Page 90 of NYPD Red 7: The Murder Sorority

“Take off your hoodie and toss it on the floor about ten feet in that direction.”

Theo did as instructed, and Lowery released the dog. She went straight for the hoodie.

“Hier! Sitz!” he ordered.

Jinx returned to her handler’s side and sat waiting for the next command.

I put on a pair of latex gloves and picked up the hoodie. It had a kangaroo pocket large enough for two hands with openings on both sides. I reached in and eased my way toward the center until I felt something. I pulled it out. It was a business card. The name on the front was Megan Rollins.

I held it and walked toward the dog. Lowery had to restrain her from going after it.

“Jinx is afive-year-oldpro,” he said. “That card has got gun powder residue on it. I guarantee you.”

“Got it,” I said. I turned to Theo. “You have an explanation?”

“I don’t know,” he said, panic rising in his voice. “Maybe the fireworks.”

“What fireworks?”

“A couple of weeks ago I went to Chinatown with some friends, and we bought some firecrackers and a few other things that maybe aren’t totally legal.”

“For the record,” Kylie said, “not totally legalmeans totally illegal.”

“Come on, Kylie. You know what I mean. The legal ones are lame—sparklers and snappers and crap. We weren’t exactly stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. All we did was buy a bunch of skyrockets and Roman candles and shit—that kind of thing. I stuck some in my pocket and shot them off on the Fourth of July.”

“The dog is trained for explosives,” Lowery said, “but that was a week and a half ago. I don’t think she’d have picked up the scent after that long, but you can run it over to the lab. They’ll tell you what it is.”

“Thanks,” I said. “And thank Jinx for us.”

“So ist brav,” he said to the dog. She responded with a single bark, and the two of them walked off.

“When did Megan Rollins give you her card?” I asked Theo.

“When I was in the hospital. Do you remember she came to my room?”

“Did she hand it to you directly, or did she first give it to the cops outside your room?”

“She gave it straight to me. She asked one of the cops if she could, and he said okay. Then they told her to leave.”

“Does anybody want to explain to me what’s going on?” Shane asked.

“We will as soon as we figure it out ourselves,” Kylie said. “But first let’s get you upstairs.”

The sketch artist was waiting for us. He had no issue with having Theo hang out and watch the process. We waited five minutes until they settled in, and then we took the elevator down to the lobby.

“How the hell does Megan Rollins’s business card have GSR on it?” I said.

“We know that the shooter in the UPS uniform left gunpowder residue all over the parapet of the building across from the Tombs when he shot Warren Hellman,” Kylie said. “I wouldn’t put it past Megan to sneak up to the roof and tamper with the evidence.”

“Couldn’t happen,” I said. “Crime Scene sealed that rooftop off as soon as we called it in.”

Kylie shrugged. “Fine. You got a theory?”

“Yeah, I do,” I said. “I think Megan Rollins got gunpowder on her hand the same way everybody does. She fired a gun.”

CHAPTER 60

“You think Meganfired a gun?” Kylie said as we headed toward the car. “When? Where? Why?”