A couple of things puzzled Alex. One, never before had anyone else been hit by the bullets of the assassin. And two, this guy was acting completely alone. There had been no getaway vehicle, and no one to warn him that he was about to walk into the arms of the cops.
While she agreed with Teren that even a professional might miss once in a while, this didn’t sound like a simple stray bullet hitting someone rather than the intended victim. Out of the four shots, only one had hit Seffren, and that had been in the shoulder. Another bullet hit the woman standing to Seffren’s right, killing her instantly. A third bullet lodged in the leg of a bystander, and the fourth had hit the ground close to where the women had been standing. In Alex’s mind, this was far from a professional hit.
When she turned the page, she found she was right. The shooter had been a man by the name of Keith Halloran. He lived in Colorado Springs, and worked at a digital communications company on the north side of the city. He was new to the city, however, having moved there several months ago from Philadelphia, when he was transferred to the Micon Digital, which had been newly acquired by Atlantic Properties. Before his transfer, he had worked at East Penn Telecom, where his supervisor had been one Kyle Brogan.
“Gee, Kyle, you sure get around a lot.” She noted the connections on her pad, reminding herself to send a fax to Ken. This would be another item to add to their list of questions when he and Rick confronted Brogan.
The gun, she noted, was of the same type used in Baltimore, a Colt Carbine, semi-automatic. She looked closely at the serial number, realizing she’d seen it before. Pulling her laptop closer to her, she called up the files on the case, and opened the one containing all the information on the Baltimore killing. The serial number of the rifle in Colorado was different from the number on the Baltimore rifle by only two numbers. When she checked it against the list of stolen rifles, she was pleased to find it was indeed listed as having been stolen by Darryl Wilford.
Grinning, she made another note to have Ben show Halloran’s picture to Ricky Wilford. She had a feeling Halloran was one of Darryl’s buddies.
The question was, she decided, what was he doing in Denver? Did he have orders from Brogan to shoot Seffren? Or did he just decide to do it on his own? She frowned as she thought of that, but had to admit it was possible. After all, coincidences did happen.
But somehow, she doubted it.
Realizing she wasn’t going to get much else done tonight, Alex put the file back on the table, and stood up. She stretched as she headed for the bathroom. A bed, she decided, was a good thing, and she would crawl into it as soon as she brushed her teeth and changed.
*******************************************************
Once again, David showed up at Alex’s door with breakfast, only to find her still mostly asleep. This time she’d managed to get a shower before he arrived, but one look at her eyes told David she was lucky she hadn’t drowned. She dropped down into the chair, picked up her fork and started to eat in absolute silence.
She hadn’t even noticed that Teren was right behind David.
Teren looked over at David in confusion. “What’s with the zombie?”
“She’s always like that in the morning. We have a deal; I bring food to help her wake up, and she doesn’t say a word ‘til she does.”
“Why’s that?”
Alex raised her head and glared. “Cause I’m a bitch in the morning. Pass the jelly.”
David grinned and slid a small pack of strawberry jelly over to his partner. Teren shook her head, hiding her own smile.
She watched Alex closely as she ate her plate of eggs and hashbrowns. There were no wasted movements, she noticed, no hesitation, and no time to savor any of the flavors that might have accompanied the food. This was simply nourishment for Alex, nothing more. Teren was amazed at the difference between the sleepy eyed eating machine in front of her, and the pleasant and cheerful dinner companion of two nights before.
David noticed that Alex was beginning to wake up, and he leaned back in his chair waiting for the characteristic slam of the cup that meant Alex was finally alert. When it came, he winked at Teren and nodded.
“The beast is awake. Good morning, Alex.”
“Good morning. Are you ready for some interesting news?”
“You can’t tell me you already have something. You only woke up a minute ago.”
“It’s from last night, David. It was in the file that Tanner gave me, though he didn’t know that it was important.”
Teren leaned forward. “Care to share?”
“And good morning to you too, Teren. Yeah. The killer’s name was Keith Halloran, and he’s from Colorado Springs, which I understand is about an hour south of here.”
“Right.”
“Of course, Mr. Halloran hasn’t lived here very long. He moved to Colorado about three months ago, when Atlantic Properties acquired a new communications company. Before that, he was living in Philadelphia, and working at East Penn.”
David shook his head. “That couldn’t be a coincidence.”
“I didn’t think so either.” She put her plate back on the room service tray and picked up the folder. “His supervisor at East Penn was a Mr. Brogan.”
“No shit?”
“Nope. Plus, there’s something else. The rifle Halloran used is another one of the five that was stolen from Riley’s in Baltimore.”
“That means he knew Wilford.”
“Right.” Alex leaned back. “So, we now know for sure that this has to be connected to the other murders. The question is, who hired him?”
“And who killed him,” Teren added.
“And who killed him. Anybody want to go talk to the hospital crew?”
David nodded. “I’m game.”
“Teren?”
“No, I have a couple other things to do. I’ll give you the number to my cell phone. Make sure you give me a call before you head for Colorado Springs; I’d really like to join you.”
David looked at her, confused. “Why would we be going there?”
“Well, that’s where you’ll have to go if you want to check his house, right?”
Alex nodded. “Okay. This is how the day looks to me. First, we’ve got about ten or twenty minutes before Tanner knocks on the door. We’ll have to wait for him since he appears to be our driver for the duration. Then, we’ll meet with him and Weaver at the hospital, and go over the personnel there. I especially want to know if any of them are from the Philadelphia area.”
“Good idea,” David agreed.
“Then lunch, and we head south.” She looked at Teren. “Since you’ve indicated you won’t be joining us this morning, any idea where you will be?”
“I plan on visiting a couple of people I know. They keep track of hate groups in the area, and I was wondering if they’d had Mr. Halloran on their radar screen.”
Alex nodded. “How will you get around?”
Teren shrugged. “I’ll manage.”
There was a knock at the door, and David went to answer it. Alex took that moment to lean forward across the table and fix her gaze on the woman facing her.
“Just remember, Teren, you’re part of a team. No maverick stuff, okay?”
Teren gave her a grin and a mock salute. “Yes, sir.”
Alex laughed and shook her head. She looked up to see Andrew Tanner behind David. “Andrew, you didn’t know it, but the information in the file you gave me connected your shooter to the killings back east. In fact, I’ve already faxed parts of it back to Washington, and to Philadelphia. I’m hoping it will help us lock the door on one of our suspects.”
David looked shocked. “When did you do the fax? Last night?”
“Actually, this morning. I wasn’t fully awake, so I didn’t put any message to it, but the papers went to Cliff and Ken.” She grinned. “I thought he could use one more little fact to help put the pressure on Mr. Brogan.”