As I lay on the couch, I watched a replay of the press conference on the ten o’clock news. Law enforcement was united in our effort to stop the killer by any means necessary, and I would put every ounce of energy I had into the case until he was apprehended or killed.
As soon as the segment ended, I powered off the TV and headed down the hall. A comfortable bed was calling my name, and I was more than happy to oblige. As I reached for the light switch on the table lamp, my cell phone rang. I knew it couldn’t be good. “McCord here.”
“Jesse, you’re back on the clock. That son of a bitch struck again!”
“Shit! I’m on my way.” Ten minutes later and with my Bluetooth engaged, I spoke to Lutz as I backed my car out of the garage and hit my lights. “What do we know so far?”
“Two officers are down at the corner of East Huron and Michigan Avenue.”
“Jesus Christ! People are still out and about at that time on Friday nights. Anyone else injured?”
“The information so far is sketchy, but not to my knowledge. Calls are coming in from every building, starting at East Superior and south to East Erie at Michigan Avenue. All we know according to witnesses on the ground is that two shots rang out, and two officers fell to the street. Nobody knows if they’re dead or alive. All the bystanders have scattered, and I can’t blame them. SWAT is en route, and everyone from the Eighteenth and First Districts is on standby to move in.”
“Where do you want me to go?”
“People coming from the south are gathering at the First District, and the north will meet at the Eighteenth. I’m sure as soon as the crime scene is cleared, they’re going to need all the help they can get. With that many people out on the streets, somebody must have seen something, and it’ll take an army of officers and detectives to interview the people that were in the immediate area.”
“Okay, I should be there in fifteen minutes.” I clicked off the call and squealed my tires as I cranked the steering wheel left and turned onto East Sixty-Seventh Street. The fastest route would be to head north once I reached Martin Luther King, taking that until it made a left curve and turned into East Cermak Road. That would intersect with South State Street, where the First District precinct was located.
When I reached the police station, I rushed in through the main doors, exposed my badge attached to my belt, and asked the desk sergeant where everyone was gathered. He led me down two hallways to their roll call room, which was overflowing with officers. I spotted Lutz talking to Commander Jennison across the room and headed in that direction.
I nodded when I reached them. “Boss, Commander Jennison, any updates?”
Jennison wiped his brow before speaking. “I just got off the phone with Commander Lewis from the Eighteenth. He said SWAT scooped up the officers, both dead at the site with fatal head wounds.”
“Son of a bitch. That has to tell us the shooter was in a sniper’s pose. With that many people of different sizes on the street, he wouldn’t have had head shots from a ground position unless he was much taller than everyone else.”
Lutz agreed. “Plus, it’s far riskier to shoot when you have hundreds of people that can tackle you or give a fairly good description to police.”
I pulled my notepad from my inner jacket pocket. “What do we know about the caller?”
Jennison sighed. “I haven’t even heard the 911 recording yet, but Lewis has. He said it was a male voice saying he had been assaulted, robbed, and injured by a man with a gun. Of course he hung up before the operator could get his name.”
I smirked in anger. “Not surprised. He had to get in position for the kill shots when the officers arrived. How are we going to stop him? Does anyone know where the shots were fired from?”
Both commanders shook their heads, then Lutz spoke up. “As of right now, it’s all over the board. Calls are coming in from everywhere, but nothing definitive has surfaced yet.”
Moments later, the commanders addressed the crowd. I heard only part of the joint meeting since my mind was focused on catching the cop killer and nothing else. What I knew up to that point was that SWAT had pulled the officers out as quickly as possible, and Forensics hadn’t had a chance to go over the scene. The possibility of danger was still too high to let anybody other than SWAT in. We had nothing telling us which way the officers fell other than the fact that they sustained fatal head injuries. The only thing I could envision would be a downward shot from the opposite side of the street—the killer’s apparent MO. We needed to get into that cordoned-off block and see where the officers fell since that was all we had to start with.
On my phone, I pulled up an aerial view of Michigan Avenue and took in the buildings across the street from its intersection with East Huron. I remembered Lutz saying that people were calling from all the buildings in a three-block area, but I knew full well that with those high-rise buildings, and the fact that we were talking about the Windy City, we’d have to figure in the echo factor. It would have been like the sound of bullets bouncing off the interior of a cave. The shooter’s post was still undetermined, but in my mind, the only logical place at that time of night was the hotel. A civilian wouldn’t have access to office buildings—or any stores, for that matter—above the first floor, nor would they have the privacy to carry out their deeds in any other type of setting.
Looking up from my phone, I saw people exiting the roll call room and realized the meeting was over. I didn’t remember hearing a word of it, but I knew my thoughts were leading me in the right direction. Finding the hotel room that the shooter used as his sniper’s nest could give us valuable information.
Lutz approached me. “SWAT has okayed us to move in with caution. We’ll conduct interviews with some of the people that have gathered in the corner clothing store and speak to them from the safety of an inner room. Then we’ll put out a broadcast with a phone number to call for the people who left the scene but might have information to share.”
I rubbed my brows as I thought. “That’s a good plan.”
“Something on your mind? You seem distracted.”
“Bob, I think the killer took his shots from the hotel across the street.”
“Go on. You’ve got my attention.”
With a head tip, I motioned for us to take a couple of seats in the corner of the room. Lutz followed on my heels then pulled up a chair.
“Okay, let’s hear your theory.”
“Nothing else makes sense. We already know his MO. Get high above everything and do a total blindside. It always happens within minutes of the 911 call. He needs to zero in on the officers’ arrival, and that’s why he doesn’t stay on the line.”
Lutz scratched his cheek. “So why the hotel?”
I reached for my phone and pulled up the aerial view one more time. “It’s the only high-rise building that’s open to the public that time of night, and it has a view of that corner. We need to go through the people that checked in today and look for a single male that wanted a room on a higher floor that faces Michigan Avenue. It’ll be the fastest way to narrow down where the shots came from and possibly the killer’s identity.”
“Okay, let me update Lewis and Jennison and see who they want to put on that detail.”
“With all due respect, sir, our division does run the CPD/FBI Violent Crimes Task Force.”
Lutz stood up and patted my shoulder before walking away. “You’re right, so go on and get out of here. Take Mills, Johnson, and Murray with you and keep me posted on everything you find out. I’ll let the other commanders know what’s going on. We’re heading out in a few minutes too.”
“Thanks, and we’ll do our damnedest to get answers tonight.”