No offence Intended - Barbara Seranella Read Online Free Page A

yellow arrow boards to redirect traffic. He instructed them
to shut down the southbound lanes five miles before and after the
crime scene.
    "It's Friday rush hour," the harried Cal
Trans supervisor explained. "I can give you on-ramp to on-ramp
in both directions. But that's it."
    "Fine," Blackstone said. "Just do it."
    The coroner's wagon arrived next, escorted by another
black-and-white unit. The coroner's deputies waited until the
photographers took their pictures—eight-point shots of the victim
and vehicle. Blackstone made sure they captured the loose ignition
wires on film. He went back to his car, opened the trunk, and
retrieved his own Polaroid camera. As he snapped his pictures, he
took note of the shooter's skill. Two out of three shots had hit the
driver; both had done serious damage. One shot entered through the
forehead, passed through the brain, and taken with it on exit the
back half of the skull. It had certainly been fatal. The other had
torn out the victims throat, another nonsurvivable wound. He was
either dealing with a shooter who was a crack marksman or one with
the luck of Lee Harvey Oswald. The third bullet had gone through the
dash and floorboard.
    Using the toe of his shoe, he opened the driver's
door the rest of the way, then stepped aside while the body was
loaded onto a gurney
    The coroner's deputy wearing surgical gloves, went
through the victim's pockets. Alex searched through the dense hedge
of bottlebrush growing along the freeway shoulder.
    Blackstone returned to the drivers side of the pickup
truck, where he studied the spiderweb fractures in the broken
windshield.
    "Right up your alley eh, Jigs?" Alex asked
from over Blackstones shoulder.
    Blackstone let his partners words wash over him.
"What do you think?" Alex was brushing dirt and leaves from
his knees.
    "The top one was first," Blackstone said,
running his finger down the cracks in the glass. "See how the
cracks radiating out from the bottom hole butt up against the upper
web fractures?"
    "I'll take your word for it."
    Blackstone studied the top bullet hole and found that
it was drilled neatly with no deviation. The trucks windshield was
fairly flat, he noted, but had enough of a slope that it might
deflect a projectile as it passed through. The fired rounds must have
entered at almost a perfect ninety-degree angle. Matching holes were
torn through the upholstery of the drivers seat. He scanned the road
up ahead.
    There were no overpasses or tall trees nearby
    "We got at least two perps," he said. "The
shooter and his driver. We're looking for another truck, maybe a van
or a camper, even a motor home."
    "Shit," Alex said, looking down the miles
of freeway "they're long gone by now."
    They looked in through the open door of the truck.
The seat was soaked with blood. Bits of bone and red gelatinous brain
matter clung to the vinyl and cloth. If the second kill shot was
intentional, was there some sort of message implied? Nobody sings
with a bullet in his throat.
    Blackstone shone his flashlight into the area behind
the seat and saw that the bullets had cut through the sheet metal of
the cab as well.
    The investigators formed an impromptu huddle out of
earshot of the tow truck driver. Blackstone addressed the coroner
first. "What have you got?"
    "There was a wallet in the back pocket, but the
ID was a forgery"
    "I called in the name," CHP officer Kerr
added, "but it wasn't on record with the DMV The truck was
reported stolen yesterday"
    "Anything?" Blackstone asked his partner.
    "Nah, he must have been alone."
    "That's the way we all die, buddy"
    "Thanks for the thought."
    While they awaited the arrival of the firearms
expert, Blackstone told Alex, " want to find the female in the
GTO. If she doesn't come forward, let's check the printing shops in
the area."
    "What are we looking for?"
    "Female, Caucasian, early to mid-twenties, who
sets type or cleans the presses."
    They looked up as an orange-Jacketed Cal Trans worker
picked up three of