Without Measure: A Jack Widow Thriller Read online

  I looked down at the floor. The tile in the hallway was big square blocks, colored white. The floor inside of the office across the hall was carpet.

  I looked up at the wall outside the door. There was a plaque that read: Colonel Jessop M. Warren.

  I stepped into the door, past the glass. It was broken from the inside out. The office’s first room was a receptionist’s area, with a couple of chairs set up against the wall as a place for visitors to wait.

  There was no sign of disturbance in this part of the office, only the broken glass.

  Romey stepped in behind me and asked, “Widow, what are you doing? The general was shot in the office across the hall.”

  “Who is Colonel Warren?”

  “He’s nobody important.”

  “Aren’t colonels usually in charge of Marine bases?”

  “Normally yes, but not this one.”

  I walked over to Warren’s office door and turned the knob. It was locked.

  She asked again, “Widow, what are you doing?”

  I said, “Why’s this door locked, but the office isn’t?”

  “You ask a lot of useless questions. The reception area doesn’t lock.”

  “Who is Warren?”

  “He’s nobody. He’s gone now.”

  “Where is he?”

  “He got orders to ship out a week ago. I guess. I can’t remember when exactly. He’s probably in South Korea, settling into his new assignment.”

  I said, “Why isn’t he in charge instead of General Carl?”

  She said, “Warren is a pencil pusher, sort of a hack. He’s not much of a leader. The training program here is General Carl’s baby. So, he insisted to oversee it. The colonel was just window dressing.”

  “Did he have any responsibilities?”

  “Sure. He handled the day-to-day ops. You know, the boring stuff. Carl passed off all of the admin ops that he felt were beneath him.”

  I stared at Warren’s office.

  “Come on. Let get back to it.”

  I nodded and turned, followed her back out into the hall.

  We passed the dead chalk outlines again.

  I tried to imagine the way it all went down. There were the two bodies in the hall. Shot in the back. I said, “These two were shot in the back, right?”

  “Right,” she said, “Come on. We’ll go over the whole thing.”

  I stayed quiet. In my experience, cops from other jurisdictions didn’t like to have someone reimagine or question their assessment of a crime scene.

  Romey led me into the general’s office. It was the same as Colonel Warren’s. Same carpet. Same reception area. The difference was that Carl’s office had three dead chalk outlines.

  Romey said, “Let’s check out the bathroom. We can compare the text video’s background and see if they are the same location.”

  I nodded. We passed the first dead body outline. It was the receptionist’s. Romey pushed open the general’s office door. It wasn’t shut all the way.

  She stepped in and I saw the second and third chalk outlines. The closest to the door was on the floor on the right side of the desk.

  In front of the plain steel desk, were two chairs for visitors. The first was upright, as it had been intended to be. And the second one was knocked over.

  I stepped right, past Romey and around the first chalk outline. Then I stood over the next outline. It was General Carl’s. His chair hadn’t been knocked over, but pushed back. If nothing had been touched, then he had stood up from it before he was shot. Part of his chalk outline was on the carpet and part was against the wall, like he had fallen and remained propped up against the wall.

  Romey grew inpatient and said, “Widow, bathroom first.”

  I nodded.

  She walked over to an army green door. It was slender, like a door on a ship.

  She opened it and stepped in. The bathroom was tiny. Same carpet as the office lined the floor. There was a sink that was maybe a foot square, a face-sized mirror, and a white toilet. The walls were completely bare, except for the mirror.

  Romey flipped on the light and looked at her reflection in the mirror for a second. She took off her hat, which she was required to do inside the command building, only now that didn’t matter. She did it anyway and held it in her hand.

  She looked at the walls and said, “Looks like the same walls from the video.”

  She took out her phone and swiped and opened the video again. She compared the walls and the lighting to the still of Turik’s face. I stayed in the doorway and stared over her shoulder.

  I said, “It’s the same.”

  She looked at the floor and then leaned down and looked behind the toilet.

  I reached from behind her and opened the lid. The toilet was empty.

  She looked in with me and then stepped back.

  I said, “Check the tank.”

  She opened the tank. There was a cell phone at the bottom. She looked at me and said, “Guess that’s me.”

  “Don’t. I’ll get it. I’ve had worse jobs.”

  Romey said, “It’s clean water.”

  “Was just trying to impress you.”

  I stepped in behind her, got a little closer than she might’ve expected. It was tight in there. However, I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit that it was a little on purpose.

  I reached past her arm and let my face get close to her hair. I could smell the products that she used. She smelled nice. It made the whole act of reaching into another man’s toilet tank a whole lot better.

  I felt around the bottom of the tank and fished out the cell phone. The water dripped and ran back down from it as I pulled it out.

  I waited for it to stop and handed it to her.

  She said, “Thanks. Let’s get out of here.”

  I returned to the main room and then she did the same.

  She said, “It doesn’t work now. Of course.”

  “You could put it in rice. Overnight.”

  “That doesn’t really work.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve heard it works.”

