Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (13 page)

Callen shrugged and sat beside his Elizabeth. His hand immediately went to the baby bump hoping to feel his son move. “Anything?” he asked.

“Sorry Cal. I feel him inside moving but he hasn’t started kicking and being wild yet. Give it some time. Once he starts up, I won’t get any sleep.”

Blackhawk looked up from his email. “And when she stops sleeping, WE stop sleeping. Elizabeth is evil. She’ll lay against you with the baby bump pressing against you so you both feel the baby
all night long.” A little piece of him was disappointed that he wouldn’t be feeling it too.

“I don’t mind. I’ll stay up all night if I have to,” Whitefox offered, not wanting to miss a single second of the pregnancy. This was his first child and it mattered.
Every second was precious.

“Thank you for breakfast, Cal. We were hungry,” Elizabeth stated, finishing her fruit.

“I’m glad Bly thought to pack oatmeal for you, Lyzee,” stated Whitefox.

Both Blackhawks thought back to
the scene in their kitchen and laughter ensued.

“What?”
Callen glanced back and forth between the two of them not sure what he’d missed.

Ethan grinned wickedly
and let him in on it. “Guess who we caught making out and getting handsy before we left for Red River.”

Callen dropped his spoon.
The look was somewhere between horror and abject fascination.

Elizabeth snickered and handed it to him. “Yep. She was giggling and Dad was bright red when Ethan busted him.”

“I don’t know if I should be entertained or just freaked out that our nearly sixty year old father is getting lucky while we’re on assignment.”

She started laughing. “I’m entertained and happy for Wyler. He deserves some affection and love
too.”

Blackhawk thought about it. “You know if he marries her, I’m going to call her mom just to make dad nuts.”

Callen started laughing. “Shit, that will embarrass the hell out of him if we all called her that.”

Elizabeth wasn’t
participating in that little fun fest. “I’m not screwing with Bly. Last time I cursed in the house, she rearranged the kitchen. It took me two days to find a butter knife.”

“We should buzz him on the tablet and see if dad’s awake,” snickered Whitefox. “Can we?”

Ethan logged onto video call and waited to see if his father would link up with them. When his face came onto the screen, he was holding CJ in his arms.  “Hey CJ! Daddy misses you!”

Elizabeth waved at her little man. “I miss you, baby boy. Mommy will be home shortly.”

“Is he being good for you, Dad?” asked Callen, grinning at his nephew. The child was more like his son, since he and Ethan had decided to share the kids equally. Why differentiate when the children would be blessed with two men that claimed them as their own?

“
As always he’s a dream. Last night he slept the entire night. I didn’t hear a peep out of him until thirty minutes ago.” Wyler smiled at his kids. He missed and loved them. “When are you three returning?”

“Not for a while yet, Dad,” Elizabeth answered.

Something drew Wyler’s attention, causing him to give a subtle nod. He could only pray his kids would miss it.

“Is Bly there already?” questioned Ethan, grinning. When his father blanched both boys started laughing.

“What?” Wyler pretended to not hear the question.

Elizabeth
was amused. “Moring Bly. Thank you for packing oatmeal. It was baby’s breakfast this morning,” she stated, knowing the woman could hear her.

“You’re welcome, Elizabeth,” came her reply from the background.

All three of them looked at their watches at the same time. It was barely eight in the morning and that meant one thing.

“Dad had a sleepover!” chanted the brothers,
right before giving each other fist bumps and laughing.

Wyler looked mortified at the atte
ntion his sex life was getting, and being called out on it by his sons. In his past, it was his affairs that ruined their lives.

“You two knock it off,” admonished Elizabeth. “Now I know why I’m your favorite, Dad,” she stated, pinching both of them.

Bly stood behind Wyler and crossed her arms. Both men shut up pretty fast, and Elizabeth started laughing. “She’s going to kick both your asses and I get to watch!”

“Elizabeth!” Bly
exclaimed, her arms still crossed. “Profanity is not needed at seven thirty in the morning.”

Wyler touched the woman on the arm, giving her an admonishing look.

“Seriously? I’m not even in the house. I certainly can say ass in a rental home while on a job. In fact, I think it’s okay to say in my car alone, on a roof overlooking the Rez and even possibly in a box, with a fox or with a goat in a moat.”

Wyler
choked on his coffee and began laughing at his daughter-in-law’s antics. “I love you, Elizabeth. How is my other grandson doing?” he inquired, changing the subject.

“He’s good. We’re just about ready to head out to go watch an autopsy.”

Bly shook her head. “You shouldn’t be chasing after killers while you’re pregnant. A sensible woman would be home with her son.”

All three men held their breath, waiting for the explosion.
While they may all secretly agree, they each knew not to say it out loud. Hell hath no fury like a gun toting woman.

Elizabeth
fought hard to swallow the tears. It was like the woman knew her one weakness and took aim. “No one ever accused me of being sensible, Bly, and I’m here for the victims that have no voice. I’m sure my son will understand one day and forgive me. I love chasing assholes that think they can pull shit over on the Feds.” She purposely used every profanity that Bly hated with exception of the big one. That one is reserved for special moments.

Both men offered her a fist bump
in solidarity.

“
Next topic for the morning, Bly?” Elizabeth challenged.

Wyler handed his grandson O’s and smiled at his family. “Go be safe today. Call me later tonight. I love you three.”
It was best to cut the call fast. He was going to have to talk to Bly about cutting Elizabeth a break and soon. Before it got ugly and someone, mainly Bly, got hurt or fired.

She
blew him and CJ kisses.

