Mystery: An Alex Delaware Novel #26 by Jonathan Kellerman

Author:Jonathan Kellerman
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Los Angeles (Calif.), Police Procedural, Forensic Psychologists, Mystery & Detective, Police - California - Los Angeles, Delaware, Sturgis, Alex (Fictitious Character), General, Psychological, Mystery Fiction, Milo (Fictitious Character), Suspense, Fiction
ISBN: 9780345505699
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Published: 2011-03-28T05:00:00+00:00

Mystery

Page: 130

regularly. Other than that, her organs were healthy."

"Thanks, Doc."

"That's the science part, Milo," said Jernigan. "Now here's

the gut-feeling part: The wound pattern still bothers me but I

can't say it's based on anything other than a little cognitive

twinge. Assuming she got hit with the .45 first and the

impact knocked her off her feet, there should've been more

shotgun damage. She'd be prone, dead or close to it, and

totally vulnerable to an overhead blast. But the pellets didn't

overlap with the bullet wound as much as I'd expect. In fact,

the most severe sprinkling of shot is almost totally in line

with the bullet along the vertical axis. Almost as if your two

bad guys fired simultaneously."

"Firing squad," he said.

"That's the image I got. But a skillful squad, the two of them

standing side by side, coordinating perfectly. The shotgun

damage was far from tight. The pellets pierced her sinuses

as well as the lower part of her frontal lobes. But used up

close, a .410 could've taken her entire head off. And there's

no way I can see, short of standing on a ladder, that the

shotgunner could've hit her straight-on once she was

down."

"Precision murder team," said Milo. "Maybe at the next

Olympics."

"It's creepy, right? Almost a ritualistic quality to it."

"Like she was being punished."

"I suppose," said Jernigan. "Y know what it's usually like

ou

with sick stuff. We get up-close strangulation, a knife ballet.

This is harder to characterize. There's that calculated

execution thing going on but possibly also something

darker--something Delaware might be able to help you

with."

"Funny you should mention him."

I said, "Alex here."

"Oh, hi," she said. "So what do you think?"

"It fits perfectly with our current best guess for motive:

money as well as revenge."

"Great minds," she said. "When you learn more, keep me in

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