of Seattle tried desperately to avoid getting flattened by the speeding cars.

She looked at Turk and found him completely unconcerned with the breakneck speed at which they were traveling. He trusted his human partners completely.

Must be nice to be a dog, Faith thought.

Elena reached the freeway and turned toward the on-ramp, but when she saw the police cruisers, she screeched to a halt. She backed up and tried to accelerate the other way, but Michael pointed the nose straight at her.

"Michael?" Faith cried. "You're going too fast! We can't hit her this hard!"

"I know what I'm doing," he said.

He slammed on the brakes at the last second. The car skidded forward, and Faith caught a look of Elena's terrified face just before the cruiser hit her. Despite Michael's brake application, they still hit hard enough that the windshield shattered. Faith shielded her eyes, and when she looked through the shattered glass, she saw smoke rising from their hood.

But Elena's front driver side wheel was crushed, and her front bumper was crumpled. When Elena tried to accelerate, the bumper pushed into the ground, and her car only spun in a lazy quarter-circle. Without waiting for Faith and Michael to follow him, Turk leapt out the shattered windshield and rushed Elena.

The fleeing suspect had started to open her door, but when she saw ninety pounds of snarling fury barreling toward her, teeth bated, she shrieked and pulled the door shut.

Faith got out of the car and slowly approached Elena's vehicle. She felt dizzy and wondered if she had suffered a concussion when they hit. She would have to make sure to give Michael a hell of a lot of crap for that.

Speaking of Michael, he didn't look so hot himself. His face was pale, and his legs wobbled a bit. They would both have to get looked at by EMS before they interrogated Elena. And they would almost certainly owe Redmond PD a new cruiser.

But they had Elena. Faith drew her weapon and pointed at the door. Elena had her hands lifted so Faith could see them, and tears streamed down her face.

"Don't shoot!" she said. "Please! I'm unarmed!"

"Come out with your hands up," Faith commanded.

"Will he eat me?" Elena whimpered, looking at Turk.

Faith rolled her eyes. "No, he won't eat you. Just do as I say. Turk, come here."

Turk walked back to Faith's side, still growling at Elena. The woman got out of her car, trembling, and a moment later, one of the police officers cuffed her.

Faith sighed and holstered her weapon.

"Told you I knew what I was doing," Michael said smugly.

Faith cast him a glare. "Next time, I'm driving."