Eye of Vengeance Read Online Free PDF

come around so I could get up there with you.”
    “Sorry,” he said. “Guess I wasn’t thinking. Just going on a feeling that it wasn’t just the weather those guys were staring up at from that spatter spot.”
    She was packing away her telephoto lens.
    “Find anything up there to prove it was a sniper?”
    Nick shook his head, as much at her skilled perception as at her question. She’d probably been ahead of him all along.
    “Clean,” he said, looking away from her instead of giving her the satisfaction of knowing that he was impressed with her deduction. He turned his attention to the double glass doors that led into the clinic. Witnesses? Just inside, Nick could make out the figure of a small man hovering, taking furtive looks out in the direction of the cops. Cameron had just made the last rung and stopped, trying to figure the easiest way to make the last leap.
    Nick sauntered as best he could over to the doors and when the little man saw him coming he hesitated, like he was going to scramble back inside, and then changed his mind and stepped out the door to meet him. Nick tried to look official and it worked.
    “Good morning,” he said.
    “Yes, sir. Good morning.”
    His name tag said DENNIS and he was dressed for work: dark slacks and a polo shirt with one of those sky-blue hospital smocks over it.
    “Mind if I ask you a question?”
    “No, sir. What’s, uh, going on?”
    “Well, there was a shooting across the street this morning,” Nick said.
    “Yes, we saw all the news trucks and traffic from the front windows,” the man said, looking over Nick’s shoulder to the uniformed deputies who were now talking with Cameron.
    “So these guys”—Nick nodded behind him—“were checking out your roof.”
    The man nodded as though it would be pretty routine for a handful of cops to be crawling up the side of his building.
    “Did anyone inside see anyone back here this morning when you all came into work?”
    “Just you people,” he said, finally looking into Nick’s face. “I figured there was something going on when I got here, but, you know, since your man didn’t say anything, I just went straight inside.”
    “You mean just a few minutes ago, Dennis?”
    Nick knew to always use the familiar first name if you could. It sometimes loosens them up.
    “Oh, no. Like, before eight.”
    “Before eight you saw one of these guys?” Nick said, nodding back at Cameron and the cops.
    “No. Not one of them. One of your, like, SWAT people, coming off the ladder.”
    The little man again looked over Nick’s shoulder. Cameron was heading their way.
    “What did this guy on the ladder look like?” Nick said, trying to keep the urgency out of his voice, knowing his interview was about to end.
    “You know, dressed in black with this equipment bag and stuff slung over his shoulder. Scared the hell out of me at first, you know, coming off the roof like that. Then he kind of just waved to me and then walked on by. Later, when I was inside and people started seeing stuff happening over at the jail, it, you know, made sense.”
    “Can you describe this man, this SWAT officer, Dennis? I mean, was he tall, short, white, black?”
    Skepticism started growing in Dennis’s eyes, then went into the wrinkles of his small forehead. “Are you with the police?” he said.
    “Oh, no,” Nick said, trying to look surprised that he’d been mistaken. “I’m with the Daily News, Dennis.” He offered his hand. “Nick Mullins. Just trying to figure out what happened this morning.” He could feel Cameron move up behind him.
    “Did this officer have any identifying marks on his, uh, uniform? You know, like the big yellow letters on his back or some kind of insignia on his chest or hat?”
    “No. Not that I can recall, exactly. I just sort of assumed after the commotion outside …,” the little man said and then looked again over Nick’s shoulder.
    “Nick. I need to talk with you.”
    Nick turned to face Cameron,