Urban Prey by S. J. Lewis Page B

start to follow her. He was a young man, skinny and dirty-looking. He reminded Ron somehow of a rat. He dumped the half-full cup into a waste bin and quickly scanned for traffic before he dashed across the street. One thing he’d always hated about cities was all the muggers and purse-snatchers there were. When he reached the curb, he heard her cry out. The rat had run up behind her and grabbed her bag away from her. He was running straight towards Ron, a wild look of triumph in his eyes. The few pedestrians on the street moved quickly out of his way. He must have been expecting Ron to do the same. Instead, Ron body-checked him hard. The rat bounced off of him as if he’d hit a tree, lost his balance and fell heavily against a building. He didn’t let go of the bag, though, and a second later he was back on his feet. He started to pull out what looked like a knife. Ron smashed a forearm into the rat’s face and he went down again and stayed down. The switchblade clattered onto the sidewalk, unopened. Ron reached down and freed the handbag strap from the rat’s hand. As he straightened up, he found himself once more face to face with Elizabeth Anne. Her lovely brown eyes were wide again, and her face was flushed under that permanent glowing tan.
    Ron handed the bag to her. “This is yours,” he smiled.
    “Ah…thank you…” She looked bewildered as she accepted it from him. She looked down at the rat. He wasn’t moving, but he was breathing. He had a split lip and both it and his nose were bleeding. A small crowd was starting to gather around the scene. She looked back up at Ron.
    “You’ve been following me,” she said quietly. It was not a question.
    “Yes,” Ron nodded.
    “Why?”
    “It was my pleasure, ma’am.” Ron nodded and touched the brim of his hat before turning and walking away. He could hear a siren approaching. It might have nothing at all to do with what had just happened, but he didn’t want to have to deal with the police now. His stalking was done for the day. He pulled out his cell phone and called for Lisa.
    ***
    “Why did you do that?” Lisa asked after he’d told her the story. They were sitting in his apartment, eating takeout again. Tonight, it was Italian.
    “Why not?” Ron shrugged. “I couldn’t just let that rat run off with her purse.”
    “That’s not what I meant,” Lisa shook her head. “Why did you make such an obvious thing of following her all over the city?”
    “It worked out better than I’d hoped,” Ron smiled. The linguine was fair, the meatballs seemed to be half breadcrumbs, but the sauce was delicious. “She’s intrigued now, not scared.”
“What if she thinks the purse-snatching thing was a setup?”
    “I don’t think she will,” Ron answered. “I hit that mugger pretty hard. There was nothing fake about that.”
    “He could’ve stabbed you.”
    “Only if I gave him the time to. I hope the cops picked him up.”
    “I can find out for you, if you really want to know,” Lisa offered. “I’ve got a friend…”
    “No, that’s all right. They did or they didn’t, and either way it’s got nothing to do with what comes next.”
    “What does come next?” Lisa asked.

Chapter Eight
    “So you’re going to do the exact same thing today?” Lisa asked. “How’s that figure?”
    “It won’t be the exact same thing,” Ron answered from the back seat. “And it won’t be for as long, so don’t go wandering off.”
    The light changed. Lisa hit the gas. It wasn’t as cold as it was yesterday, but snow was falling. So far it was only a thin sprinkling of flakes, but the weather report called for heavier snow in the evening with an accumulation of four to six inches by morning.
    “I don’t see how this is supposed to work,” Lisa shook her head. “I was thinking that maybe you’d lure her to a spot where one of the teams can finally get her.”
    “That would ruin everything,” Ron said. “I told you. She’s searching for her