Free Titan (Old Ironsides Book 2) by Dean Crawford Page B

of the building.
    ‘Reed and Anthony Ricard came out of the side door here,’ Samson pointed to a small access door in the side of the bar, ‘then stood here in this clearing. Reed shot Ricard, who fell right about here.’
    Nathan looked at the spot where Ricard’s life had ended, his chest a black mass of cauterized flesh. The spot was probably no more than five paces from the access door.
    ‘Looks like it happened fast,’ Foxx said. ‘They didn’t get far before the shooting started.’
    ‘That’s what the witnesses reported,’ Samson agreed. ‘The pair of them walked out here and moments later they heard the plasma shot. Case closed.’
    Nathan shook his head. ‘Quite the opposite.’
    Samson peered at him. ‘You kiddin’ me? Reed was caught by his own friends with a smokin’ pistol in his hand and one really dead buddy lying in the dust at his feet.’
    Nathan gestured to the door.
    ‘They walk out here and shots are fired within seconds. Witness statements said that Reed led the way, right?’
    ‘Sure,’ Samson said, ‘so what?’
    ‘Well, if Reed led the way he would have had to draw his pistol, turn and then fire on Ricard. For his part, Ricard would have had to have been blind not to have reacted.’
    Foxx stared at Nathan for a moment. ‘The reports said that Ricard had been drinking heavily, enough that he could have been surprised by Reed even if what you’re saying is true.’
    ‘And Reed could have had the pistol concealed, maybe pulled it discreetly or even drawn the weapon and spun at the same time,’ Samson added. ‘It’s not enough to question Reed’s conviction.’
    ‘It’s enough for me to look further,’ Nathan said as he looked across the clearing to the abandoned warehouse, leaving Samson to shrug indifferently.
    The construction was sagging heavily in the middle, the timbers exposed without maintenance to the harsh Californian sun for decades. With nobody coming in or out for endless years, the interior would likely be littered with animal scat and other debris from nesting birds.
    ‘Is this the building that Reed claimed the shot came from?’
    ‘Sure,’ Samson nodded, ‘if you believe him.’
    ‘Did forensics search it for prints of any kind, DNA evidence, that sort of thing?’
    ‘They gave it a once over,’ Samson agreed somewhat sarcastically, as though Nathan was insulting his department by even asking such a question, ‘but they found nothing to support Reed’s story of a third shooter.’
    Nathan moved to stand where Samson had indicated that Ricard had fallen, and then looked at the warehouse. Two large windows stared back at him like soulless square black eyes, cold compared to the warmth and sunshine outside, the glazing smeared with dirt. He turned to Foxx.
    ‘Kaylin, do me a favor and get on your back,’ he said with a sneaky smile.
    Foxx peered at him. ‘Do what now?’
    ‘I need you to be the victim for a moment.’
    Samson sighed and strolled to the indicated spot. ‘I think I know what he has in mind, and I know how to be a gentleman even in this day and age.’
    Wearily, Samson sat down in the dust and lay down on his back with his hands clasped across his stomach. ‘Good enough for ya?’
    ‘Great,’ Nathan said. ‘Now, Kaylin, you stand about where we think Reed was at the time of the shooting.’
    Foxx moved into position and stood over Samson as Nathan hurried across to the abandoned warehouse and found an entrance from which hung the tattered remains of a door on shattered hinges.
    He stepped through into the darkness within, the air cool but heavy with dust and pollen trapped inside the building. The smell of rotten timbers and mold clung to his skin as he crept through the darkness until he reached the grubby windows and saw Foxx and Samson outside in the sunlight. Careful to stay well back from the windows, he shifted left and right until he figured he was in the right spot.
    Nathan drew his pistol, checked that the safety catch