“What happened with this one?” Penny asked ducting under the caution tape.
“73 year old man, shot in the head, point blank,” a tiny man called from the ground.
“Time of death?”
“Between 9:30 pm and 10,” he said looking up through his coke bottle glass making his blue eyes larger then normal.
“Did anyone find anything, like the weapon used?” Penny asked looking around and the police dusting for prints, her tall stature towering over Jeremy, the little man examining the body.
“Sorry, all we found was some blood from the victim in the bathroom. There wasn’t any weapon, and there wasn’t any trace of hair or skin anywhere, who ever was here was extremely careful, there isn’t even a bullet,” one of the police said coming from the bathroom holding a napkin with blood on it.
“Damn it,” Penny mumbled under her breath.
“I did notice something strange with the man’s entry wound,” said Gillian, the man with the coke bottle glasses.
“What is it?”
“It seems like after our killer shot him, they patched his wound.”
“Patched it, does that mean our killer regretted doing it?”
“Possibly,” he said continuing his examination.
She tucked her short blonde hair behind her ear and raised her hand to her hand resting her arm on her figure. She opened her eyes and saw something shining on the ground in between the carpet fabrics. “Kegan, come take a picture of this.”
Kegan, a tall strongly built black man walked over to her and bent down taking a picture of a small shining item.
Penny picked the item up and examined it, it was about the size of a pea, easily missed. The edge of the object was sharp and cut her finger as she rolled it around. It was black and small, its edges coarse and rough. “It’s a diamond,” Penny stated making sure her examination was correct.
“I’ve never seen a diamond like that,” said Kegan looking at the object in her hand.
“It’s uncut; this is a pure diamond, the kind you find in the mine down south.”
“So we’re dealing with someone who might have been down sou7th recently?” Kegan asked somewhat disoriented with the situation.
“Dad!” a girl yelled from the door as a police officer held her back. “What happened, who killed him?” she asked through her tears.
“We don’t know yet, but I will find out,” Penny tried to console the girl. “Who are you?”
“I’m his daughter,” she said frantically, her silver eyes blurred by her tears.
“What’s your name?”
The girl sighed and looked away her dark brown hair falling in her face.
“Your name please,” Penny repeated.
“Bullet…Baker,” the girl finally finished.
“That’s an unusual name.”
“My sister got the good name,” she said wiping the water from her face with her sleeve.
“You have a sister?”
“Yeah, she doesn’t come around here much though, only for holidays and birthdays.”
“What’s your sister’s name?”
“Violet…she lives down south or at least that what she said last time she was here.”
“She lives down south? Where the diamond mine is?”
“Yeah, her ex boyfriend was a miner and he chipped one off for her for the engagement ring, I don’t know if she kept it or now.”
Penny rolled the diamond in her hand feeling its edges and contours. She now had a lead. Violet Baker was at the house at some point, and it couldn’t have been long ago because someone would have stepped on the diamond and they would have felt it.
“Do you live here with your father?”
“Yes, he got old and couldn’t take care of himself so I moved back home to take care of him,” her eyes drifted back to the body the was lying face up and surrounded by a puddle of thin red blood and tears welled up again.
“Here, let’s talk outside,” Penny motioned her outside.
Bullet nodded and turned away from her dead father and stepped on the porch and took a seat on the swing.
“Where were you last night?”
“Working, I had to take an extra shift for a co-worker.”
“Where do you work?”
“St. Mark’s hospital,” she said wiping away her tears from her fragile pale skin.
“So you’re a doctor?”
“No, I’m a nurse.”
“What does your sister do?”
“Whatever she wants, she’s never had a stable job. Violet was always the girl that was expected to get into trouble, she was little miss rebel and I was little miss perfect.”
“Do you know where she is now?”
“No, we don’t talk unless she needs money or has to come to a family event.”
“When was the last time you talked to her?”
“About a month ago…I called her to tell her she needed to come to mom’s birthday dinner.”
“Where is your mother?”
“She lives in the condos off Lolita dr. with her new husband.” Bullet seemed to turn away from saying that.
“Tell me more about Violet,” Penny pressed.
“Violet always eased her way through school; I would be studying for a test the next day and she would go out somewhere. She never had to work at school; she was naturally smart, too smart. She used to love to play games with the boys at school.”
“What kind of games?”
“Mind games, she would manipulate them into thinking one thing then turn around and change her mind.”
“Was this a regular thing?”
“Yeah, she had a new boyfriend wrapped around her finger every week.”
“What about her sexual life, was there anything unusual about it?”
“I don’t know, I did walk in on her role playing with one of her boyfriends once,” she said seeming ashamed of her sister.
