Joe Victim: A Thriller

“Could just be a coincidence,” Hutton says. “She just planted a bomb in a car she saw in the area. Could be—” he starts, and then his cell phone starts ringing.

Hutton takes the call, leaving Schroder to think of what Hutton’s could be was going to be, adding a lot of his own could bes to it. The two men start walking again. Mostly what Hutton says are a lot of Uh huhs and a few Okays. Schroder is thankful it’s not going to be his job to talk to the woman who was in the process of becoming Raphael’s ex-wife, a woman who is now technically a widow. He thinks of Raphael’s grandchildren and wonders how much they’ll feel the loss, and wonders if the loss of their mother was so strong that losing a grandfather won’t make much of an impact. Then he thinks of Jack Mitchel, and he thinks back to the day they arrested Joe Middleton and how much Jack was itching to put a bullet into the serial killer. That’s not a could be, but a could have been. That could have been would have given today an entirely different outcome. His imagination takes another trip down the path not taken. No Joe, no trial, no protests, no gunshots and bombs. Tonight when the adrenaline has worn off, there’s going to be a whole lot of guilt waiting for him.

They pass Raphael’s car. The scene has started to clear of people and the police presence has grown. The small remaining crowds have been pushed back a block, but they are gathering back there with police officers trying to keep the scene contained. They’re not doing as good a job as they’d like, because there are still a few people within the cordon, those who aren’t cops or victims or paramedics are mostly media. No longer are the decoy cars surrounded. They walk through the intersection and turn left at the end of the block and head around to the back of the courthouse, where there are four patrol cars all with sirens off, but lights flashing.

“That was an interesting call,” Hutton says. “Witnesses have said the man getting into Raphael’s car was a police officer.”

Schroder pauses again and turns his back to the courthouse and looks at Hutton, who is framed by the image of Raphael’s smoldering car. “What?”

“That’s not all,” Hutton says. A couple of reporters start arguing a few yards away from them with a pair of officers trying to push them back. Schroder and Hutton carry on walking. “We got a report that it was the same person in the car that came out of there,” he says, pointing over at the office building where currently a steady stream of forensic technicians is pouring into.

“Can never reply on witness reports,” Schroder says.

“I know that, but the person who saw him getting into the car is one of us.”

“So . . . so what are we saying here?”

Hutton shrugs. Schroder wonders how much time has passed. It feels like five minutes, but it’s longer because he spent time unconscious and time watching over Rebecca as the paramedics worked at saving her. He looks at his watch, but it didn’t survive the blast. For this amount of cops to be here and the crime-scene tape already up, it has to have been at least fifteen minutes. It could even be half an hour. He needs to phone his wife. Needs to tell her he’s okay.

“What time is it?” he asks Hutton.

“Ten forty.”

So it’s been just over forty minutes since the first gunshot rang out. They reach the back of the courthouse. Jack Mitchel is lying on his back. Schroder stares at the dead man thinking of another could be, in this case it’s a could have been, as in what could have been if Melissa had decided to detonate Raphael’s car second. An hour ago none of this was a possibility, and now it simply doesn’t feel like a reality.

“So,” Schroder says, “we’ve got a police officer climbing into Raphael Moore’s car outside the scene of a shooting, and not long—”

“No,” Hutton says, shaking his head and interrupting.

“You just said—”

“What we have is somebody dressed as a police officer getting into Raphael’s car. That doesn’t mean it’s a cop.”

Schroder takes a few seconds to think about it. It’s a good point. He should have thought of that. Instead of the pain in his arm starting to disappear, it’s getting stronger. The paramedic gave him only four pills, two to take now and two to take in another few hours. He takes the second two now, working up enough saliva in his mouth then dropping them in one at a time and swallowing. “Okay, so let’s play this out. If it’s Raphael and he’s dressed as a cop and he’s coming out of the building Joe was shot from, then it stands to reason Raphael is the guy who did the shooting. Right?”