Alex Kava Bundle - Alex Kava [762]
He continued to watch the horizon, preferring the blurred blue and purple hues to the chaos inside his cabin, his retreat.
“Does this work?” Charlie had found the nine-inch TV and was already plugging it in. “Probably no cable out here, huh?” But he searched for it along the walls, anyway. He kept his sandwich in one hand while he turned on the TV and started moving around the rabbit ears with his other hand. The static didn’t slow down his bites. However, when he dropped a piece of its precious contents—a slice of tomato, followed by a slice of onion—he stopped everything to pick it up off the carpet, give it a quick inspection and pop it into his mouth. “Seven-second rule,” he said to no one in particular.
Finally he found a station that came in. Andrew recognized the orange halos from his own attempt to watch last night. It looked like the morning news.
“No tornado touchdowns reported, though there were several reports in Douglas and Sarpy Counties of funnel clouds being spotted. We’ll have more about that later. Now for an update on the bank robbery that took place at the Nebraska Bank of Commerce on south Highway 50. The amount of money that the two masked robbers got away with is still undetermined.”
Andrew glanced at Charlie who seemed glued to the TV. The woman had stopped to watch, too. He remembered the report from the night before…two suspects in a high-speed chase, south on Highway 50. The helicopter had been sweeping the park looking for them. How the hell had they missed them? Because they had missed them—here they were sitting in his fucking cabin.
He watched the news station display a graphic of where the suspects were last seen. Their car was reportedly found just off Highway 6 and residents in the area were warned to lock their vehicles and be on the lookout. There was no description of the robbers given, and Andrew immediately found himself making a mental list of their characteristics.
“The two are said to be armed and dangerous. As of this morning’s report the names of the victims have not been released.”
Andrew jerked to attention. Victims?
“What we are allowed to tell you is that two bank employees and two customers were killed. One employee remains in critical condition at the University Medical Center. Police have not released any details, however, an anonymous source close to the investigation has said that all four victims were shot at close range. If you have any information…”
But Andrew’s mind flew into panic mode. Suddenly he realized why Jared’s face looked so familiar. He had seen him on several news shows. His picture had been plastered on the front page of the Omaha World Herald. Jared Barnett. Andrew had heard Tommy Pakula curse that name over the last few weeks, insisting Barnett had gotten away with murder. Andrew had done too much research, had spent too many hours listening to cops, knew too many statistics to deny the one thing he now knew for certain. Jared Barnett wouldn’t simply be taking his wallet and his car and leaving.
At least not before finishing what he must have tried to do last night—but missed.
CHAPTER 34
8:27 a.m.
Melanie fell back in the chair, her hands wringing the khaki shorts she had pulled from the heap of clothes. All that blood. She had seen it on Jared’s and Charlie’s coveralls. What did she think it was from? And the gunfire. Of course there were victims. Someone probably got in the way, made a stupid move. That’s probably what happened.
But four…shot at close range. There had to be a mistake. The media always blew everything out of proportion, hyped the news for better ratings.
She watched Charlie. He was cleaning his high-tops, rubbing off the mud