Apprentice in Death Read Free

They didn’t do more than look at her—she was obviously gone. One tried working on the gut shot, and the other examined the head shot—but they were all gone. So they focused on the injured.”
    Eve rose with a nod. “Security discs.”
    â€œRight here.”
    Eve plugged one of the discs into her own PPC, cued it to fifteen-fourteen, and focused first on the girl in red.
    â€œShe’s good,” Peabody commented. “Her form, I mean. She’s building up some speed there, and—”
    She broke off when the girl shot through the air, form gone, and collided with the young family.
    Eve rewound it, backed up another minute, and now scanned the other skaters, the onlookers.
    â€œPeople are giving her room,” Eve murmured, “some are watching her. I don’t see any weapons.”
    She let it play through, watched the second victim jerk back, eyes widening, knees buckling.
    Ran it back, noted the time. Ran it forward.
    â€œLess than six seconds between strikes.”
    People skated to the first vic and the family. Security came rushing out. And the couple skating—poorly—along the rail—slowed. The man glanced back. And the strike.
    â€œJust over six seconds for the third. Three shots in roughly twelve seconds, three dead—center back, gut, forehead. That’s not luck. And none of those strikes came from the rink or around it. Tell Fericke, when he’s got all names and contacts, that anyone who has given a statement can go. Except for the medicals and the third vic’s wife.
    â€œGet a full statement from all three of them, and contact whoever the vic’s wife wants. The female’s cleared for bagging, tagging, and transpo to the morgue. And we need park security feeds.”
    â€œWhich sector?”
    â€œAll of them.”
    Leaving Peabody gaping, Eve crossed the ice to the second victim.
    When she finished with the bodies, she went inside.
    The two medicals sat together on a bench in a locker area, drinking coffee out of go-cups.
    Eve nodded to the uniform, dismissing her, then sat on the bench across from them. “I’m Lieutenant Dallas. You’ve given statements to my partner, Detective Peabody.”
    They both nodded, the one on the left—trim, close-shaven,mid-thirties—nodded. “Nothing we could do for the three who were killed. By the time we got to them, they were gone.”
    â€œDoctor?”
    â€œSorry. Dr. Lansing. I thought, I honestly thought the girl—the girl in the red suit—had just taken a bad spill. And the little boy, he was screaming. I was right there, that is, right behind them when it happened. So I tried to get to him, first. I started to move the girl, to get to the little boy, and realized she wasn’t hurt or unconscious. I heard Matt shouting for everyone to get off the ice, to get clear.”
    â€œMatt.”
    â€œThat’s me. Matt Brolin. I saw the collision—saw that girl go into her turn for a jump, saw her propelled forward into the family. I was going to go help, then I saw the guy go down, saw him drop. Even then I didn’t put it together. But I saw the third one, I saw the strike, and I knew. I was a corpsman. Twenty-six years ago, but it doesn’t leave you. We were under attack, and I wanted people to get to cover.”
    â€œYou two know each other.”
    â€œWe do now,” Brolin said. “I knew the third guy was gone—hell of a sniper strike—but I tried to do what I could for the second one. He was still alive, Lieutenant. He looked at me. I remembered that look—and it’s a hard one to remember. He wasn’t going to make it, but you’ve got to do what you can do.”
    â€œHe shielded the guy with his own body,” Lansing put in. “People panicked, and I swear some would’ve skated right over that man, but Matt shielded him.”
    â€œJack had his hands full with the little boy, and the