Devil Hath Come (an FBI/Romance Thriller ~book 7) (12 page)

“I would say no.
The reason that I’m going to go with that is he’s the senior agent in the group and she’s his probee. If they cross that line, I’d have to re-evaluate and separate them. I know that Thomas Rickard has been an agent long enough to know that.”

“I see.”

“Partners can’t be embroiled in a sexual relationship. It’s against fed rules. Now, if they are and it’s kept out of the workplace with no one seeing it, then I can’t say.”

“Oh
.” His hopes crashed.

Ethan stopped walking. “Chris,” he got his attention. “I can say this. If they were, Lyzee would have noticed. She
is really good with that kind of thing. Why don’t you ask her? I mean, bring it up off the record. From one friend to another, you know Elizabeth will tell you and help you out.”

“I think I may,” he answered. Chris knew that if he went to Elizabeth
, she would keep it quiet. If anything, the woman was a loyal, good friend.

“Want my opinion?”

He would take any man advice that he could get. “Yeah, because I suck at this woman thing and am probably going to screw it up again.”

“Go for it. I’ve watched her stare at you. It looks like she’s just waiting for you to make a move. I think that if you take the risk, you’ll get the reward.”

Chris opened the door to the morgue. “Thank you, Director.”

He nodded. “You can come to me anytime. I don’t mind letting you lean on me.”

This was a new side of his boss. It wasn’t like he wasn’t approachable before, but between the three of them, he was more reserved. “I will and thank you.”

“Can I help you?” came a voice, drawing their attention.

Across the room stood a man in his thirties, and he appeared to be the medical examiner. He was suited up and had the protective shield around his neck.

Ethan took over. “Hello. I’m Director Blackhawk
, and I’m with the FBI. This is Doctor Christopher Leonard, and we’re here working on the assignment related to your victim, Scarlet Red.”

“I’m the
medical examiner in Circle Rock. My name is Doctor Patrick Parrish, and I was just filling out her release paperwork. Her friends want to claim her body for burial.”

Chris interjected. “
I’m sorry, but you can’t do that. I have to check the body and make sure the FBI has gotten everything off it that we need to run this investigation.”

He interjected,
“I’m sorry, but you don’t have jurisdiction.”

Blackhawk loved when people said that to him. “
I need to inform you of the contrary, Doctor Parrish. As of this minute, we’re taking over. The first step is that our ME is going to reexamine the victim. Next, we’re going to be working out of this facility.”

“But…”

“Sorry, but the minute your chief of police called in the FBI, we were handed the authority to run this show. It’s not that we don’t trust your ability or that of your staff, but we have protocols and our people know them inside and out.”

“Can I at least help out, o
r are you kicking me out of my own morgue until you are finished with it?”

The anger in his voice was palpable.

“I’m okay with him staying,” offered Chris. “I don’t mind the professional advice of another medical examiner.”

Ethan patted him on the back. “Then there’s your answer, Doctor Parrish. I promise that we’ll try not to wreck the place and be respectful of your staff. In fact, if you have a space
that no one is using, we’ll move our gear there and leave you alone as much as possible.”

The man didn't know what to say. One minute he was sending a victim home, and the next he was being booted from his job. “I have a spare room next to the chiller.”

Chris thanked him. “We can use it for the lab staff, Director, and to lock up the evidence. I can work out of the autopsy suite. I don’t take much space. I only need a chair and enough room to do the paperwork.”

The man just stood there
overwhelmed. “I guess that’s fine.”

“Okay, where’s the victim?
” inquired Chris, pulling out his bag and opening it up. “I’ll need to recheck everything and make sure we have it all.”

The man pointed at the cooler door. “We don’t have a huge facility. We don’t get many deaths here that aren’t old age, auto related and an occasional drowning in the summer.”

Chris was easy to please. “As long as it keeps the victims cold, then size doesn’t matter.”

Blackhawk put down his bag as his team started entering. The techs were out with Elizabeth, but the morgue rats were finally there. They’d help Chris get the body ready. “I’ll sit over here and be unobtrusive,” he offered, hopping up on a stainless steel counter to let the team get to work.

“If you don’t mind,” Doctor Parrish stated as he headed for the door, “I’m going to go talk to the police chief to make sure this is indeed all okay with her.”

Blackhawk
was well aware. “See you later.”

Chris laughed when he was gone. “You are almost just as bad as your wife,” he stated. “She
is at least blatantly in your face. You have this smooth veneer of politeness covering the ‘
kiss my ass
’ attitude.”

Blackhawk grinned. “Yeah, I know.
It took years to perfect.”

The morgue techs slid the body out and carried it to the exam table.

“If we get more than three bodies, we’re screwed,” Chris admitted. “We won’t have any place to store them unless we double them up.”

Blackhawk
already considered it. “If need be, we can transport them back to FBI West. It’s only two hours one way.” He thought back to the time where he sent out one of his lab techs to do just that, and he never came back alive. “If that happens, we do double duty on the moving. I don’t want anyone alone on the drive.”

Chris had worked with the man
who had been killed. Derek was a decent lab tech and was missed. “No problem, Director.”

Ethan sighed. “In honor of the friendship thing, you can use my name.”

That had his attention. “Seriously?” he started to laugh. “I can’t say I ever saw this day coming.”

Blackhawk was amused. “Yeah, that makes two of us.”

