The Shooter

Chapter 4

There had been no shooting on day three of the sniper investigation. Obviously that was good news for everyone at Stamford City PD. It had given them a full day to start trying to track down the maroon van that Bayley had picked out of the gas station's CCTV footage.

The van was a thin lead to go on, but so far it was all they had. The theory of the van's involvement did have some things in its favour. A vehicle identification expert had been brought in to review the footage. He had been able to provide a make and model. Tyre tracks had been found on the waste ground with line of sight to the gas station. An expert had identified the tyre based on the tracks, and it had been confirmed that the maroon van could take those tyres.

None of those things meant that the van definitely had anything to do with the shootings, Bayley knew, and the tyre tracks on the waste ground didn't mean that the shot had been fired from there, either. Even so, Bayley felt deep down that her suspicions were accurate.

Her day three had been spent tracking down owners of maroon vans, in order to search their vehicles for anything suspicious. So far, around half of the matching vans in Stamford had been located and searched, without yielding any evidence.

Waking up on day four, Bayley's very first thought went to the ongoing search, hoping that today was the day a van would be found that did contain evidence that it had been used by a sniper.

"Ugh, morning already," Sasha groaned, looking at the digital clock on her nightstand. The alarm was set to go off in three minutes. "How do we always wake up just before the alarm?"

"I don't know, babe," Bayley grumbled, rolling over onto her back.

Sasha took her phone off the nightstand. As soon as she unlocked it, she gasped. "Oh god."

"What?" Bayley asked, quickly sitting up and looking at her.

"Another cop was shot and killed during the night. I have a breaking news notification about it from two hours ago."

"Oh god, no!" Bayley cried. "I can't believe the bastard killed again. I've got to get to the station as quick as I can."

Arriving at the station half an hour later, Bayley's blood was boiling. She was taking the sniper case personally, and the fact that she hadn't been called in when the shooting had happened had really pissed her off. For that reason, she marched straight to sergeant Reigns' office. She found him only having just arrived himself, hanging a coat on a stand just inside his door.

"Martinez, you're in early," Reigns said.

"I came in as soon as I saw the news," Bayley said. As she went on, she couldn't keep the anger out of her voice. "I don't know why I had to see it on the news."

Reigns raised his eyebrows at the way she had spoken out of turn. "Come in. Shut the door."

Bayley did as she was told, already chastising herself for her loss on control. She had never had an attitude problem with a superior before. Taking a breath, she tried to get herself in check.

"These shootings are hitting all of us hard, Martinez, so I'm going to let that slide. You speak to me like that again, we're going to have a very different conversation. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. This case... it's just... getting to me," Bayley said, shaking her head.

"I understand that," Reigns said. He let the subject drop, and moved on. "You weren't called in because you weren't needed. Night shift were able to deal with the situation. It was officer King who was killed, shot in the head by a sniper at a gas station, same MO as before."