NYPD Red 6 - James Patterson Page 0,54

you have a friend who works at the U.S. Attorney’s Office?” I said to Kylie as we merged onto the Brooklyn Bridge.

“Imaginary friend. I was trying to light a fire under Bill. I guarantee he went straight to his boss’s office and warned Mick Wilson that the feds are threatening to take over the case. The first thing Wilson will want to do is reassure his millionaire donors that if they ever get kidnapped, he’ll do the right thing by them. He’s probably on the phone right now trying to find a judge willing to come down hard on ZTV.” She grinned. “Win-win.”

“In what universe is flat-out lying to the district attorney a win?”

“Come on, Zach. It’s more like I was fertilizing the seed that the FBI guy already planted.”

“Fertilizing the seed sounds a lot like shoveling shit to me.”

We got to the Brooklyn Army Terminal in twenty minutes. Rich Koprowski was waiting for us.

“No sign of the shooter,” he said. “We looked at the security videos. It’s an old system, basically useless. CSU pinpointed where the shot came from. It was a fourth-floor balcony. We found a single two-twenty-three shell. Veronica has a single bullet hole through her forehead. It’s over two hundred yards. The shooter was a pro.”

And Dodd was a marksman in the Marines. I exchanged a look with Kylie. I was sure she was thinking the same thing.

“Any witnesses?” I asked.

“We have the whole show on video, but all eyes were on the girls. One of Veronica’s models saw her go down. But she said people pass out at these extravaganzas all the time—drugs, alcohol, anorexia, strobe lights—so she just kept walking, didn’t break stride once. The music was blasting, so nobody heard the shot, and it was so chaotic you couldn’t even hear Jamie yelling for help. By the time we figured out we had a murder on our hands, the shooter was probably driving home on the BQE.”

“We should talk to Jamie,” Kylie said. “Where is he?”

“There are some trailers in the parking lot where the models did their hair and changed clothes. Brooklyn Homicide is talking to him in one of those.”

He led us to the trailer and asked the two Brooklyn cops inside to step out. We didn’t have to identify ourselves. They knew who we were.

“You caught the Easton kidnapping,” the older one said.

“You guys might have caught a piece of it yourselves,” I said. “Our kidnapper may be your shooter.”

We filled them in on everything. They didn’t bat an eye until we told them we’d ID’d Bobby Dodd within hours of the abduction.

“Holy shit,” the younger one said. “I’m amazed that never leaked to the media.”

“We kept a tight lid on it. If he’d known we were looking for him, he might have panicked and cut off all communication. But this shooting changes everything. As soon as we clear it with our boss, we’ll release Dodd’s name and picture to the press.”

“Starting with every single network that competes with ZTV,” Kylie said.

“And you think Dodd is our shooter?” the older one said.

“He has the motive, and he certainly has the talent,” I said.

We traded phone numbers and agreed to stay in touch. Then Kylie and I went inside the trailer. Jamie was sitting in a makeup chair staring at himself in the mirror. “We’re sorry for your loss,” I said. “Can you tell us what you saw?”

“You know how people always say, ‘It happened so fast’? It really did. I was sitting right next to her. She was enjoying the show, and then all of a sudden she jerked back and fell from her chair to the floor. I bent down to help her, and that’s when I saw the blood. She was already dead.”

“I have to ask, Jamie,” I said. “I know you hated being cooped up with a bunch of cops watching you, but why did you come here?”

“This is one of the biggest shows of the season. Mom wanted me here. I figured it was just some more time I would have with her to try to convince her to give me the twenty-five million. She had a good heart, but people didn’t understand her. You know how many death threats she got on Twitter from Erin’s crazy fans because she wouldn’t pay the ransom money? And now one of those bastards actually killed her, thinking I’d get her money.”

“What makes you think it was a fan of Erin’s?” I asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t know.