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As Rossi disappeared over the edge of the roof, my first thought was: good. We wouldn’t have to go through with the expense and hassle of a trial. If the man wanted to kill himself, that would make things so much easier for the rest of us. But my second thought was that he was going to escape justice. I didn’t care how long and drawn-out it was, I wanted to see his face when I presented the evidence that he had killed my father and started at least a dozen fires. And when the prison doors shut in his face, I was going to be there to gloat.
I ran up to the edge to see if I could find his shattered body, but to my dismay, there was another roof just a few feet beneath the one I was standing on. Rossi wasn’t dead; he was getting away.
Duke and Duchess were by my side, and together, the three of us made the leap down to the next building. Travis and the other officer followed behind, and we were running again, this time with even more desperation.
I didn’t know how, but Rossi knew the terrain. Whether he had been up here before or if the Airbnb he was renting actually belonged to him, I couldn’t tell. What I did know was that he had the advantage. He ducked into an open window, and the dogs followed him.
I speared my way into the interior darkness, giving my eyes no time to adjust. I was in a bedroom, and I thought, but couldn’t confirm, that there was a cat on the bed. I raced through the room and out the door, up the stairs to the attic.
It occurred to me that Silvio was making this up as he went. He didn’t know where he was going; he was just trying to get away. But if that was the case, he was doing a fabulous job. He sent a bookcase crashing down on top of Duke. My best friend narrowly missed being crushed by skidding to a halt on the unfinished wood floor.
I leapt over the bookcase and chased Rossi back to another window. He had one leg out and was busy thrusting his chest through the opening when I brought my weapon up again.
“Stop!” I commanded.
He didn’t listen, and by the time I got a shot off, he was outside. I cursed loudly, barely registering Tyler as he came up behind me. The other officer was no longer with him, whether he peeled off to continue the chase from the ground, or he was dealing with the people who owned the house we were barreling through, I didn’t care.
I had one narrow focus, and that was making sure Rossi didn’t get away.
Duke and Duchess put their forelegs up on the windowsill and poked their heads out. I pushed them both away, swinging my butt up, followed by my left leg. Leaning out, I could see the roof was much steeper than the last one had been.
Rossi was suicidal if he thought he could maneuver without slipping. I didn’t like the idea of climbing around out there, but I didn’t have a choice. Pulling my right leg through, I stepped out into the sun, sliding perilously close to the edge before I found my balance.
“Alaina!” Travis called from inside.
I glanced up to see him leaning out of the window, staring down at me. Shaking my head to discourage him from following, I put both palms on the roof and looked around for Rossi. At first, I thought he had gotten away, but then I saw him scrambling on hands and knees about twenty feet away from me.
I started to follow, but the slope of the roof didn’t give me much chance to build up any speed. Every step had to be positioned just right to avoid slipping. My first feeble attempts just drove me farther down and away from the suspect until I put more power into them and planted my boots completely.
Once I got the hang of it, I was able to move with some confidence. Rossi had figured out how to get where he was going and was moving quicker than I liked. From my right, I heard a desperate scramble of clawed feet.
Duke was out on the roof with me and sliding down fast. He fought for his grip, unequipped with the rubber soles I had. I split my attention from my companion to the criminal, my allegiance torn. I couldn’t let Duke fall, but I couldn’t let Rossi get away.
Miraculously, Duke recovered, putting all his muscle into his front legs to soar up and around me. Instead of planting his feet as I was doing, he nearly danced from shingle to shingle, using momentum instead of weight to keep him aloft.
I shook my head with relief. “Good dog,” I whispered, turning my focus back to Rossi’s retreating form.
He was out of sight again, and I needed to find him before he disappeared for good. Duke was on it, bounding across the roof in record time. I knew that he would track Rossi down before the bad guy had a chance to get away. What had I ever done without him?
I heard Rossi yell and then managed to get myself up over the corner of the house to see what was going on. Rossi clung to the chimney, trying to fend Duke off at the same time. One arm was wrapped precariously around the brickwork while the other waved like a sword in the air, striking back against his attacker.
He saw me, and his eyes narrowed suspiciously. As I watched, he released the chimney and slid down the side of the roof on his butt. The move was designed to trip Duke up, and it worked. The dog couldn’t follow without losing control of his footing. But if Rossi thought he was going to be able to stop before he fell, I knew better. The momentum he gained would be his undoing.
