“Was there anything else? You two talked for a fewminutes.”
“He said Wu and Shoals will probably be getting in touch with you this morning to give you an update on the case. He didn’t say why. He also said Cate is hanging around the cop shop again, askingquestions.”
“Great.” Mia walked into the kitchen and started making coffee, as if they hadn’t just been talking about a man who wanted her dead. “What do we want forbreakfast?”
* * *
Mia watchedthe Black Hawk land, snow swirling in the rotor wash. Special Agent Shoals had called her a little more than an hour ago to let her know that he and Wu were on their way out to the ranch with news. She had expected them to drive, not fly in. “Isn’t this a bitdramatic?”
“Your taxpayer dollars at work,” Jackmuttered.
“Oh, Jack.” Janet shook her head. “They don’t want to risk driving up and giving away Mia’s location. Flying is also a lotfaster.”
“I hope they arrested that bastard,” Joaquinsaid.
“So do I.” Mia desperately wanted this to beover.
Jack sent his foreman to pick Shoals and Wu up and headed back inside with Janet, Mia, and Joaquin. “Coffee? Hot chocolate? Somethingstronger?”
“Coffee, please.” Mia never turned downcaffeine.
“Nothing for me,” Joaquinsaid.
Jack made his office available to Mia and Joaquin, leading Wu and Shoals their way when the menarrived.
Shoals shook Mia’s and Joaquin’s hands and then started telling Mia how a firearm leaves marks on brass shell casings and bullets that help law enforcement connect both brass and projectiles to a specific firearm. “When the firing pin strikes theprimer—”
“I know how firearms work.” Mia didn’t mean to be rude, but she didn’t feel like sitting through an hour-long lecture on something she alreadyunderstood.
Wu looked like he was fighting back a grin. “The shell casings left in the shooting and disappearance of Mr. Meyer, the two murders, and the attempt on your life came from the samefirearm.”
Shoals gave Wu an irritated sidelong glance, as if Wu had stolen his big news, then went on. “We worked with CGIC—the Crime Gun Intelligence Center here in Denver, also known as Operation Hot Brass—and have been able to confirm that the same shooter is behind all ofthis.”
That was it? They’d flown up in a freaking Black Hawk to tell herthat?
“Didn’t we already know this?” Joaquin was underwhelmed,too.
“We suspected it, certainly,” Shoals said. “But now we know for a fact that the shell casings at these crime scenes came from the same firearm. This is now evidence that is admissible incourt.”
Okay, admissible evidence. That wassomething.
“What about Powell?” Mia had toknow.
“We questioned him and let him go—fornow.”
“He has alibis,” Wu said. “He said he was home with his wife at the time all four crimes were committed, and she corroborated that. We’ll be checking into that further. We’re also looking into everyone else involved in thelooting.”
“The big reason we flew out here was to get a sample of DNA from both ofyou.”
Mia couldn’t have heard him right. “DNA? Why do you needthat?”
“We now assess that when you fired back, you hit him,Mia.”
“I hit him?” Mia felt a stab of savagesatisfaction.
“Good.” Joaquin gave her hand asqueeze.
“It was probably just a minor graze, but it was enough that he dripped blood where he was standing. It wasn’t much—just a couple of drops. The initial forensic sweep missed it. A team from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation found it. We just need to make sure that it’s notyourblood, given that your blood was at that same crime scene. Mr. Ramirez, you weren’t cut or grazed, were you? No. Okay, well, even so, you were at the scene, so we’d likeDNA.”