He took a deep breath and then exhaled slowly. “Okay, so the way George explained it to me is that some snipers will square off the space their target is in, and as long as no one else is in that space, or that they anticipate will enter that space, they take the shot.”
“And George confirmed all this after going to both places and then going to the morgue with Ian?”
“Yes.”
“I still don’t understand.”
“George thinks the killer was following Senan for days, and this morning, out of the blue, when he sees Senan take your spot at the barre, he took the shot because for once, Senan was standing in the kill zone without anyone else around.”
“He was standing there yesterday too, though.”
“Then maybe he saw him there yesterday and took a chance it would be the same today. That makes sense.”
“But I was there too, and I was about to lunge at him right before he was shot.”
“Even if you had—which I’m thankful you didn’t get a chance to—the bullet was already away and Senan was dead.”
I had to process that.
“And,” he said, his voice suddenly hoarse, “you weren’t as close to Senan as you think you were.”
“No, you’re wrong. I could have reached out and touched him.”
“Not according to the bullet the forensic team dug out of the Marley on the floor.”
“They have the bullet?”
“Yeah.”
“Just one bullet?”
He nodded.
“Wouldn’t the bullet just fall to the floor after shattering the glass?”
His face scrunched up. “A bullet traveling at a high enough velocity won’t stop until it hits something solid enough or thick enough to stop it. That’s physics.”
I took a breath. “Fine, but I had to be closer than you think because his blood got on me.”
“George said that because it was a high-powered round and you weren’t far, you got spattered. But you couldn’t have reached out and touched him.”
“So all that tells us what?”
“George says the guy was up high, angled down, and from his vantage point, looking at the room through his scope, he saw no one else in the frame but Senan, so he took the shot.”
“George doesn’t think he had any plans to kill me.”
“No, he doesn’t.”
“And he could say with certainty because he’s a retired sniper.”
“He’s active in the reserves, so, unlike Ian, he’s not retired, but the important part is he’s a sniper, so he knows what he’s talking about.”
“Okay…” I processed what he’d told me. “And you agree with George.”
“I do, but since we’re not a hundred percent positive, we’re not going to second-guess anything at this point. You’ll be with me until it’s determined that you’re absolutely, without a doubt, not in danger.”
I turned to look out at the other cars we were passing.