Darkness Of Truth (An FBI/Romance Thriller~ Book 6) (20 page)

“Not exactly
alone,” Ethan paused, allowing his wife to get the picture in her head and ask the next logical question in the progression of the discussion.

Elizabeth was hoping he wasn’t going to say he went, with a concussion. She’d kill him. “Who went with Julian to the scene, Ethan?” she asked again.

“There was a deputy with him; a Garrett Yazzie, and he was very helpful.”

She relaxed marginally. “Did he find anything?”

Ethan grinned and offered Julian a fist bump. “We found shell casings,” and then he realized in his moment of celebration, he dropped the wrong word.

“You did go!” she accused, and then let out a torrent of profanities that culminated with her reminding him that she was put in a hospital because of a concussion and taken off duty.

Blackhawk let her rage for a few moments until she burned out. When she was done, he decided it was safe. “So where are we meeting for lunch?” he asked, grinning. 

Elizabeth hung up the phone.

“Are we meeting them? I’m starving.” Julian questioned.

“Not exactly.”

Julian wasn’t surprised. “I hear divorce isn’t too painful if you don’t put up a fight.”

Elizabeth dropped her phone in her lap
, ready to lose it again. Now she was in an even worse mood. She had the newbie to babysit, two families to possibly notify of their dead relatives, and a husband that was out playing cowboy and Indian with his Native friend.

“Are they both safe?” asked Callen, leading in with that first
, trying to buffer the anger off his brother.

Elizabeth looked over her sunglasses at him. “Don’t go there, Callen. If that was me, he’d have an armed guard outside my
hospital room door.”

He knew that to be truth. When Elizabeth was almost blown up in Cypress Grove by
Desdemona’s crazy brother, they’d put her in the hospital for observation. “Okay, being the only man here, I’ll say this once for the record and then move on.”

She crossed her arms
waiting for it.

“Ethan’s a man, and he’s doing what men do.
We don’t think we’re screwing it up, because it’s a genetic thing. Honestly, we have no control of the stupid gene. Have pity, because your sons are going to carry the curse too.”

Elizabeth actually laughed
, as he pulled into the driveway at the farm. The explanation was so ridiculous she had no choice but to be entertained. When Callen looked over at her surprised, she grabbed his face in her hands and kissed him. It was warm, deep and was filled with so much love.

Tori sat in the back and snickered. “Nice one.
That made me miss Julian,” she added.

Elizabeth broke the kiss and stared into his eyes. “That’s for being the mediator and trying to defend your brother when he does
chauvinist things,” she stated. “I love you.”

“I’ll defend him more often if that’s the reward,” he answered, following out of the car.
“You think you can kiss me some more later for being such a devoted brother?”

“Maybe,” she winked, as she walked to the front
of the house. Callen and Tori joined her, as she knocked on the door. The woman that stood there was weepy and looked like she’d been run through the ringer. Elizabeth pulled out her badge. “Mrs. Sumners?”

“Yes,” she said, looking at the badge. “Is this about my husband
, Andrew?”

She put her badge away. “Can we come in and speak to you, Mrs.
Sumners?”

“Please call me Gail and come right in,” she
corrected, stepping back to allow them access into the house. “Please, I need to know. Did you find my Andy?”

The heartbreak on the woman’s face was crushing. Tori knew exactly how she felt in that single moment. It was a cross between pain and the feelings of being hopelessly lost. She’d been there once before, until Julian came into her life. Now she was alive again.

“Ma’am, we found a body, but we need something with Andrew’s DNA to make a comparison.” One of her least favorite things in the world was telling people that their loved ones weren’t coming home. This was the easier visit. The next one would be far worse, because now there was still a glimmer of hope.

Gail began sobbing. “In the bathroom, there’s a green toothbrush.” She couldn’t finish her sentence.

Tori got up and headed in the direction the woman pointed to retrieve the DNA.

“Can you tell me what your husband was doing when he
disappeared?” Callen asked, patting the woman’s hand gently and offering her another tissue.

“There was a break in the
one fence out by the end of our property line. He was going out to repair it so our cows and sheep didn’t cross into the reservation forest.” Gail accepted the tissue, blowing her nose. “I told him I’d go with him, but he was so damn stubborn and always worried about me getting hurt.”

“Yeah, men are like that, Mrs.
Sumner.” Elizabeth looked right at Callen, and he lifted an eyebrow.

“When will you know?” she asked, softly. “When will the DNA be back,” Gail watched Tori return with the toothbrush in a plastic evidence bag.

“Tomorrow at some point,” Elizabeth answered. “Do you have someone that can come stay with you, Gail?” she asked.

The woman shook her head.

“Ma’am?” spoke the young deputy. “If you want I’ll come back and stay here with you a while. I’m off shift in an hour, and I don’t mind.”

The woman nodded and tried to give a watery smile. “I’d appreciate that young man.”

Elizabeth was impressed with the deputy’s generosity. “Gail, would you mind if we wandered back by the fence to take a look around? I want to see where your husband was last seen.”

She nodded. “If you think it’ll help, please. I just want my Andy back. How do I go on without him? He was my life,” she
sobbed, leading them to the back door. “He was working on the fence beyond those trees and to the right. You won’t miss it. It’s still cut. I don’t have the heart to go out there and mend it.”

Since she loved two men, much like Gail loved her husband, Elizabeth knew how hard it was going to be. Whenever she thought about losing one of them, her heart sank.

They started across the pasture and no one spoke. All three of the FBI agents were hoping they didn’t find a white feather. For Gail’s sake, they didn’t want to have to tell her that her dear husband was lying on a morgue table missing his skin. It would be too gruesome.

