Page 55 of Pretty Broken Dolls

Katie knew that she had to act fast if they were going to avoid casualties.

She dared to inch out of the doorway a little bit farther. Not wanting to lose her gun in a scuffle, she returned it to her holster and kept moving stealthily closer to the man.

McGaven knew what she was going to do as his body language stiffened.

The man raised the gun and then he swung his right arm down away from McGaven.

It was now or never. She took a deep gulp of air.

Katie sprinted toward the man at full speed just as he turned to see her charging at him. She slammed into his upper body with full impact, taking him down to the floor, landing on top of him; then sliding a few feet before stopping on the hard tile.

Chapter Nineteen

Friday 1615 hours

McGaven was instantly at Katie’s side as she wrestled with the man, adrenalin pumping through her veins, but within seconds they had secured the shooter, arms behind back, cuffed, lying face down. Katie made sure that he didn’t have any other weapons just as the two deputies burst through the front doors, their guns drawn.

Recognizing McGaven and Katie, the deputies asked, “You guys okay?”

“Yeah,” McGaven said as he helped Katie up. “That was crazy,” he said breathlessly.

“I improvised.” Her arms and legs still feeling weak, she moved toward the entrance to try and catch her breath.

The man’s gun had flown from his hand upon impact. McGaven quickly grabbed the weapon between several layers of tissues pulled from his pocket and gave it to one of the deputies as evidence.

They pulled the man to his feet. “Ten-fifteen, one in custody,” the officer said into his radio.

“Where’s your friend?” McGaven demanded. “Where?”

“She left,” the man said in a weak voice. “She’s gone, like everyone else.”

McGaven turned to the frightened people. “Everyone okay?”

Most of the people slowly stood up and nodded. Some were speechless, while others were still shell-shocked from the incident.

Katie went outside and sat down on one of the benches—her legs heavy. The fire truck entered the parking lot following precautionary procedure for an active shooter call. She watched it park as the loud airbrakes engaged. Two more patrol cars parked as deputies descended upon the Community Health Alliance.

Katie watched as deputies spoke with witnesses. Her breathing began to turn to normal as she focused her thoughts on the interviews with Angela Norton and Virginia Rodriguez. She knew that the chaos of today wasn’t a good time to continue talking to the women.

One of the deputies came out and said to one of the paramedics, “We have a middle-aged woman with chest pains.”

McGaven came outside and sat down next to her. “When did you get the idea to body slam the guy?” he said trying to lighten the moment.

“About a minute before I did it.”

“A whole minute?”

“Had to plan ahead,” she said.

“You okay?” He looked at her with a serious expression.

“Yeah, I think so. Nothing a hot bath won’t take care of.”

“You amaze me. I know guys that wouldn’t try that move.”

“We were running out of time. I knew that he really didn’t want to hurt anyone—he just wanted someone to listen to him.”

“Not from where I was standing. He was shooting. Bad guy. Bad news.”