A/N Just a reiteration, these characters and their rights belong to their creators. No copyright infringement is intended, but thank you for letting us have our way with them, even if only for a little while
The second sniper attack
Brenda's viewpoint
Tuesday morning and I have a Tuesday morning-sized headache to match. Our investigations into the sniper attack were going nowhere quickly and then we had the warehouse shootout on top of it, which meant most of us worked throughout the weekend.
A week after the first sniper attack with nothing much to show for it and I was standing in a nicely upscale apartment, looking at a sight becoming all too rapidly familiar; another young woman with half her head blown off.
Virginia Tennant, 28, a cable TV personality apparently, had been doing early morning Tai Chi exercises on her balcony when the bullet hit, bringing her life to an early, ugly close.
We had already found another 50 calibre shell in the woodwork, I didn't doubt it would match the one we already had. We had gone from a murder to a serial killer, which made a bad day much worse.
Looking around I watched as the squad went about their business. There were a few additions to the team; Maura Isles was on the scene, as was Natalie Dearing. Her partner Anastasia was here too, having brought a large pair of binoculars with her.
When I asked Anastasia had admitted that while it wasn't officially 'her' case, she felt that as the one who had identified the issue first, that she should do what she could to help out.
Truth be told I didn't mind, watching her standing at the railing scanning possible firing points, I thought she was doing something useful, which was more than I seemed to on this case.
I felt useless; we had basically the same evidence that we had from the first one, a pretty young woman brutally stripped of life, a monstrous bullet recovered to confirm what we already knew and not much else.
I watched as the team started combing through victim's personal effects, looking for some connection, no matter how tenuous, with Marianella Chiarino, our first victim.
I sighed as I watched the normally welcome sight of our new media liaison walk through the door. Her presence reminded me that we were not going to be able to hold a lid on this for much longer, especially with a cable TV star involved. She stopped near the door, taking care not to disturb anything that might be evidence and nodded at me, letting me know she was happy to chat to me when I had time.
I was grateful for the courtesy, as it allowed me to try and get some sense of what was going on.
"Sergeant Gabriel, what have you got on our victim's career?" Out came David's notebook as he recited the information.
"Well Chief, Ms Tennant is a host of a cable TV show, "Fashion Watch", it apparently looks at new developments in women's fashion. She's hosted the program for almost 18 months according to her producer"
"Speaking of Mrs Kelly, is she in any fit state to talk yet?" The producer had apparently turned up looking for her star when she hadn't showed up for taping and found the body. She hadn't handled it well; her screams had led a neighbour to ring 911, which had eventually led me here. David just shook his head.
I looked down at the body, the bullet had hit in the lower jaw, tearing most of it away before passing through the back of the skull and out the rear. I don't suppose I should be surprised that Mrs Kelly was near catatonic with shock, if you weren't used to violent death it could be shocking, and this one was more violent than most.
Maura was attempting to decipher the pose she was in when she was hit, which might help us work out where the shot came from.
Eventually she stood and turned to look at me, an uncertain look on her normally gorgeous face.
"Chief Johnson, this hypothesis is extremely tenuous to put it mildly. It's little more than an ill-educated guess…" I had already heard from Jane that Maura was exceptionally reluctant to guess and I was pushing her hard, but anything she did would help.
"I understand Maura, really I do, but anything you could help me with would be more than I have right now" She sighed and walked over to an area closer to the balcony.
"I need a stand in..." She mused, looking around at the women in the room. "Anastasia, how tall are you in bare feet?" Ana looked around in surprise.
"Five six; why?" Maura shook her head.
"Too short" She looked at over me; obviously realising I was slightly shorter. "Natalie, what about you?" She levered herself off the wall and stood taller.
"Five ten" Maura looked at her for a moment and nodded.
"Could you please take your shoes off and come over here" She dropped a pair of three inch heels on the floor and padded over, avoiding the blood spatter on the floor.
I watched as she posed Natalie about six feet in front of the wall, her feet standing on a mat that the victim had been using. Maura kept looking between where Natalie was standing and where the body had crashed against a deckchair, checking against the blood spray across the wall behind her.
