M24 SWS.
One clean shot was all he needed. One shot directly into the kill zone where the bullet would sever the brainstem and cause instantaneous death.
He hadn’t been there more than six or seven minutes now, watching and waiting for the right moment to strike. How long had the Powell agents been talking to Cindy? Lifting his Bushnell binoculars, he zeroed in on the Paulks’ front porch. Cindy had gone back into the house and the Powell agents were standing in the front yard talking. Just what had Cindy told them? She couldn’t have told them something of any real importance because her knowledge was limited. And with her out of the way, the agents would have no way to verify what, if anything, she’d told them.
Minutes ticked by, four, six, ten. The Powell agents hadn’t left, which meant they were waiting for something or someone. During the wait, he had gone over his plan, preparing for several different scenarios, one that included having to kill the Powell agents as well as Cindy’s sister and brother-in-law. Having to kill that many people would complicate the situation, make it messy. He preferred neat loose ends, all tied up, no usable evidence left behind. He always wore thin leather gloves that had been handmade in Italy, thus leaving no fingerprints. Whenever there was a possibility of leaving footprints, he made sure he wore inexpensive shoes that could be picked up at Wal- Mart. He prided himself on not making mistakes. Mistakes could be deadly. And he intended to live to a ripe old age.
When the front door opened, it was Lonny Paulk who came out onto the porch, not Cindy Dobbins. This time he wasn’t carrying a shotgun.
“Cindy’ll be out soon,” Lonny told Maleah and Derek. “The wife ain’t too happy about her going off with you two. She says we don’t know y’all, don’t know if we can trust either of you. But Cindy says she trusts you, so I reckon that ought to be good enough.”
“We’ll make sure Cindy is kept safe,” Maleah assured Lonny. “She can call her sister every day if she’d like. We’re not taking her prisoner.”
“She says that the lawyer she hooked up with a while back got himself whacked and that the guy who killed him just might come after her next,” Lonny said. “Any chance that me and the Mrs. might be in any danger?”
“I don’t think you and Jeri have to worry. The killer has no reason to harm either of you, especially once Cindy is no longer staying here with y’all.”
Lonny turned halfway around and hollered into the house, “You two women stop your yakking and get out here. You’re keeping these folks waiting.”
When she glanced his way, Maleah noted the smile in Derek’s eyes although he hadn’t changed his expression in any way.
“Hold your horses,” Jeri told her husband as she held the screen door open for her sister. “I needed time to say my good-byes to Cindy.”
“I’m ready,” Cindy said as she followed Jeri onto the porch.
Derek moved forward, reached up and took Cindy’s small, seen-better-days suitcase while Jeri and Cindy walked down the steps and into the yard, the two women arm-in-arm. Maleah opened the SUV’s driver’s side door, slid behind the wheel and impatiently strummed her fingertips on the steering wheel. After placing the suitcase in the back of the Equinox, Derek stood outside the SUV. The sisters hugged each other and shed a few tears. Cindy released Jeri and walked toward Derek, who had opened the door for her and waited to help her up and into the vehicle.
Suddenly, halfway to the SUV, Cindy dropped like a stone falling through water and instantly hit the ground. The crack of rifle fire pierced the bucolic stillness just as the bullet entered Cindy’s head. The sound was familiar in a rural area where hunting was a major pastime. But Maleah quickly realized that this nighttime shooter’s prey had been human and that Cindy Dobbins had been killed by a skilled rifleman.
Jeri screamed at the top of her lungs.
Lonny mumbled, “What the hell?”
After reaching inside the SUV to grab the Beretta Maleah kept under the seat as a backup weapon, Derek got to Cindy first and checked for a pulse. He looked up at Maleah, who rushed in behind him, and shook his head, then rose to his feet.
“Call nine-one-one,” Maleah yelled as she flipped open her holster, pulled out her Glock, and headed across the country road.
Derek caught up with her just as she entered the woods. “Hold up,” he told her. “We don’t know where this guy is. It could take us a while to find him, if we can find him. Slow down and think this thing through.”
“Damn it, Derek, while we’re thinking, he could be getting away.”
As if on cue, a car started somewhere nearby.
Without hesitation, they both rushed from the edge of the wooded area and ran up the road toward the sound of the vehicle’s screeching departure. The red taillights winked mockingly at them as the car sped off in the opposite direction.
Maleah cursed under her breath as she turned and raced back up the road toward her SUV still parked in the Paulks’ driveway.
“She’s dead,” Jeri wailed. “My sister’s dead.”
“Shot clean through the head,” Lonny said, a look of shock in his eyes.
“Call 911, damn it,” Maleah told them. “Get the sheriff out here.” She jumped in the Equinox and revved the motor.
Derek barely got the passenger’s side door open before Maleah started backing up the SUV. By the time he managed to jump inside the Equinox, she had the vehicle headed up the road, back toward the main highway.
Chapter 15
Derek noted that Maleah hadn’t secured her seatbelt.
“I’m going to reach across and grab your seatbelt,” he told her.
“Yeah, go ahead.”
Once he buckled her in, he did the same for himself.
“I doubt the Paulks contacted 911,” Maleah told him as she pressed her foot down on the gas pedal. “Call 911 and tell them what’s happened and let them know that we are in pursuit of the shooter.”
Knowing a reply was unnecessary, Derek hurriedly placed the call, gave them his name and then explained that there had been a shooting, the victim was dead, and her sister and brother-in-law were with the body. He rattled off the address and then explained that he and his partner, both Powell Agency employees, were pursuing what they believed to be the shooter’s vehicle.
The 911 operator kept him on the line, asking questions as she began the process of contacting the proper agencies.
The scenery flashed by in a dark blur as they chased the red taillights all the way back to the main highway. Maleah made the turn at eighty miles an hour. The SUV swerved and tilted as they rounded the curve and sailed into the oncoming traffic lane. Luckily, there wasn’t another vehicle anywhere in sight, except for the getaway car.
Derek couldn’t help being impressed with Maleah’s driving skills. The Equinox had just hit ninety and was beginning to close in on the car ahead of them by no more than a hundred yards.
“Can you make out anything about the car?” Maleah asked. “Make? Model? Color? Car tag?”
“Not yet,” he told her.
Staying on the line with the 911 operator by placing his phone between his ear and shoulder, he undid his seatbelt and climbed into the back of the SUV. Maleah didn’t react. Remaining focused straight ahead, she kept driving in hot pursuit of the shooter. Derek plopped down in the backseat, spread his legs, reached into the floorboard and unzipped the black vinyl equipment bag. He rummaged around in the bag until he found what he’d been searching for—binoculars.
