PRELUDE
THREE SECONDS. THAT WAS ALL.
The man in the black leather jacket had looked down for just three seconds to read a text message on his phone. And in the interim, his five-year-old Houdini of a stepdaughter Chloe had unstrapped herself, climbed out of her car seat, and slipped out of sight—nowhere near the doorway of the office where he was to meet his contact.
Just three lousy seconds!
His mouth went dry.
He scanned the streets, sidewalk, between cars, to the left then right then a quick three-sixty. Despite the thorough sweep, which took all of two seconds, he didn't see her.
"Chloe!"
She didn't answer, but he spotted her. Way down the street, her auburn pigtails bouncing with each step.
"Chloe! Wait!" He slammed shut the back door of his Focus. Didn't bother to lock it. Ran up the sidewalk—fast. But the little stinker was fixated on a black cat luring her across the imaginary border that separated the gentrified arts district of Carleton Village and the slums of East Brentwood.
The cat bolted around the corner at the sound of the man's agitated shouts. Both hands outstretched, Chloe giggled and ran even faster.
"Kitty!"
He nearly tripped over an uneven seam in the sidewalk as he ran, his heart going faster than his feet.
A pair of SDPD squad cars with flashing red and blue beacons raced past Birch and came to a screeching halt somewhere around the corner of Lamont.
The little girl turned the same corner and vanished behind the red bricks of the apartment building. Straight onto Lamont.
"Stop, Chloe!" He'd gained but was still several steps behind.
The sound of a policeman shouting filled his head. Could things get any worse? He ran even harder.
It all happened within a matter of seconds.
Three lousy seconds.
That's what it took for him to round the corner and make out the figure fleeing the pimped-out Honda Civic that had crashed into a hydrant. The gunman shot at the cops, who now stood behind the open doors of their angled cars.
The man in the black leather jacket leapt at Chloe.
"Get down!"
Over his shout, the shouts of the police, the screams of frightened pedestrians, came a deafeningpop!whose impact toppled him.
Chloe screamed.
A sudden chill overtook him as a crimson pool expanded around his face, now planted on the cold concrete sidewalk. He tried to speak, stretched his fingers towards Chloe. Felt nothing but the cold pumping though his entire body.
Life didn't flash before his eyes.
He heard more gunshots.
The last thing he saw was Chloe lurching back, her pigtails flailing to the side. As though in slow motion, she was falling.
Falling...
He never saw her hit the ground.
