Miami Fire by Rick Murcer

Author:Rick Murcer [Murcer, Rick]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Murcer Press
Published: 2015-03-19T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER-23

“Captain Swifton, we need a minute,” said Manny, rising from the table. “I need to speak with my team, then we’ll be back in to wrap this up.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Sure. We’ll be here.” Once in the breakroom hall, the smell of coffee still tangoing in the air, Manny turned to Josh.

“What does ‘the data is weird’ mean?” asked Manny, his pulse rate climbing.

“The tech said that there were about one hundred forty homicides over the last two months, a little above normal, but nothing drastic. She said the number of shootings was down, however, but the number of others, such as knifings, beatings, and the like, were up. That caught her attention, so she then broke them down by area and how the victims were killed.

“She said the murders outside of Miami proper had spiked and had leaked into the subdivisions.”

“You mean like the one where the Blankses were found,” said Manny.

“Yes. But that wasn’t all. It seems that there were at least three double murders that the locals have investigated that weren’t shootings.”

“But they wouldn’t think that all unusual, given the gang and organized crime shit going on around here, right?” asked Sophie.

“Right,” said Josh. “But one of them—”

Josh’s phone buzzed, and he pulled it out of his pocket.

“She just sent the report with all of the graphs and maps.”

“Yeah, but it’s going to be hard to see and read from these phones,” said Belle.

Josh turned to Dean.

“Dean. Do you still have that iPad in your briefcase?”

“I do. Hang on.”

A minute later, the five of them huddled around the eight-inch screen as Josh sent the report.

Dean opened the email and then pressed the PDF file logo. A few moments later, six graphs and three charted maps, stacked three by three, covered the screen.

This is only the first batch, read the title of the email.

“What were you going to say?” asked Manny, looking at Josh.

“I was going to say that there were two female employees of a local computer store found bludgeoned to death in a park on the outskirts of the city. The first report said they were robbed and then killed with a hammer as they lay on their backs.”

Manny saw Sophie flinch. He wondered briefly why he hadn’t. He’d have to worry about that later. They were getting close to something here.

He thought about what he’d requested from the lab, the knowledge of the older double murder adding fuel to those ideas.

Shapes and their meanings were important to this man. He may not even realize how important. Had he subconsciously screwed up? Manny’s emotions did the roller-coaster ride again as his excitement stirred.

Tapping the screen, he asked Dean a question. “So did the tech send a map plotting out the double murders over the last two months?”

“Let’s find out. If not, she can whip one up in a hurry.”

The first map wasn’t the right one. It displayed all of the murders, double homicides and others, outside of Miami proper, with color-coded dots connected by numerous lines.

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