Read Closure (Jack Randall) for Free Online

considerable crack in it. He walked over to it and shined his flashlight into the crack. Some fresh looking scratches in the rock showed about halfway down. Jack stood and walked back to the fire.
    “See these marks on the barrel? No fire bent that. Our shooter bent it in that rock over there,” Jack said.
    “Why?”
    “So it’s now unusable. No way to match it with any slugs fired,” The Chief lectured his deputy. “How about the shell casings?”
    “We can match them to the chamber of the gun providing our boy didn’t destroy it, too,” Jack replied. “Chief?” Jack motioned for the Chief to follow.
    “First, I’d like to say that you and your men have done a nice piece of work here. Good preservation of the scene. But there’s one thing I’m really concerned about.”
    “The letter,” Sanchez said.
    “Exactly, from the looks of things here, you and I both know this guy is serious and no amateur at what he does. If that letter leaks to the press, catching this guy will only get harder. The press will only make his crusade a public one, and that’s exactly what he wants. The more press he gets, the more bodies we’re likely to see. I need you to put a thumb on your men and I mean hard. Somebody tells a wife or girlfriend, or lets it slip down at the bar, and it’s all over the papers. Tell them anyone who leaks this I intend to go after with a federal vengeance. Will your boys play?” Jack gave the Chief his hardest look.
    “If they want to keep working for me they will,” the Chief replied. “Plenty of people waiting in line for their job here in this little burb. Case you didn’t notice, we like it kinda quiet here. The sooner the reporters leave, the sooner the phone calls to the station stop.”
    “Sounds good. Who else knows about the letter besides you and your crew?”
    “Just that Lieutenant and a couple of his boys. The fact that it exists; not the contents.”
    “Okay, can you talk to him and his men for me?”
    “I think I can get the word across.” The Chief smiled. He was a good ten years senior to the bureau man, but the man was tactful, and had shown he knew his job. The Chief had to respect that. The fact that he asked Sanchez to deliver the no-leaks lecture, instead of doing it himself, showed some professional courtesy. Sanchez decided he’d really lay it to the boys hard. He suddenly didn’t want to let this man down.
    •      •      •
    Sydney smiled at the men around the car as she walked into the garage. What’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this —it was on all their faces. Something she was probably never going to get used to.
    “Sydney Lewis?” A tall skinny blond man with an FBI badge on his belt walked forward and stretched out a gloved hand.
    “Yes?”
    “Mel Dexter, Orlando office. Mr. Deacon said you were coming. Good to know he has such faith in me.”
    Sydney started to reply, but the goofy grin on his face told her he was just joking. She grabbed the hand and gave it a shake. “Thanks, actually I was hoping you could work with me on this. Are you very busy down here?”
    “A few things pending, but I think we can make some room for you. I have the lab standing by to receive things; so far it’s been a straightforward mess.”
    Mel turned to the car that T. Addicot had been in, and his demeanor went from jokester to professional with one word.
    “Up to now we have a basic rifle wound to the head. Bullet entered through the open driver’s side window and struck the victim just behind the left ear. It then traversed the base of the skull and blew clean through the brain stem before exiting out the right ear. It then struck the driver’s nine-iron that was lying in the passenger seat, and left the car by way of the passenger side windshield. Doesn’t get any quicker than that. Your shooter is a surgeon.”
    “Nine-iron, huh?”
    “Yup. Nice new set of Pings on the passenger side. Evidently one of the drawbacks of the