Page 12 of Pitbull
With a smile she turned her vision back outside the car. Her mirth was gone and a barrage of thoughts invaded her mind. What was Claudia doing in Metro Valley? It wasn’t as if she’d gotten lost. There were so many warning signs heading into the place the only thing left for the politicians to do was put up a massive sign saying,abandon all hope, ye who enters here.
And what was she into? Someone didn’t just blow up another person’s car on a whim. Something else was happening and it was making her brain hurt trying to figure it out.
Soon, they drew to a stop. Daniel didn’t move to get out of the truck. She watched as he pulled out his gun, checked the chamber then shoved it back into his holster before reaching for the door.
She didn’t have to ask why he stopped. The burnt-out car was still there with what used to be police tape around it. Why wouldn’t they have towed it so they could get evidence from it.
Daniel moved around the area with practiced ease. He pulled a pair of blue gloves from his back pockets and wiggled his fingers into them. Afterward, he peered into the vehicle. Though he didn’t speak, the frown on his face was evident. At one point he tried opening the door but the blast seemed to have welded it shut. Daniel moved around the car to the other side to peer into the back seat, then to the driver’s side.
“This is definitely her car,” Anke said, pointing to what was left of a bumper sticker. “She stuck the Betty Boop sticker on there the day she paid this off.”
Daniel said nothing.
“You’ve been quiet,” Anke said.
“Yeah—my sister was five three, five four tops,” Daniel said, still looking in. “The driver’s seat has been pushed back too far for someone her height.”
“So, someone else was driving her car?”
“Maybe.”
He rose to his full height and began tracing the area around the vehicle. Anke followed, looking down at the ground, unsure what they were looking for but figured that was better than sitting around doing nothing.
“Do you see the shadow on the ground?” Daniel asked.
Anke nodded.
“Look there…” He pointed to one side, then the next. “What do you see?”
“I’m not a cop, Mr. Hunt.”
“You don’t have to be.” He rubbed at the ground with a finger then sniffed it. “How do you think the cop shows get written? Not by police officers. All you have to do is think with a logical mind. You’re a smart woman. Tell me what you see.”
Anke inhaled and checked out the spots he’d suggested. She walked forward to look at it from a different angle. “The shading is different.”
“Precisely. Usually, a car bomb has a very narrow blast radius…”
“Blast radius?”
Daniel hunched down to inspect the ground. “Sorry. The blast radius is the distance affected when the explosion happens. A car bomb, on this side of the world is usually used to take out the person inside the car.”
“So, the radius wouldn’t be wide.”
“Exactly. So, this blast was set to take out the driver. Look around you—what would you blow up down here?”
Anke had to admit, he had a point there. She sighed and hunched down beside him. “They were definitely targeting the person inside the car.”
Daniel nodded. “The shape of the lighter shade tells me another vehicle was parked right here when the blast went off.” Daniel looked off toward the burnt-out car. “If they were this close, they needed to be to set off the explosion.”
“Meaning?”
“Remote control. They wanted to make sure the driver was dead.”
“That does not instill any hope in me.”
“Me either.”
“So, what we have so far is, Claudia wasn’t driving her car but the person inside the car was meant to die—but how do they know someone else would be driving the car?”
