The first sniper attack part 2

Brenda's viewpoint

"Oh my Lord" My voice sounded numb, even to me. I turned back to Agent Romanov.

"So we may have a sniper running around Los Angeles with a weapon that can kill at a mile and a half?" She nodded, looking grim.

"It's been a scenario that has been worrying the Bureau for at least a decade. The ability to reach out and touch a target at that range is an ongoing nightmare" She shrugged before continuing. "I'm sure you can imagine what the Secret Service think about it"

I nodded, Kennedy had been shot at less than 300 feet, trying to guard against a shot from a mile or more away was almost impossible. I turned as Detective's Sanchez and Rizzoli walked into the room.

"The apartment next door's clean Chief, no sign of forced entry" Sanchez said. Rizzoli then spoke up.

"No one's been on the balcony recently, the owner has some kind of 'zen garden' thing happening there, most of the balcony's covered in sand and rocks and the only tracks are from birds"

"I see. Sergeant Gabriel, would you please speak to our other neighbour, the computer gamer and see if you can work out how a university student can afford a place in what seems to be fairly pricey accommodation. Lieutenant Tao, is there some way we can confirm that he was online playing these games at the time he says he was?" He frowned.

"Depends on the game Chief, some online games monitor the players actions in real time. It depends which one he was playing. If he was playing one of the ones where he was interacting with other players directly, maybe chatting over the net while gaming, well that would help" I nodded.

"If you could take a look please, Lieutenant" Michael turned and walked out the room, followed by David.

"Lieutenant Flynn, what do we have on our victim?" He flipped open his notebook.

"Not much Chief; the apartment's apparently rented to a Marianella Chiarino, 31, an Argentinean national. Occupation's listed as actress".

I looked around the apartment, taking in the nice décor, to see a shot of a strikingly attractive woman, presumably our victim, sitting with her back to the camera in a chair labelled 'Director'. She was looking over her shoulder at the camera, smiling.

I looked over to the body, noting Agent Romanov was squatting near the victim, talking quietly with Maura Isles.

"Doctor, are there any signs of a wedding ring?" She bent to examine the left hand closely before replying.

"No ring or signs of having worn one there Chief Johnson" I turned back to Andy.

"See if we can find a boyfriend or next of kin, if we can I'd like to handle the notification" He nodded.

"You got it Chief" I paused for a second, thinking.

"Can you also find out who her agent was please, and if she was working at the moment" He nodded, taking notes.

I turned to face Agent Romanov; taking her in. Taller than Maura, shorter than either Rizzoli or Dearing, mid-length dark hair, indeterminate ethnic heritage, quite pretty, with what appeared to be a nice figure build hiding under her dark slacks, trainers and FBI wind cheater.

"You seem to have had some knowledge of these weapons, Agent Romanov. Have you encountered them before?" Both Marua and Anastasia stood and turned towards me.

"I did tours in Afghanistan and Iraq" She shrugged. "I was an MP before joining the Bureau" she explained. I found myself staring into her eyes, they were a strange, piercing shade of grey, I could imagine people loosing themselves in them. I tore my gaze away and looked down to our victim as she continued.

"The 50 cal was a standard AMR for several allied forces, the Canadians, Australians and British all used them as did the Army, Navy and Marines"

"Are they legal here in the States?" She shook her head.

"Not in California Ma'am, but in quite a few other states they can be purchased over the counter from gun shops" I smiled to myself at the 'Ma'am'. You can take the girl out of the military…

"They're not cheap, about 10 or 12 thousand dollars, plus the scope and ammunition" I chewed the inside of my cheek, considering the information we had.

"Once we extract the shell from the wall and get the ballistics report, please ask the Bureau to see if they can run down when and where it was sold" She nodded.

"Chief Johnson?" I looked up at Maura's voice. "If you don't mind I would like to have the body moved the body down to the morgue, I can have an autopsy report up to you in the morning" I smiled at her as I ran my hand through my hair.

"Thank you Doctor Isles, but take your time. I think we all know what killed her" She smiled and walked out of the room. Agent Romanov spoke up again.

"To get the sort of accuracy needed for this kind of shot, you're looking for a trained shooter, not an amateur. Probably someone with military training"

"Good point. Detective Sanchez, would you please work with Agent Romanov to track down how many current and former military snipers there are living in the Los Angeles area" They looked at each other and nodded, before heading over to a corner of the room to chat.

"Detective Rizzoli, could you please work with the FBI and Detective Sanchez to chase up gun shops that might have sold such a weapon to anyone on that list of snipers" She nodded and wandered over to the same corner. I looked around, wondering what else I had missed, and noticed our media liaison leaning against a wall, listening quietly.

"Why Miss Dearing, I completely forgot you were here, I'm sorry, how can I help you?" She levered herself off the wall and flashed me a brilliant smile as she stepped out of the partial shadow and directly into the light's set up by the crime techs.