“What were they role playing?”
“She was a wanted criminal and he was the cop, he had to follow clue to catch her if he wanted to get lucky.”
“Did he ever win?”
“I’m not sure, I’m guessing not because when my mom had her looked at by a doctor, they said she was a virgin.”
Penny nodded flipping the white lined paper over it spiral binding and revealing a new page.
“Do you think Violet was here, I mean last night?” Bullet asked looking up and squinting her eyes into a worried look.
“That’s what I’m hoping to find out,” Penny said stand up towering over the petit Bullet. “Do you have her address?”
“Yeah,” she pulled her phone out and for a moment scrolled through contacts and found her sisters name, then her address. “2123 Kingdom dr.,” she said looking up from her phone.
“Thanks, we’ll be in touch,” Penny said handing her a card with her number on it then turning from Bullet and heading for her car.
Her heavy combat boots hit the ground and made no sound her jeans were loose fitting and swayed with her growing speed and her hair bounced to the rhythm of her steps. Her shirt was restricting her breast from bouncing as well. She ducted into her 1996 mystic cobra, pulled the door shut and ignited the engine. The car purred awake and Penny hit the gas pulling away from the crime scene and heading south to get some answers.
The ride proved to be longer then expected, it was 6:30, 3 hours from when she arrived at the crime scene. The highway was empty at this time; everyone was head into town, not away from it like Penny was. The radio started playing white noise interrupting the music.
“Piece of crap,” she said hitting the power button and turning it off.
The road seemed to be still, there were no other cars on the road no. Penny was the only one riding down the highway with her headlight lighting what was directly in front of her. Fog began to roll in over her cobra and she hit the windshield wipers to push the moisture out of her vision, but it was no used. Penny pulled off to the side of the road realizing she couldn’t drive in the fog; it was too thick even with her high beams on.
“I’m never going to get anywhere like this, if it is her, she’ll be gone before I get there.”
Her phone rang and she jumbled around her deep pocket for the small phone.
“Hello,” she said finally reaching it and hitting the speak phone.
“Agent Price?”
“Yes, who is this?”
“The girl you’re looking for,” the voice came from the other end, Penny could hear the grin creep onto her face.
“How did you get this number?”
“I have my ways, and don’t worry about finding me; you might want to first save the people I go after.”
“Violet…” Penny said holding back from cursing her out.
“So Bullet did tell you my name, you might want to hurry, or you will have another crime scene to deal with.” The phone clicked and immediately transferred to the end call noise.
Penny pulled the phone from her face in disbelief and quickly dialed a number.
“Penny?” a mans voice came from the other side of the line.
“Hey, I need you to find Bullet.”
“The girl from the crime scene earlier?”
“Yes, her sister is with her and she’s going to kill her.”
“Where are you?” a rumbling noise came from the other side as if he had put the phone between his shoulder and cheek while grabbing his gun and other materials.
“I’m stuck in some really back fog; I can’t see an inch in front of my car.”
“I’ll take care of Bullet, if I can find her, stay there until the fog lets up.”
Penny hung the phone up and leaned her head against the steering wheel. “Damn it!” she screamed inside her car.
When the fog let up about 20 minutes later, Penny slammed on the gas petal and drove over the grass median to the other side, speeding down the highway back to town.
She pulled her phone out and placed another call. When the line picked up Riley was on the other end, “Riley, where are you?”
“Landin and Patchstone,” he said seemed distort. “We were too late.”
“I swear I’m going to catch this wicked witch,” she said hanging the phone up before Riley could say anything else.
Penny pulled up in the cross section of Landin and Patchstone. An apartment was blocked off on the top half. Penny entered the crime scene and Bullet was lying face down on the ground with her arms tied behind her back and her petit figure wound into a strange position. Her white shirt was stained with blood and her brown hair mated together from the entry wound.
“Penny, this time she left something,” Kegan said dipping his head down to pick up something.
“A bullet?”
“Yeah, it’s a 380 too, she wanted to do some damage. This would definitely cause some blood splatter.”
“Wait a minute was the man’s name from yesterday.”
“Patrick Baker, why?”
“Patrick, patch. Violet isn’t just killing them; she’s signing them with their name.”
“How?” Riley asked in disbelief.
“Patrick Baker, what is the short name for Patrick?”
“Pat…” Riley said sure of himself.
“Yes, but you can’t sign someone with Pat, try Patch, she signed her dad by removing the bullet and patching the wound.”
“She signed bullet with a bullet in her head,” he said realizing Penny’s rationalization.
“This girl isn’t just killing people; she’s playing game with lives, and us.”