Unlike Luke, who could make dozens of cupcakes in ten minutes, most police officers chose to snack on donuts.
After all, donuts had enough calories, could be eaten with one hand, and most importantly, were cheap and often sold 24 hours a day.
So, the officers who had to work nights became loyal donut customers.
It was also the reason why the case that Luke was supposed to help with had happened in a donut store.
Luke and Selina didn’t go in but simply observed the closed store from outside.
The glass windows of the store were shattered, allowing them to see most of the interior even though they were outside.
While they were observing the scene, a car stopped nearby, and someone said, “Hey, Luke and Selina. You’re here.”
Luke and Selina turned around and greeted him with a smile. “Good morning, Roger, Martin.”
Roger was black, and Martin was a handsome middle-aged white man who had a messy beard.
It was Roger who had greeted them just now. He lifted the cordon and had everyone enter the store. “It happened at five in the morning yesterday. Two shooters opened fire on this place with 9mm automatic weapons from a motorbike. Two customers were killed on the spot, and the worker manning the store was injured by broken glass. The killers didn’t come in. According to the worker, there was another customer who went missing. He was at the same table with the victims, and had come with one of them.”
Luke nodded his head, showing that he got it.
It was described in the case file, but Roger didn’t know how much they knew, so he repeated the key information for their benefit.
Looking at the body outlines and the nearby environment, Selina pictured the attack in her head.
Luke, on the other hand, stared at the bullet holes in the wall. He asked, “Has ballistics run the tests?”
Roger said, “Yes. Two guns were fired, but…”
Luke interjected, “But one of the guns didn’t shoot as many bullets?”
Roger was surprised. “Did you talk to the forensics department already?”.
Luke shook his head. “No, I was guessing.”
Then, a woman spoke from the door. “Well, it seems that I’m late.”
Everybody turned around. She turned out to be a beautiful young brunette, with her hair tied up
She was wearing a suit, and both the suit and the shirt underneath weren’t buttoned all the way, revealing a hint of her sexy collarbones.
Roger said, “Agent Palmer, you’re not late. We arrived early. This is Luke and Selina, our colleagues. They’ll be helping us with this case.”
The detective named Palmer shook hands with them courteously. “We could really use your help.”
She then asked directly, “Have you found anything?”
She was asking Luke the question, because she and Roger had already investigated this place yesterday, when the bodies were still on the ground and the blood had yet to dry.
Now, only the body outlines remained. She was genuinely curious to know what Luke and Selina might have found.
“Were there any eyewitnesses?” Luke asked.
Roger shook his head. “No, it was five in the morning. There was a homeless woman who was drawn in by the gunshots, but she only saw the surviving customer leaving the store.”
Luke asked, “What about the duration of the attack?”
Roger shook his head. “That homeless woman… doesn’t have a sound mind, and the worker is still in shock, and can’t tell us anything yet. So, we can only make a rough guess at the duration of the attack.”
Luke nodded, deep in thought.
Palmer couldn’t help but ask, “Is there a problem?”
Luke said, “If the killers didn’t stop the motorbike when they fired, it’s a big problem.”
Martin’s eyes glowed. “You’ve noticed?”
Luke chuckled. “Let’s stop talking in riddles. You go first.”
Martin broke his silence when he learned that a colleague was thinking the same thing. “I reached my conclusion after I read the forensics report this morning.”
Roger complained, “Wow! And you didn’t think to tell your partner sooner?”
Martin said, “Well, I would have to repeat myself to everyone even if I did tell you earlier, right? Only one of the shooters was the real killer, and the bullets that hit the victims all came from his gun. If the nervous worker is to be believed, the attack might’ve only lasted two seconds.”
Palmer found that odd. “Didn’t she say that she couldn’t remember anything?”
Martin said, “Her exact words are, ‘I feel like I’ve spent a year in Afghanistan.’ So…”
Everybody was lost for words.
This worker was obviously too overstimulated for her brain to function normally.
But two people had been killed by a barrage of thirty bullets. It would’ve been strange if the worker didn’t suffer mental trauma from that.
“However, most of the bullets were fired from one gun. They destroyed most of the store, but missed the victims.” Martin continued, “The way I see it, it’s hard to shoot when you’re driving a motorbike at fifty kilometers per hour, so this is understandable. So, it was the person sitting behind him who took action. He only fired two shots, and both victims were shot in the head.”
Palmer was surprised. “His shooting was so precise?”
Hitting two targets in the head with just two shots while moving at high speed was unbelievable.
“Yes, and it gets worse,” said Martin.
He pointed at the road outside. “The parking bays outside were occupied then, and the two shooters could’ve only shot from a range of about ten meters from the store. The driver even sprayed the parked cars with bullets.”