Kill Shot

by Susan Sleeman

  Rick fired off a quick confirmation text, then stepped into the large room with a long stainless sink on one wall and several metal tables spaced throughout the area. Rick joined the balding ME at the table and introduced himself.

  “Before we get started,” Rick said. “Does Neal have a small scar on the inside of his left wrist?”

  “Found one in my initial exam.” The ME adjusted the overhead light and displayed the tiny scar.

  “What do you make of it?” Rick asked.

  “Make of it? You mean is it remarkable?”

  Rick nodded and snapped a few close-up pictures of the scar.

  “I suspect that since you asked about it, it must be, but it certainly didn’t contribute to his death.” He tapped the senator’s bicep. “But if you’re interested in scars you might be interested in this one. Much larger.”

  Rick saw nothing, so he bent closer. “What am I looking at?”

  “As you can see, the skin is darker than the surrounding area. A clear example of hyperpigmentation from laser removal of a tattoo.” He ran his gloved finger down a faint line. “If you look hard enough, you can still see the outline of the tattoo. Plus there’s scarring from the initial tattoo.”

  Rick got even closer and saw the arrows in the circular chaos shape. So Neal had his tattoo removed, as if trying to remove himself from a connection to his sniper buddies, but why?

  “I’ve added the removal to my notes.” The ME peered at Rick through thick glasses behind his mask. “Though again, it has nothing to do with his cause of death.”

  Common sense told Rick the tiny scar could be a tattoo, or…“Could the wrist scar be from a tattoo removal, too?”

  The ME ran his finger over the scar, then lowered the light above the wrist. “Removal. No. It could be from getting a tattoo, but there’s no ink and it’s awfully small for a tattoo.” He looked up. “Are you ready for me to proceed?”

  Rick didn’t need to ask about the gunshot wound. Not when they’d recovered the bullet and he’d noted the wound’s location the prior day.

  “Go ahead.” He stepped back to watch the doc make the Y cut, but Rick’s mind remained on the small scar. It had to mean something, but what?

  Maybe Levi had the answer. Rick texted his buddy, though knew he might not answer until he arrived in Atlanta.

  The ME took hours to conclude the autopsy, after which his only note was that the senator’s lungs were consistent with his being a smoker, and he cautioned Rick not to smoke. Not at all helpful to the investigation.

  Rick hurried to the break area to join Olivia. He hated that she’d been sitting there for hours. Just like yesterday. But she couldn’t stay at his house alone, and he didn’t feel safe leaving her in the lobby, so he’d arranged for the break room. She’d taken it all in stride and was being a real trooper. At least that morning she’d selected a mystery from one of his shelves and had something to do.

  She sat at a round table, her focus on the book. She’d crossed her legs, the usual pump dangling from her foot. She might be wearing plain khaki slacks, but the red gauzy blouse cinched at the waist with a thick leather belt was ultrafeminine, as were the spiky red shoes. Her clothing was never suggestive, and yet she looked crazy sexy. How she did that, he didn’t know.

  He approached her, his grumbling stomach announcing his arrival.

  She looked up. “I know you said you can eat anywhere, but how you can be hungry after watching…well, you know?”

  He felt bad about his ability to consume food after such an event, but it wasn’t something he could control. “We’ll be spending the day at my office, so let’s grab some food on the way.”

  They picked up Chinese takeout and ate together in an employee break area before he escorted her to a small conference room where Agent Walden would watch over her. He’d rather not abandon her again, but office visitors required an escort at all times, and he couldn’t take her to the team’s situation room, where he’d be working. The walls were filled with photos and information she didn’t have clearance to see.

  He took the leftover food to put in the situation room refrigerator and ran into Brynn in the hallway.

  “I was coming to find you.” She gestured at the bag. “Smells good.”

  “It’s yours if you want it.” He held the door for her.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice.” She grabbed a paper plate and utensils and took them to the table where Rick set the food.

  “Anything new that I need to know about?” He sat at the table.

  She started heaping rice, noodles, and spicy chicken onto her plate. “Nothing here in D.C. yet, but I processed the saliva found in Mobile. It matches the touch DNA lifted from Olivia’s purse and the receipt.”

  “So the murders are officially connected, but without the DNA in the database there’s not much we can do about it.”

  Brynn twirled noodles around her fork. “I’ve held off offering this option, but there are experimental things we could try, like using the DNA sample to extrapolate the person’s age. It could give us our suspect’s age with a margin of error of about four years.”

  “If the other sniper class members were born more than four years apart, that could narrow things down. Or it could tell us if we’re wrong to suspect them at all. Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”

  “I didn’t mention it because I’ll need to ship a sample to the researcher pioneering this technique. Could take days to hear back, and then it could be a bust.” She stabbed a chunk of chicken.

  “You mentioned experimental things,” Rick said before she could get the bite to her mouth. “Is there something else we can do?”

  “Again, it would take special processing, but we can do a facial reconstruction, plus hair color, and racial ancestry from the DNA.”

  “Wait, what?” Rick sat forward. “You’re telling me you could use the DNA to produce a sketch of the suspect?”

  She nodded. “I’ll have to send that off, too. We’ll wait a long time for results. Weeks maybe.”

