Chapter 9 Chapter nine

The woman steps out of her car.This is not a police car, but a very ordinary pickup truck with a four-speed manual transmission that has been running for at least ten years.There are three transmission antennas erected on the roof of the cab. There's a custom white hood with side panes and a rear curtain that swings up and bears Chevrolet branding.The light blue color of the body was sprayed on later. Instead of a police uniform, Samantha Kerr was wearing faded jeans and a white T-shirt over a West Virginia University Mountaineers windbreaker jacket and well-worn high boots.The butt of the King Cobra double action .45 revolver poked out of the holster under her shoulder.The holster is on her left shoulder, which means she is right-handed.Without her boots, she was about 1.6 meters tall, weighed about 50 kilograms, with a stocky build and shoulder-length blond hair, somewhat messy.Her blue eyes were large, her prominent cheekbones suggested that she was part Indian, and she had light freckles here and there here and there.

She was an attractive woman, but with that hostile, cynical air that only people who have lived through a hard life have. Cole glanced at Puller's Malibu and headed toward the house where the Reynolds' dead bodies lined up.Her hand held the handle of the gun protruding from the holster.Just as I passed the Toyota Lexus in the driveway, it happened suddenly. Before she could react, a hand grabbed her tightly like a steel claw.She couldn't make any resistance.The hand forced her to bend and pulled her to the side of the car again. "Damn it!" Her hand was clenched by the other's long, thick fingers and she couldn't break free.Her other hand tried to draw the pistol, but was also firmly clamped to the side of the body by the attacker's arm.There was nothing she could do to fight back.

"Don't stand up straight, Cole," the voice whispered in her ear. "There might be a shooter over there." "Poller?" Cole turned to him resentfully.Puller let go of her grip and crouched in front of the fender of the Lexus.He pushed his night-vision goggles up over his head and held an M11 pistol in his hand, with another in a holster on the back. "Very happy to see you." "You almost gave me a heart attack. I didn't even hear your voice." "You're on your way." "You nearly broke my arm. What are you, Bioshock?" Cole asked sarcastically.

He shrugged. "Of course not, I'm just a soldier." "Why are you doing this to me?" "Your guy's name is Wellman?" "what?" "The policeman on duty tonight?" "Larry Wellman. How did you know?" "Someone hung him in the basement of that house and took his car away." She was startled. "Larry is dead?" "I'm afraid so." "You said there might be a shooter?" He touched his night vision goggles. "I saw a shadow through the window in the house and disappeared in a flash, and then I heard you stop the car at the door."

"Where?" "In the jungle behind the house." "Guess they..." "I never guess, so I pin you down. A cop has already been killed, do they care about killing another?" Her eyes scanned Puller. "Thanks. But I can't believe Larry is dead. No wonder he keeps refusing to answer my calls." She paused. "He has a wife and a new baby." "It's so sad." "Are you sure he's dead?" "If it hadn't been, I'd have cut his rope and tried to revive him. But believe me, it's useless. He wasn't dead long though. The body wasn't cold yet."

"Shit," she repeated, her voice trembling a little. He smelled mint and tobacco on her breath.No perfume smell.She didn't take the time to wash her hair either.Puller looked at his watch.She arrived here two minutes earlier than she promised. Puller saw her eyes brighten and tears trickle down her cheeks. "You want to make a report to the police, don't you?" he asked. She replied in a dull, tired voice, "What? Oh, yes." She hurriedly wiped her eyes, took out her mobile phone and entered the number.She spoke quickly but clearly.She then arranged for a warrant to be issued for the missing police car.In a matter of seconds, this woman regained professional poise and self-possession from an emotional moment of bewilderment.Puller was impressed.

She hung up the phone. "How much police force do you have available?" he asked. "We're a county here in the country, Pooler. Lots of land and very little money. Budget cuts have screwed us over and the police force has been cut by a third. I've got three cops in the reservists now on the Afghanistan is on the front line. That means, all together, we now have 21 police officers in charge of law and order in this area of ​​650 square kilometers. Moreover, a car accident last week sent two of us to the hospital .” "So there are nineteen policemen, including you?"

"Count me in." "How many people are coming here now?" "Three, there's no more people to draw. And not anytime soon, they're not anywhere near here." Puller looked out into the jungle. "You stay here and wait for them. I'll go and see what I saw in the woods just now." "Why am I here? I have a gun. Two are better than one." "You decide for yourself." Still looking at the woodland, he quickly reasoned and judged everything in front of him.It had become such an ingrained trait of him that nothing could be seen on his face as he analyzed it all.

"Were you in the army?" he asked. Cole shook his head. "I was a cop in the state for four years before I came here. But you know, I'm a good shot, with trophies and medals and stuff like that." "Fine. But you don't mind if I direct the search?" She looked at the forest in the darkness, and then at Puller, who was tall and strong. "I think it can."