Chapter 25: Identical Bullets

 Jason walked into into Alpha's office and sat down. Alpha was busy on the big TV mounted on one of the office walls following up on the latest breaking news of the mayor's shooting. When Jason took his seat Alpha switched the TV off and looked at him.

"I hope you're doing good"he said

"Yes I am. Just wondering why you called me to your office" Jason replied

"It's not something serious. Ok, it might be something serious." Alpha said

"Tell me about it then" Jason replied

"It's about the shootings that have occurred in the recent past, I just thought I should ask you if you have any knowledge about them. So, by any chance do you have any links to them?" Alpha asked

"What makes you think that I could possibly have any connections to those shootings.?" Jason asked in retaliation.

"I don't know. Maybe because since I' let you in on this case,,we have had two of them already." Alpha answered

"Me Legit, I believe that is what we call a mere coincidence"Jason said as he settled back in the chair

"Coincidence or not, I still have my reasons to doubt you.. Don't forget, this case also affects you personally so I don't see any excuse for you to play a bit dirty just so that you can have an upper hand."Alpha told Jason now a bit more serious

Jason scoffed and looked straight into Alpha's eyes, cleared his throat and spoke," If I wanted the mayor dead, I would've done it myself. Besides, I've been here since morning"

"Do you have an alibi?"Alpha asked

"Are you serious right now? I've been cramped up in that office and I'm sure if I was to leave, Kayla at the desk would've seen me."Jason answered

"That still doesn't answer my question,"Alpha said

"So that's how you are going to play it? No biggie, let me prove it to you"Jason said as he took out his phone and dialed Athena's number. After a few seconds of ringing, she answered,

"Did you forget something? Or you just want me to bring you lunch?" She asked

"Neither, I'm here with Alpha who seems not to believe what I'm telling him"Jason answered

"And what have you told him?"Athena asked a little bit alarmed

"Well, here had asked me where I was about twenty minutes ago after he left the office"Jason said

"And....."Athena urged him to continue nervously

"I told him I was still in the office busy doing something quick, so he asked who I was with and I told him I was with you. That's why I've called you so that you yourself can tell him what we're doing since I've told him everything and he's doubting me"Jason said

"Everything?"Athena asked as she took a big gulp. She could swear she heard her heart drop to her feet

"Yes, everything. I saw no need to lie to him."Jason answered

"Jason, what the hell did you....."before she could finish Jason cut off and said,

"I'm putting you on loudspeaker, tell him what we did."

"I'm on speaker right now?"she asked

"Yes Athena,I can hear you clearly"Alpha said

"Ooh great. So I think that if Jason has already told you what happened, I don't think there's any need to dwell on that topic so much" she said as she nearly fumbled with her words. In her head, the first thing that came in mind was what had happened between the two of them in the office.

"Please,be my guest. I'm all ears"Alpha said

"Well if you insist,me and Jason were just having some good time in the office and.." she said

"Good time as in listening to music and stuff?"Alpha cut in and asked

"Listen to music? I mean yes yes, of course listening to music. That is exactly what I meant. Definitely listening to music."Athena repeatedly said

"See, I told you that I've been around the building. Thanks Athena,"Jason said as he ended the call."you happy now?"

"Maybe, I still have my reasons of doubting you"Alpha said." You can get back to work"

"Gladly"Jason said as he left the office

*Meanwhile at the police head quarters*

Ray was trying to reconstruct the shooting of the mayor with the very few details that was retrieved from the crime scene. According to the report, the shooter took his shot from the West side of the podium. A single shot was fired through the mayor's bottle and took out his hand. Some media outlets had already started speculating that the shooter was none other than the same guy who shot the whole motorcade during the Friday court hearing outside the courthouse. As he continued to comb for more details there was a knock at this door.

"Come in"he said. The person who called in was a young man in his mid twenties holding a file in hand with a name tag that showed name and the department he was under. This particular lad was from the ballistics department."I didn't expect to see you guys until after two or three days. So tell me what you've got"

The guy dropped the file on Ray's desk,"Well I thought so too, but not on this particular case."the man said

Ray took the file and started going through it,"What am I looking at?"he asked

"That's the file concerning the bullet we got from this morning's shooting and also we have a few gotten from Friday's shooting"the man answered

"I have a feeling that you are going to surprise me, so out with it" Ray said

"We've been able to analyze both sets of bullets and it's exactly like we feared. They're both identical."the guy said

"Well, that confirms that we're dealing with the same guy. Tell me more"Ray said

"Things just get more interesting. Funny enough, we thought to give it a test and compare those bullets with the ones that were taken from the bodies by the shore. And you won't believe me if I told you that they are all identical"the ballistics got went on

"Well, that's true I wouldn't believe you even if you told me. But that helps me get some relief"Ray said

"Why's that?"the guy asked

"Now we don't have to worry about more than one killer, we just have to worry about one who's not scared to even go after our mayor"Ray responded." I'm sure you did not just come here to tell me about the relation of the bullets"

"No I did not sir. Allow me to ask, what's the procedure of bullet analyzing?"the guy asked

"That's not my department but as far as my knowledge is tested, I know that the bullets are identified, the make, the guns it can be used on and finally the serial number to break down the millions of guns around to just quite a number that is easily manageable" Ray responded

"I see you paid attention to police school. Now you're correct, but we have an issue. None of the bullets have a positive ID on any of the databases"the guy said

"What does that mean?"Ray asked

"Those bullets are not made anywhere else in this world. Best bet, they're handcrafted. Forged by hand from scratch. That's not what surprised, what did was the accuracy of the the way they have been made. No flaws, no dents. They're in the most suitable word, perfect"the guy said

"How many people in the world can do that?"Ray asked

"Not a lot, statistically one in every one thousand. If you were to ask me, that's the best way not to get caught. The guy we are dealing with is highly trained and highly smart. Don't forget the bold part" the guy answered

"At least now we have a lead. But have you taken into consideration that we could be dealing with more than one guy?" Jason asked

"Two guys? What makes you think that?"he asked

"Just a hunch, plus I doesn't seem like this is just the work of one person. We could be dealing with either two or more guys. Preferably close allies or family. Or as English men like to put it, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We might have attracted more than just one enemy along the way." Ray said

"Now that you put it that way, it does make more sense. Both theoretically and statistically."