Anya phoned Martin who sounded relieved that she was all right and even appeared sympathetic about the situation. Whatever Hayden had told Martin was clearly reassuring. Ben was safe and happy. She checked her messages on Kate’s computer and downloaded the articles on genetic criminality. Maybe there was something in there that could help the police, or help in the Harbourn trial.
She had to do something or she would feel completely useless. This felt just like one of her times in casualty, when a car accident involved a drunk driver hitting a family with four young kids. Despite working on them all night, none of the family survived. The drunk driver walked away uninjured.
Doctors and nurses stayed in casualty for hours after their shifts had finished, not just to help with the backlog of patients. No one wanted to go home and deal with the emotional fallout of the deaths alone.
Zimmer wandered into Homicide. “Crime scene’s pretty clean. Our killer doesn’t want to be found.”
Anya thought that didn’t sound like the Harbourns. Getting caught didn’t seem to faze them, particularly if avoiding detection meant more work and less impulse. Maybe Noelene was the brains in the organization after all.
Kate rummaged through her desk for something, ignoring Zimmer.
“McNab is about to go over the casing and the bullet. Thought you’d want to be there.”
Kate found the item she had been searching for-a pack of Lifesaver lollies. “You need to ask?”
“Hey, I’m a gentleman.” Zimmer turned to Anya. “Why are you still around? Can’t bear to be away from us beautiful people?”
“Something like that.” Truth was, she was waiting for Kate to take her home to get some toiletries and clothes before staying at her place for protection. Knowing Kate, she wouldn’t leave until she’d run out of calls to make or leads to chase that day.
Kate headed straight for the stairwell. Anya and Zimmer followed.
As they entered the firearms lab, Zimmer chatted while Anya did her best to disguise how puffed she was.
“How are the drum lessons going?”
“They’re not. I’ve been away and now I’m just too busy.”
“Maybe I’ll just have to bring my sax over so we can play some time.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “Hello? Gagging over here.”
Zimmer looked wounded. “I’m serious. I play in a jazz band. Anya knows that. We’ve been trying to get her to jam with us for ages.”
Anya grinned and nodded.
Kate ignored him.
The firearms expert, Nick McNab hung up the phone in his glass office and joined everyone in the lab. He pulled on a white coat and did up the only two buttons that met in the middle.
“Thanks for coming, I know what this case means to everyone here. Guess you’d like to see what we’ve got.”
They moved around a stereoscopic microscope connected to a television on a mobile stand.
“It’s easier if I show you.” Doctor McNab focused the microscope and showed a cartridge case. “This was found at the scene. The humble case is often overlooked in assisting with identification of a weapon. Most of the markings are found on the closed end, where the primer is located. A crater forms when the firing pin is struck by the hammer and forced into the primer.”
He moved an arrow and pointed to the base. “As you can see, this has a few distinct markings. The breech markings occur when the case is pushed back against the breech block by the burning gases. As we have here, in a semiautomatic, extractor markings and ejector markings are left on the rim. We can also look for markings left by the magazine lip on the side of the case.”
Anya watched the screen, unsure of exactly what marks she was seeing. “The eye of faith” was what her mother called it when a group of experts nodded about seeing something at the same time. Odds were, she wasn’t alone in not being able to understand what McNab described.
“Can you point out what exactly we’re looking at?”
Kate could always be trusted to get to the point quickly.
“Nick’s just saying there are a couple of different impressions made on the head of the case. The firing pin marks on impact, and through recoil when the base is forced back against the breech block. By the way, this is a rim fire.”
McNab looked up from the microscope. “That’s what I said, except for the rim fire bit at the end.”
Zimmer put his hands up, “Sorry, just making sure we’re all on the same page.”
Kate stood, hands in pockets. “Can you identify the make and model from these markings?”
“This is from a.22 caliber semiautomatic. From what John says, it was a hand gun.”
“What about the bullet in the wall?”
McNab sighed and swiveled on his chair. “Not much left of it, I’m afraid it’s only a fragment. I can tell you it was a hollow point, but there was something odd we found. It had wheel-bearing grease on its nose.”
Kate glanced up at Zimmer. “When I was a kid, my father used to use hollow points to cull rabbits.”
“The structure facilitates expansion on contact,” McNab explained, “thereby killing the animal more quickly.”
“What’s the wheel grease for?” Anya asked, having not encountered it before.
“It’s new to me too,” said Zimmer. “I don’t know the significance.”
