Blackfly Season by Giles Blunt

Author:Giles Blunt
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Mystery, Thriller
ISBN: 9780770429331
Publisher: Seal Books
Published: 2004-12-31T05:00:00+00:00

Christian good guy, Delorme thought when she first saw Cornelius Venn, with his yellow bow tie and his sincere-looking glasses. One of those characters who appear on your front step with a bible and a grin the size of Lake Nipissing. Sort of guy who’d stop to help you fix a flat and would know the cheapest place to buy hot dogs for the cookout.

Cardinal introduced Delorme.

“Your bullets are extremely mashed up,” Venn said. “There’s only so much you can expect.”

“I’m not expecting anything,” Delorme said, “except that you’ll give it your best shot. I’m hearing good things about you.”

“Really? They’re just being pleasant, I’m sure,” Venn said. He was bent over his comparison microscope, adjusting the focus. “Everybody’s always so pleasant. What are they going to say? ‘Here’s Cornelius Venn, our worst firearms examiner’?”

Delorme wondered what Venn did in his spare time. She had a feeling it would involve machines, not people.

She glanced at Cardinal, but he just rolled his eyes.

“Ahem.” Venn coughed primly into a handkerchief, as if he were tubercular. “You have two.32-calibre bullets here. One is mashed beyond recognition and no use at all for anything.” His tone suggested they shouldn’t have bothered bringing such shoddy goods to his attention, even if they did transport them in a dead body.

“The second one is only partially destroyed, and I’m just now attempting to see if I can get something worthwhile out of it.” He adjusted a knob, turning the bullet under his lens.

“Yes, it’s not completely useless. I’ll just adjust my magnification a little to cut out some of the clutter. Later, I’ll give you a printout in a form you can understand.”

As if it’s astrophysics, Delorme thought. Guy thinks he’s working for NASA.

Venn spoke into his microscope, his voice tinny. “Six left-hand grooves.”

“Do you have enough bullet to measure them?” Delorme said.

“Your impatience will do nothing to enhance my performance, Detective.”

“It was just a question, Mr. Venn.”

He glanced up at her, the microscope’s light forming twin reflections in his glasses. “It was a question designed to put me on the defensive.”

“Actually, it was a request for information.”

“Yes, it was. Implying that I’m not intelligent enough to realize that information is what you are here for.”

Delorme glanced at Cardinal, but he gave her no help.

Venn returned to his microscope. “I’m getting a land-to-groove ratio of one-to-one-plus. Grooves are zero point five-six; lands are zero point six-oh.”

He gave no sign that any of this information was familiar.

“Colt Police Positive, right?” Cardinal said.

Venn swivelled around in his chair as if noticing Cardinal for the first time. “Among other possibilities.”

“Well, why don’t we cut to the chase and just compare it to the bullet they took out of our Jane Doe last week. Can you do that?”

“Did you bring the case number?”

Cardinal opened his briefcase and pulled out a form. He read the number and Venn went over to a shelf full of little plastic drawers, the kind home handymen use to store doodads. He pulled one out, extracted the

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.