“Ma’am, what are we searching for out here,” inquired the deputy. “
If you think he’s already dead, what can we find out there but sheep? It’s been a couple of weeks since he’s gone missin’.”

“I’m not looking for something as much as scoping out the area,” she offered.

“Oh, I see,” but he didn't.

Elizabeth scanned the
property line. “It really does butt the reservation,” she stated, pointing. “If the killer came out through those trees, Andrew Sumner would have had his back to him. He could have grabbed him then.”

Callen walked to the fence and stared at the wir
e. “It was cut. There’s a clean slice through the metal. The killer probably lured him out here with the damaged fence. This was definitely premeditated. The killer was looking at this man for some reason.”

Walking to the fence post, Tori
began inspecting it and found a piece of the puzzle. “I think we can confirm that this man was taken by our killer.” Standing, she pulled on gloves. “We have a white feather.”

Elizabeth moved towards her agent
, watching her pick up the eagle feather from the post. It was nailed there. “I want that nail too. We need to get it out. If the killer put in through that feather, maybe we’ll get a print off the head.”

Whitefox pulled out his pocket knife, flicked it open
and began digging around the nail. When he worked it out of the wood, Tori caught it in her gloved hand as it fell.

“Bag it as evidence.” Elizabeth considered it. “The killer left the reservation for this specific man. Why?”

“Land dispute?” Maxwell Kelly offered earnestly. “The Natives get pretty irate whenever you put a fence up around here, especially if they think you took rights to their land. They get a might cranky,” he said.

Callen looked over. “We Natives generally have a good reason to be
testy, son. History isn’t pretty and growing up trapped on a reservation is a one way trip to desolation and misery.”

Elizabeth was
surprised; Callen generally didn't make comments about his past to anyone outside his personal circle. The entire assignment had them all off balance.

“I beg your pardon, Sir. I didn't mean anything by it,” stated Max Kelly. “I hope I didn't offend. I just meant that if
one of your victims is Mr. Sumners, the land could be why. He may have pissed someone off.”

Elizabeth
didn't like the way that sounded. Running her hand reassuring down Callen’s arm, she offered him calm and peace. “If that’s the case, then every white man this side of the mountains is the next target. We’ve been stealing the Native’s land since Columbus. Could it be that black and white? A simple land dispute?”

“In the mind of a killer, it could be anything,” Callen reminded her. “We should head to the next potential victim’s home. That may give us
another piece to the puzzle.”

She
started back across the pasture, her eyes sweeping the land that Andrew Sumner owned. What the hell could a farmer with fenced in property possibly do to piss off a native?

During the trip to the next location, Callen was having a really hard time concentrating. Elizabeth sat beside him, absently rubbing her baby bump ever so lovingly. Something about the very maternal action warmed his heart and blood. At that moment he was torn between picturing her holding his son in her arms and making love to her for the rest of the night.

“Callen?”
She said his name, touching his cheek with her fingers. “Are you okay?”

He looked around, trying to figure out what she had said to him before. “Sorry, I was lost in thought.”

Elizabeth laughed. “You were thinking about the baby again, weren’t you? When you do, you get this look on your face.”

Grinning, he admitted it. “
Yeah, I was thinking about my son.”

Tori leaned forward
and spoke to her boss. “You have to be excited,” she pointed at the bump. “Your other son is damn cute, and I bet this one’s going to be a heart breaker too.” Tori knew they didn't differentiate that Callen wasn’t CJ’s biological father. Both men shared the little boy they loved with all their hearts. It was rather sweet.

Elizabeth snickered. “I can’t wait. More damn men in the house.”

“Don’t you have a house keeper now?” questioned Tori. “There’s some estrogen for you.”

Callen gave her a look. “
That’s a touchy subject, Tori. Oh look! We’re here.” He bailed out of the Denali fast.

Laughing, she knew he believed there was going to be some sort of
nuclear explosion.

Obviously, Tori didn't get what was happening.

“She doesn’t like me,” Elizabeth answered, grinning. “I’ve been trying very hard to drive her nuts, and it’s working. Bly rearranged my kitchen, lectured me on my mothering skills and told me a reputable woman doesn’t wear scandalous underwear like I do.”

“What?” Callen objected, staring at her
. “I don’t care if she is dad’s pie maker. I’ll fire her myself if she makes the lingerie go away,” he muttered. “Damn woman trying to ruin my sex life by playing mother. Bly better not mess with perfection.”

Elizabeth elbowed him
, forcing him to focus, as they knocked and waited for someone to greet them. When it opened, there was a relatively younger woman there.

“Can I help you?” she asked, staring up at the large man. He had to be the sexiest thing she’d seen in a while.

“Is this the home of Jeffrey Hopper?” Elizabeth asked, taking in the petite blonde. Her eyes were still on Callen and Elizabeth’s irritation level was rising. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to Callen and Ethan garnering stares from women, but it still bugged the hell out of her, especially when she was pregnant.

“He’s my brother. Who are you?” she
questioned, suspiciously. “He’s been missing, and I filed a report the other day.”

Elizabeth repeated the routine, pulling out the badge and giving the standard FBI line.

“Come in, please. My name’s Sara. ” The woman led the way into a modest living room. On the walls were hunting trophies, sports memorabilia lined the shelves, and there wasn’t a hint of color. All in all, it reminded Callen of his home on the Rez, before he met Elizabeth. It was a bachelor pad, and he was betting so was this.

“We need to speak to you about your brother,” Tori said, watching the woman
ogle Director Whitefox, like he was a tasty morsel on the menu. Yeah, this was going to get ugly.