"The victim was doing tai chi when shot, so you would need to stand with your feet about 18 inches apart please" Natalie moved her feet and settled again, as Maura reached out again. "I'll need to move your head…" She gently reached out to carefully move Natalie's head into one position after another, searching for the right position.
In fact I noticed that everyone had stopped to watch as she stepped back, considering Natalie's pose, her face frowning in concentration. Again and again she made small movements to Natalie's head and pose, before stepping back.
"May I have the laser pointer please Lieutenant Tao?" I looked over to Michael, who reached into his pocket and brought out the one attached to his key ring. He stepped over and handed it to Maura, who nodded gratefully to him.
"Thank you Lieutenant" She turned and walked towards the impact crater.
"Jane, could you please move that chair over to the wall, near the bullet impact point?"
Once the chair was in place she stepped up and held the laser in front of the hole, pointing at the back of Natalie's head, the red dot standing out against her blonde hair.
"Could you please hold it in this position Jane? Thank you" Stepping down, Jane replaced her as Maura walked back to where Natalie stood.
I noticed that the rest of the squad was as entranced as I, watching her recreate the scene.
Another session of moving Natalie's head and body followed as Maura attempted to line up the laser with the location of the exit would on the victim. Finally satisfied she looked back at me.
"Chief Johnson, I've probably wasted your time as this is far from a scientific test, however based on a series of estimations, you're probably looking at the position the victim was in when struck. As you can see, the victim had her head slightly back, so the bullet came from slightly below horizontal and probably from this general direction"
I smiled; Maura Isles had just reproduced, with nothing more than her examination of the victim, a living model and a pocket laser pointer, something that would have taken the forensics labs techs half a day and a box of equipment. I now understood why she came so highly recommended from Boston, if anything they had been modest about her skills.
"That's ok Doctor, anything that sends us somewhat in the right direction and narrows down where we are looking is very helpful" Anastasia stepped up behind Natalie's shoulder and started scanning her binoculars in the general area indicated.
"Well Chief, the two most likely areas are a copse of trees in a small park, or a car park probably about 200 metres away to the left of the trees. Distance would be around 1300 metres, somewhere between four thousand and four thousand five hundred feet. Most of the rest of the area is private residences"
"Excellent. Agent Romanov, could you please point out the sites you've mentioned to Lieutenant Flynn. Lieutenant Provenza, once we've got the area identified, get some uniforms onsite scouring both areas for anything that might help us get a better handle on our shooter. Could you and Lieutenant Flynn take charge of the search please?"
I noticed Maura thanking Natalie for her help and started to turn away when I saw Natalie reach out to Anastasia, who was looking a little discomforted. I wondered what it meant when I suddenly realised she had just seen her partner standing in exactly the same spot and pose the victim had been when her life had come to an abrupt, brutal and messy end.
It didn't take too much imagination for Anastasia to see Natalie in the place of the victim, something Natalie must have recognised. As I watched, she reached out and rubbed Anastasia's arm while offering a warm smile. After a few seconds of contact, her hand dropped, but I could see it had helped.
I realised I wasn't the only one to have seen it, as Jane Rizzoli stepped up next to Anastasia and spoke something in a soft voice, to which Anastasia replied with a small nod and a whispered thanks. Maura in turn must have suddenly realised what had happened based on what Jane had done, as she turned and quietly asked if Natalie and Anastasia were alright.
As I watched, I saw both of them quickly turn to reassure Maura that she had done nothing wrong and they were fine. If anything they seemed concerned to have upset her.
It was fascinating, watching both couples as they interacted. I wasn't used to watching couples work together and the way they related to each other and to the other couple, was quite different than my previous experience. I also found the concern that each couple had for the other to be... interesting. A few seconds later they had drifted apart and it was as if nothing had happened.
I'd always found people watching to be enthralling and these four women were proving to be compelling subjects. I resolved to keep a close eye on them in the future, watching how they dealt with each other.
In the meantime, we had a long range serial killer to catch.