  Rick couldn’t begin to imagine they wouldn’t have the ordnance in hand before then. Still, he had to take every avenue presented until then. “A long wait or not, we don’t have anything else to go on. So get the process started.”

  “It’s pricey. Max will have to sign off.”

  “I’ll make sure he goes for it.”

  “Then I’ll ship the samples and let you know if and when I get anything back. What about you?” she asked, her attention back on her food. “Any new leads here?”

  “All three victims have a five-millimeter scar on their wrists. It can’t be coincidental, but I can’t figure out what it could be.” He took out his phone and opened the picture of the senator’s wrist.

  Brynn squinted at the screen. “Could it have to do with their sniping history? Maybe from shooting the same weapon?”

  “Not that I can think of.” Rick mentioned the senator’s removed tattoo. “I was thinking maybe the little scar was also a tattoo, but there’s no ink and the ME said it’s not from a removal.”

  “It could be a tattoo, but you can’t see it.”

  “We examined it under a high-powered light during the autopsy. If there was anything there we would have seen it.”

  “Maybe not.” She took out her phone and tapped the screen a few times, then handed it to him. “Check this out.”

  She’d brought up an article about ultraviolet tattoos, and he quickly scanned it. “Tattoos you can only see under black light? Never heard of them.”

  “The FDA hasn’t approved UV ink for tattoos, so it’s not very common. But it could be the thing you’re looking for here.”

  He eagerly grabbed his phone and dialed the ME’s cell. Fortunately, he answered on the third ring.

  “Agent Cannon here,” Rick said. “Do you have a UV light at the morgue?”

  “Yes, we use them for sexual assault cases.”

  “Would you mind shining it on that scar on the senator’s wris
t?”

  “I don’t see—”

  “Please just do it, and you’ll see why.” Rick sat back to wait for a response.

  The keypad lock on the door clunked, and the door swung in.

  Kaci entered and crossed over to them. “I’ve got some information on Olivia’s identity theft.”

  Rick held out his phone. “Can it wait until I get off my call with the ME?”

  “You’re gonna want to hear this, but if it has to wait…” She shrugged and fished a piece of chicken out of the takeout container, then stuffed it in her mouth as she dropped onto the chair.

  “You won’t believe it,” the ME said. “It’s a dinky tattoo of a number three.”

  “Three?” Rick muttered. “Can you capture it in a picture and e-mail it to me?”

  “I’ll do my best.”

  “Thanks. It’s urgent.” Rick hung up and faced Brynn. “You were right. It’s a tattoo. The senator’s is a number three.”

  “Why a number, I wonder?”

  Rick took a moment to think about it. “Say it’s related to the sniper class. Guys are ranked in sniper classes. Maybe he was third in his class and the men are being killed in order of their rank.”

  “Sounds like a—”

  “No, wait. Scratch that. Levi was first in his class and only three guys have been murdered. I’ll get the other MEs to check the tattoos, and hopefully, I’ll hear from Levi soon, so there’s no point in even speculating about it.”

  “Um, guys,” Kaci said. “I was making some progress on the senator’s hard drive and really need to get back to it, so…”

  Rick stifled a sigh at her impatience, as she was only doing her job. “What do you have for me?”

  She sat forward. “Olivia’s brother emptied her accounts.”

  “Her brother. For real?” Rick’s heart creased. “She’s going to be devastated when she hears about this.”

  “I thought the same thing, so I double- and triple-checked,” Kaci said. “I’ve got a concrete trail that you can show her. He took nearly thirty thousand dollars.”

  “Jerk,” Rick said, wanting to meet the guy so he could do some serious damage to the guy’s face.

  “Some days our jobs just plain stink.” Kaci got up. “I’ll e-mail the file to you right now.”

  “Thanks, Kaci,” he said, but his mind had already traveled to how he would tell Olivia about Harrison’s betrayal.

  When Rick’s phone dinged with the e-mail, he read through the data.

  “You think Olivia will press charges against her brother?” Brynn closed the empty containers.

  “I honestly don’t know.” He sent the e-mail to the network printer in the corner.

  “You could always bring him in.”

  “Me?”

  “Bank fraud falls under our purview, and even if the dollar threshold isn’t high enough for one of our typical cases, you could probably get Max to authorize the prosecution.”

  Rick pondered her idea while crossing the room to the printer.

  “Well?” Brynn pushed.

  He grabbed the papers and started for the door. “I won’t be the guy who puts her brother in jail.”

  “A word of advice?” Brynn called after him.

  He stopped to look at her. “Go ahead.”

  “Don’t let Max see that smitten look on your face, or you’ll be off this investigation at a speed faster than one of your sniper bullets.”

  She didn’t seem too happy with his supposed look either, so he wouldn’t discuss it with her. He stepped out the door and approached the conference room where Olivia sat obliviously reading the mystery.

  A few pieces of paper were about to change her life forever. Just like the day his father had hit him. He knew the cost of the news he was about to unload on her, and he hated that she would have to deal with such a thing.

  He motioned through the window for Agent Walden to join him in the hallway. She stepped out.

