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Paige had just gotten herself fired up to talk to Pratchett Junior when Jack called them back to the police station.
“He didn’t say what he wanted?” Brandon asked.
“Nope.”
“Do you think Pratchett complained about us?”
That’s exactly what she was thinking, but then that didn’t align with Jack’s tone of voice on the phone. He wouldn’t wait to confront them in person—or would he? “If Jack asks how things went with William Pratchett, leave it to me.”
“No argument here.”
“Huh-uh.” Just like Brandon to happily take the easy road.
They entered the room where things were set up and found Kelly and Jack already there.
“Hey, Jack.” Approach things calm, relaxed, casual. “What’s going on?”
“Nadia has a theory.”
Paige’s lungs expanded a little further. This wasn’t about Pratchett. She glanced at Brandon, wondering if it was Nadia’s hunch realized. “Great. What is it?” she asked with true enthusiasm.
“She’s found three other shooting incidents, three other victims—all male.”
Previous murders connected with their open case? No wonder Jack wanted her and Brandon back at the station immediately.
“All married,” Kelly added.
“We still don’t know if it’s the same sniper, but if it is, he or she is mobile.” Jack went on to tell her and Brandon the shootings had taken place in different states.
Mobile was one thing, but New Mexico, Arkansas, Tennessee, now Virginia? That was a long journey, and she wasn’t sure how it meshed with their earlier thoughts. “How does that fit with a hired gun?”
“Doesn’t mean the sniper comes cheap,” Kelly put simply.
“When were the shootings?” Brandon asked.
“We’ll get all our questions answered soon enough. Just waiting on Officer Chase to return with the printouts of the briefing packet Nadia sent—”
There was a rap on the doorframe, and Officer Chase entered, holding a stack of paper in her hands. “I have what you asked for, Agent Harper.”
Jack took the pile from her. “Thanks.” With one word, Jack managed to be polite and also dismissive. Officer Chase left the room.
Jack distributed the binder-clipped reports. Paige took the one Jack gave her, examined the thickness, which was at least a quarter-inch. “Wow. Nadia’s outdone herself.”
“We’ll see about that, but what she started telling Kelly and I was promising. Now that everyone’s here and we have the report…” Jack’s voice disappeared, and he called Nadia on speaker. When she answered, he said, “The team’s here, Nadia, go ahead.”
“You received my information packet?”
“We’ve all got it in front of us in print.”
Nadia was quiet for half a beat. “I’m assuming none of you have had a chance to read it as of yet.”
“You assume correctly,” Jack said. “Give us the highlights to start.”
“Paige and Brandon, I’m not sure how much Jack and Kelly have shared with you, but there were three previous shootings where there was only one causality, and in each case, that was a man. The shootings took place in—” and she went off to list the states again.
“When,” Brandon cut in, “did they happen?”
“New Mexico six months ago, Arkansas three months ago, and Tennessee one month ago.”
“Huh. Three months between the first two, and only one month between Tennessee and here,” Paige voiced. “Why? Did our killer have a schedule to keep? Or were they rushed for some reason? A last-minute job?”
“All good questions, Paige, but I have much more information for you.”
By the look of the report, Nadia wasn’t lying.
Nadia went on. “All three victims were in their mid-fifties and married. This matches up with Darrell Reid’s profile. Now, the three men were shot in the heart. Direct hit. Do you know—”
“Not yet,” Jack interrupted. “Hopefully soon.”
Whatever they were discussing wasn’t going to be resolved soon enough for Jack, but the subject wasn’t entirely clear. “Do you mean where Reid was shot?” Paige asked.
“Yeah,” Nadia said. “Now, there are differences between the previous cases and our current one. None of the victims were in the same line of work. One was a plumber, one a public-school teacher, and one was an unemployed electrician. If Reid was a victim of this same killer, you know he was a prosecutor.”
Paige studied her colleagues. “It just means the victims weren’t targeted based on their profession. Are we sure that the murders are linked?” She hated calling Nadia out, but it was a necessary question.
“No doubt. All three men were shot with a 7.62×51mm NATO bullet, believed to be fired from an M40.”
“That’s standard Marine issue,” Jack said.
“That’s right,” Nadia replied.
Brandon shifted in his seat. “There’s a confirmed military connection.”
“Nadia, do the victims share a military background?” Jack asked.
“Not that I could find. None have a record of service, in fact. They were all born in different states, too, and lived in different cities, so no way to connect their pasts that way, either.”
Jack nodded, not that Nadia would have seen. “Herrera’s officers haven’t found any military or law enforcement connections in Wilson Place employees, either.”
“Were the bullets fired from the same weapon?” Paige asked. When a bullet was fired from a gun, it left behind grooves and impressions that could then be compared to databases and net a manufacturer—sometimes even gun type. But there were characteristics intrinsic with the gun itself.
“Unfortunately, of the three bullets fired, only one remained intact enough inside the body to get some grooves and striations. That didn’t leave much for ballistics testing to definitively conclude the bullets were fired from the same weapon. I’m guessing you don’t know what bullet was used on Reid yet?”
