Killer

CHAPTER 42

Processing the Toyota would take a long time, beginning at the crash site and ending at the motor lab. But inspecting the car’s trunk was instant gratification: the hatch had shot open on impact.

Inside were three weapons: Housed in canvas cases were a semiautomatic 9mm Sheriff’s Department duty-authorized Heckler & Koch P2000 subsequently tied to the shell casings left at the Bernard Chamberlain shooting scene, and a similarly sanctioned 12-gauge Remington 870 pump shotgun.

Wrapped in a white tea towel embroidered with pink roses, and wedged into a blood-pooled corner of the crash-distorted compartment, was a smaller handgun with a short nose that made it appear more grip than barrel.

Taurus PT25, later I.D.’d as the firearm used to shoot William Melandrano in the head.

No current registration for the little gun but its serial number was traceable: wrested from a mentally unstable man attempting to smuggle the pistol and a hunting knife into the Mosk Courthouse, presumably to inflict damage upon the ex-wife who kept dragging him back to family court for more child support.

Following confiscation, the gun had been placed on a shelf in a basement storage room, part of a cache destined to be destroyed in an official county meltdown. Among the bailiffs given access to that room was Hank Nebe, who’d earned a month’s worth of taxpayer-funded overtime by supplementing his courtroom chores with yawn-inducing sentry duty.

On advice of counsel Nebe had nothing to say about that, or anything else. Fifty-six days into his incarceration at County Jail he was beaten severely and raped by fellow prisoner(s) unknown. That, despite being sequestered in a high-power, protective security cell.

Kiara Fallows remained equally mute. So far, her stay in the women’s wing at the jail’s Twin Towers had been uneventful, but for a report that she was “making friends quickly.”

Ree Sykes had plenty to say.