display of the walls on the inside of the room.
King walked over to a table on the inside and stuck her hand in a box filled with bullets. She found the one she was looking for then walked back over to Jon. She put her hand up to show him the fifty caliber round.
“Who is this for?” She asked making sure his gaze was locked on the bullet.
“His name is Andrew Levine and he’s an asshole.”
“Not for long Mr. Betancourt…”
…..
“Wow, and just like that you took him on?” The pilot asked making sure to keep the levels stable.
“Of course not! I did my homework first, checked his story out. Turns out he was right. This kid Andrew was known for partying very hard in his college years. Jon’s daughter had gotten a scholarship to the same school and that’s where he met her. Turns out ol’ Andrew had a bit of a reputation as a ladies man and his parties were the stuff of legend. When he asked her if she wanted to come to one, she almost had no choice but to say yes.”
“Man, what a life!”
“Indeed.” The rain outside started to come down quicker. King took her position, checking to see if her target was in place. He wasn’t. She continued. “Any who, Jon’s story checks out. Levine was arrested for the crime against his daughter but the case was thrown out. It seems as though the kid was in two places at one time. People at the party placed him there all night, and from where her body was found, he would have had to drive at least a good half an hour to an hour to dump the body. Add that to the fact that there were drugs in her system and video of her displaying some risqué behavior, and the already purchased jury had all they needed to let him walk.”
“Jesus Capital Christ! After all that?! They never found out who killed her?”
“Nope. It had been raining heavy and the crime scene was contaminated so there was no way to get any good DNA off of her.”
“Shit… so how are you so sure its Drew?” King paused, making a mental note, and then took a look through the scope again while placing her finger on the trigger.
“Like I said, I did my homework. Now if you’ll excuse me…” She took a deep breath then activated the targeting computer built into the Shoot 1st lenses she was wearing on loan from Jackson Wright. The program took in all of the parameters for the shot, not only calculating the wind and distance, but the grain of the bullet, and sway of the helicopter. King was using custom Raufoss rounds. These were bullets with an incendiary tip, an explosive compound and tungsten steel insides to penetrate any type of armor.
King chambered a round into one of the world’s most deadly and accurate rifles. Through the lens she could see Andrew Levine clearly as he walked towards the bathroom for his morning shower. The wall would be no problem for the ammo she was using. Once the bullet touched the building, its incendiary property would burn through with no problem. When inside the explosive aspect would only help deliver the message she had been paid to send. King activated the thermal vision on the scope and could see him getting undressed. Once he stepped into the shower she waited a beat and then fired on time with a crack of lighting and thunder.
It was the perfect shot. From this distance it would take the round thirty seconds to find its target. King looked through the scope and counted. She saw the small plume of fire from the round entering the building then smiled when she watched a headless body drop into the tub.
“Checkmate.” King then proceeded to break her weapon down as the pilot looked back to see if he could spot the shot she just took.
“Damn that was loud! Did you get him?”
“Of course I got him Roger. Do me a favor and put me down over that patch of grass over there. She pointed and he followed.
“So, wait, you’re just gonna let me go?” He asked while maneuvering the chopper over the grass. King tossed her gear out the side and waited for him to stabilize the craft before she stepped out.
“Awe c’mon now, I was never gonna shoot you. I broke into your hangar last night and set up a laser pointer, see.” She pointed to the device tucked under his seat. The beam was being redirected by a few well placed mirrors so that the pointer landed on his torso.
“Oh man! This whole time!? Man I almost shit myself!”
“Yeah well, I can see why. Hey, you take care of yourself okay?” She was about to leap onto the ground when she turned to him one last time. “Hey, what college did you go to?”
“Me? I went to Penn State. Why?”
“Oh it’s nothing… just a thought…” With that she leapt from the chopper and grabbed her bag. When the helicopter was high enough in the sky she pulled out her cell phone and dialed a number.
“Hello?”
“For the longest time it bothered me how Andrew was able to get rid of the body and cover such a large distance in such a short time but then it hit me. Maybe he didn’t drive her anywhere. Maybe he flew her. I had my suspicions about you and was almost convinced that I had the wrong guy but then you went and blew it.”
“What? What are you talking about?”
“I told you I do my homework asshole. You went to the same school Andrew Levine went to, Penn State. On top of that, you called him Drew, something only his friends call him. That night you guys had a little fun with Jamie and when you were done, you didn’t drive her anywhere, you flew her in your helicopter and dumped the body over into an alley.”
There was silence on the line. King turned to see how far out the helicopter was and figured it was at the right distance.
“That shit didn’t fly then and it’s not gonna fly now! You got nothing!”
“Remember how I told you I wasn’t gonna shoot you? I wasn’t lying.” King reached in her bag and pulled out her iPad. It loaded a program that gave her control of the helicopter. She used it to override the controls make it climb as high as it could go.
“Wha- What the fuck are you doing bitch!”
“That whole getting away with murder thing you and your friends are into? Yeah… that’s uh… how’d you put it? Not gonna fly with me…” She pressed the –DETONATE- button on the screen and off in the distance she could make out a small fireball crashing to the ground over a manmade lake. As the rain poured over her she smiled to herself for a job well done and then looked back at her cell phone. She had one more phone call to make.
…..
Jon Betancourt awoke from his sleep from the front seat of the beat up Ford Taurus he had been living in for the past decade. The rain from the night before had cleared up and the sun was peeking out from just over the ocean he had parked next to. When he looked into the passenger seat of the car there was a brown paper bag sitting on top of a newspaper. He wiped his eyes and looked around, knowing he hadn’t purchased anything in the last day or so and wondered just how the hell this got here. He opened the bag and inside he found stacks of dollar bills, at a glance it looked like the amount came to fifty thousand dollars. There was also a note that he was about to read until the newspaper stole his attention.
He couldn’t believe it. Jon looked at the headline of the newspaper.
SENATORS SON FOUND SLAIN IN BIZZARE MURDER. The story under the headline went on to say how the shot taken was damn near impossible, especially given the weather conditions and lack of any other buildings the shooter could have taken the shot from. The writer quoted witnesses that claimed they heard a crack of thunder and that was it. The police were baffled and had zero suspects.
Beneath that was a headline about a helicopter crash that may have been caused by lighting hitting the aircraft.
Jon smiled and then unfolded the note he’d found in the bag.
“There was an error in my accounting department, it seems you over paid.”-King
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Wright As Rain: A Last Wrights Short Page 2