“We don’t,” Jack told her.
Paige was trying to understand how Nadia connected the shootings without the identical weapon coming up in the system, so she asked.
“I started first looking at sniping incidents where there was only one victim, who was male, and branched out from there,” Nadia replied.
“We might not know for sure if the bullets were fired from the same gun, but it would seem the same person’s pulling the trigger,” Kelly concluded, but withered under Jack’s eye.
What’s up with the hostility toward the new girl? Paige could understand the importance of not jumping to conclusions—or becoming laser-focused—but Kelly was just basing her comment on what was before them. In that, Paige saw no harm. It’s nothing she and Brandon wouldn’t do. Heck, if Kelly hadn’t said it, Paige might have.
“Kelly,” Nadia interjected, “you’d asked if the men were cheating on their wives when I called before. I can tell you all their marriages were in shambles. One couple was in counseling, another argued a lot, according to their neighbors, and the other one… This is horrible to say, and I’m just quoting, but one of the widows said, ‘Thank God for small miracles; burying him will be cheaper than getting a divorce.’”
“Brr. That’s cold.” Brandon mocked shivers.
Jack leaned back in his chair and tapped an unlit cigarette against the table. “Did investigators have any suspects?”
“No one solid,” Nadia replied. “But the men’s wives were looked at closely. A hit man was considered, but investigators hit a wall when none the widows’ finances supported one.”
Jack’s mouth set into a straight line. “I can’t believe no one linked these shootings before now.”
“As I said, Jack, I was looking at very tight parameters. Sniper shot with one male causality.”
“Yeah, and I can’t imagine shootings involving a sniper are too common,” Paige reasoned.
“More common than you’d like to think, sadly,” Nadia responded.
“Where’s Zach to give us the statistics on that one?” Brandon bumped Paige’s elbow, and she shook her head, trying to stay focused on the seriousness of the topic. But if Zach were here, he’d know the stats. He was a genius and a walking encyclopedia.
“I should add,” Nadia said, “that in the shooting from a month ago—the one in Tennessee—the widow received compromising photos of her husband in the mail. Him with another woman having—”
“We get the picture,” Jack interrupted.
“Anyway, local law enforcement really looked at the wife.”
“That the one who celebrated her husband’s death?” Brandon asked.
“That would be her.”
“No wonder,” Paige said, completely understanding where LEOs would have been coming from.
“Were any photos sent to the previous two widows?” Brandon asked. “The ones in Albuquerque and Arkansas?”
“Not that’s on record,” Nadia replied. “What about with your vic?”
“None yet, that we know of.” Jack slid a glance at Kelly, and Paige took it to mean they weren’t confident Mrs. Reid had been forthcoming.
“This is in your packets, but all the murders took place along the I-40/I-81/I-66 corridor.”
While Kelly might like the hired-gun theory, Paige wasn’t so sure. There was the geographic distance between murders to consider, and there wasn’t any proof of a contract killer being hired. Paige felt their sniper was acting on a personal agenda. Now, what that was, she didn’t know yet. “What else can you tell us about the places where the victims were shot? Did they have any meaning to the men?”
“Here’s the thing…” Nadia seemed to leave those three words out there as a dangling teaser. “Two of the three men were sniped outside their regular haunts. They were as predictable as the rising sun.”
“And the third?”
“Sherman, in Tennessee, had never been to the restaurant he was shot at before.”
“If we’re looking at a hired gun, they could have been provided information on where and when to find their targets,” Brandon said.
Kelly pounced on that. “And that seems feasible. Three months between the first and second victim, two between the second, and now only one between number three and Reid.”
“Still doesn’t explain Sherman being pecked off somewhere he didn’t frequent.” Paige took a deep breath. “I don’t think we’re looking at a hired gun.”
Kelly’s shoulders sagged.
“I do think all four victims had something in common,” Paige said. “We need to figure out what.”
“Better yet, whom,” Jack said. “Thanks, Nadia. We’ll take it from here.” With that, he ended the call. “Paige, I want you and Brandon to stay here and go through the packet with an eye for detail. If the three previous shootings relate to our case, I want to know without a doubt. How did you make out with William Pratchett?”
Paige resisted the urge to glance over at Brandon. Jack didn’t need to know what Jack didn’t need to know. She said, “As I’ve made clear, I don’t think we’re looking at a hired gun, but does Pratchett have the means to hire someone for his dirty business? Sure, but I don’t think he did. And now that we’re talking about three previous victims spread out across the country, I think it’s safe to rule out the Pratchett family.”
“I agree about the Pratchetts, but I’m not ruling out a contract killer just yet.” Jack gripped the edge of the table as he stood. “Kelly and I are going to talk to Mrs. Reid again, see if we can shake any more out of her, like possible knowledge of her husband’s affairs or his connection with Wilson Place. If we’re lucky, she might give us a lead.”
Paige wasn’t going to continue to argue about a hit man. She’d let things sit and see what she and Brandon discovered in Nadia’s information packet.