You Can't Run by Hope Davis (best way to read books .txt) 📗

answer and became consumed by his conversation with the person on the other end. Naya turned back to the reports, aghast at the possibility of what they might be dealing with here.

If this guy could really hack the RunTracker app, then no woman was safe, no matter how fast she ran or how careful she was.

Atlas hung up his phone. “That was the coroner. He can’t be sure, but he thinks there’s a chance there was an excess of potassium in her system.”

“As in potassium chloride? Like what is used in the lethal injection?”

Atlas shook his head. “He couldn’t be sure, as it’s difficult to locate potassium chloride in the body post-mortem. But my guess is that is exactly what this guy is doing.”

“So, he kidnaps them and kills them with a lethal injection within hours? And that’s it?”

“I told you, crazy.” Atlas made the gesture for crazy to his own head as he said it to emphasize his point.

Naya leaned back in her seat, biting the edge of the pen she was using to take notes. “Every time I feel like we are about to break this case open, I only get more confused. If only those tapes would show up.”

“They’re coming, I checked on them earlier this morning, they should be here before the afternoon.”

Naya slid her phone from her pocket, checking the screen to see if she had a text from Kevin, man she really was reverting back to a high school girl. Her screen was blank, no messages, she put her phone back in her pocket.

Of course, nothing escaped Atlas’ notice. “Everything okay at home?”

“Peachy.” Naya lied, as if her brother hadn’t told her goodbye two nights before and the guy she had been dating wasn’t not talking to her.

Suddenly, Naya’s email pinged, and she opened it up to see an email from the techs. Atlas noticed over her should and quickly opened it in his own inbox.

It was a large file, and Naya knew reviewing the footage might take some time.

“Conference room?”

“On it.” Atlas stood and disconnected his laptop, turning towards the conference room. “Grab me a coffee while this finishes downloading, will you?”

She shook her head, annoyed that he had been reading her thoughts and knew she would be going to get coffee. Atlas was truly meant to be a detective.

She entered the conference room with a cup of steaming hot coffee in each hand. She handed Atlas his and then sat in a chair facing the projection screen. She grabbed the notebook she had left there and pulled her pen out of her pocket, ready to note any suspicious characters.

“Okay.” Atlas pulled up the footage. “This starts at two hours before Alia left on her run. The techs have slowed it down for us, and lightened it, as the cameras are old and it’s difficult to see some of these people, according to them anyway.”

He pushed play and Naya could see the empty lobby. They were looking for people, mostly men, who entered or left solo. In the first hour there were three men who left the building in suits. Naya made a mental note but assumed they were going to work and wouldn’t be back until evening.

A couple of families with small children left. One woman also exited the building dressed professionally, as if she was going to work. Then Alia came into the frame, exiting out the door to go on her run.

“So, no one came in.”

Atlas shrugged. “It was early.”

They watched the lobby for the next hour of the footage. It was busier now as all the people who worked a nine to five job started leaving for work. One man did leave in what looked like gym or running clothes, with an armband on his arm, Naya made a note of him.

Before she knew it, Alia was back on the screen, crossing towards the stairs. Naya moved to the edge of her seat, watching for someone to follow her in.

“How is that possible?” Atlas grumbled, standing up from his seat. “How could no one enter, and our girl go for the stairs but not make it up the stairs?”

It suddenly hit Naya, the conclusion they had dismissed. “He lives in the building.” She gasped.

Atlas’ eyes went wide. “Damn it! She was probably still in the building while we were there!” He balled his hands into fists, looking like he wanted to punch someone.

“Quick, let’s get that list of residents, we’ll go over there tonight. And get squad cars, I don’t want anyone able to enter or leave the building tonight with anything unusual without being thoroughly inspected. We’re gonna get this guy.”

They rushed back to their desks and began frantically making phone calls and arranging to get the list of residents as soon as they could. As soon as they were done with the arrangements, they were in the squad car on the way to the building.

“Here’s the game plan, we knock on every door. If a woman answers, we move on. I don’t think there’s any way this guy can live with anyone.” Atlas surmised.

“Are you sure?” Naya didn’t want to question his plan, as it was a big apartment building and would take them a while to process even with his plan. “What if this is a couple or something?”

“Fine, fine. But single men first, let’s make note of the places with adult couples and no children and we can look into them after the men. If we don’t catch him tonight another woman’s life will be on the line. We need to work fast.”

Atlas was right, they were going for speed and efficiency, they were under the gun. Statistically this was a lone male perpetrator acting alone anyway. They could go back and look at the couples later.

“Let’s split up. I’ll