Elemental Assassin 02 - Web of Lies

murmuring to me, and my power to understand and interpret it had only sharpened and strengthened over time. And would continue to do so until I died, hopefully at the ripe age of a hundred and fifty or so.
    From the vibrations I’d picked up, the shooter had been waiting the better part of an hour. Maybe longer. Sophia came in early, usually by nine, to start baking the day’s bread. I usually showed up around ten, and the restaurant officially opened for business at eleven. But the shots hadn’t been fired until almost noon. Why? Why had the assassin waited so long? I’d been Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 68-69
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    Maybe the assassin had realized that if he took out the girl in the restaurant, there was a good chance her death would be connected to Jake McAllister and the robbery 6
    last night. No doubt the cops would have had the same first thought as me—that Jake or whomever he might have hired had been aiming at me, not the girl. That I’d been the target. That Jake had wanted to silence me and make all the charges against himself just disappear. Given all that, the police wouldn’t be inclined to look too hard in other directions, to consider other theories. Like the fact the girl had been the intended victim all along. And if laying the blame on Jake McAllister didn’t work, well, there was another option. The Pork Pit wasn’t officially located in Southtown, but it was only a couple The girl, Violet. The shooter had been aiming at her, not of streets over, which meant the whole area had its share me.
    of crime. Drug deals, shootings, domestic disputes. one That was the only thing that made sense. The assasor more of those happened every day of the week. sin could have shot me any time I’d been close to the Given the rough neighborhood, the girl’s death today storefront windows. But he hadn’t. Instead, he’d sat in might have just been chalked up to random violence in this apartment for almost an hour, waiting for her. She’d the area, if the cops were feeling particularly lazy. Some been sitting in a booth in the back, out of sight of the sort of drive-by or gang shooting that she’d been unlucky storefront windows, so he’d had to wait for her to finish enough to get in the middle of. A ten-year-old kid and his her lunch. When she’d paid and started for the front door, younger sister had gotten caught up in one of those last that’s when he’d taken his shot.
    week, less than a half mile from the restaurant. My mind processed the information and moved on to Either way, nobody would think it had been a planned the next question. Why shoot her inside the restaurant?
    hit. The best assassinations were always the ones that Why not wait for her to step outside onto the street? Why looked like something else. A nice, neat, easy plan all the not just do her in some back alley?
    way around.
    The answer came to me. The robbery. The assassin Maybe the assassin had been following the girl, lookmust have seen the story in the newspaper about the ing for just such an opportunity. Maybe he’d known she botched robbery at the Pork Pit.
    was coming to the Pork Pit today to eat lunch and ask Estep_Web of Lies_1P EP.indd 70-71
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    about somebody named the Tin Man. Either way, when it was directed at her. Hey, you wasn’t the most personal she’d gone into the restaurant, he’d decided to make sure of greetings. So I picked up my pace, running at a full that she never came out again. It would have been easy sprint. If the street had been empty, I might have reached for him to slip into the building unseen, find the empty her. But every five steps, I had to duck right or left to apartment, and jimmy the lock. All he would have ahd avoid someone talking on their cell phone. to do after that was wait for the right moment, the right I reached the end of my block. on the corner across angle, and then pull the trigger.
    from me, the girl had settled into the cab. I stepped out I stared at the cracked storefront of the Pork Pit. He onto the street, my eyes fixed on the bright yellow vewould have hit her too—four kill shots clustered in her hicle—
    chest.
    Beep! Beep!
    If the restaurant didn’t have bulletproof windows. And abruptly stepped back as a car horn blared out. A No, this didn’t have anything to do with Jake McAllissecond later, a minivan zoomed by, running the red light. ter and me. The girl—it was all about