Sixty-Three

"You're right, I've explained this," Marta said. "That wasn't my gun I was holding when I shot at the woman. The car was coming at me. I dived. My gun fell out of my hand. I couldn't find it. It was dark. This Andrea woman was running away, was armed, had already tried to shoot me, she was a risk to anyone she might encounter, and I needed to pursue her. Bonnie—my sister—told Mr. Wakely to give me his weapon."

"Tell us about Mr. Wakely," Barnes said.

"He's the principal at Lodge High. He was at the school when Stuart Betz shot the teacher, Mr. Willow. I'd been at Bonnie's house when the call came in that there'd been a shooting there. And of course my sister was worried it was her husband who'd been shot, so we raced to the school. Once we all knew more, Mr. Wakely offered to drive Bonnie home."

"Go on." Dinkins, the Internal Affairs guy, this time.

"This is all in my report on—"

"Go on," he said again.

"On their way, Bonnie received a text she believed was from her husband, saying he was at Walnut Beach. We converged on the site. The rest you know."

The chief was nodding slowly. "I know you've been waiting for a ballistics report on the Finster shooting, whether it was a match to anything else. That happened this morning. It landed on my desk before it went to you, and when I saw it, I thought, what the hell is going on?"

Marta didn't say anything for a moment. Then: "The day Mark LeDrew came to the blow up the school, Wakely acknowledged he kept a gun locked in his desk, in case a shooter ever came through the doors. He had it out, was ready to use it on LeDrew, but didn't when he saw the dynamite, the guy's thumb on that button." She paused. "Jesus Christ."

"What?" asked the chief.

"He didn't want to hand it over," she said.

"What do you mean?"

"When Bonnie was telling him to give me the gun, he didn't want to," Marta said. "He had to be thinking, if it got fired, there'd be a ballistics test..."

She stood.

"Are we done here?" she asked Barnes and Dinkins.

They nodded.

Marta left.