Devil Hath Come (an FBI/Romance Thriller ~book 7) (23 page)

“Do you want us to leave you two alone
so you can get acquainted?” Callen inquired. He was amused by the woman he loved, as she pressed herself against it in a loving embrace.

“Shhhhhh. We’re having a moment.”

“Had I know it was that easy, I would have stopped buying jewelry and gone for one of those,” Ethan said grinning. “Plus it would cut down on CJ writing on the painted walls with crayon.”

Elizabeth was feeling better already.
“Yeah, well now that my lover and I are reunited, how about I ask the question that I know you’re dreading?” She could tell whenever her husband was working on something big in his mind. It was almost like she could see the wheels turning behind his eyes. Ethan had that look on his face the last hour or so.

“I already know what you want,” he stated. “I can give you a baseline, but
I’ll already warn you that you’re not going to like it at all.”

Yeah, that didn't make her excited.
Elizabeth was dependent on his profiles. Without them, she couldn’t do her job. Ethan was the king of getting into the brain of a psychopath and figuring out what made him tick. With his help, they closed every assignment that they had worked on together.

“How baseline is it going to be.”

“The killer’s likely Caucasian.”

Callen started laughing. “Well shit, I could have told you that, and I suck at profiling. The whole damn town is white.”

Elizabeth joined in the laughter as she wrote it on the board. “Okay, what else can you give me?”

Ethan took a seat and dropped his Italian leather boots on the corner of the table. “
I told you that you weren’t going to like it. That’s really all I have. I can’t take the similarities between the victims if there’s only one. By this stage in the game, we usually have more than one corpse. We don’t generally get called in on day one. I usually have more to work with by now.”

She understood. “So
, what you’re saying is that we just sit back and wait until he or she makes their next move?”

Unfortunately, that was exactly what he was suggesting.
“Sorry, Lyzee baby, but I’m afraid so.”

Okay, today was like an emotional rollercoaster. The happiness of the white board was quickly deteriorating
.

“I can’t give you gender, since
the killer isn’t sexually assaulting the victims. If it is a man, it could be that he’s impotent. That may be why he’s not touching a naked woman that’s lying on his altar.”

“
Could this really be a woman?” Callen asked, disgusted by the probability of that being true.

“
It could be,” Ethan replied.

Elizabeth texted her team to head up to the room and then wrote
‘Gender unknown’
on the board. This was probably their most pathetic attempt at filling in a board in her entire career. She was one of those investigators who needed to see it all in front of her in order to work it out.

“Again, I told you it wasn’t much,” Ethan restated.

“It’s so anti-climactic. Here I have this big ol’ board, and I have nothing to write on it,” she teased, trying to alleviate some of the pressure from Ethan’s shoulders. Not being able to formulate a profile had to be making him just as crazy.

“I can give you this, and it’s pretty much the obvious. He’
s doing it for attention- specifically yours. For some reason, he’s fixated on you and wants to have your focus.”

“Yeah, well he has it.”

“If he even feels like you’re not fully invested in this, then he’s going to likely escalate to get you to take notice again.”

Callen was sick to his stomach, and he doubted it was the sugar
y donuts. “That makes me nervous.”

“It should,” Ethan stated. “Since the person is obviously crazy, we can’t even begin to guestimate what he or she may do to regain Elizabeth’s focus.”

There was a knock on the door and in sauntered Agent Rickard and Cyra. It was hard not to notice the definite hum of stress between them. It filled the room and reverberated around all of them. When they sat down, Cyra took a spot as far from the man as possible and almost protectively beside Callen.

It didn't bode well. Something had happened.

“Why don’t you two share with the class?” Elizabeth said, knowing that the last thing that she needed now was for her people to implode too. She couldn’t work this assignment without teamwork.

As Thomas Rickard began breaking it down for his
bosses, in walked a smiling Chris Leonard, and he was as cheerful as ever. He took a seat beside Cyra and began listening to the agent discuss their findings.

“We searched her apartment and found nothing that led us to believe she was practicing
devil worship. In fact, until we found her altar room, it all seemed to be the opposite. The place was light, airy and full of flowers and stuffed cats.”

Cyra continued
, “During the search of her bedroom, we found a knife under her bed.” She held up the evidence bag and passed it to Elizabeth.

“It looks wicked,” she stated, staring at the handle.

Chris watched his boss and his stomach began twisting as he debated on telling them what he knew. Then he figured out a way. “It’s called an athame. It’s used in Pagan rituals on their altar. I’ve seen them before,” he added. Then he crossed his fingers and prayed that no one would ask where. Some things were just better left unexplained in his life, and this was the big one.

E
than searched the internet to fact check his medical examiner. “Chris is absolutely correct,” he stated. “It says they are used to cast spells, call quarters, and symbolize the phallus or male part of the ceremony.”

“Is it used on all Pagan altars?” she asked, waiting for her husband to search.

Chris
knew the answer but didn't offer it up. He wasn’t tossing out the witch card. It was better to let his bosses figure it out on their own. They were both very smart, and he had no doubt it would happen.

“Witches,” stated Ethan.

Elizabeth was confused. “Aren’t all Pagans witches?” She looked around the room and finally her eyes fell on Chris. “You’ve got the highest IQ here. Make me a happy boss and enlighten those of us in the trenches.”

He was relieved.
Elizabeth believed him to be the king of useless trivia facts. It may just save his ass after all. “All witches are pagans but not all pagans are witches. It’s like Christianity,” he answered. When they all looked confused, he paused, “May I use your board for show and tell?”

