The Innocent

As they headed to the elevator Vance said, “Did you hear about the bus explosion?”

“I saw it on the news,” said Robie. “I understand FBI is investigating that too.”

“More specifically, I am.”

“A lot on your plate,” he commented.

“Might be a good reason to merge the investigations.”

“Why is that?”

“We found a gun at the scene of the bus explosion.”

Robie kept his gaze straight ahead even as his heartbeat quickened.

“Gun?” he said.

“Yeah. And we’ve already run ballistics. The Glock we found matches a slug we took from the floor of the apartment the deceased lived in. So in my mind, the two cases are definitely connected. Now we just have to find out how.”

“The killer might have just thrown the gun away during his escape. Might just be a coincidence it was found near the bus explosion.”

“I don’t believe in coincidences. At least not ones like that.”

As they stepped off the elevator and headed to the condo where two people had been murdered right in front of him, Robie, despite the cool air, wicked a drop of sweat off his forehead.

He would take a hundred megalomaniacal Saudi princes and bloodthirsty cartel chieftains over this.

CHAPTER 26

The apartment had changed since Robie had last been there. The cops were doing a thorough forensics search and fingerprint powder residue, evidence markers, and thirty-five-mil cameras flashing off were evident throughout the small space.

Robie eyed a sealed evidence box on the particleboard table.

“Is that Agent Wind’s work papers? Laptop?”

Vance nodded. “It is. We’ve sealed it pending your agency’s review. I’m cleared all the way on things like that, but I didn’t want to step on your toes.”

“Appreciate that.”

“But we will need to be read in. If there’s something in those docs and files that got her killed, the Bureau needs to know it.”

“Understood. I can have the review done today and you can be read in directly after.”

Vance’s smile was guarded. “I never met a more cooperative agency liaison. You’re going to spoil me.”

“I’ll do my best,” Robie said.

Until I stop being cooperative, he thought.

“There were pick marks on the front door lock,” Vance said. “They were subtle, so the person knew what he was doing. Follow me.”

They walked into the bedroom.

Robie looked around. The bodies had been removed, but in his mind he still saw them on the bed, their heads pulverized.

“Wind and her son Jacob were found on the bed. She was holding him. One shot killed them both.” She pointed to the shattered window. “We’ve run a trajectory. Shot came from that high-rise building, well over three hundred meters away. We’re pinpointing the exact room. The building is abandoned, so it’s doubtful anyone saw anything. But we’re still following up. If we’re lucky, the shooter left something behind.”

You won’t be that lucky, thought Robie.

“But you said you found a Glock round in the floor. How does that tie into a shot at that distance? It wasn’t a pistol round that killed them. Had to be a rifle round.”

“I know. That’s what’s so puzzling. If I have to speculate, there were two people involved. The person in this room last night fired a shot into the bed. It went through and lodged in the floor. That slug matched the gun we found underneath a car next to the bus explosion. But the kill shot came through the window, hit Jacob, passed through his head, and impacted his mother. Death was instantaneous for both. Or so the ME said.”

Robie remembered the look on Jane Wind’s face and wondered how truly “instantaneous” her death had been.

“So two shooters? Doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.

“It makes no sense,” replied Vance. “But that’s because we don’t have enough facts. We collect enough of those it will make sense.”

“I appreciate your optimism.” Robie stood in front of the bed, in nearly the exact spot from which he’d fired his weapon the night before. “So the shooter who presumably broke into the apartment fired into the bed. Where was the slug found?”

Vance motioned for one of her techs to move aside the bed. Robie saw the evidence marker next to a hole in the wooden floor.

Robie held up an imaginary pistol. He aimed and clicked his finger while Vance watched.

“He would have been standing about here,” said Robie, who of course knew this for a fact. “The mattress and box springs seem really thin. I doubt they would have diverted the flight path of the round much, not at this close range.”

“That’s what I figured too,” said Vance.

“No other wounds on the bodies? The round fired into the mattress didn’t hit them?”

“Negative. No human residue on it and no other wounds on the victims.”

“So he fired a shot into the mattress why? To get their attention?”

“Maybe,” said Vance.

“Were they awake when they were shot?”

“Looked to be. The position where they fell on the bed leads me to believe they were awake when they were killed.”

“So he fires, but doesn’t hit them. He did it to get their attention, or maybe to get them to be quiet. Anyone report hearing any screams?”