But Susan was right. The press was all at street level. Thirty yards away Hargrave was four feet above them on the landing. Yet, when he'd turned from the blood spatter he was not looking down at them. Caught on camera, his line of sight went up and behind. Nick turned and scanned the building across the street. It was typical South Florida stucco, painted some pinkish earth color with tall reflective glass on the first floor and three rows of windows above, all of them shut. At the roofline there was an attempt at some ornate scrollwork in a complementary color and an antenna of some sort rose into the sky behind it. A physical shift of the press pool caused him to turn around and reporters and cameramen began pressing and then pushing their way to the gate. Over their heads Nick could see Joel Cameron, official spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office, walking over toward them, a single sheet of paper in his hand. Press release, Nick thought, straight off the printer.

Unlike the scenes of the media mob on scripted television and movies, no one yelled out some stupid What happened? question. They all formed into a half circle. The sound folks got their microphones up front so they could record. Cameron waited until everyone was set. They'd all been through it before.

"Alright, guys. Here's what we've got so far," Cameron began, reading from the news release:

" 'At approximately seven fifty-five this morning shots were fired at the county's downtown jail facility in the eight hundred block of South Andrews Avenue during a routine transfer of detainees.

"'One man was fatally wounded as the detainees were being brought through the main jail's secured north entrance. The location of the shooting is not accessible to the public and no member of the public was in any way endangered.

" 'The Sheriff's Office is presently investigating the shooting and the name of the deceased is not being released until notification of next of kin.' "