Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven

"Did I say something wrong?" Puller asked quietly, looking at her face instead of the muzzle of the revolver.When someone pulls a gun on you, look him in the eye so you can understand their intentions.And Cole's current intention is obviously to shoot him, if there is a slight difference in his language and behavior. "I must be confused because I'm getting so little sleep," Kerr said. "I don't quite understand what you mean." "I don't know if you're who you say you are, you're the only one who says you're an Army criminal investigator. I shouldn't have given you access to a crime scene at all. Who knows, it could have been you who killed La Wellman, and make up a story about seeing a shadowy figure. Maybe you're a spy trying to steal that guy's briefcase and notebook."

"My car is parked outside the door with Army plates." "It's probably not your car, or you stole it." "I have documents." "That's what I want to hear." She gestured with the .45. "Get it out for me. Take it slow, take it out slowly." Cole took a step back.Puller saw that she was shooting standard Weaver shots.It is named after a California sheriff who revolutionized the pose at shooting competitions in the late 1950s.Stand with feet shoulder-width apart, knees slightly bent and locked in place.The foot on the gun side takes a small step back.She will use the classic push-pull ① to control the recoil of the shot.He could see that while her strong arm's elbow was locked, her hand wasn't locked in as well, so she couldn't help shooting with a little wobble.But judging from the way she held the gun, she played very well with this Cobra King.Maybe her posture wasn't perfect, but she'd have no problem taking Puller out at such close range.

With three fingers he took the ID holder out of his shirt pocket. "Open it to me," she ordered, "first the badge, then the papers." He did.She looked carefully at his picture, then looked up at him.The muzzle was lowered. "Forgive me for doing this." "If it was me, I would do the same." She put King Cobra back in the holster. "But you didn't ask to see my papers." "I called you to come here. I have your name and phone number in the official briefing from the Army. The Army never goes wrong with this kind of thing. I also saw you get out of the car with your badge on the On your belt. When I grabbed you, you yelled, and I recognized that's what I heard on the phone."

"Still, I gave you a big shock," she reminded. "Maybe it's not what you think it is." Puller showed her the black KA-BAR saber he was holding in his other hand, which had been hidden by his forearm. "You might still shoot me involuntarily, and we'd both be on the ground." He slipped his saber into the sheath on his belt. "It's a good thing that didn't happen." "I never noticed you drew that knife." ① Push-pull (push-pull): The Weaver shooting method requires that the hand holding the gun (strong hand) push the gun forward, and the other hand (weak hand) covers the knuckles of the strong hand to pull the gun back, pushing and pulling with both hands Combined to ensure the firing effect.

"I did it before you drew your gun." "why?" "I noticed you glanced at me, then at King Cobra, and at the corpses. It's not that difficult to guess what you're thinking." "Then why didn't you draw a pistol?" "I always draw it when I'm about to shoot. I don't want to add to the mess that's already going on. I guess you want me to show my ID. I got the knife in case Just in case, I'm afraid you have other thoughts in your head." He looked back at the corpses again, "How did the children die?" Cole stepped forward, pulled out a pair of latex gloves from his windbreaker, slipped them on quickly, and grabbed the boy by the neck, leaning his torso forward ten degrees.With her other hand she pointed close to the base of the boy's neck.

Pooler shone his flashlight there and saw a large livid bruise. "External force compresses the brainstem to death." Cole pushes the body back to its original position. "It seems so." "Girls too?" "yes." "Judging from the condition of the corpses, their death time has exceeded 24 hours. This is an approximate time, but it must not have exceeded 36 hours. Do you have a more accurate judgment on the time?" "Dead for about twenty-nine hours, as close as you can guess." Puller looked at his watch. "So they were killed in the middle of the night on Sunday night?"

"That's right." "And the postman found them shortly after noon on Monday. Could you include that as an additional baseline time for the case?" "certainly." "Has the postman noticed anything suspicious?" "He was still retching into the grass when we got here. It's been the fourth time. You mean, what would he find in this situation? No, nothing. The killers were early just left." "But they came back tonight. Killed a policeman, as a matter of fact. Any other wounds or blood on the body?" "As you can see, we didn't take off their clothes. But we checked very carefully and found nothing else. You're dead with your brainstem pinned down."

