Cami couldn't see his face. But he was average height, strongly built, and wearing a RoboBattle baseball cap.

  If this was the killer, she had to act. Now. Because if he got her out of that door, it would be too late.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  "Hey! Stop that!" Cami shouted out the words as loudly as she could, rushing forward. She was hoping that her shout might attract someone else who could come and help. The guy in the baseball cap already had the door open, and the woman was fighting with all her strength to get free from his grasp.

  "Let me go! Let me go!" Her voice was shrill and panicked.

  Alerted by Cami’s shout, the man turned to face her, without letting go of his platinum haired captive.

  His face wasn't exactly like she remembered the ID photo, but it was difficult to tell under the shadow of the baseball cap’s brim, and also because he looked so angry.

  His features were tense and hard with fury. She could see the way his hand, with strong, stubby fingers, was digging hard into the woman's arm.

  "Get the hell away," he snarled to Cami. "This is a private matter."

  "It's not private," Cami retorted, her outrage now winning over her fear, because this terrified woman needed her help, and she could not let him drag her out of the door. Drawing on reserves of courage she didn't even know she had, she continued. "You're abusing her. You're trying to take her away. Now let go!"

  She should threaten to call the cops. But the guy might laugh at her, and in any case, she was the cops. If he wasn't taking her FBI jacket and hat seriously, then that threat wouldn't wash with him.

  "You get away!" he shouted. He tugged the woman harder so that she almost stumbled and fell. She was trying to wrench her arm away, but it was clear his grip was like a vise.

  Cami knew she was going to have to get involved. Actively involved.

  Taking a deep breath and trying not to think how badly this could go wrong, she strode over and grabbed hold of the man's arm.

  "Let her go!" she yelled, trying her best to twist his arm, to hurt him, to break it free from that iron grip. It was like grappling with a gnarly tree branch. Cami felt shocked by his power, and by how little effect her grasp had. Then, things got worse. He shifted his weight subtly, and the next moment, his foot lashed out at her.

  It was only by pure luck that Cami shifted her feet to try to avoid being dragged sideways, and the kick he'd aimed glanced off her thigh instead of cracking right into her knee.

  Even so, she gasped as pain flared. It was like being kicked by a horse! This guy was a brutal street fighter who was not holding back.

  Somehow, determination overrode her fear, as she reminded herself that she could not let another woman be taken, to be killed in a terrible way. She raised her foot and tried the same, kicking him right back again.

  And she got lucky, partly because the platinum blonde had chosen that moment to try to struggle against her captor, and he was distracted. He wasn't watching Cami, and her foot landed where it counted, and he gasped and staggered.

  Cami felt a flash of total shock. She'd done that?

  Then the next moment, shock turned to panic, because he let go of the door, and reached out his other hand, and caught her by her sleeve. He dragged her toward him and, stumbling and flailing, Cami found herself staring right into his angry eyes.

  Blue eyes?

  She had only a moment to take this in before he raised his head and brought it lashing down, aiming for her face.

  With a flash of fear, she cringed away, knowing that having this man's giant forehead slam down into her face was going to shatter her nose and teeth and land her in the hospital.

  She managed to wrench herself sideways, terror now pumping because her attempt at heroism had now gotten her in way over her head, and she wasn't equipped for hand-to-hand combat.

  Or head to head, as he was now engaging in.

  Cami now had two main aims. To avoid extremely serious injury and to somehow get away from this man. Too late to wish she’d called for help in the first place, instead of getting involved.

  But now she was involved, and she needed to break free from him, because while he had trapped, she was way too close, and he was going to be able to hurt her badly. She couldn’t keep on being lucky.

  She wrenched herself away, gasping as his foot thudded against her thigh. Yet again, a lucky movement had helped her evade a bone-breaking blow to the knee. She kicked back at him, but with a sneering laugh, he moved his leg and her Doc banged harmlessly on his steely calf.

