Marie Ferrarella - Cavanaugh Judgement стр 4.

the purloined weapon, and the bulletwhether intentionally or nothad hit the bailiff whose weapon had been stolen by Munro. The latter, on the job all of six months, was on the floor, clutching his shoulder. Blood was seeping out between his fingers.

Munro was nowhere to be seen.

Inside a secured courtroom with law enforcement officers throughout the building, Munro had done the impossible. The drug dealer had escaped.

A glance to the left told her the chief of detectives was missing, as well.

For one terrifying moment, an utterly unacceptable scenario suggested itself to her, but she dismissed it. Brian Cavanaugh was too much of a policeman to have ever allowed himself to be taken hostage. If Munro had even attempted it, she was certain the dealer would have been lying on the floor in several disjointed pieces.

The man would have instinctively known that avoiding the chief at all costs was the only way he was going to make it out of the courthouse alive.

Greer refused to believe that Munro had already gotten out of the building. Not enough time had gone by.

She ran through the double doors that led out of the courtroom into the hallway. She didnt have to look over her shoulder to know Kincannon was right behind her. Did the man have a death wish? she wondered, annoyed.

There was more chaos beyond the leather padded doors. People, fleeing for their lives, were hiding in alcoves, pressed as far against the beige walls as humanly possible in an attempt to avoid the escaping criminals attention.

Damn it, things like this just dont happen, Greer thought angrily.

Except that it just had.

She scanned the hallway again, hoping that shed missed something. Hoping that Munro was trying to hide in plain sight. But he wasnt.

At first glance, it appeared that Eddie Munro had turned out to be far cleverer than shed initially thought. The drug dealer had managed to disappear.

She saw the chief. He was standing a few feet away and had taken charge of the bailiffs who had come running in response to the gunshot. On the phone, hed already put in a call for reinforcements.

I want everything shut down, he ordered the uniformed men and women gathered around him. Except for my people, nobody leaves, nobody comes in. Understand?

Acquiescing murmurs responded to his words.

He looked at the bailiffs. I want every courtroom, every office, every closet on every floor gone through. His penetrating look swept over the collective. Do it in teams. I dont want anyone caught off guard. One damn surprise is enough for the day. You he singled out the closest bailiff call for an ambulance. I want that bailiff who got shot attended to.

The man rushed off to place the call. As the other men and women hed just addressed scattered, Brian turned his attention to Greer. His eyes swept over her, taking full measure. Looking for a wound. Finding none, he still asked, Are you all right, Greer?

Self-conscious at being singled out this waydid he think she couldnt take care of herself?Greer dismissed the concern she heard in her superiors voice. Im fine, Chief. And then she couldnt help herself. She had to know. Why are you asking?

He laughed shortly, shaking his head. Well, for one thing, he began wryly, I saw you take that half-gainer over the judges desk

She had a soft landing, Kincannon told him as he came up to the chief.

Greer shifted slightly. Not so soft, she muttered under her breath. Shed been acutely aware of every single contour shed come in contact with and soft was not the word that readily came to mind.

Calling out to Janelle, who he saw hurrying out of the courtroom and looking around, Brian didnt appear to have heard Greers comment.

But the judge did.

Chapter Two

Hed heard her. She was certain of it.

What she didnt know was how hed received the offhand comment that had just slipped out. Was that a hint of amusement she saw on his face, or was it something else? Shed never been around the man in one of his lighter momentsdidnt even know if he had lighter momentsso she couldnt gauge what was going on in his head right now.

Talk about awkward, she thought. And it was of her own making. Someday, she was going to learn to think before she spoke, or at least that was what her brothers were always saying to her.

Someday, that mouth of yours is going to get you in a whole lot

of trouble, Ethan had warned her more than once.

She could take that kind of a comment from Ethan far more easily than she could from Kyle. From Kyle, it sounded more like criticism. Besides, she was closer to Ethan than to Kyle, which was odd, given that the three of them had drawn their first breaths less than seven minutes apart. According to birth order, Kyle was technically the oldest, then her, then Ethan. The baby, their mother used to fondly call him.

Kyle had called him that, as well, until Ethan had given Kyle his first black eye. The word baby hadnt come up again in approximately sixteen years.

None of that changed the fact that her brothers were both right. She had a tendency to let her thoughts reach her lips, completely bypassing her brain. Most of the time, it didnt matter. But most of the time she didnt find herself on top of a judge who had a rock-solid body hidden beneath his imposing black robes.