DAY THIRTY NINE

The three injured women arrived at the station at about 7:45.  They checked in with the desk officer and were given assignments.  Initially they would be reviewing reports from the people investigating the shootings, correlating them and seeing if anything had been missed.  They spent the morning building a computer database and correlating facts.  At the rate they were going this was going to take nearly three weeks.  Barb obtained a set of street maps and put them on the wall.  Soon pushpins with red heads located the locations of the shootings.  Green ones noted the citizen reports of someone moving in the area that could be linked to the shootings.  Penny looked at the reports of her shooting, possibly something would click for her that everyone else had missed.  Although the whole area was covered the investigation had centered on one alley.  Nothing there indicated someone fired from that location.  Nor had any other location with a view of the place she was shot.  She looked at the pathology report on her leg.  The bullet entered the front from about 55 degrees to her right and blown out the back.  She knew the shooter could not have been in that alley, she was facing about 90 degrees to that alley, a shot from there would have entered the side of her leg.  It was easy to explain, Bart had given the location and position she was in the last time he saw her.  She moved just before the shot.  The shooter had to be along the street, behind a building offset within 75 yards, possibly as little as 50.  With this she called the chief and explained her theory, “Can we go out and look at the site where I was wounded?”

“Sure, but be careful.  No hotdogging.  Comprende?”

“Sure.”

They drove out in her car, slipped out of the car with their uniforms and pylons.  They limped seriously but did not want to be seen with the crutches on this trip.  Penny stood where she had been shot.  She remembered looking at the traffic light just before the shot.  She faced in that direction, then took out a protractor and measured 55 degrees to her right.  There were two building offsets near the spot.  One was a walkway through to the back yards, a perfect retreat path.