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an alley, he lost sight of her. He hated going into the situation
    blind. Susan could be waiting around the corner for him with a Smith & Wesson that carried a
    bullet with his name on it. He hoped she was just trying to lose him.
    The snow fell heavily while he stopped at the mouth of the alley, listening. The area was
    silent except for the sound of something scurrying over by the dumpster and a man and woman
    fighting above him in the apartment building.
    Slowly, he looked around the corner into the alley but saw nothing. He noted that the
    alley was open on the other end, but Susan wasn’t fast enough to have made it down there. She
    was hiding in this alley somewhere.
    He took a deep breath and exhaled, watching his breath float up into the air. He unzipped
    his jacket, pulled the Glock from his holster, and decided to leave the jacket open. Despite the
    temperatures dipping into the twenties, he was sweating.
    Closing his eyes for a second, he threw up a small prayer for safety and spun into the
    alley, gun first.
    Nothing came back at him.
    He moved forward, trying to silence the crunch of the snow under his boots.
    Concentrating on the sounds around him, he wondered if the scurrying was a cat or a large rat,
    and the yelling from above seemed to be escalating. If it continued, he had no doubt that the cops
    would be called for a domestic, and that would just be perfect.
    Or not.
    As he stared down the alley, he counted three dumpsters, perfect places for hiding. He
    gauged the alley space at about a hundred feet. When he reached the first dumpster, he paused,
    listening again. There was something on the other side of the dumpster making noise just a foot
    or so ahead of him.
    He counted to three, took two steps, and spun around to the other side of the dumpster to
    see what was making the noise.
    A cat hissed at him, obviously pissed about having his dinner of rat a la mode disturbed.
    “Sorry, dude,” Blake whispered.
    He moved down the alley for the second dumpster, the wind picking up and blowing
    snow into his face, the tiny crystals feeling like pinpoints hitting him over and over again.
    Silently cursing, he crouched down on the side of the dumpster, giving himself a brief
    reprieve of the facial onslaught.
    Closing his eyes, he listened for any sign of movement, and heard none. Maybe Susan
    had made it to the end of the alley undetected, or she was hunkered down just as he was.
    It would have been nice to be able to observe her for a few days, to see if she carried
    weapons, what her habits were, where she visited. However, he didn’t have that luxury, so it was
    best to keep moving so he didn’t freeze to death. Being in the snow reminded him of why he
    liked Phoenix.
    Standing slowly, he peeked around the dumpster to the other end of the alley.
    Annis stood at the mouth of the alley—her slim figure a black outline against the
    streetlight—and his heart skipped a beat. She had removed her coat, and there was a childlike
    figure leaning against the wall of the building to Annis’s left, bundled up. Annis had given the
    girl her parka.
    Annis said something to the girl, and she nodded. Annis moved down the alley, carefully
    checking left and right, waiting for someone to pounce.
    Blake whistled slightly and stepped out from behind the dumpster making himself
    known. Annis gave a brief wave, then continued toward him.
    They were going to flush out Susan sooner rather than later.
    He was about twenty feet away from Annis when he saw movement out of the corner of
    his eye. Out of the shadows came a figure that lunged for Annis.
    Thankfully, Annis saw her coming and was ready.
    Susan and Annis clashed in the middle of the alley, then hit the ground. Blake raised his
    gun, but they rolled in the snow and he wasn’t about to risk putting a hole in Annis.
    Annis quickly got the upper hand and straddled Susan, hitting her in the face. Blake ran
    toward them and grabbed Annis’s raised hand that was ready to