fault, and reliable as the sunrise. Still, she had to watch herself.
“I saw Anne Newman this morning. She appreciated your coming over last
night. She said you were a real comfort.”
This surprised Reynolds. Maybe the woman didn’t blame her. “She took
it about as well as anyone could.”
“I understand the director went too. That was good of him. You know
Ken and I go way back.” The look on Connie’s face was easily read. If
the man caught up to the killer before the VCU did, there might not be
any need for a trial.
“I know. I never stopped to think how hard this must be for you.”
“You have enough on your mind. Besides, I’m the last person you need
to worry about.” Connie took a swallow of coffee. “The shooter was
hit. Least it looks that way.”
Reynolds immediately sat forward. “Let me have everything.”
Connie momentarily smiled. “Don’t want to wait for the written report
from VCU?” He crossed one thick leg over the other, hitching up his
cuffed trousers as he did so. “You were right about the shooter’s
location. We found blood, a fair amount of it in the woods behind the
house. Did a rough trajectory. The location jells with where the shot
probably came from. We followed the trail as best we could, but lost
it in the woods after a few hundred feet.”
“Exactly how much blood? Life-threatening?”
“Hard to say. It was dark. A team’s over there right now continuing
the search. They’re lock stepping the lawn, looking for the slug that
killed Ken. They’re also canvassing the neighborhood, but the place
was so isolated, I’m not sure that’ll pay off.”
Reynolds took a deep breath. “If we find a body, that would both
simplify and complicate things.”
Connie nodded thoughtfully. “I see where you’re going with that.”
“You got a blood sample?”
“Lab’s running it as we speak. Don’t know what it’ll be worth.”
“At the very least it’ll confirm whether it’s human or not.”
“That’s true. Maybe all we’ll find is a deer carcass. But I don’t
think so.” Reynolds perked up. “Nothing concrete,” he said in
response to her look, “just call it my gut.”
“If the guy’s wounded, that should make it a little easier to track him
down.”
“Maybe. If he required medical attention, he wouldn’t be so stupid as
to go to a local emergency room. They have to report gunshot wounds.
And we don’t know how badly he was hurt. Might have just been a flesh
wound that bled like a bitch. If so, he bandages it up, gets on a
plane and poof. Gone. I mean we’ve got all the bases covered, but if
the guy was leaving on a private plane, then we got problems. The
truth is he’s probably already long gone.”
“Or maybe dead. Apparently he missed his primary target. Whoever
hired him won’t be happy about that.”
“Right.”
Reynolds folded her hands in front of her as she thought of the next
topic she wanted to discuss. “Connie, Ken’s gun was unfired.”
Connie had obviously given this line of inquiry some thought because he
said, “Which means, if the blood is confirmed as human, we definitely
have a fourth person at the cottage last night. And that party shot
the shooter.” He shook his head wearily. “Shit, listen to us, it all
sounds crazy.”
“Crazy but apparently true under the facts as we know them. Think
about this: Could this fourth person have killed Ken? And not the guy
who was wounded?”
“Don’t think so. The VCUs are looking for shell cartridges in the
woods where we think the other shot came from, as confirmation. If
there was a gun battle between two unknown parties, then maybe we’ll
find another set of ejected shells as well.”
“Well, this fourth person being present may explain the door being
unlocked and the cameras being tripped.”
He sat up straight. “Anything on the tape yet? We had to get some
faces or something.”
“To put it simply, we have been degaussed.”
“What?”
“Don’t ask. For right now we can’t count on the tape.”
“Well, shit! That doesn’t leave us with much.”