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“I happened to be looking in the right place as it hit. And the sound of a bullet striking metal is distinctive.” Marccontinued to do a visual grid search of the parking lot as the siren increased in intensity. Another one joined in, creating a discordant melody.
“Do you think the shooter’s still h-here?”
Though her tone was calm, the hiccup in her voice was telling.
Bri might be law enforcement, but fire investigators weren’t often in the line of gunfire. Nor was that a high risk inhiscurrent job. But he’d been involved in dicey situations during his early days with the ATF. Dodged more than a few bullets. Dealt with a number of shooter situations.
This one, however, didn’t fit the pattern for shootings in typically safe public locations.
“Doubtful.”
“Why?”
“It’s not an active shooter situation, which is more what you’d expect in this setting. Only two shots were fired. If the shooter had been trying to wreak havoc or kill multiple people, he’d have kept firing. Besides, most perpetrators of mass shootings pick a place where they can take out the most people as fast as possible. Think Columbine or the movie theater in Colorado or the Las Vegas tragedy.”
“So what was the point of this?”
He stopped searching the parking lot long enough to spare her a measured glance. “Like I said, the second bullet hit your car.”
Once more, shock blanked out her features as his message registered. “You think ... you think this person was aiming for me?”
“I don’t know, but it’s disturbing in light of all that happened last week.”
Three patrol cars with sirens blaring pulled into the parking lot.
“Agent Davis, are you there?”
At the 911 operator’s question, he released the mute button. “Yes. Officers just arrived. Let them know no other shots have been fired.”
“Copy. Please stay on the line.”
Once more Marc muted the phone and spoke to Bri while keeping tabs on the activity in the lot. “Are you certain you can’t think of anyone who would want to do you harm?”
When she didn’t respond, he looked back at her.
Her forehead was puckered, and her complexion had paled.
Two other facts also clicked into place in rapid succession.
She was carrying off duty—and she’d paused to get a read on the lot as she’d left the store.
His pulse ratcheted up another notch.
“Bri?”
She massaged the bridge of her nose. Exhaled. “There was a new development this morning.” In a handful of sentences, she told him about Travis Holmes. “But I have no proof he’s involved in any of this. And I can’t believe he’d travel almost two thousand miles to harass me.”
“Don’t you think it’s worth finding out where he is?”
“I don’t have any probable cause for a warrant to dig into his credit card records to check for charges that could track his whereabouts.”
“Agent Davis, the responding officers have asked for your location.”
He unmuted the phone again and provided the information.
“Stand by. One of the officers will come to you.”
“Copy.”
