* * * *
Nigel and Francis worked together to hunt down Tammy Stone. The people she was with had gone to ground. Nigel wanted Francis out of the picture; he was a petty, vindictive little bastard on a good day. It was only a matter of time before Francis turned against him. He had only won because surprise was on his side. He had taken to carrying a small wooden stake that resembled a pencil. Maybe he could get Tammy to take care of his problem for him.
Nigel was disturbed from his thoughts when reports came in that someone was sniping gang members from a rooftop. Nigel had his team on site in five minutes, just before the locals got there. They found the site the sniper had used; it wasn’t that hard. Six bodies were on the street from that vantage point. He was only on site for a few minutes when the call came about more sniper activity in the area.
“Take your team to the new site,” Nigel said to the local team leader. “I’ll keep my team here and be ready to move if more activity happens.”
“Don’t forget you are a guest here,” said the team leader. “I want a full report when we get back.”
“You’ll know what I know, now leave.” Nigel started barking orders. “Get into your teams and do sweeps. I want everything plotted, marked, and tested. If anyone finds spent casings I want to know before you touch it. Timothy, I want you looking on the street for spent brass.” Nigel examined the shooters perch for a minute before going to the apartment below the perch. It was an older woman that answered the door.
“Can I help you, sir?” she said through the crack between the door and frame. The chain holding the door was clearly visible.
Nigel showed his badge to the woman. “I’m investigating the shooting that just happened. Can I ask you a few questions?”
“Hold on just a minute.” She closed the door and released the chain on the door. When the activity stopped she opened the door once again. “How can I help you officer?”
“I just need to how many gunshots you heard from the roof.”
“I didn’t know anything happened until they started shooting from the street. I didn’t actually see anything. I was too busy hiding. I’m sorry I didn’t help much.”
“Thank you for your time ma’am,” said Nigel, pointing at the cell phone number on his business card. “If you remember anything, please call this number.”
After he turned to walk away the woman called out, “Somebody ran up the stairs. They were cursing something fierce. I think they went up to the roof.”
“Thank you again for your time.”
Nigel went to three other apartments with the same results: shooting from the streets, cursing on the stairs going up, silence, then more cursing going down. This told him that the sniper had a silencer and was gone before they got to him. He went back to the roof; he doubted the shooter had fired more than five shoots. It didn’t take long for him draw the connection to Nish. He was a known associate of Tammy’s. She is still here. He was disturbed from his thought with the news that another shooting had happened. He took two people with him to the new site. There he got lucky; Nish left a spent cartridge behind. He had the round bagged and tagged but ‘forgot’ to tell Bruce of the discovery.
The one spent round contained a wealth of information. The round was 7.62mm, a NATO munitions. Not the same effect of a body-mangling .50 caliber round, but the target was just as dead. It also narrowed the number of rifles. The lab guy would be able to get more from it. He went back to the first site; on the ledge he found marks from a bipod. He pulled out a laser range finder. The range was an impressive 3,000 feet, with four dead bodies, one shot each, kill-shots each and every one. This little outing was nothing more than a challenge. Who was challenged would be easy to find out. The bigger question was: would they take the bait and where would the battle be?