When they reached the car, Jackie said to Marcia. "I promise not to do this all the time, but I'm going to tell you a story that Chief Booker told me ... and he did that a lot.
"Anyway, this local guy and his out-of-town buddy are walking down a back road, and they come across an old barn. On the door of the barn are half a dozen targets drawn in chalk. The buddy looks closely, and he sees that there's a bullet hole right in the middle of every single target.
'Wow!' he says to the local guy. 'That is some impressive shooting!'
'Not really,' the guy says. 'That's Tommy Birch; he shoots first and then draws the target around the hole.'"
Marcia chuckled, and said, "Cute."
"Whenever the Chief thought someone was looking at things backwards—trying to make the evidence fit the conclusion they wanted, he'd say, 'You shootin' or drawin' targets?'"

Chalk Targets takes Chief Jacquelyn "Jackie" Hall of the Rowley police along a surprisingly twisted path when subtle evidence indicates that the accidental death of a local woman she has known for years may be something more disturbing.
When a young investigator named Marcia Grieves is assigned to the case by the Essex County DA's office, Jackie is at first unsure of how much help she will be, but she soon comes to respect and welcome the impartial second set of eyes as unsettling secrets are discovered regarding the victim, her husband, and their step-kids.
As the investigation deepens, the help of local IT expert Carol Soucy is enlisted, and even more skeletons are unearthed on the family computers, and what seemed to be solid targets must be erased and fresh ones drawn and aimed at.