A Shot In The Night (John Harper Series Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

would have some sort of marksmanship ability.  I followed the
path the light had shown me but there were no bullet holes in the metal
structure that housed a number of slides and a pole.  I raise the angle a
little; maybe the shooter had been shorter than Boulton.  Yet again I walked
the scene and once more I found no trace of the killing bullet.  I’d found
other signs of damage but yet again none on the flight path I had managed to
work out.
    I
knew where the body dropped and I had a number of good reference points to indicate
where the bullet would have ended up.  There was even a backstop for the
projectile in the form of a raised mound of the protective sponge surface.  I
knew that the scene of crime unit would have done their job especially
thoroughly on such a case and that a ricochet could happen but there surely
would be some indication of calibre in some of the literature.
    Once
again I walked back to the where the body had fallen; aware now that I was
being watched and this time rang Harris.  The young man answered in his usual
laconic way, “Sup?”
    “Morning
Harris, I’ve got some questions for you.”
    He
yawned long and loud into the phone receiver, “Can’t this wait till you get in?”
    “I
doubt I’ll be coming into the office, so just answer the questions I’ve got.”
    “Sure,
sure whatever boss.”
    “You
read a lot of stuff on that shooting.  Did any of them say how close the
shooter was to Boulton when he fired the kill shot?”
    “I
put them all in your folder but I’d say just about half said that the shooter
went up close and offed him with a shot straight to the noggin.  A couple of
others said that the shooter was close and one or two said they didn’t see the
gunman.  To be honest they are the ones I’m more likely to believe, all
residents and older.  All of the execution stuff was young lads, and far too
many to have actually seen what happened.”
    I
rubbed my beard thinking at that; there would always be people who lied about
seeing an event; no matter how trivial it was someone would think it made them
interesting to fabricate a story about an occurrence.  What interested me
though, was that there were people who said they didn’t see the shooter;
something that I in my naivety had not thought.  Gang shootings in general,
were usually carried out by pistol or shotgun, rarely anything larger than a
submachine gun.  To be accurate and not seen the shooter was either a marksman,
which would narrow down the list of suspects or had used a rifle.  If the
person had used a rifle then that too would change my investigation and would
effectively rule out Tom for the killing.
    All
of that went through my head as I walked forward going on the basis the shot
may have travelled downwards.  I carried on, “Harris, have we had any more work
since I left?”
    “No.”
    “Maybe
we would if you went to the office,” I hung up and hoped I had confused Harris
enough to get him to go to work.  Harris would have most definitely thanked me
for the lunch money and then complained I hadn’t given him enough.  He knew I
kept money in a wall safe that I had specifically installed in the office and
always whinged that he needed more expenses.  If it weren’t for the fact that
it was a very old style tumbler lock safe, I never would have left any money
with him anyway.
    Standing
at where I thought the bullet would have possibly travelled I noticed an
indentation in the soft ground.  Something had been gouged out of the
protective surface and had not been done in a delicate way.  Squatting down I
was about to put my fingers to the hole when the natural light behind me dimmed
and I became very aware that I was no longer alone.

Chapter Eight
    Turning
slowly I kept my hands noticeably open and away from my body, not wishing to
provoke any sort of action.  Before me were two young men, wearing dark
coloured tracksuits and menacing looks that set me on edge.  Months ago I