  They needed help here. Cami had done what she could. She’d slowed this down, but her fighting reserves were all spent now and she didn't have more to call on.

  And at that moment, the cavalry arrived.

  A man wearing a black jacket burst into the corridor, sprinting straight for them. He rammed right into their blue-eyed attacker, who yelled and let go of Cami's arm as the other man piled in.

  The platinum blonde wrenched herself free, running a few steps away, sobbing for breath and rubbing her wrists, as the two men began fighting, punching and kicking.

  It was like watching the robot fight, only this off-stage version involved two live, street-fighting humans, Cami thought, astounded. Neither man was holding back. Angry shouts, grunts, and meaty punches they were engaged in battle.

  But she saw now, to her astonishment, that the newcomer was the better fighter. He was faster. More powerful. He got in a chop to the other man’s neck. His fist slammed into his midriff. Then, his boot met the other man’s knee with an audible crack.

  The blue-eyed man was left bent over, coughing and choking.

  He didn’t wait for another round. Instead, he did what any coward would do. He turned and fled. Bursting through the exit door, he was gone, with a thudding of feet. And the man in the black jacket wrenched the door open and sprinted out behind him, giving chase.

  Cami was breathing hard. Her life was still flashing before her eyes, and she was trembling with adrenaline. It had been the scariest thing in the world to have someone so aggressive and so powerful using his strength against her.

  "Are you okay?" she asked the platinum-haired woman, who was crying hard now. Cami moved forward, groped in her jacket pocket, and offered her a tissue.

  "I'm okay. I'm - I guess I'm okay." She sobbed, wiping her eyes.

  "Did you know that guy?"

  "He was my boyfriend.”

  Cami approved of that word “was”. She nodded as the woman continued. “We haven't been dating long. We had a disagreement and it became a fight, and then he started slapping me and trying to pull me out of that door. I've never experienced anything like that."

  Cami's brow furrowed. "I seriously think you need to keep far away from him," she said.

  "Damned right!" The platinum blonde tossed her hair back, with her tears now dried and fire flaring in her eyes. "I'm going straight to the police from here. No way is he coming near me again, ever. And thank you so much for helping."

  "It's no problem. I didn't really do much, though."

  "He'd have got me outside if it wasn't for you," the woman emphasized. “Then it would have been too late.”

  "Well, it was that other man that managed to break up the fight."

  Where was he? Tiptoeing to the door, Cami peered out.

  There was no sign of the blue-eyed attacker. He was gone. But the man in the black jacket, who'd intervened, was now jogging back toward the door.

  "He got away," he said, coming back inside. "Jumped inside a red muscle car and drove off."

  "Yes, that's his car," the woman said. "Hope I never see it again."

  "Ma'am, do you need any help? Do you want me to call the police, or call our manager, or find you a back room to sit for a while?" The man looked at the platinum blonde in concern.

  "I'll be fine. I'm going to call a cab and then call the police," she said, grabbing her purse from where it had dropped on the floor, and rushing away.

  But Cami was now looking at their unlikely savior with renewed suspicion.

  He might have broken up the fight, but the man in the black jacket checked every single box in terms of the suspect's description.

  He was clearly an employee. His jacket had the RoboFight logo on the front. He was wearing the branded baseball cap. He was brown-haired and brown-eyed and of average height.

  He'd weighed in to help them, though, so what was going on?

  She cleared her throat, breathing hard.

  "Are you by any chance Giovanni Bellini?" she asked.

  "I am." Now, his face changed. He suddenly looked wary.

  His gaze traveled over the FBI logo on her baseball cap and her jacket, as if seeing them for the very first time.

  "Why do you ask?" he asked, in a voice that sounded very different.

  His tone made Cami fear that she had just escaped from a bad situation only to land in a worse one.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Right now, staring into Giovanni Bellini's suspicious eyes, Cami needed Connor. But Connor was somewhere in the noisy main hall, or perhaps elsewhere in the warren of side passages. She knew he'd get to her as soon as he could. As soon as he read her message.

