Wounded (a mystery and a sweet romance)

Wounded: Chapter 16

Tara squeezed through the bathroom window with the petri dish clenched between her teeth. She had to use both hands to haul herself through the narrow frame, and even then, she got stuck. Rain spattered the back of her head and neck, but it didn’t do much to let her slide through the window. How on earth had Malcolm managed this? If it weren’t so dark, she wagered she would have found some of his clothing—and maybe skin—snagged on the frame. She almost bumped her nose on the opposite wall—the little alley outside was no more than two feet wide and surely meant for nothing more than ventilating the bathrooms.

Once through, Tara was about to jump to the ground, but the flashing of red lights brightened the night at both ends of the alley. The motel compound and parking area wasn’t that large. Any minute, the person waiting out front would realize she wasn’t going to “get decent” and answer the door. When they figured out she wasn’t inside, this alley would be the first place they would check.

She climbed up instead of down and grabbed the gutter on the opposite roof. Her fingers dipped into cold water and moldy sludge, but she pushed off the window frame and managed to swing a leg up. Luckily, the gutter held her weight and she was able to scramble onto the damp tar-and-gravel roof. Staying low, she climbed to the apex and surveyed the compound, wondering which way she should go. Which way had Malcolm gone?

She was perched above the main office now and could see up and down the highway. At this hour, there wasn’t any traffic on it. The lights of the sheriff’s cars continued to flash in the back parking lot, but she didn’t see anyone out front. There was a gas station and some kind of warehouse across the way with a field and trees beyond that.

“Seems like a Malcolm-ish destination,” she muttered around the petri dish, and climbed down the opposite slope of the roof. She needed to cross the street and get behind that warehouse before the deputies noticed her. Malcolm wouldn’t be happy if she led them to his position.

When she reached the edge, she paused to look for a place to climb down. The puddles on the pavement in front of the office didn’t look like they would cushion her landing that much. Her inadvertent caution allowed her to spot a man in a dark cap and a beige uniform standing in front of the office door—and not five feet from her position. She gulped. Now what? If she jumped off the roof, he would probably catch her before she hit the ground.

A car door slammed in the back parking lot. “Is there another way out of those rooms?” someone called.

“There’s an alley over here!”

Tara chewed on her lip, wondering what the odds were that she could lie flat on the roof and simply wait for them to search the hotel and go away. But no, someone was sure to make the connection between the bathroom window and her current location. If only the cop below would go join his friends in the back... Unfortunately, he seemed to be comfortable where he was, the roof’s overhang keeping the rain from pounding his head.

Tara leaned back from the edge and pulled out her phone. She was thinking about texting Jasmine to see what was going on over there, or if there was any way she might provide a distraction, but what if Jasmine and Mandy were sitting under the watchful eyes of the deputies right now? Any bleeps their phones made might be monitored.

Tara would have sworn if the officer weren’t so close. Instead she stuck her phone back in her pocket and crawled along the roof, parallel to the front of the building. Maybe she could go down on the side and find a hiding spot or slip away from over there. Too bad nothing but pavement surrounded the hotel. She longed for the big city where buildings were pushed right up against each other and thieves—or foolish women who had gotten themselves into strange predicaments—could jog from rooftop to rooftop without ever touching down. That always happened in the movies anyway.