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much of the time. Was this or that fact a genuine fact, or merely a dogmatically expressed opinion masquerading as the one and only truth? Simon saw the irony; he had the Snowman’s perennially closed mind to thank for his determination to keep his own open.
    â€˜Helen Yardley was shot with an M9 Beretta 9 millimetre,’ Proust went on. ‘Not a converted Baikal IZH, as Firearms told us on Monday, nor a 9 millimetre Makarov police gun, as they told us on Tuesday. Since it’s now Wednesday, we have no alternative but to believe them a third time.’
    An angry-looking Rick Leckenby stood up. ‘Sir, you forced me to speculate before I’d—’
    â€˜Sergeant Leckenby, while you’re on your feet, do you want to tell us a bit about today’s gun of choice?’
    Leckenby turned to face the room. ‘The M9 Beretta 9 mil is US army standard issue, and it’s been in circulation since the 1980s, which means it could have come back from Iraq, from the first Gulf War or more recently, or from any other war zone, any time in the last twenty, twenty-five years. Obviously, depending on how long it’s been in the UK, that potentially reduces traceability.’
    â€˜So we’re looking for anyone with links to the American armed forces?’
    â€˜Or the British,’ said DC Chris Gibbs. ‘A Brit could have got it off a Yank and brought it back.’
    â€˜No, sir, that’s the point I’m trying to make,’ Leckenby answered Proust. ‘I’d say there’s no grounds for assuming the killer’s got links with the military. If the gun entered the UK in, say, 1990, there’s a good chance it’s been through several owners since then. What I would say is—’
    â€˜Don’t tell us what you would say, Sergeant – just say it.’
    â€˜The gun on the streets at the moment, used in more than half of urban shootings, is the Baikal IZH gas pistol. You buy them in Eastern Europe, convert them, and you’ve got an effective short-distance murder weapon. My first thought, at the scene, was that since Mrs Yardley was killed at close range, and since Baikals account for the majority of guns we’re seeing lately, and based on the amount of residue on the wall as well as on the body and the carpet around it, the likelihood was that a Baikal killed her. It was only after the bullet was retrieved from her brain and we had a chance to examine it that we were able to link it to the M9 Beretta 9 mil.’
    â€˜Which means what?’ Proust asked.
    â€˜It could mean nothing,’ said Leckenby. ‘Either gun, Baikal or Beretta, could theoretically be in the possession of anybody. But my gut feeling is, street shooters don’t have M9 Beretta 9 mils. They just don’t. So . . . this killer’s as likely to be anybody as he is to be gang-connected or a known offender.’
    â€˜He or she,’ a female DC from Rawndesley called out.
    â€˜If the murder weapon is standard US military issue, Sergeant, then we’re going to look for anyone with links to the American army, and, as DC Gibbs sensibly suggests, to our own,’ said Proust. When he spoke with this sort of slow deliberation, you were intended to understand that he was taking care not to allow the dam of his disgust to burst. ‘You’ve no way of knowing how many hands it’s passed through. Guns are like cars, presumably – some sold on every three years, others loyally tended by one careful owner over a lifetime. Yes?’
    â€˜I suppose so, sir,’ said Leckenby.
    â€˜Good. Make sure you have a full resumé of the M9 Beretta, complete with colour pictures, by tomorrow morning, to distribute to everybody,’ the Snowman ordered. ‘Assuming you haven’t changed your mind by then and decided the murder weapon was a turbo-charged pea-shooter from the shores of Lake Windermere. Interview teams – you’ll need to start