“Only one time, she said. She claimed she barely knew how it worked, said she only noticed it was gone when she went looking for some papers in her garage safe. Why?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute,” and Sherlock hung up. She stood, looked down again at the chair. I’ll bet you like to shoot, it gives you a rush. I’m an excellent shot but I doubt I could have made two such perfect kill shots from twelve feet away, all hopped up on adrenaline and rage like you were.

Sherlock walked out of the house, locked the front door, reattached the crime scene tape, and walked quickly back to Kelly’s Fiat. She got in and quickly closed the door. Thankfully, the heater was going full blast. She said, “Verify for me, Kelly. How far away from the victims did the ME say the kill shots were fired?”

“Mrs. Madison, really close. The two men maybe four to five feet.”

Sherlock said, “Kelly, Storin pulled out a chair from the kitchen nook table after she shot Mrs. Madison and she sat there, waited for Dr. Madison to come home. When he and Mr. La Shea came into the kitchen, she simply stood up and shot them both. She shot them from twelve feet away, I counted it off.”

Kelly stared at her. “The chair—no one noticed. Twelve feet? Are you sure?”

“It’s what makes the most sense to me. Twelve feet. Everyone assumed that with such perfect kill shots, she had to be close, within five feet, but she wasn’t. Kelly, could you fire two fast rounds into two foreheads from twelve feet?”

Kelly said slowly, “Maybe, but I’m really good. If I was hyped up, in a real firefight, with people juking around, it’d be iffy.”

“It means she’s a shooter, maybe even competed. Shooting is something she does often, so she needs a gun range to practice. I can’t imagine she’d pick one that far away from Brickson. Let’s find it.”

Kelly threw herself at Sherlock, hugged her tight. “Would you marry me?”

“What about Cal and Dillon?”

“I’m sure we can find them other duties at which they’ll excel.”

16

Mia

New York City

Tuesday afternoon

Mia stepped out of the Guardian Building into a splattering cold rain that could freeze your bones and couldn’t believe it when a taxi actually pulled over. She stepped quickly into amazing warmth. The driver addressed her in pure Brooklyn. “I hope you’re going more than two blocks, lady.”

“I am indeed,” Mia said and settled herself. “Eighty West Forty-Ninth, at Sixth Avenue.”

He fed the taxi into the sluggish traffic, looked in the rearview. “I’ve taken three or four people there in the last couple of days—it’s that guy Harrington’s campaign headquarters, right?”