Under Cover

Chapter 4

        Detective Richards glanced over the ballistics report a second time. Senator Jim Taylor had been killed by a single shot to the head by a 0.22 calibre bullet most probably fired by a Ruger. This M.O. was identical to two previous murders over the last three months. The other victims, a judge and a scientist, had also been shot in the head. The Ruger was a good killing weapon, but it was most effective at close range. The killer had stood right in front of his victims when he shot them. They had seen their death coming.

A judge, a scientist and a senator. What did they have in common? The judge was killed outside his front door, the scientist inside his house, and the senator in a parking garage.

With the judge it could have been a revenge killing over someone he had sent to jail. Maybe the scientist was killed so his work on satellite systems could be stolen, and the senator was actively trying to stop a major property developer from demolishing apartment buildings to be replaced with a huge retail development worth billions.

The murders were planned, the killer was well organized and had left no fingerprints or DNA at the crime scenes. He brought up the video file on his computer for the third time and watched the figure in the coat and hood leaving the parking garage. Richards could just make out that the person was wearing gloves. This was their man. This was the killer, but it was impossible to see his face.

And there was nothing in common with the three victims. Or was there? Then it came to him. Of course! It was obvious. He should have picked it up sooner. He reached for the phone and called his partner in the investigation, Senior Detective Dan O'Connor. 

"Dan, I think I've got it," he said enthusiastically, "We're not looking for a serial killer, we're looking for a hit man, an assassin!"

There was silence at the other end of the line for a couple of seconds, then his partner responded. "I think you're right. Yes, it makes sense. Three professional killings of three high profile victims with nothing linking them. This is probably a freelance assassin."

"Yes," Richards replied, "and he is good, very good. Unless we actually catch him in the act we probably never will catch him." He paused for moment, "Although maybe we do have a chance."

"What do you have in mind?"

"Come over to my desk and I'll tell you."

Five minutes later O'Connor was sitting in front of Richards' desk listening to his plan.

"Three killings at intervals of about one month," Richards said, "and the victims were all high profile people. I'm thinking our hitman gets a job once a month which gives him time to study his victim's routine and plan when and where to make the kill."

"So the next hit will be in about four weeks," O'Connor added.

"Exactly. So that gives us four weeks to work out who might be next on his list."

"But it could be any one of a hundred or more high profile people in this city. How will we know who it is?"

Richards sat back and scratched his chin. "Yeah that's going to be the hard part."

Just then a junior detective walked up to Richards. "This just came in for you," he said, handing him a large envelope.

O'Connor watched as Richards leafed through the contents of the envelope. Finally he looked up at his partner with a bewildered look on his face. "Dan, I think we might have a fourth victim, but get this. The M.O. was slightly different, and the man who was killed was a known hitman."

"Where was this?" Dan asked, "Not in our jurisdiction." 

"No, this came from Northside. It was almost four months ago. A man was found shot dead in an alley. Single bullet to the head, a 0.22 calibre bullet."

"I don't suppose there were any CCTV cameras in that alley?"

"Not in the alley, but there is footage from a camera across the street." He shook the envelope and a USB stick dropped out.

As Richards plugged the stick into his computer and opened the video file, O'Connor walked around to watch the screen.

The video was low resolution, possibly because it was at night, but it clearly showed a man, presumably the victim, walking to the entry to the valley, glancing quickly over his shoulder and then entering the alley. A minute later a second man wearing a long coat and a hood covering his head followed the first man into the alley. About five minutes later the man in the coat walked briskly out of the alley, turned left and disappeared out of the frame.

"Let's have a closer look at you," Richards muttered. He took the video back to the moment the man was leaving the alley, froze it, then enlarged it. "What do you think?" he asked O'Connor.

"Same slim build, approximate same height and wearing a long coat with a hood over his head. Too bad we can't see his face, but that's our man, but this time his victim was not a high profile public person, it was another hitman," O'Connor paused and then added, "but why?"

"We'll ask him when we get him," Richards said briskly.

"I like your confidence."

"Four weeks. We have four weeks to try and work out who his next victim will be."