Oh my goodness, I reminded myself to chide Sharon for her understatement, now I could get a good look at Natalie Dearing in some decent light I could see she was stunning.

All piled blonde hair and blue eyes, high cheekbones and a wide, generous mouth, on top of a body that had attracted the eye of every man in the room.

Oh dear lord. I hoped she was good at her job; I didn't want to think that Will only hired her because he was thinking with his dick, although he had a track record of that in the past.

"Not at all Chief, I try and stay out of the way until needed. Besides, you were busy" I nodded, appreciating her patience. "Basically, I just want to run past you an agreed statement for the media downstairs"

"The press is here? Aw shoot, already?" She nodded sympathetically.

"Afraid so, it looked like a couple of 24-hour TV news teams, looking for some filler"

"Well, I don't want any mention of a sniper, last thing we need is another Beltway sniper panic" She nodded again.

"Of course; I will have to explain your presence here but I can tell them that there were certain irregularities in this case and you were asked to investigate" I was shocked, explain me?

"What do you mean explain my presence, whatever for?"

"Chief Johnson, like it or not, you are a high profile media celebrity here in LA" She smiled warmly at me before continuing.

"I doubt that there's a journalist in this city worth their salt that wouldn't recognise you on sight after the high profile cases you and your squad have dealt with" I watched her piercing blue eyes run over me quickly before returning to my face. "Besides, you're not exactly easily forgettable" I felt myself flushing at her attention. Did she just flirt with me?

"Well, thank you, I think. So what should we be saying?"

"Well, I suggest that we state that a young woman has died of a gunshot wound, but of course, we are not at liberty to release anything further at this time. We can provide a complete statement later today once the victim's family have been notified. That should buy us some time, till noon at least"

"Thank you, if you could handle that I would be grateful" I started to turn away when she called me back.

"One last thing, if I may?" I nodded.

"Might I suggest that you and the rest of your squad exit from the rear while I keep them distracted out the front. If they don't see you they may not ask about Major Crimes involvement" Her warm mouth quirked sardonically. "Well, it's probably a faint hope but we can at least try"

"Ok then, we can do that. Detective Sanchez, could you please let the team know that we are leaving via the tradesman's entrance once we finish?" Julio grinned quickly, nodded and walked out of the room. She smiled again.

"Thank you. I was planning to come and see you later this morning Chief, but I suppose this works just as well" I nodded slowly.

"I expect we will be seeing you quite regularly Miss Dearing" She laughed quietly.

"Please, call me Natalie, or Nat. I don't hold a rank and I hate formality unless it's necessary"

"Of course, Natalie it is then" She smiled her thanks at me, nodded and walked over to where Jane Rizzoli and Agent Romanov were standing.

I found myself wondering about our new media liaison. She was everything Sharon had said, and more. Plus it seems that Pope may actually have been thinking with the department's rather than his, best interest at heart. If so it was well overdue.

As I watched, Agent Romanov saw her coming and stepped aside to include her in the discussion with Jane. Natalie apologised for interrupting and leaned in to whisper to the FBI agent. I saw her hand resting on the agent's arm and then Romanov reach up to take her hand. It was such a natural thing I don't think either realised they were doing it.

I also noticed Jane taking it all in with a neutral expression and wondered. If she and Maura were more than friends, they were very careful about it. Perhaps she was surprised that Natalia and Romanov; Anastasia I corrected myself, were quite so open.

Just then Maura and several of her team walked in to remove the body and I saw a look pass between her and Jane. Jane raised an eyebrow and Maura responded with a slight smile that obviously spoke volumes. They were obviously way more than friends, if you were looking closely.

Jane suddenly noticed I was watching and flushed slightly, looking away for a moment. 'Busted' I thought to myself.

When she glanced back I smiled at her, letting her know I was ok with it. She shyly smiled back and turned back to the discussion she was having as Natalie finished up with Anastasia and walked out of the room. I noticed several sets of eyes followed her out.

'Sorry guys she's taken'. The thought taken popped into my head unbidden, tinged with a flash of dark humour.

This was going to be an interesting dynamic I thought as I watched the coroner's assistants prepare the body for transport as Maura supervised.

I had gone from being the only woman in a team of men, to now being orbited by a number of seriously attractive women. My eyes flitted from Maura to the corner where Jane and Anastasia were standing, heads close as they texted each other their contact details.

I noted that both of them had a coiled, restless energy, even standing still you could see it. I wondered if that was what had attracted Maura and Natalie to them. Obviously they were something special; after all they had caught the attention of two exceptionally beautiful women.

For a moment I stood there, wondering what it would be like to be like that, to have someone like a Jane or a Natalie in my life, to love them and be loved in return. It would be an interesting experience, being with a woman.

Shaking my head, wondering where that thought had come from; I banished the images and concentrated on wrapping up the crime scene.