“I talked to her instructor. According to him, she was very careful with the gun.” Jeffrey paused. “What’s Grant Tech doing with a women’s rifle team in the first place?”
“Title Nine,” Sara told him, referring to the legislation that forced universities to give women the same access to sports that men had. If the policy had been around when Sara was in high school, the women’s tennis team would at least have gotten time on the school court. As it was, they had been forced to hit balls against the wall in the gymnasium—but only when the boys’ basketball team wasn’t practicing.
Sara said, “I think it’s great they have a chance to learn a new sport.”
Surprisingly, Jeffrey conceded, “The team’s pretty good. They’ve won all kinds of competitions.”
“So people at school who knew she was on the team would know she had a rifle.”
“Maybe.”
“She kept the gun in her room?”
“Both of them did,” Jeffrey told her. “Her roommate was on the team, too.”
Sara thought of the gun. “Did you take her prints yet?”
“Carlos took them,” he told her, then anticipated her next question. “Schaffer’s fingerprints are on the barrel, the pump, and what’s left of the shell.”
“One shell?” Sara asked. As far as she knew, a pump-action rifle carried a three-shell magazine. Pumping the fore end would put another shell in the chamber for rapid fire.
“Yeah,” Jeffrey told her. “One shell, the wrong caliber for the gun, the skeet choke screwed on so the barrel would be tighter.”
“Does her toe match the print on the trigger?”
Jeffrey admitted, “I didn’t even think to check.”
“We’ll do it before the autopsy,” Sara told him. “Do you think someone forced her to load the rifle, maybe someone who didn’t know much about guns?”
“The first shell has a good chance of jamming in the barrel. If she didn’t have another shell in the magazine, then she could buy herself some time. Maybe even turn the gun around and use it to hit the guy.”
“Wouldn’t the shell explode in the barrel?”
“Not necessarily. If she had a full magazine, the second shell would hit the first and they would both explode near the chamber.”
Sara said, “Maybe that’s why she only loaded one.”
“She was either really smart or really stupid.”
Sara kept staring at the pictures. A lot of her cases were suicides, and this looked just like any other. If Andy Rosen had not died the day before, and Tessa had not been hurt, Sara and Jeffrey would not be asking these questions. Even the scrape on Andy’s back would not have been enough to warrant opening a full investigation.
Sara asked, “What connects them all?”