Intimate Relations, Rebecca Forster [best ereader for manga .txt] 📗

the side latched, but once she had it they found themselves in a narrow walkway. It was landscaped on one side, and on the other there were trash cans. Finn opened the first can.

"Garden clippings." He replaced the lid and opened the next. "Nothing."

Cori took a gander, but all she saw was the stuff that sticks to the bottom and lives on for eternity.

"It looks like they picked up the trash recen..."

Cori paused. Above them was a window. It was too high for them to see inside the house, but something caught her attention. She put a hand out to Finn and whispered:

"Someone's in there."

She scanned the side of the house as she pulled back in hopes of catching something or someone in the window.  Finn motioned and whispered back.

"I'll go 'round front door again—"

That's when they heard a click and a snap. In any other neighborhood it would have gone unnoticed, but the silence was so perfect that the sound of a door opening could not be mistaken.

Cori and Finn went around to the back of the house. There was a pergola that shaded part of a large patio, an outdoor kitchen, a large table for guests and two smaller ones next to oversized chairs.

The patio was paved with Spanish tiles. They matched the ones framing the rectangular pool. The layout drew the eye to the view. Finn's gaze went to the fruit orchards, terraced gardens, valley and the freeway beyond.  It was an idyllic backyard but one thing was out of place— the man hunkered in front of the sliding door trying to pull it shut.

"Can we help you with that?" Finn said.

The question was as good as a shot. The young man threw himself up and back, stumbling into the wall of glass behind him. His eyes were wide. The color drained from his face, and his mouth opened in a prelude to a scream. He was not attractive, and he wasn't quite a man. Tops he had twenty-one years on him, but Cori doubted he'd seen much sunshine in all his days. His skin was pasty, his hair was lusterless, and he looked like he may be having a heart attack. Cori took a step forward. Finn was ahead of her by two, putting his hand inside his jacket to retrieve his badge when the man bolted.

"Hey!" Finn lunged for the man, but it wasn't going to be that easy.

The guy was fast and quick. Finn knew that those things were not one and the same. He was quick to build up his speed, and that's when it was obvious he was also going to be fast. To make matters worse, he was sure footed. That last meant little in the first hundred yards when he was flying past the pool and over the terraced lawn, but when he hit the hill Finn knew he had his work cut out for him.

Behind him, Cori sprinted past the trashcans, through the gate, and back to the car.  She got inside and hit the ignition before the door closed. The tires squealed on the bricked drive and the car bucked as she shot back to the road. Instead of heading back to the main drag, Cori went down the hill, toward the freeway. Once that guy got to the bottom of the hill he had two choices: try to outrun Finn in the valley or get to civilization and lose himself. Cori bet on civilization.

The road she was on was seldom used, its only purpose was to serve utility vehicles. Cori's unmarked vehicle was no less sturdy than the black and whites. She took the bumps and grinds until she turned onto the dirt access road. There she took a hard hold of the steering wheel. When she came to a stop in a cloud of dust under the arched overpass it was just in time to see Finn give the chase his all.

He closed the gap between himself and the running man. He had discarded his jacket. His t-shirt was sweat-soaked. His arms pumped, his powerful legs pounded over the terrain as he gained an inch, a foot, and then the man made a mistake. Before he reached the hard, even ground under the freeway he looked behind him to see how close Finn was and lost his momentum to indecision. Finn had no such handicap. He saw nothing but the man ahead of him, thought of nothing but taking him down. When he made his move Cori got out of the car to help, but all she had to do was give her partner a wide berth.

As always it was something to see. Finn was a powerful man who was graceful when resolve was the final key to winning the day. He leapt, arms out, hitting the running man's back with his own shoulder for maximum impact. The man went down and Finn's arms went around him. They rolled twice. Like the runt of the litter, the man landed on his back and put his hands up to show the alpha dog there was no fight in him. Finn straddled him, pinning his legs. Both men did nothing more than breathe hard for a moment. Finn looked over his shoulder at the hill and then back to the man on the ground.

"'Tis a long run," he said. "Wouldn't it have been easier to talk to us?"

"I don't know who you are."

Cori stepped forward, hunkered down, and held her credential up.

"We're cops," she said.

"I didn't do anything wrong," he wailed.

"Then you better tell us what it was you were doing up there because to us it looked like breaking and entering. That will put you in a cell faster than slop goes through a hog," Cori said.

Cori and Finn exchanged a glance. There was nothing like a threat with no teeth. Even if they arrested this guy, he would be back on the street in no time flat with the way the courts were backed up. The