Kate rubbed her temple. “It may or may not be relevant, but my dad used to put a smear of vaseline on the tips of his bullets. I remember because I used to help. Reason was, he said it made the bullets pass faster through the barrel.”
“Grease has a higher melting point than water, so it would accentuate the concept of the bullet expanding, like a ramming device, you could say.”
“Isn’t that what I said?” Kate whispered to Anya.
“So, whoever shot Natasha had knowledge of guns and was probably a hunter?”
“Or just grew up on a farm like I did,” Kate added. “If that’s the case, the choice of weapon doesn’t sit right.”
“Go on, Detective,” McNab folded his arms in anticipation.
“We all know the.22 is fairly easy to come by. Sporting shooters, armed robbers, security men and every wannabe crook has one. Hell, before we heard of corruption, police used them as fit-up guns.”
“Those were the days,” Zimmer put his thumbs over his belt and rocked on his heels, “when you could shoot some bastard, then fire the fit-up gun and whack it into his dead hand. No doubt about it, any judge would rule self-defense every time. Yep, those were the good old days.”
Kate smacked his arm with the back of her hand. “This is serious. A.22 isn’t exactly sniper material. It’s a huge risk, having to get so close to be accurate, especially if the target’s mobile. I wouldn’t even use one for self-defense.”
McNab suggested, “Maybe the shooter wanted Natasha Ryder to know who killed her. Maybe he deliberately went that close. I mean, if it was personal.”
Zimmer became somber again. “Or could be our shooter doesn’t care if he gets caught.”
With that, discussion halted. Anya and Kate seemed to have the same thought. The Harbourns not only had reason to dislike the prosecutor, but were not afraid of the legal consequences. They acted as if they were above the law. Even so, it still wasn’t their style. Unless they had hired a professional this time to remove Natasha from the trial.
Noelene had plenty of seedy connections and Natasha had been involved in prosecutions against the family before. This time the stakes were higher than ever. They had a lot to lose.
If the killer were someone else, the Harbourns had definitely benefited. Luck didn’t seem to be something that followed the family around.
“Nick, everything okay?” Zimmer appeared concerned.
McNab uncrossed his arms. “Something just doesn’t sit right. There’s something familiar about these cartridge markings that’s bothering me. Let’s run it through our database. If it matches anything, we’ll know in a couple of hours.”
Kate headed toward the door. “Thanks, and call me any time. No such thing as too late.”
The trio exited the laboratory and walked the two flights back to Homicide.
“Wheeler found out that Noelene Harbourn’s brother has a farm west of here-the one where we found the list. Apparently the boys would go up and shoot foxes and rabbits on weekends. Maybe we should go up there with a metal detector and check it out.”
“Did they keep weapons out there?” It was a long shot but if they had killed Natasha maybe the murder weapon was hidden there.
“No such luck. They wised up. Those guns we found in the wall of their house were from a robbery. They probably sold the rest on the black market or have another stash somewhere.”
Back at her desk Kate threw her jacket over her chair. “Still bothers me, though. We think these guys have access to firepower better than a.22. This just doesn’t fit their pattern of using a truck of dynamite to blow away a cockroach. Natasha got one shot in the head. Quick and clean. No signs of overkill or any other violence.”
She sat down and put her feet up on the desk. “It doesn’t fit their usual lust for blood and suffering. I mean, look at what they did to Rachel Goodwin.”
Zimmer sat on Wheeler’s desk. “Got to admit that car accident wasn’t their style either. Far too subtle. If they wanted to send a message to the rest of the clan about sticking together, they could have made more of a show of Savannah’s death.”
As a mother, it was possible that Noelene had more control over her sons than they realized. “What if the mother hadn’t agreed to the killings? What if they were out on their own, knowing the police were sniffing around. Wouldn’t that make anyone more cautious?”
“Not necessarily, we had one serial killer know he was under surveillance. Didn’t stop him walking into a house and killing a victim with the police outside. A ferret still kills for pleasure, whether it’s hungry or not.”
Anya and Kate looked at him, then laughed.
“God, you’re corny,” Kate said.
“What? I used to keep ferrets as a kid. They kill for fun, it’s what they’re bred for.”
Kate laughed until she snorted, then the other two joined in.
It was enough to break the tension. The truth was, they were all intimidated by possible threats to their own safety and this was one place they could feel relaxed despite the late hour.
Minutes later, Anya was headed to her home to pick up a toiletries bag and change of clothes, so she could stay the night in Kate’s spare room-for protection from the Harbourns. All humor was quickly forgotten.