Chapter 4

"Are you sitting down?" Cinder asked when she contacted Brian a few days later.

"No, but something tells me I should be," he answered.

"Remember those two bullets I told you about that Doc Paul gave me at the morgue?" Cinder reminded him. "Well, I ran them."

"So what did you find?"

"That's the interesting part. They're the same caliber, but the tool marks on them don't match."

Brian perked up on his end. "Are you sure? There could have been an error in running the test or something."

"That's what I thought at first too, but I examined both of them at every possible angle and still came up with the same conclusion. The second bullet looks like it had been forced into another weapon."

Brian thought for a second, then replied, "There is no way Exodus could have shot the guy with one gun and then had time to load another and shoot him again."

"Not with the height and location of the fatal wound," Cinder added, referring to the autopsy report of Paul's. "I can't tell you what the DA's office is thinking about all of this, but I am going with the theory Exodus wasn't alone in that place."

"And this will be the beginning on proving that," Brian agreed. "The question remains who that second person was and their relationship with Exodus."

A short time later:

"Boss," Shelly greeted Brian when she had returned to the office.

"Find out anything new?" he wondered.

"I had a long talk with someone named Melanie Turner. She's a pre-law student and a longtime friend of Exodus'. Apparently she was the only one Exodus confided in as far as her relationship with Michael Kleto was concerned. She was also the one who took Exodus to the safe house last year, but Exodus left after only three days."

"Are you sure there wasn't anyone else who knew about the abusive situation besides the safe house staff and Ms. Turner?"

Shelly shook her head. "Why do you ask?"

Brian relayed to her about his earlier telephone call from Cinder.

"Now that you mentioned that, maybe there is someone I missed. I'm going to go see Cindy at the lab to have a look for myself, and then do some very serious digging."

Shelly then left the office and headed to the lab, only to find Cinder out.

"She and Alex went back to the crime scene," one of the associates informed her. "You might want to try her there."

Shelly cringed a little; she wasn't big on visiting crime scenes, but as part of her new resolve to dig for any detail that could free Exodus or at least get her a reduced charge, she toughened up and headed over to the apartment.

"Well, well," Cinder greeted her, "what brings you by? I thought you hated visiting the scenes of the crime."

"Usually, yes, but Brian told me about what you found on the bullets earlier."

Cinder nodded. "Which is why Alex and I came back here; to comb over anything we may have missed the first time."

"Cindy!" Alex called from another room. "I think we could be on to something here!"

The two women headed into the room where he was, frantically photographing.

"What did you find?" Cinder asked.

"A footprint on this window sill," Alex replied. "Now tell me, does this print look like a woman who wears a size six shoe?"

Shelly studied it closer. "More like at least a size ten," she said. "This is all starting to make sense."

"And look over here; another print," Alex continued. "Someone stood here where they could have a direct shot at the victim when he turned around, but no one would see them at the same time."

"Was there a second weapon recovered from here by any chance?" Shelly wondered.

"Glad you asked," Alex nodded. "The victim's hunting rifle. And it was recently fired."