Blood Splattered Auto

Suspicions
Tracy's mind had wandered a moment while Diane spoke. He had read the doctor's report on his treatment of Diane's arm injury: "A single bullet entered her left forearm...it split in twoas it shattered the radius, and then exited, leaving two smaller wounds." As she related her getaway from the man on the road, how the bullet struck her arm, he couldn't help thinking that the placewhere she was wounded is the exact same place other killers have shot themselves to make it appear that they were attacked by a phony assailant.
She admitted she owned a 38 caliber pistol, which shekept for protection on her delivery route, and a 22 caliber rifle for home safety, but both were unused. One lay cold, hidden under rags in her trunk, the other collected dust on a shelf in her home.Because three helpless children had their bodies savagely blown open by a gunner, the policemen didn't mind the overtime one bit. They wanted the killer — now.
Several nurses and an investigator werebedside when Diane Downs was finally allowed into the intensive care unit to see Christie, one of her two surviving children. The spectators noted that, as she squeezed her daughter's hand, murmuring,"I love you," she did so as devoid of warmth as an icicle; her words were passed through clenched teeth. Paul Alton, the investigator, noticed something else: that the child's eyes, peeking fromabove an oxygen mask, took on the glaze of fear when spotting her mom approaching.
"I happened to glance at the heart rate monitor — the pulse — when Diane came in," said he. "The scope showed Christie'sheart was beating 104 times a minute (but) when Diane took hold of her...that scope jumped to 147!"
Under the supervision of Tracy and Kurt Welch, state troopers searched Diane's Springfieldresidence, requisitioning several items, including a diary that they found, the aforementioned rifle (a Glenfield .22 calibers located where Diane had said) and a box of standard .22 caliber shells, same...