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Sitting on the lowest branch, he eyed the motel. Nope, this wasn’t high enough. He carefully stood and climbed higher. The next V was better, but as he eyed the distance, the angle of the shots that had pummeled the mattress still wasn’t right.
“Anything?” Steele called.
“Not yet. Do you have a pair of binocs down there?”
“Yeah.” Steele was dressed in his full gear, and he removed a small pair of binocs from his utility belt. “Ready?”
Joe leaned forward and caught the binocs with one hand. Then he moved horizontally from one branch to the other. Still not high enough. He sat for a moment, frowning. Was he wrong about the angle? It had all happened very quickly, and his concern had been on reaching Elly while avoiding being shot.
Then he glanced over to the other tree. The one to his left. Looking down at the ground, he thought it was more likely that the gunman had been up here. But he could be wrong. Still, he didn’t give up on the tree until he’d crawled to several more possible positions.
“Are you taking a nap up there?” Steele asked.
“No.” He gazed down at him. “This isn’t the right angle. And I haven’t seen any evidence that anyone else has been up here either.”
“You said he had to be shooting from an elevated position,” Steele said. “Which means he was up in a tree.”
“I know. Look out, I’m coming down.” After stuffing the binocs in his pocket, he carefully climbed to the lowest branch, then straddled it like a horse, turning upside down so he could drop to the ground. He scowled at Steele’s grin. As a tactical unit, they often fought side by side in dicey situations. But there was also plenty of razzing between the guys—and gals, he silently amended—during downtime.
“I need another leg up.” He gestured to the tree to their left. “I want to check this one.”
“That branch is higher,” Steele pointed out.
“Are you saying you’re not strong enough to get me up there?” Joe challenged.
Steele scoffed. “Don’t make me show you just how high I can toss your sorry behind.” His buddy laced his fingers together again. “Come on, cowboy. Time to get in the saddle. Giddyap.”
Shaking his head, Joe placed his boot in Steele’s palms, then steadied himself as his buddy used all his strength to lift him up. He managed to grasp the branch and hung dangling for a moment before he was able to pull himself the rest of the way up. Climbing the tree was why he and the others hit the gym on a regular basis. All those pull-ups and push-ups had prepared him for this.
He swung his legs over the branch and sat upright. He sat for a moment, then pulled out the binocs and zeroed in on the motel.
A chill ran down his spine. This was it. This was the nest the shooter had used in his goal to kill Elly. It was the right height and distance.
He peered through the binocs, trying to envision the room past the bullet ridden glass. It wasn’t easy, but he could make out the white sheets of the bed.
Twisting on the branch, he looked down and could see the area where he’d found the brass.
Scanning the surrounding area, he tried to imagine the path the shooter had taken to escape. He turned so that he was facing the large trunk of the tree and saw some scrape marks in the bark.
Oh yeah, this was it.
There was a smooth part of the tree trunk that he’d have checked for prints. Even though the guy at the parade had been wearing gloves, it was worth a try. Gazing past the tree trunk, he saw the church. “Steele? Did anyone go through the church?”
“I’ll check.” Steele lifted his hand to his radio to make the call. “Attention all units, who cleared the church?”
“I did,” someone responded. “Five minutes ago. It was clear.”
Five minutes. Too long, Joe thought with a frustrated sigh. It had taken them too long, and now the shooter was once again in the wind.
CHAPTERFIVE
Elly’s fingers hurt from being laced so tightly together to keep them from trembling. She felt safe in the squad, but watching as uniformed officers combed the area and rolled crime scene tape across the stairs leading up to her bullet-ravaged motel room only made her aware of how close she’d come to dying here tonight.
Joe too.
Turning in the seat, she tried to look through the rear window to see where Joe was. There was no sign of him, though, just the officer named Steele who had come to their rescue standing beside a tree.
Joe abruptly dropped to the ground next to him. Startled, she realized he’d been up in the tree. Was that where the shooter had been? Shivering, she thought that likely.
