“And it may be the breakthrough we need.  Do you have anything else that you feel is more promising?”

“We haven’t tried a physic.”

The chief laughed, “We may try that if this isn’t solved soon.  The mayor asked us to consider that as a possibility yesterday.  I’d say you run take it and run with this amputee idea.  I can’t give you much help on it right now.  Police work is often beating a case to death.  We may have to do that here.  Why don’t you see if you can find the right stick to do it?”

“That’s fine.  We can handle it.”

Penny called her Uncle Charlie.  As expected he was not at home.  They called the Police garage and asked for unit 55.  It was available.  Barb insisted in going to the garage for the unit.  She met Penny in front of the station.

They drove over to the donut shop on Duke Street.  Uncle Charlie was there with two of his buddies, Mack MaCuley and Otis Smith.  These three comprised over 100 years of service on the force and knew all of the history of the force.  Penny crutched in, bent down and hugged her uncle.  “How’s it going, solved any crimes this week?”

It was well known that these three often called the station after watching an investigation and made suggestions on a case.  At one time these calls were looked upon as interference but after some good input that cracked two really bad cases the detectives would always thank them for the input and at least look at their idea.  About one time out of five they were more than dry holes.

“We have a problem.  We may have a lead on the shooter but we don’t know where to start to identify him.”

“What is the lead?”

“The press doesn’t have this so it can’t get out.  We have an eyewitness that may have seen the shooter leaving the one site.  The only thing he was able to give is the shooter was short possibly five foot five to five foot six and stocky.  In addition the shooter was dressed in fatigues and limped.  We ran the guy past a video of people who limp he picked out two who are AK amputees, one with a short stump, one with a long one but said that neither of them looked right.  We suspect that it may be a mid thigh amputee.”

Margie picked up, “We were hoping you might have some idea if there is an amputee who is mad enough at the city to shoot police.”

The three of them sat there for a few minutes, then Otis spoke up.  “What about that guy on the motorcycle that Danny hit about ten years ago?”

“Yes, he filed suit, got a pittance.  He was really mad.  He vowed to get even.  Haven’t seen anything on him in years.”

Barb spoke up.  “Do you know who he was and when it happened?”

By eleven they had twelve names and situations.  Some of the information was sketchy but in most cases they could give the year it happened and maybe even a month.  As the information dried up Otis told them to drop in the next morning for more donuts. 

“Why Uncle Charlie, you want us to buy?”

“Yes and we want to kick it around for the afternoon.   We got a couple of other guys from the afternoon shift come in then.  These guys worked the evening shift when they were on the force.  They don’t know how to get up early so we see them in the afternoon.”  Everyone laughed.  “You know, once a night cop, always a night cop.  We may be able to give you a couple more leads.   Drop in early tomorrow morning, we need to teach you youngsters about how to handle coffee and donuts.”

The Night Sniper Chapter One: On the Beat

The Night Sniper: Ch. 037 Penny Meets Jack Helm Again

The Night Sniper: Ch. 039 Jack Asks Penny to Visit Norma