Take note that the opening scene is one long camera move without a cut,“ said Harris. ”Cinematographer is a genius, if I don't say so myself."

“Yeah, you're an artist all right,” said Griffin. “Probably some latent fagola in you.”

The women, who looked to be in their mid-thirties, were now clearly visible through the window. They were drinking white wine, laughing it up on their 'ladies' night'. They wore shorts and had good legs that deserved to be shown off. Barbara Green stretched out a leg and touched her toes, almost as if she were preening for the movie.

The shaky camera shot continued around the brick house to the back door at the kitchen. There was sound with the picture now. One of the three intruders began to bang on the aluminum screen door.

Then a voice came from inside. “Coming! Who is it? Oohh, I hope it's Russell Crowe. I just saw A Beautiful Mind. Now that man is beautiful.”

“It's not Russell Crowe, lady,” said Brownley Harris, who was obviously the camera operator.

Tanya Jackson opened the kitchen door and looked terribly confused for a split second, before Thomas Starkey cut her throat with the survival knife. The woman moaned, dropped to her knees, then fell onto her face. Tanya was dead before she hit the black and olive-green checkerboard linoleum of the kitchen floor.

“Somebody's very good with a survival knife. You haven't lost your touch over the years, ”Harris said to Starkey as he drank beer and watched the movie.

The hand-held camera shot continued, moving quickly through the kitchen. Right over the bleeding, twitching body of Tanya Jackson. Then into the living room of the

house. A jumpy song by Destiny's Child was playing on the radio and now became part of the movie soundtrack.

“What's going on? Barbara Green screamed from the couch, and curled herself into a protective ball. ”Who are you? Where's Tanya?"

Starkey was on her in an instant with the knife. He even mugged for the camera, leered eerily. Then he chased Maureen Bruno into the kitchen, where he drove the RTAK into the center of her back. She threw both arms into the air as if she was surrendering.

The camera reversed angles to show Warren Griffin. He was bringing up the rear. It was Griffin who had brought the blue paint, and who would actually paint the faces and torsos of the three murder victims.

Sitting in the den of their cabin, the buddies watched the film twice more. When the third showing was over, Thomas Starkey removed the videocassette. “Hear, hear!” said Starkey, and they all raised their beer mugs. “We're not getting older, we're getting better and better.”

Alex Cross 8 - Four Blind Mice

Chapter Ten

Hoorah!

In the morning, Sampson and I arrived at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to begin our investigation into the Bluelady Murders. C-130s and 141s were constantly flying overhead. I drove along something called the All American Freeway, which I then took to Reilly Road. Surprisingly, there had been no security cordon around the Army base, no fence around the post, no main gate until September 11. The Army had allowed local motorists to use base roads as transit from one side of Bragg to the other.