  But he wasn't here now. And that meant she'd have to handle this herself.

  Cami tried to stamp down the flare of blind panic that threatened to blast right through her logical thought. This wasn't the time for that.

  Plus, she told herself firmly that Giovanni Bellini had actually rushed up to help. He'd even gone in pursuit of an obviously bad guy. Whatever that meant, Cami decided she was going to see it in a positive light.

  She straightened up, raised her chin, and stared at him as calmly as she could.

  "My partner and I came here to ask you some questions," she said, making it very clear, right from the get-go, that she was here with somebody else. Just in case that was important.

  "Me? No way! Why?"

  Now he was looking even more wary. In fact, Cami realized, from his body language, it looked as if he was ready to turn and blast straight out of that emergency exit again.

  If he ran out, there wasn't a chance she'd catch him. To keep control of the situation, she needed to draw on all her resources - not that she had many. But maybe she had more than she thought she did.

  For a start, she had the experience of quite a few cases behind her, and she had seen Connor at work.

  She needed to channel Connor to get through this.

  "It's just questions," she said, making sure to sound calm. "You're not an actual suspect in anything." Then she paused. A possible reason for the change in his behavior was occurring to her. "Wait a minute. You're out on parole, aren't you?"

  "Yes, I am," he retorted, still clearly shaken and wary and not wanting to be in this situation.

  "I guess you think that if you got into a fight, you might end up going back inside?"

  She'd gotten to it. She saw it in his eyes.

  "Yeah. That's the problem. I’m afraid I could go back inside after what happened there."

  "But you fought off a man who was trying to hurt his girlfriend. If he'd dragged her out of there, who knows what would have happened?" Cami said.

  "I guess so, but I’m still worried. Being inside was the worst experience of my life. No way am I going back. I’m trying to completely change my behavior patterns."

  "That was a positive for you, not a negative,” Cami emphasized firmly. “It was a security intervention. You simply took steps to stop someone from abducting a woman, and beating up another woman who tried to help," Cami added, feeling the place on her thigh throbbing where the man’s boot had landed. She'd have a bruise there for sure.

  “You think?” he said, in a less stressed voice.

  She wasn't getting very far with the questioning. She knew she needed to work around to that thorny topic. For now, at least, her suspect was calm, and she was pleased that she had managed to reassure him.

  And then, footsteps sounded from down the corridor, and Connor appeared at a run. He looked anxious and intent, as if he'd seen Cami's message far too late and was stressing about what might have happened in the interim.

  "You okay?" were his first words. A moment later, his face tautened as he took in who she was speaking with.

  "This is Giovanni Bellini?" he asked.

  "Yes," Cami said. "I've just begun asking him some questions. Giovanni actually arrived and helped me out of a tricky situation. A customer was having a fight with his girlfriend and trying to drag her out of the building. That was why I messaged you. I tried to stop him, and Giovanni managed to make him go away."

  "I see," Connor said. "Okay. That's positive."

  He looked around, taking in the quietness of the passage, which was probably the least noisy place in the building, with its blaring music and sound effects and cheering. "Okay, if we have a chat here?" he asked Giovanni.

  Connor's arrival had made Giovanni wary all over again, Cami could see it. But he was settling down once more, thanks to Connor's easy demeanor.

  "I guess we can, yes."

  "We're investigating a series of two murders," Connor said. "They have the same MO, and they both involved a vehicle owned by Nealon Browne. You knew him when you were inside, didn't you?"

  "Nealon?” Giovanni looked surprised. “Yes, I knew him. We were fairly good friends. But I got out three months before him, and I haven't seen him since then," he said firmly.

  "Why's that?" Connor asked.

  Giovanni took a deep breath. "You know, I made a huge mistake in life. Going to prison was, like, the worst experience of my life. It really showed me how I'd been wrong to act the way I had, and I've been working on being a better person since then."

