Chapter 53 Section five

"The IDs of the people you killed said they were from Denver," Esperanza said. He sat in the living room with Decker.Investigators at the house were moving equipment to a van and two police cars, and they were due to leave soon. "But Denver is 500 miles away," Esperanza continued. "They're going a little too far just to burgle. They could do it right here in Colorado." "Maybe they were passing through Santa Fe and ran out of money," Decker said. "That still doesn't explain the automatic weapons and why they fired so quickly." "It must have been that they found someone in the house and fired in a panic."

"Denver is definitely a sham," Esperanza said. "The Denver Police Department did the checks for me, and none of the people using those names on their ID cards was a resident of the address. In fact, three of the addresses weren't at all." Does not exist, and the fourth address is a funeral home." "Someone really has that grim sense of humor." "There are also very fake credit cards and driver's licenses. So, we need to do a deeper investigation." Esperanza said, "I have sent their fingerprints to the FBI. It will be another day or two. , we will know if the detectives from the Bureau of Investigation have found a matching fingerprint in the file. At the same time, I also notified the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Arms Control. The serial numbers on the two Yuzi submachine guns and the Mike 10 submachine gun have been removed. The acid corroded it, but the AA may have a way of recreating it. If they succeed, the numbers may point us a way. Like, where the gun was bought, or more likely stolen. But Not what I want to talk to you about."

Decker waited anxiously. "Let's walk around. I want you to see the back of your house." Decker thought, what will I see?Uneasy, he followed Esperanza down the corridor and past the door of the master bedroom.The body has been carried away, but the pungent smell of gunpowder has not dissipated.The sun streamed in through the light-paned windows in the hallway, one of which was battered by bullets.Under the sunlight, the large swathes of blood that had solidified and turned black on the tiled floor of the corridor looked particularly dazzling.Decker glanced toward the bedroom and saw that the mattress and pillows had been shattered by bullets.Black graphite fingerprint powder can be seen everywhere.As Esperanza turned the doorknob at the end of the hallway, he got some graphite dust on his hands.

"You heard them pick the lock." Esperanza stepped out of the house and into a small garden full of yuccas, roses, and dwarf hollies. "After they climbed in from this courtyard wall, they then pried open this door." Esperanza motioned Decker to look over the chest-high courtyard wall. "Did you notice that the bushes on the other side have been trampled down? There are many footprints in the sand beyond the grass. These footprints match the shoes worn by the intruder." Esperanza walked along the wall, found a place that wouldn't destroy the marks he'd just pointed out, jumped over the wall, and waited for Decker to follow.

The strong sunlight blinded Decker's eyes.He jumped off the wall and landed near two yellow straps.This is the crime scene rope that the police had pulled up on the dwarf pine tree to isolate the footprints. "You have a lot of land." Esperanza's boots creaked on the cobblestones.He led Decker down a steep slope parallel to the tracks.They walked among yuccas, dwarf pines, and tall, waist-high California evergreen shrubs.A characteristic feature of this shrub is that its seeds turn dark yellow each September. Esperanza pointed to the marks from time to time.The slope got steeper and he and Decker descended through the larch forest on the slope to the bottom.Then they followed the trails along a ditch to a road lined with poplar trees.Decker recognized it.This is the Fort Connor Trail.The footprints disappeared here, but there were ruts on the gravel that looked like a car had sped past here.

"The ride took longer than I expected," Esperanza said. "We nearly fell a few times." Decker nodded, waiting for him to make his point. "We are still in the daytime. It's hard to imagine how long it will take and how difficult it will be in the middle of the night. Why do they ask for so much trouble? Look at the two sides of this road, which are full of luxury houses, and they are very scattered. It's easy to get. Why did those four people drive here and get out of the car and give up the easy things? The terrain is so low that we can't even see if there are houses on it."

"I don't understand what you mean," Decker said. "Your residence was not chosen randomly, it was determined in advance by them. You are the target of their deliberate attack." "What did you say? But it's ridiculous. Why would anyone want to kill me?" "That's the crux of the matter." Esperanza's gaze grew stern. "What are you hiding from me?" "I have absolutely nothing to hide," Decker insisted. "I told you everything I could think of." "So, come to think about it, someone drove their car away, and if he brought another group of people back to complete this task, what would you do?"

"Officer, are you trying to scare me?" "I'll send a policeman to your house."