The video conference went black. “Wow, dad’s getting laid
in our house and Bly thinks she’s our mother. This is going to make for an interesting football season when we’re drinking, cursing and putting our feet on the furniture,” stated Whitefox, knowing the woman was going to be a pain in all their asses.

“We can always fire her,” offered Blackhawk. He was pretty sure the woman was going to get told off when she commented on
Elizabeth’s job and mothering. There was going to be a discussion when he saw the woman again, privately. Whether his father liked her or not, there wasn’t going to be comments aimed at his wife.

Elizabeth was off limits.

“Dad likes her, so we suck it up,” Elizabeth stated. It wasn’t easy to swallow the words that came to mind when the housekeeper told her what she should and shouldn’t be doing. “For Wyler, I’ll tolerate her jackassery and tomfoolery, and ignore her nineteen fifties mentality.”

Ethan thought about it. “
Oh Crap! If dad marries her, she’ll be living above our garage with him.”

Elizabeth stood up and pushed in her chair.

“Angel, where are you going?” inquired Callen, suddenly worried about her.

Elizabeth kept walking. “Suddenly, I don’t feel so well. I think I may throw up.”

~ Chapter Four ~

Wednesday mid-morning

Somethings in life were generally all the same, despite the time or location. Autopsies were one of those things. It didn’t matter if you were in a lab, a bunker, or a field, because ultimately it all came down to one thing; the body.

Entering the basement lab, Elizabeth, Callen and Ethan knew that it was going to be pretty gruesome.
None had seen the bodies up close and personal yet, and that was always the worst part. Well that and when Doctor Leonard removed the skull cap and took out the squishy brain. That ranked up there pretty high on the ick scale.

“Morning Doctors,” Elizabeth s
tated, walking into the section designated as the morgue. Both their doctors were occupied, doing their perspective jobs.

Chris was prepping his tools, and Tony was inspecting the box of bones that he’d pulled from the cave.

“Hey Lyzee, welcome to our new temporary home,” Chris cheerily called, grinning. Then he dropped his voice. “Are you going to be okay through this autopsy?” Chris knew she’d struggled through their last assignment with the crispy skinned corpses.

“I should be good, as long as you don’t plan on cooking anything on, in
, or around the bodies.” She grabbed a chair, spinning and straddling it. Since there were no spare lab tables, Elizabeth couldn’t perch herself in her customary spot.

Tony grinned at the woman, waving a bone around. “I can give you the update on the bones, before Chris begins his cut fest.

Elizabeth waited for it.

“Without a doubt they’re animal bones. We have the bones of a
canis lupis familiaris and also ovis aries.”

Blackhawk stared at the man, wondering why he made them work for it so early in the morning. “Okay so a dog and what?”

“Sheep,” answered Chris, laughing. He could tell what they were thinking. “Next time you hear it, you’ll know it. Think of this as a teaching facility.”

Elizabeth stared at them. “How about I teach you humility by dragging you both out back
, letting our staff watch me boot your ass around the parking lot for shits and giggles, boys?”

Chris pulled the sheet off the first corpse
, clearing his throat. He didn't doubt she’d do it. “How about we begin with the bodies? This is the fresher one, and I figured we could start with the less nasty one and go from there.”

Blackhawk nodded
, grateful for all of their sakes. “It’s appreciated, Doctor Leonard.”

Elizabeth
glanced over at Callen, waiting for the man to start. When he stood there almost lost, she jumped in for him. “Guys, before we jump into the deep end of the pool, since our corpses are missing skin, can you give me some clue about ethnicity?”

Tony answered. “Both are Caucas
oid. I checked the back of their skulls, and they aren’t bulbous, so that eliminates Natives. Their noses rule out African American and Asian.”

Okay, that was something. Elizabeth nodded at her ME, giving him their signal. She was ready.

The ME pulled out his recorder, placing it on the table beside the deceased man. “I can tell right off that the COD would appear to be a blow to his chest. I’m going to say preliminarily that it was a sharp object.”

“Like a knife?”
questioned Callen, entering in information on his tablet. Since he was running this one, he tried to remember exactly what Elizabeth would do. First up would be baiting the ME for details.

“
I can’t tell you that until I open him up.”

Whitefox glanced over at
his brother and woman. Both watched him grinning. “So, what you’re saying is that after ten years and thousands of bodies, you aren’t sure what killed him? Wow, that’s too bad. You’d think by now you could just look,” he baited.

Leonard
glanced up, starting to answer, and then realizing what the man was trying to do. “Nice try, Director Whitefox, but let me assure you that I’ve been run through the Lyzee ringer. You can’t jack with my mind nearly as well as she can.”

Elizabeth started laughing and offered Callen a fist bump. “That was an awesome try, Cal. I do believe he almost fell for it. I
will go on the record and state that I’ve used that one on him myself. I think we were working together about three years.”

Chris cut into his chest. “Yeah, you
manipulated me with the whole ‘green ME’ trick and I fell for it.”

Callen shrugged. “I had to give it a shot.”

Pulling out his scalpel, Chris removed the heart. “Director, come take a look,” he said, waiting for Callen to take a spot beside him. “This is a long, narrow slice. Not at all jagged or torn. If I were to be pressured into guessing, I’d say you have a hunting knife. Not serrated but smooth.”

“Which makes sense since he was completely skinned,” added Elizabeth. “I don’t hunt, and I’ve never skinned anything
in my life, but I imagine you need a sharp knife.”

“I used to skin the deer granddad killed,” offered Callen. “You need a shorter sharp knife. You want control or you can’t get it off in one piece.”

Blackhawk agreed. “You wouldn’t carry two knives if you were a killer. You’d use one weapon of choice and utilize it. There’d be one strike to the heart, and then get to work to remove the skin.”