Flame in the Dark (Soulwood #3)(6)
“There are four cameras with views of the outside,” the khaki-clad man said, “but there’s no sign of the shooter’s approach to the house until here.” He stopped all the video and pointed to the image on top. “He or she seems to be able to bypass all the cameras until he stops, where he—for convenience we’ll say ‘he’—appears as a vague shape outside the windows of the game room.”
The shape was little more than a smear of movement, not really visible on digital, as if he somehow disrupted and blurred the images. Magic could do that. So could some types of disruptor equipment the military was working on in R&D. However, by the blurred images, it appeared as if it was a lone assassin. The image on the screen started moving again.
“Exactly eight seconds after he appeared on screen, he started shooting, and, unlike the man—or woman—wielding it, the weapon is easily visible as a fully automatic M4 carbine.” The video progressed to show the attacker shooting.
“M4?” Soul asked. “How did he get an M4?”
“Don’t know, ma’am,” Khaki Man said. “The M4 carbine is heavily used by two branches of United States armed forces as the primary infantry weapon, it’s currently available on the open market, and it’s legal in Tennessee, so it isn’t impossible to get one.”
I dredged through the day of class we spent on military weapons and remembered that the M4 was replacing the M16 rifle in most Army and Marine Corps combat units. Sooo . . . Except for the way the shots were fired, the attacker could be military. Or the weapon could be stolen. Or purchased on the commercial market. He could have gotten it most anywhere.
“All right,” Soul said.
Playing the footage again, Khaki Man said, “There were four three-second bursts, moving from the shooter’s left to his right, combined with one extended magazine change, which takes place here.” He stopped the security video with each statement, and pointed as the shooter changed out magazines. “Then he started shooting again and repeated the four three-bursts. Then he took off.”
To me, the attacker’s motions, though blurred, looked masculine.
“One thing of note. Shooting through glass is tricky. Well-trained shooters usually put a single shot through the glass first, then take out the targets. Inside,” he continued, “the female falls. Two other victims fall, here and here.” He pointed again, though the images were badly blurred, the outdoor camera picking up little inside. “People take cover. Rounds topple the candles, which ignite tablecloths. Fire leaps to the draperies, races over the furniture and up the walls, then follows the oxygen outside through the broken windows.” He showed us footage of the fire blazing out through the broken window.
“Then the shooter is tackled by a security guard, Amos Guerling. Amos said he could see the gun, but not the person. You can see here, the flash of flame when Amos was burned, deep second or maybe third degree on his upper arm and left hand, with visible and significant muscle damage. Source of the flame is unknown at this time, though ATF and the fire department are checking for accelerants on Amos’ clothing. Assassin then seems to disappear into thin air. Our security people put out the fires, inside and out, with extinguishers and began emergency medical treatment on the victims.”
“What branch?” Soul asked.
“Beg pardon, ma’am?”
“What branch did you serve in? All the men and women who work for ALT Security Services are former military.”
“I see you do your homework, ma’am.” Khaki Man spun in his chair. He was tanned brown, the color of a hickory nut in fall, with close-cropped dark hair and greenish eyes. The name tag said his name was P. Simon. “Green Beret, ma’am. Four active tours in the Middle East.”
“Where and when?”
“Classified, ma’am.”
“Of course.” But I could tell by her tone that Soul would find out in case the man was involved with the shooter on the wrong side. If this shooting was an inside job, the security team would be the first suspects.
“Can you tell me what the dogs found, ma’am?” Simon asked.
“No,” Rick said. “Sorry. Need to know.”
Soul glanced at Rick before speaking. “The Canine Unit’s findings will be released to the press shortly. I think we can divulge this now. The standard crime scene K9 dog was able to track a suspect across the back lawns, across the tip of the cove, to Lyons Bend Road, where the trail disappeared. We have officers going door to door to see if a vehicle is missing or if an unfamiliar vehicle was seen parked somewhere. The paranormal K9 dog gave scent signs only for human scent, giving no signs for nonhuman species.” The paranormal dogs were trained only to known paranormal types, so Soul wasn’t giving much away. She went on, “Despite the shooter’s disappearing act there is no indication of magic used at the scene of the crime nor at the scene of the perpetrator’s appearance and disappearance. He used a mundane military weapon and he scents human.”
Simon said, “It’s obvious by the camera distortion that he used some kind of an obfuscation spell over himself. Therefore not human. Ma’am,” he added.
Proving that whatever classified jobs he’d had in the military, he knew how some magic affected digital tech. Obfuscation spells were fairly new, having been around only three years or so.