Chris laughed even more and even a few of the techs joined in. “Ready to open the bag?” he asked, staring at the two people working beside him. When they nodded, he unzipped and stared inside. To say that he was shocked was an understatement.

“Well shit
! We have a problem.”

That
immediately had Ethan’s attention. “What?” There wasn’t a worse phrase to be used when he was just opening the bag. That meant that there was something horribly wrong with the victim.

“I don’t have words to describe it.”

He crossed the room to look inside. He had seen hundreds of victims in his life, but this indeed, had to be a first.

Chris Leonard was appalled.
“He didn't even open her up. There is no Y-incision,” he stated. “If Elizabeth gets wind of this, that man is dead.”

Blackhawk laughed. “Well
, at least he can rest assured that he’ll have the proper autopsy when that happens.”

Chris stared at first and then started laughing
, “You have a very valid point.”

                                *   *   *

Monday afternoon

Walking the perimeter of the crime scene, Elizabeth first wanted to take it all in. The location that the killer had picked was relatively abandoned. It wasn’t just the woods, but what seemed to be an old mining camp. There were dilapidated buildings behind them.

“I want the buildings swept too,” she stated, making sure her head tech heard her. “Get me everything, Christina and let’s do it right the first time.”

The tech grinned at her boss. “Yes, ma’am!” After saluting, Christina couldn’t help but laugh, because her boss also snickered. Over time, she’d realized all their first impressions of the woman were dead wrong. When Ethan Blackhawk met her in Salem and ran off to marry her, there was the rumor that it wasn’t love.

Boy, had they all been wrong.

Then, when they found out about his brother being tossed into the mix, that threw them for a loop too. Now, it was like it didn't even exist to the team. They were accustomed to the threesome being together. Where it used to feel odd, it was now a common thing and part of their work lives.

Plus
, the techs liked that it mellowed Elizabeth out and seemed to have the same effect on Ethan. Callen was just laid back to begin with, so he was always fun. The machine was running well and in harmony, and a happy set of bosses meant an exuberant team who worked under them.

Then it hit her.
Christina’s stomach sunk. She knew that soon she would be confessing something big to her bosses, and that knowledge was making it painful. Pushing it out of her mind, Christina went back to work.

God, she was going to miss them all.

Elizabeth watched her head tech scramble away to do her job. When they saluted her, she found it highly amusing. One day, she was going to catch them all off guard and teach them a lesson in sarcasm. For now, she was biding her time.

“Cal,”
Elizabeth said to her shadow. “What do you see?”

The man scanned the area
to take in everything that was in front of the team. “I see an abandoned building and plenty of room to get a car up here if they used that access road. I see that he lit a fire near the altar, possibly for additional light. If he was out here at night sacrificing that woman, he’d need more than a few candles for visual ability.”

She had to agree.

“He did the ritual over there on that tree stump.”

That piqued her interest. “What does that tell you?” she asked, hoping by now he’d picked up some of the instinct needed in the field. For a while, Callen was green, but over a year into it, he was earning his stripes and coming into his own.

“It says to me that he was familiar with this place. He had to know there was a tree stump big enough to accommodate the woman’s body and act as an altar.”

She agreed once more. “Or he
checked out some locations until he found the right one.”

“So
, it’s likely that he’s from around here.”

She would go that way too. “I would say yes.”

“Directors Blackhawk and Whitefox,” called Christina, from across the area. “I have something you need to see!”

Both of them hustled to her location
and crouched down beside her.

Christina was using a pair of tongs to remove some garments from the fire. “It looks like our killer burned something, but it didn't all go up in smoke like he planned.
They may have been wet when he tossed them in, and it protected them from the flames.”

With her gloved fingers, Elizabeth touched the material. “It’s pretty well preserved. The fire didn't get to this corner. What
do you think we can get from it?”

Christina pulled out an evidence bag. “Well, if there’s sweat and the heat didn't compromise it, I may be able to pull DNA. I think I see some blood splatter over here,” she
added as she turned the bag. “It may be our victim’s or possibly from the killer.”

“From what I’ve seen in the report, Scarlet R
ed didn't have any defensive wounds. So, I’m not sure if she drew blood, but work your magic and try to pull something.”

Christina would do everything she could to get them the answers
that they needed. Word had traveled through the staff that the killer specifically called out Elizabeth. They all respected their bosses enough that they’d give ten thousand percent to keep her safe.

“What’s next,
Lyzee?” Callen asked, offering her a hand as he pulled her up from her position.

“I think we should grab
Agent Austin and let the probee lead the questioning. She needs to get used to running the show if she ever hopes to be a senior agent.”

Callen whistled and everyone froze.

Elizabeth started laughing at their reaction. “Back to work,” she said. When Cyra stared at her, she motioned to her. “We need you for now.”

The woman gratefully escaped her partner
once more and crossed towards her boss. If the woman had asked for a pedicure, at this point, she would have done it for her.

“Distract her partner,” she whispered to Callen. “I need you to run interference.”

Callen didn't like the idea of leaving her on her own, but she would be with a trained agent that had over eight years’ experience as a cop. It wasn’t like she was a schlub when it came to staying safe.

“I’ll be right over
there,” he pointed in the direction of Agent Rickard. “Thomas, we need to supervise the sweep of the abandoned shacks. You get the right, and I’ll take the left.”