I turned around, still on all fours, and crab-walked after him, going as fast as I could given the circumstances. I wasn’t quick enough to stop him before the bastard dropped over the edge again.
I couldn’t be sure he was safe, so I slowed my walk until I could peer over the side. Once again, there was another roof below us, one that had caught Rossi safely. He was running away on a completely flat surface. It looked like a restaurant or a bar or some commercial building with a retaining wall and an asphalt coating instead of eves and shingles.
I dropped down, followed swiftly by Duke. Duchess and Travis joined us a second later, having successfully navigated the treacherous roof. There wasn’t much distance between me and Rossi, and I could easily see that he was out of roofs. The next building was across the street, over a vault of powerlines. He had nowhere to go, and we had the upper hand.
But just as I thought we had him in the bag, the police officer who had relinquished the chase several minutes ago reappeared. He came out through a hatch at the far end of the roof, right where Rossi was standing.
Pushing the metal door up, the young man blinked in the sunlight, momentarily stunned. Rossi took advantage, punching the guy in the face and reaching down to rip the gun from his hands. The police officer gripped his nose, falling back down into the building. But now Rossi was armed.
I pulled up short, reaching for my own weapon. Luckily, I was quick enough that his warning came only after we officially entered the standoff.
“Drop it!” Rossi demanded.
“That’s not going to happen,” I countered. “There’s only one way out, and that’s in handcuffs.”
“I’m not going down,” Rossi swore. “Drop your weapon, or I’ll shoot!”
I didn’t need to tell him that I was emotionally involved in the case. If he thought I was just going to let him walk away, he was stupider than he looked. Duke didn’t wait for either of us to resolve our differences. He leapt at Rossi’s throat, shoving the man backwards, off the roof.
Rossi’s gun arm went up, firing a shot harmlessly into the air. I saw Duke fall in slow motion, knowing that there was no way either of them were going to survive. Lowering my weapon, I shouted a guttural denial, kicking into a sprint.
If I could just make it in time to rescue my friend, I didn’t care about Rossi. But the human body isn’t designed to move that fast, and as I closed the distance, I saw Duke tilt below the lip of the roof.
Duchess sped past me, her entire body a blur. She leapt up onto the retaining wall, dipped her muzzle, and caught her boyfriend by the scruff of his neck. I saw it all happening as I raced for the edge. Duchess’s hind quarters stiffened and her feet slid, Duke’s momentum pulling her down.
But she gave me time to reach both of them before tragedy happened. I wrapped my arms around Duchess, leaning back to give her the stability of my weight. It was up to her to hold on to Duke and pull him back up, but I trusted her.
What I wasn’t counting on was Rossi. He hadn’t fallen yet, but was hanging on to Duke’s lower body, scrambling back up. Duchess struggled to hold on, and Duke howled in pain, torn in two directions at once.
I felt tears swarm my eyes at the thought of losing him. It had been bad enough when he had been off the force for a few weeks. I couldn’t take it if he died. Just then, Travis appeared by my side. He went right to the source of the problem, reaching over the edge to scoop Duke’s rear end out of Rossi’s hands.
The effect was dynamic. Duke, Duchess, and I shot backward, collapsing and sliding across the pavement, released from the counterweight of Rossi’s grip. There was a scream and then a thud. I raised my head to see Travis leaning against the retaining wall, staring down at the street below. Then I closed my eyes, knowing that the four of us were safe, and that the scream could only have come from one place.
Duchess got to her feet and crawled over to where Duke lay. She licked his face, gently nudging him into motion. He stretched his hind legs, testing to see if there was any permanent injury. I rolled over, planting my palms on the surface of the roof, forcing myself to rise.
I stumbled over to the edge where Travis had caught me. I was tired, partly from the chase but also from the anxiety. I had almost lost Duke again, and the struggle to rescue him had taken a lot out of me. I knew we would have a lot of explaining to do. Travis had chosen Duke over Rossi and didn’t even try to help the man back up. The final few moments of the struggle replayed in my mind, and I wondered if we could have done anything differently.
Travis wrapped one arm around my shoulders to steady me, helping me lean over to look down at our handiwork. Rossi lay twisted at the bottom of the fall, his arms splayed out, his legs twisted in unnatural positions. There was a bloom of red paint growing around his skull, and I could tell even from our vantage point that he was dead. It was finally over.