"Yeah, I know that." He looked around the room. "Anyway, these guys do know what they're doing. It's fatal if they strike. Otherwise, they wouldn't be in the business of killing people." "Looks like a professional killer." Or the military, Puller thought.If this is the killing of soldiers by soldiers... He replied, "Maybe so, maybe they were just lucky." He looked at Cole and went on, "But it's hard to be lucky twice. This house is not where they killed, at least the colonel and his wife It wasn't here that he was killed."

Cole steps back from the couch and looks down at the rug. "Yes. Not so much blood. Not here. It's different in the basement." "I noticed it just now when I went down." "Speaking of which, I've got to go see Larry." Even though she tried to say it casually, Pooler could hear a choke in her voice. "Do me a favor first?" "What's up?" "Call the police and seal the colonel's briefcase and computer." She complied.When she closed the phone, Puller said, "Come with me." Cole trudged along with him down the stairs, and Pooler led her to where the cop was hanging.The rope hanging him was pulled down a little, and the dead man's black leather shoes were almost touching the concrete floor.

Puller watched her carefully as Cole stepped forward to inspect the body.This time she did not shed tears, but shook her head slightly.The woman was trying to keep her emotions to herself, probably ashamed of the tears she had shed in his presence, and the choking of her own voice.In fact she needn't be ashamed of it. He had seen his comrades die, many of them.It's never been easy, and it's getting harder to swallow.You thought you'd grow numb to these kinds of things, but you were deluding yourself.The wound in your heart will only get deeper and deeper. She took two steps back.

"No matter who did it, I must catch him with my own hands." "I believe you will." "Shall we put him down? I don't want him hanging like a pig in a slaughterhouse." Puller looks at the back of the dead man's neck. "To preserve the evidence, we can cut the rope away from the knot. Wait a minute." He hurried to his car and took out the military backpack. Back in the basement, he pulled out plastic sheeting and a small stepladder from his backpack. "I wrap him in plastic so I won't break any clues. Then I lift him up and you stand on the ladder and cut the rope. Remember to cut away from the knot. You use my a knife." They quickly cut the rope.The plastic-wrapped dead body poured into Puller's strong arms.Puller lays him on the ground, and Cole climbs down the ladder. "Turn on the light," Pooler said, pointing to a switch on the wall. The lights came on, and Puller examined Wellman's neck carefully. "The carotid arteries and veins were compressed by external forces, and the hyoid bone may have been broken. An autopsy will confirm that." He pointed to some spots on the corpse's neck, "caused by ruptured blood vessels, which means he was still alive when he was hung up. .” Puller carefully turned the body aside so that he could see the dead man's hands bound behind his back. "Look for marks from the resistance, or something under the nails. If we're lucky, maybe we can find something for DNA testing." Cole checked with Puller's flashlight. "I don't see anything. I don't understand. Larry should have resisted. Maybe the killer has cleaned up afterward." "I think this may explain the problem." Puller pointed to the blood that tangled the dead man's hair. "They knocked him unconscious first, and then hung him up." He took a thermometer from his backpack and held it to Wellman's forehead, then looked at the number. "Five degrees lower than normal body temperature," he quickly calculated in his head, "dead for about three hours. That is, around 2:30." They heard the sound of parking outside. "Your men are here," Pooler said. Cole looked down at her dead colleague. "It seems that you are quite good at it." She said softly, but her eyes were still fixed on the dead man. "I'm only here to help, if you want. That's up to you." "I would." She turned and walked towards the stairs. "I know you've surveyed the entire site, but I want to do it again," Puller said, adding: "I don't want to offend your professionals, but I need to make a report to my superiors. My boss They want me to do my detective work in my own way." "I don't care, as long as I can catch the guy who did it." Cole walked up the stairs. Pooler looked down at the dead man and up at the far splattered blood and bits of muscle on the far wall where the exposed steel bars were exposed.That's where the Reynoldses were executed. Execution is the only proper description. The husband was shot in the head and the wife was shot in the chest.Puller didn't know why there was such a difference.The children did not die by drinking bullets.Generally speaking, this kind of concentrated murder that kills many people at once uses the same means.Changing the way of killing takes time, precious time.Moving the body after killing takes more time.Perhaps the last thing these killers lack in this world is time. Puller withdrew his gaze and looked at Wellman's body again. There is something in common with any homicide, because death is caused by violence.But beyond that, every homicide is always different. Solving crimes is a lot like treating cancer; what works in one case almost never works in others.Like a disease, a case needs to be targeted and the right medicine should be prescribed. Puller heads for the stairs, running after Cole.