  “I doubt it.”

  “It might.”

  She didn’t respond to that. She walked around me and stared at the chalk outlines. She asked, “Do you want me to go over how we believe it happened?”

  I shook my head and said, “No. I think I get how you think it happened.”

  “Oh really?”

  “Sure. It’s an obvious output. Turik entered building with a loaded weapon. No problem there. He was a captain and he had a relationship with Carl.”

  “Of course. He saved his life.”

  “Right, so he probably had the unique power of carte blanche when it came to just walking in unannounced.”

  She nodded.

  I said, “So he walked in. Drew his gun, killed the secretary out in the waiting room.”

  She corrected me and said, “Receptionist.”

  “Right. Then he entered the office. The first victim was seated in the chair, facing the general a second before. Heard the outburst, stood up, knocked over his chair and got shot.”

  Romey said, “In the heart. Instant death.”

  “Then Turik shot the general twice.”

  “First in the heart and then when he fell back. Turik shot him again in the head. Double tap.”

  I nodded and turned back to the receptionist area. I walked out and Romey followed. She kept the phone in her left, gloved hand.

  I walked straight back to the entrance to the office. I stopped at the door. I said, “Turik would’ve stopped here because panic must’ve ensued at this point. Everyone would’ve heard the gunshots.”

  I looked back at Romey. She said, “Right.”

  “How many other people were on this floor at the time?”

  “There were ten total. And twenty-three in the building at the time.”

  “That’s counting the dead?”

  “Yep.”

  “So three dead on this floor already at this
point?”

  She said, “That’s the way it looked.”

  “Then what happened?”

  “After Turik shot the three in here,” she said and walked past me, out into the hall. “He checked the hall, but no one was out there. The other seven people were unarmed. Four were women. Not that that matters. But no one else on this floor had a weapon. They weren’t a threat so he scrambled across the hall.”

  She walked and led me diagonally, back to the colonel’s office.

  She said, “Turik knew that Warren wasn’t here any longer. He knew that Warren had left the base and headed to South Korea. Therefore, he also knew that his receptionist wasn’t up here anymore either. She’d been sent down the street to work in the school. Temporarily.”

  “This office was empty? And Warren was gone?”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “Then why was his office locked?”

  She said nothing.

  “If he left and packed up his things, then why lock it?”

  “I don’t know. Habit, I guess. Colonel Warren probably packed up a few days ago and moved out. He probably locked up before he left.”

  I asked, “Who was taking over his duties?”

  “I have no idea. I don’t run base logistics or staffing. I guess they were sending someone new.”

  I nodded.

  Romey said, “So then Turik ran to the empty office and waited. As soon as he saw the two guards run in from the staircase, he shot them both in the back. A quick TAP! TAP!”

  I smiled.

  “Why are you smiling?”

  “Just the way you say that.”

  “What’s wrong with the way I say it?”

  “TAP! TAP!

  “So?”

  “I just never heard it like that before. I’d say BANG! BANG! Not TAP! TAP!”

  She said, “You’re funny. So, that’s it. That’s the way we figure it.”

  “You guys did some kind of forensic sweep?”

  “Of course. We did the necessary. You see the chalk outlines.”

  “Is that the only way it could’ve gone down then?”

  “I’m sure it’s not the only way. But that’s how it happened.”

  I asked, “How many guards were in the building?”

  She looked up and thought for a moment and said, “Three.”

  “Where’s the other guy?”

  “The other woman was on the door. She’s not allowed to leave that post.”

  “Not much security.”

  “Why the hell would we have more? This is virtually a forgotten installation, Widow. We’re not exactly the highest plausible target for something like this.”

  I nodded and said, “So Turik hid in here and waited for the guards to run up the stairs. As soon as they were both up here, he stepped out and shot them in the back. What about the woman on the door?”

  “Protocol requires her to go outside, wait for back up, and secure the yard.”

  “Did she see him shoot himself?”

  Romey nodded and said, “And so did about six other cops and about a dozen more Marines on the street outside. Including Kelly.”

  “I’m not questioning that he shot himself.”

  “Good. Because he did.”

  I said, “But what if it all went down another way?”

  CHAPTER 25

  “WHAT OTHER WAY?” Romey asked.

  I said, “How about like this? Turik came into the building. He came up to visit with the general. He walked into the office. He asked to use the general’s bathroom.”

  Romey started to say something, but I said, “I know. I know. COs don’t share their private bathrooms, but Turik took a bullet for Carl. I bet he got all sorts of special treatment.”

  She said, “You’re right. Go on.”

  “Turik goes into the bathroom. Locks the door. Sends Maya a video.”

  I paused and then I started to walk to the corner of the entrance. I asked, “The guards who were shot. They weren’t on the door, right?”

  “No. I told you only one guard stands by the metal detector.”

  I said, “What if they were shot first?”

  “I told you it looked like they were coming up to the hall to the sounds of gunshots.”

  “How good are your guys?”