  “I’ll need a minute with Dr. Dobbs,” he said.

  She nodded, and he moved past her to enter the room.

  Olivia looked up, and her ready smile disappeared. “Is everything okay?”

  He shook his head and sat next to her. “It’s about your identity theft investigation.”

  She closed the book and gave him her full attention. “What about it?”

  “As I mentioned, Kaci was looking into the theft as part of your background investigation. She discovered the person who stole your money.”

  “Who?”

  “I’m sorry, honey,” he said, trying to soften the blow. “But it was Harrison.”

  “No.” The color drained from her face, leaving her freckles more pronounced. “He wouldn’t…He didn’t…He would never.”

  Rick slid the report across the table. She scanned the pages, then jumped to her feet.

  “How could he?” Her breath coming in rapid bursts, she marched across the room to her purse and dug inside. “My phone. I forgot I had to leave it in the locker at security.”

  “You should cool off before calling him anyway.” Rick joined her and reached out to offer her a hug.

  “No.” She moved back. “I’m too mad to be hugged. I need to walk it off.”

  She stormed toward the door. He charged after her and rested a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “I’m sorry, honey, but you can’t go running off in this building.”

  She stared over his shoulder for a long time. “You have your phone. Can I use it?”

  “I wish you could, but it contains classified information, and I can’t let you.”

  “But you’ll be standing right here watching me.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  Her anger faded into disappointment. The look on her face that said she couldn’t trust him to have her best interests at heart broke his heart. He recognized that look. He’d given it to his dad all the time, and now that he was on the receiving end, he didn’t like it. Didn’t like it one bit, but he was putting the investigation first. Otherwise he could call it a day and leave the office, and she could phone her brother.

  Unable to see her disappointment any longer, he pulled his gaze away and saw Kaci jogging down the hallway. She frantically motioned for him to join her. He wanted to ignore her and help Olivia, but Kaci’s expression said she had something urgent for him to deal with.

  “Kaci needs to talk to me,” he said. “Will you be okay if I leave?”

  “I’ll be fine.” She turned her back on him and returned to the table.

  On the way out, he squeezed her shoulder. His heart told him to stay, his brain said to go. Not only for the investigation, but also because he very much wanted to stay, and that scared him. His brain won out as usual, and he stepped out the door.

  “Situation room, now!” Kaci spun to leave.

  “Keep an eye on Dr. Dobbs,” he said to Agent Walden, who stood waiting a few feet away. “She just got some hard news about her family, and she’s upset.”

  Walden nodded, and Rick took one last look through the window before joining Kaci in the situation room.

  “You won’t believe this. I cracked the hidden drive on the senator’s computer.” She slapped a folder onto the table in front of him. “These are the files.”

  He opened the inch-thick folder. He wanted to delve in and learn about the lead, but his worry about Olivia left him unable to focus on pages and pages of data. “It’ll take time to read through these, so how about a summary?”

  “The sniper class members are involved in illegal sales of weapons.”

  Levi came to mind. “All of them?”

  “All of them.”

  “Not Levi,” Rick clarified.

  “Yes, Levi, though there isn’t as much info in the file on him. I’ve also located the group on the darknet.”

  “How can you be sure it’s them?”

  “Their log-in name is Chaos. Like the tattoo.”

  “Are they selling the smart-bullet technology, too?” he asked, suddenly feeling
weary beyond his years.

  She shook her head. “I haven’t found any evidence to suggest that, but it wouldn’t surprise me if they were involved.”

  “What exactly have you seen?”

  “They’re selling a variety of marine-issued weapons, but mostly M16s and 39s. Likely because they’re so common and lifting them won’t raise too many red flags.”

  He nodded. “Do they still have weapons for sale?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then set up a buy, and we’ll see what else they’re trying to unload.” Rick tried to sound confident, but in reality he was quaking inside. Levi hadn’t been the guy behind the weapon that had taken out three of his classmates. He couldn’t have been. He’d been deployed at the time. But was he really selling military weapons and betraying his country?

  The thought was almost more than Rick could bear, and he felt sick to his stomach—wanted to hurl right there—but they finally had a strong lead, and he had a job to do.

  Friend or not, if Levi was engaged in something illegal, Rick would bring him in.

  Chapter 25

  Quantico, Virginia

  2:15 p.m.

  Olivia sat in a stiff chair in a small waiting room at Turner Field. Rick had gone to find someone who could tell them if the team plane had landed so they could board for their trip back to Atlanta. She didn’t know why they were leaving town so quickly, but it was clear that he was upset about something and wasn’t willing to discuss it.

  Which was odd to her. Not that he’d shared much without prodding, but in the conference room, he’d called her honey. Twice. That conveyed a connection that went beyond a professional relationship. Beyond being acquaintances. Beyond two people simply being attracted to each other.

  So why would he keep whatever was troubling him to himself? His reaction seemed to be about something other than work. The expression that lingered on his face matched the one he got when he talked about his father.

  Her phone rang and, seeing her mother’s name, she grabbed the cell from her purse.

  “Where’s Harrison?” she asked right off the bat. “He’s not answering my calls.”

  “I’m not really sure what he’s up to. Is it urgent?”