She
willingly handed the marker over to him and took a seat.

“In Christianity you have Baptists, Catholics, Born Again Christians, etc. They’re all
technically Christians but they don’t all believe the same thing. If you go more specific, you have to break it into the sect. Where they all have one belief in one God, they don’t all believe in saints, or how and when Jesus was resurrected. So, to call all Pagans witches, is like calling all Christians Catholic.”

Elizabeth stared at the circles he was drawing
. “Is Satan worship considered Pagan?”

Chris knew that too. “No. In P
agan religions, they believe everything is balanced in nature. Each deity has a counter force that keeps everything even. There are Gods and Goddesses for protection, fertility and even death. That’s as close to a
‘devil’
as you’re going to get.”

Elizabeth was getting a headache.
Why couldn’t everything in life be cut and dried?

“Wiccans and most other
Pagans don’t believe in the existence of a devil. There’s no hell, so how can he exist. Satanism is actually a branch off from the beliefs of Christianity. You have your good- Jesus,” he drew a cross, “and then you have your evil.” Next, he flipped it. “The inversion of the cross is a slap at Christianity. It mocks the way their God died.”

“How much do you know about all this?” Ethan asked, surprised by the man’s comprehensive knowledge. It might come in handy in the end.

“I find many things in life fascinating, Director,” he stated, handing Elizabeth her marker back. “I’ve read quite a few books,” he added. That wasn’t necessarily a lie. He had read everything his mother ever handed him in an attempt to convert him. Over his lifetime, Chris had done a great deal of researching, but he was a scientist to the core, and facts were all that really mattered in his life. Then he glanced over at Cyra, who was smiling at him.

Nothing mattered until her.

“Chris, you may be my new favorite ME,” Elizabeth offered. She shifted focus to the other agent. “Thomas, did you photograph the entire altar?” She needed to know. If Chris was as well read on the subject, she planned on picking his brain.

“We did. Christina has them
, and she should be in from the scene by now.”

Ethan spoke, knowing where his wife was heading with it. They’d been a team long enough to know what the other was planning. “Chris, if we get you those photographs, could you look at them and tell us all we need to know?”

He swallowed. Here was a fine line, and he knew he couldn’t cross it. “Yes.”

Elizabeth continued. “If you can’t
, we are going to have to find us a witch that’s willing to help out on the investigation.”

Chris crossed his fingers, hoping they didn't ask him if he knew any. He’d have to say yes,
and they would want to meet her. Then the cat was out of the bag.

“I’ll get those photos to you today. Do you think you can spend some time writing up something for the case file?”

He let out the breath that he was holding. “I can do that for you. My work load is fairly light, since we don’t have another victim. Have her send them over, and I’ll be more than happy to do it.”

Ethan whipped out the email to Christina.

“I appreciate your help, Chris.”

Focusing back on the team, Elizabeth needed to know what else they
had found.

“There were books and calendars where she’d marked certain days with an
‘R’
. As of yet, we don’t know what that means,” Cyra stated. “The team is trying to cross reference anything that may get us an answer.”

Elizabeth
pointed at Rickard. “She lived in an apartment. Did we check to see if there’s another name on the lease?”

“It’s in Scarlet Red
’s name.”

“Damn it,” she muttered.
It was another dead end.

“Director, that’s all we really found,” Cyra stated, knowing it wasn’t going to make her
boss happy, but it was out of their control.

“I ha
ve my findings,” Chris offered. His leg brushed against Cyra’s and sparks shot through his body. It was making it hard to think.

“
Well, let’s have it.”

Chris pulled up the tox report on the tablet. “The woman’s system was clean. There was no sign of long term drug use
, and we did the hair follicle test. It goes back further than a blood test, and we would have caught something if it was there.”

“
Was she drugged?”

Chris shook his head. “If he used something
, she was awake for a prolonged period of time before he killed her. It could have had time to leach from her body. There wasn’t anything metabolized in her liver or other organs.”

“Shit. This report isn’t giving us anything that’s making me happy, Chris. You know
that when I’m not happy…”

“Yeah, no one is. I got it,” he grinned. “We swabbed her body and found trace. It’s the exact same substance we found on the altar in the form of incense.”

“Okay, and that tells me what? I know she was on the altar.”

Chris pulled up a website. “It tells us that the killer bought
a specific blend of herbs.” He handed Elizabeth the tablet.

“Seriously? Demon p
owder? That’s really its name?” Then she read the description.

“It contains Blue Lily and Wild Dagga. They’re used in rituals to get in touch with other things one really shouldn’t be trying to communicate with on a normal sane basis.”

“Tell me that it’s rare.”

He shook his head. “
Sorry, but it can be bought online.”

She sat down. “Okay, so that’s a dead end.” Then she had an idea. “Chris, do witches and
Pagans use this kind of shit too? Or is this an exclusive thing to our satanic friends?”

“Pagan’s do burn incense on their
altars. If it’s the same kind, I can’t tell you that.” He could call his mother and ask her if need be. He just didn't want her to pop up and try to help.

“Tomorrow
, I’m heading to the shop where Scarlet Red allegedly worked. I need to know everything about ‘
Mystical Memorabilia
’,” she stated, pointing at Cyra. “Dig up the owner’s name, the length it’s been in business and anything else that’s pertinent.”

Cyra pulled out her tablet and began working.