  "Okay?" Connor encouraged him.

  "I wanted a fresh start and didn't want to stay in touch with any of the people I knew when I was inside. I didn't know if they were going to go back into crime or what. I mean, I had my doubts. So I didn't contact him, or anyone else, at all. Luckily, we weren't assigned the same place for our parole."

  "What about your girlfriend?" Connor asked.

  Giovanni looked blank. "What girlfriend?"

  "We were told that you had a girlfriend outside that you were keen to get back together with, but that she'd moved to a different state."

  Giovanni shook his head. "That wasn't me. That was the guy we were both in prison with, Ellis Zackey. Ellis was rather obsessed with his girlfriend. I think he kept trying to contact her, and yes, he wanted to track her down and reconnect when he got out. I haven't been in touch with him for the same reason I wasn't in contact with Nealon - fresh start, you know?"

  Cami exchanged a glance with Connor.

  Either Giovanni was a superb liar, or else Dave had misremembered the situation. Her money was on Dave misremembering. He hadn't seemed to her like the most reliable of witnesses. She waited to see what Connor would think and say.

  "We'll have a chat to Ellis," he said, "but in the meantime I'd like to confirm your whereabouts at a certain time. Can you tell me where you were at three-thirty p.m. on Saturday?"

  Of all the times, Cami guessed that was the one that might be the easiest to provide an alibi for – when Mary Lou Jacob had been grabbed from the basement parking of the gym. She guessed that a man living on his own might not have an easy alibi for the small hours of the morning when the bodies had been dumped.

  Giovanni answered instantly, looking relieved.

  "I was here," he said. "I worked the Saturday afternoon shift, from noon until eight p.m. Same on Sunday. I clocked in, and I was busy the whole time. I think at four, I was working behind the kiosk." He frowned, then nodded. "Yes. That was in between two of the fights. I was manning the kiosk with my boss, Archie. You're welcome to confirm that with him. Just please, don't mention what - what happened earlier?"

  "We will confirm it, and we won't mention anything. Routine confirmation only. I'll ask my office to do so immediately."

  Cami could see that Connor had accepted Giovanni's version, but that he didn't fully trust it until he'd gotten that proof.

  Connor got on the phone, walking away to have his conversation, and Cami waited with Giovanni.

  "How do you find it, working with the robot fights? It must be fun?" she asked him, wanting to at least try to have some easy conversation while his alibi was checked.

  He nodded. "They're great. I love robotics. I wanted to study it. Perhaps I still will. For now, it's a fun environment even though it's hard work."

  "It's really awesome to watch," Cami agreed. "I might come here again sometime to see a full afternoon of it."

  At that moment, Connor walked over.

  "Right. Thanks for your time." He nodded to Giovanni. "We've confirmed what you said."

  Giving them a quick nod, Giovanni ran off.

  And Connor turned to Cami.

  "Ellis Zackey is the suspect we need. They're getting an address for him and we need to get to him as soon as it's come through. And there’s something else." He paused. "He's violated his parole conditions and didn't arrive for the check-in yesterday evening. So we might have a hunt on our hands."

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  "If Ellis Zackey violated his parole, where are we going to find him?" Cami asked as she and Connor sprinted for the car. They headed around the outside of the events building - a quicker route than going back through the RoboBattle crowds.

  "That's the million-dollar question," Connor said. "He moved out of the halfway house a month ago. They do have a forwarding address for him. Let's see if he's there."

  His tone said it was unlikely, and Cami shivered.

  Through no fault of their own, but simply through getting unreliable information, they'd wasted a lot of time chasing after the wrong suspect. And now, it could cost them.

  "Okay. They say here he's staying with his uncle," Connor said, reading the stream of updates that were beeping on his phone. "That's to the south of where we are now. About twenty minutes away." He paused. "His uncle runs a business that I think Ellis might be working for or might have worked for in the past."

 

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