Smoke and Mirrors

58

SATURDAY

Winter climbed out of bed and was getting dressed when he heard Brad open the back door. Seconds later he heard Ruger’s steady barking from the backyard. He slipped his gun rig on over his wool vest and went downstairs, where Brad stood at the back door in sweatpants and a T-shirt looking out through the screen. He whistled several times in rapid succession.

“Ruger after a rabbit?” Winter asked.

“I don’t know,” Brad said. “She’s going to wake up the neighborhood. This isn’t like her. She always comes when I call her.” He whistled again.

“Come back from the door,” Winter said, drawing his Reeder and moving to a window in the den for a better view. In the wash from the porch light, Winter could see the dog standing at the picket fence, looking out at something from between the slats.

“Get a gun,” Winter said. “Cover me from here.”

Winter took his high-intensity flashlight from the vest pocket. Hurrying to the front door, he opened it as silently as possible and moved around the house, his trigger finger flat against the receiver, aiming the.45 as he went. When he got to the fence he turned the flashlight on, aiming the light spot and the gun at a figure seated at the base of a tree with his back resting against it. Winter slipped through the gate, keeping the shape illuminated.

The seated man wore all black, assault boots, and a knit wool balaclava with eye and mouth holes in it. His gloved left hand held a pair of night vision goggles, and in the dew-coated grass next to his right hand lay a silenced HK SOCOM Mark 23 with a noise suppressor. Much of the left side of his head was missing, and a red toothpick had been jammed between his front teeth.

Using his flashlight, Winter quickly scanned the neighboring yard. Thankfully there were no lights on in that house.

Winter clicked on the thumb safety of his cocked.45 and waved Brad out before he moved over to the body for a closer look.

He heard Brad and Alexa talking as they approached the fence, Brad commanding the dog to stop barking. Lights from a car pulling into the driveway washed the garage and trees in Brad’s backyard. Winter prayed it wasn’t the cops.

“What is it?” Alexa asked.

“Looks like a dead body,” Brad replied. “That’ll be my father coming for breakfast before he does his early rounds at the hospital.”

“What are you kids doing?” Winter heard Dr. Barnett ask as he approached the fence.

“Stay back, Daddy,” Brad said.

Dr. Barnett ignored his son’s warning.

Brad opened the gate for the others to enter the yard where Winter was using the harsh light to study the dead man.

“I’ll call the police,” Brad said.

Ruger whined.

“You are the police,” Dr. Barnett said. “Quiet now, girl.”

“This is a city matter,” Brad replied.

“Hold up,” Winter told him. “We need to think this through.”

“Who is he?” Brad asked. “Is it…?”

Winter looked up at the three faces. “It isn’t him. But he did this.” He pointed at the toothpick.

Dr. Barnett came through the gate, knelt beside the corpse, felt the wrist for a pulse, and lifted the head for a look at the wound while Winter held his light for him. “This neighborhood is going to hell.”

“Excuse my father’s humor,” Brad said.

Winter checked the dead man’s pockets. He removed a folding knife with a four-inch blade and three extra magazines for the HK. The corpse had an earpiece connected to a radio unit secured inside a jacket pocket. A green light on the radio showed that it was on. Winter turned it off. Reaching around behind the man, Winter worked a wallet out of his back pocket and opened it. “New York driver’s license. Andrew Mark. Manhattan address. Credit cards. Several hundred dollars in cash. Business card says he is an importer. Twenty-nine years old. Picture of two small children and a woman.” There was also an automotive key in the wallet.

After laying out the items, Winter removed the right glove and inspected the corpse’s heavily callused hand and the chronometer on his wrist.

“That handgun silenced? He some kind of hit man?” Dr. Barnett asked.

“Something like that. Brad, we need to take a quick walk around,” Winter said.

“Where?” Brad asked.

Winter used a handkerchief to wipe his prints off the items and put them back where he’d found them. He stood, snapped off the light, and holstered his.45. “This guy had someone at the other end of the radio. Since he’s been here like this for hours, I doubt his backup made out any better than he did.”

“You going to call the cops?” Dr. Barnett asked.

“I don’t think we should rush into anything just yet,” Winter said. “He’s not going anywhere. Let’s see if we can find the vehicle this spare key unlocks.”

“When I lived here, we almost never found dead professional killers in our yards,” Dr. Barnett said.