Decker leaned against the outside wall of the school near the loading dock and studied the blue tarp. And then he closed his eyes, because he equated the color blue with the slaughter of his family. He didn’t need to see color in the outside world. He had enough of it going on inside his head.
Get back to basics, Amos. Slow and easy. You know how to do this. This was all you did for so many years. Mary is right. You can do this.
Motive.
It always began with that, because motive was just another way of saying, Why would you do something like this? Greed, jealousy, kicks, personal vendetta, perceived slight, insanity? The last was always tough to decipher, because ho
w did you read a mind that was deranged?
But this guy had method. This guy had some inside knowledge of the school. This guy had taken great care to not allow even a piece of his skin to be observed. They didn’t even know if he was black or white. Although most mass murderers were white. And male. And with this shooter’s size and shape, he was most definitely a male.
The face shield was an unusual step. It was not for defense. It couldn’t have stopped a bullet. It was for concealment.
He watched as the last of the transport vehicles pulled away, rack lights on but no sirens engaged. The dead were in no hurry. Each body would be cut up as the medical examiner looked for clues. But the best they could hope for here would be ballistics. What type of bullet had killed them? He doubted the shooter had laid a finger on any of his victims. If you didn’t touch, you didn’t leave any usable trace behind. With the bullets they could at least, one day, match them to the guns that had ben used. And if the guns had an owner, the chain of title to this horrific event possibly could be traced.
He walked back to the library, where Lancaster was sitting and going over case notes. She looked up as he approached.
“I’m surprised you’re still here,” she said, stifling a yawn.
“I have nowhere else I have to be,” said Decker.
He sat next to her.
“Did you do your normal walk-around?” she asked.
He nodded. “But I didn’t really see anything.”
“You will, Amos. Give it time.”
“Earl with Sandy?”
She nodded. “He’s used to it. Been a lot of long nights lately.” She glanced around the room. “But nothing like this.”
Decker nodded slowly. Again, his chitchat component was at an end. “Do you have completed witness statements yet?”
“I’ve been putting some of them on the computer. There’s not much there. But I haven’t talked to the wounded teacher yet. Odds are he won’t make it. And if he dies that’ll make nine vics total.”
“Andy Jackson. How was he shot?”
“Students in the class said he tried to stop the shooter.”
“How?” asked Decker.
“Ran at him. Put himself between the shooter and the students.”
“Before or after he shot one of them?”
“After.”
Decker settled back and thought about this as Lancaster watched him.
“Pretty brave of the guy,” said Lancaster.
Decker didn’t respond to the statement.
“I need to see the witness statements.” His tone was now brisk, confident.
Lancaster noted this and allowed a tiny smile to escape her lips as she pulled them out for him.
He went through each page of the statements. When he was done he flipped back to page two and then over to page ten of the witness statements before putting aside the notebook.
“See anything?” asked Lancaster, who had been watching him off and on as she worked away.
He rose. “I’ll be back.”
“Decker!”
But for a large man carrying a lot of extra weight, he could move faster than one would have expected. Perhaps a little of the freewheeling football player was left inside him. He closed the library door behind him and set off down the hall.
Chapter
14
DECKER STOPPED AND looked around. The gym was to the far left on the last hall on the first floor. Then classrooms, then the rear entrance. On the other side of the main corridor were more classrooms, the custodial space, and the rear loading dock off that. The main corridor ran front to back, splitting the first floor exactly in half, with three corridors running off that to the left and right, like straight branches off a tree trunk.
Since only the middle hallway had exits on either end, that meant there were four sets of entry and exit doors, situated at all four points of the compass.
He headed to the rear entrance and peered up at the camera.