Chapter 15

What a thing to say on national TV. Pretty soon Bill's phone rang. The voice identified himself as Henderson's boss. As per request Bill handed the phone over ... All Bill could hear was Henderson's side and it didn't sound too good. When the agent admitted that his Suburban was somewhere on campus, that was the end of it.

Mr. Ex- Special Agent Henderson was out the door and riding shanks mare ... footing it on the way to the bus station. There was a ticket waiting for him ... destination ... District offices ... Detroit. He wasn't too happy.

Pretty quick there was a group of men in black suits trying to get on the elevator but they didn't have a warrant ... so Bill made calls again. They left ... promising to be back in the morning ... even though Bill had said she wasn't in town.

"We'll see for ourselves," the man in charge said.

And they did. They were sorely disappointed because Andy wasn't back ... but they picked up the Suburban ... so a part of their chore was done.

Andy was back Monday ... just in time for class ... she didn't get to go.

"I'm as surprised as you ... I only stopped to get a look at the Rolls Royce stored in a shed. But while you're here, could you check out a few bullet holes in the Royce?"

That called for secondary explanations and the FBI had to be called in. The investigation was thorough.

"I heard the sound of a car backfiring," Andy explained. "I was sure it didn't have a lot to do with me so I kept going. It wasn't until I got to the Shell over on the north side that I noticed the holes.:"

"They're through and through," said the man with the yellow tape and the number stickers.

"That's what the police said ... they couldn't help me because the vehicle had left the scene of the crime ... Of course I didn't know there had been a crime."

"We're a little better at this," said the agent. "We have the rifling grooves in the metal. Who ever was shooting evidently didn't understand leading a moving target ... but the perp was a hell of a shot."

Andrea nodded, "I thought so ... it's a nice grouping for a moving target." And it was ... three holes you could cover with a quarter. The Royce was impounded.

"I want it back," said Andy. "I understand it's evidence right now. But it's not to become some playboy for a governmental mucky - muck. I hold title and it will come back to me."

About a week later, the Royce was back on a government hauler. The holes were even patched. Well ... not patched. There were new old stock panels in place of the holey ones ... the Feds said they needed the panels.

"It's a .375 Holland and Holland Belted Magnum and there aren't very many in Michigan. The reason we know this is the rifle is because the projectile markings demonstrate that a six grove barrel contour with each grove having an arc length of 0.115 in and a twist rate of one rotation in 12 in was used to launch the projectile. This is consistent with the H&H. The projectile deformation was, in all three examples, minimal, due to the extremely flat trajectory ... that measured by comparing the entry and exit holes on the two sides of the vehicle." The ballistics expert continued, "The .375 H&H Belted Magnum is the rifle of choice among American big and dangerous game hunters, routinely taking several Kodiak and Polar Bear annually. It's not as big a cartridge as the Winchester .458 but it's much more accurate."