‘It was, later on,’ explained Colvin. ‘But we got lucky with the weather. There was a light fall on Thursday morning. And then an hour-and-a-half hiatus during which the temperature really fell away, but before the big dump came on. One of the first people onto the scene was a city road worker. He’d cleaned up after a few accidents in the past and knew to preserve the scene at this one. Accident investigators got there inside of ten minutes when he called it in. Sometimes the stars align.’

‘Not for Pieraro.’

‘No,’ said Colvin quietly. ‘I suppose not.’

‘Any sign of the vehicle?’

‘Yeah, you’ll find something about three-quarters of the way through.’ He waved a hand, indicating the file again. ‘Doused with gasoline and burnt down to its axles, about thirty miles outside of town.’

‘Oh, that’s not suspicious.’

‘Nope. Happens all the time.’

She fell silent again, hurrying to absorb all the information before they reached her destination. She was hoping for something about the identity of the driver and the man – they were all assuming it was a man – who had got into the vehicle further down the road. The Chevrolet passed under I-35 as Highway 210 transformed itself into a four-lane thoroughfare. Not too far down the highway, she could make out a nine-storey, red-brick building. It dominated the local landscape. The perfect place for a sniper, if you had good intel ahead of time . . . A spotter maybe?

‘How’s cell phone coverage in KC, Colvin?’ she asked suddenly. ‘Like, for normal folk.’

He shook his close-cropped, rather boxy head as the tall brick building swept by. ‘If you don’t have access to the federal network, you’re pretty much fucked. Capacity is very limited. But having said that, demand is low. Most people do hard, physical work, from sun-up to sundown, usually on the government dollar. Sitting on their butt all day, surfing around on the net, or calling a friend to meet up for coffee at Starbucks, just isn’t that common anymore. Why d’you ask?’

Caitlin held up a couple of crime-scene photographs. ‘Somebody’s probably thought of this already,’ she offered up-front, ‘but the second man looks like a spotter to me. You know – like a second pair of eyes for a sniper. Or a forward air controller.’

‘I do,’ said Colvin, glancing over. ‘What makes you think that?’