  Romey said, “I’m not going to answer that.”

  “Are they as good as you?”

  “They are very good.”

  “They’re Marine-trained MPs?”

  “Of course.”

  “They got shot in the back. Which means that, according to your story, Turik got the drop on them just by hiding across the hall. Why didn’t they check the hall first?”

  She stayed quiet.

  I walked out of the office and Romey followed. I stopped at the opposite wall, halfway between the two offices. I looked at Warren’s and then back at Carl’s. I looked at the stairwell.

  I said, “To me it looks different. Your way is possible. Sure. It even sounds more practical. But it’s press release.”

  “A press release?”

  “That’s what we’d say in the SEALs as misinformation. Slang. We never disclose details of an operation.”

  “What about the operation on Bin Laden? The SEAL who shot him wrote a book about it. That’s telling the story.”

  “Is that how it went down?”

  She paused a beat and said, “Is he lying then?”

  “Maybe. Maybe he’s not even a SEAL. Maybe he’s a patsy.”

  She said nothing.

  I said, “What if he was never really shot at all?”

  “So what really happened to Bin Laden?”

  “He was shot in Abbottabad. Don’t you read the papers?”

  “He was shot where?”

  “Abbottabad, Pakistan at night.”

  “I thought you said it didn’t happen that way?”

  “How would I know how it happened? I was on a beach in the south of France at the time.”

  She smirked a bit and said, “What a miserable job you had. So tell me how you see this whole thing going down.”

  “What if the shooter was here already?”

  She stared at me.

  I said, “Waiting in Warren’s office? Across the hall. What if the shooter saw Turik come up the stairs and watched him go into Carl’s office, unannounced?”

  Romey said, “Go on.”

  “What if the shooter was about to follow, but there were two MPs on this floor? They were already up here talking to each other. Maybe they were right in front of Warren’s office. Maybe they were up here patrolling together. Maybe they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe the shooter didn’t want to confront them head-on.”

  I stared at Romey. She said, “Maybe.”

  “You know, in the field, operations never go as planned.”

  “Of course.”

  “So, if there was a second shooter and he had the opportunity to neutralize two MPs, then he’d take it.”

  She nodded.

  I said, “Our shooter was supposed to follow Turik in and kill the target. He was probably supposed to shoot General Carl and then escape, using Turik as his patsy. Only he had an obstacle. Your guys were standing in the hallway. Just by accident. So he took advantage of the situation. He watched them walk by and shot them both in the back.”

  I looked back at the automatic glass door and I asked, “How do you guys explain the broken glass?”

  “Turik fired through it.”

  I nodded and walked over to it. I stopped when the doors started to open automatically.

  I said, “Five feet.”

  She nodded.

  “The doors are sensitive. They open at five feet,” I said and I waited. Romey looked puzzled as I counted the seconds like One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, and so on.

  “What’re you doing?”

  “These doors stay open for about five Mississippis before they close.”

  “So?”

  “That’s
a long time. In your story, Turik would’ve ran across the hall here, and your MPs would’ve run up the stairs and not noticed the automatic doors were open to an office that was supposed to be closed.”

  She shrugged.

  “Not likely. I think these doors were closed and the MPs walked right by it. Maybe they were at that end of the hall, talking, or patrolling. Maybe they were visiting with the offices at that end. The shooter was already in Warren’s office, more than five feet from the doors. He waited for them to walk back by and shot them both in the back, through the glass. Which is how he got the drop on them.”

  She said, “I hate to say this, but I think you’re right. There’s another aspect to the story that didn’t quite fit with me before. I haven’t told you.”

  I said, “The two dead MPs didn’t even have their weapons drawn?”

  She nodded.

  “Turik’s innocent. There’s another shooter. Some guy was here. He shot your guys in the back. The gunshots would’ve been fast to dispatch both of them that quickly. The commotion may not have started yet. Certainly, the shooter would’ve had a head start on it. So, he ran straight across the hall into Carl’s office.”

  I picked up my feet and sprinted across the hall, reacting the way it played out. Romey followed behind me. I busted through the general’s office door, which was just a regular door, and I pointed at the receptionist’s desk.

  I said, “He shot the receptionist the second he entered. He didn’t even stop to aim. She would’ve been obvious. Was her body on the floor?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was her seat knocked over?”

  “Yes.”

  “She might even have been standing, wondering what the noise was. Maybe she was rising from her chair when he entered and plugged her. But he didn’t stand still. He burst right into Carl’s office.”

  I walked into Carl’s office and pointed my hand outward, like I was the shooter.

  I said, “He had known that there was another guy in here. That’s how he shot him so fast. He saw him enter the office.”

  “Master Sergeant Thompson. He was meeting with Carl. A business matter.”

  I nodded and said, “He shot Thompson first and then double-tapped Carl. He might’ve even spoken to him first.”

  I walked over to the edge of the desk and then I trailed around it and fired one last invisible round into the spot where Carl would’ve been shot in the head.