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They say true love never comes without tragedy. One or other of you is left behind. The love never dies, but it can't be returned.
So it was with Joe - Joseph - after the murder of his wife Grace. Her murder, according to the LAPD detectives, was a random shooting that tore the life from her with a single shot to the head as she was walking from her car to the shopping mall. They had had no success in tracing her killer, so far. A gangland random shooting they said and at this point standing by his wife's graveside he had no reason to disbelieve them.
The service by the plot was as solemn as the weather, which was gray and overcast. Joe tried to blank out any thoughts, tried to distance himself mentally from what was going on. His grief, he knew, would come out in private and later. That was the way he was. So he held himself erect, seemingly emotionless and lost inside himself. Eventually, after the commiserations and farewells, he found himself alone at the graveside, with the gravediggers standing off a respectful distance.
They had no children and few relatives between them, both being only children. All Joe could think at that point was his love for Grace and how he would never lose that feeling and how it would never be reciprocated.
Back on the pathway away from the graveside and beyond where the grave digging guys were waiting stood a figure, in shadow under the trees that lined the path. He too was waiting for Joe to step away from Grace's grave. Some little time later Joe did walk away and headed toward the pathway and his car. As he did the gravediggers moved forward to complete their task. Joe was around six feet and throughout everything had held himself erect but now as he walked away he hung his head in sorrow and to the casual observer he looked like a stooped man.
He passed the guy in the shadows without even noticing him until the man called out his name. Joe turned and was relieved and in some ways delighted to see Sam, his old buddy from the East Coast. He hadn't seen him for at least a couple of years due to Joe's move to LA. Sam suggested they go get a drink somewhere and so they did.
Out of habit and training Joe chose a seat at the back of the place so that he was facing the whole restaurant. Sam joined him with the drinks. They talked a little of old times and then Sam turned the conversation to Grace's death. 'We don't think it was a random shooting' Sam told Joe. Joe sat for a moment shocked and more than a little surprised. Why and who are 'we' he asked.
Sam said he would deal with the 'we' first. I've gotten a posse together he said and named four other guys who were all buddies of them both. One who was an ex-MP from the Army, one from the USN, one ex-CIA, one Brit and Sam himself who was ex-Marine Corps. Quite a pool of talent all told.
As to the 'why', well motive and perpetrator were unknown, but Sam went on to explain that by fair means or foul they had obtained a copy of the ballistics report and suspected trajectory. The biggest surprise though was the act that the single round had been fired from over a thousand yards away, from a low rooftop with a ...sniper rifle. Nothing random about it and which begged the question what were the LAPD covering up...
