Chapter Six #2
“If you’re here on vacation, you can return to your fun, and I can run this,” he offered. “Jarrod was a friend. Our office can do this. We can handle it on the DL, and run it through you.”
Oh, Gene only wished.
“I can’t. I’ve got to run this, and you are hands-off from this moment on. I don’t make the rules. You know that. The Director of the FBI does, and it’s not that I don’t think you couldn’t handle it, it’s that our heads would roll if Gabe found out I wasn’t working it.”
Lucas laughed.
“He’s ridiculous. It’s like being babysat full-time. I remember when agents actually got to do their damn jobs.”
On that, they agreed.
He missed those times, too.
Being under a microscope sucked big-time.
Gene reassured him.
“My partner is flying in from Damascus tomorrow. We’ll be working it in the morning. We just wanted to know who the contact is at your local San Juan police precinct to see if there were any more victims like this.”
Lucas was to the point.
“Adrian Marrero is the contact at the local police station,” he offered. “He’s the homicide captain, but he’ll also jump in and help with Vice situations. That’s what he did before his promotion, so he’s familiar with both.”
Well, that was good.
“Thanks for the name.”
Lucas was to the point.
“The whole office isn’t going to be happy that we can’t handle this.”
Gene was aware.
“I would be, too, if I were in your situation,” he offered. “That’s normal. If I had it in my power to pass on this one, trust me, I would be.”
That seemed to calm the man down.
“Really, he’s in good hands.”
Oh, Lucas hoped so.
“Since he was my friend, is there any way that we can help? I know I speak for all of us when I say we want to see this from start to close, even if he was just boating and fell overboard. That’s our friend, and this needs to have closure.”
The second he said that, the ME looked up.
“And did the fish draw all these symbols on him? Like I said, I’ve seen them before. I just need to do some research to find out, but I’m going to hazard a premature guess and say he wasn’t just practicing tattooing with some greasy paint.”
The man laughed.
“It was an example, Doc. I know he wasn’t getting his rocks off by doodling on himself.”
Gene actually laughed.
The man was funny, and it was clear he’d been to the ME rodeo a few times himself.
“As for helping, let’s see how difficult this is going to be. Like I said, my partner is arriving tomorrow, and we’ll give you the courtesy of staying in the loop as we work it. If we can handle it on our own, you’ll be able to keep working the things already on your plate.”
Lucas sighed.
“Thank you for that. We greatly appreciate, at least, being kept in the loop.”
Honestly, it was the least Gene could do. If they did need backup, it would be nice to have some readily available.
He continued.
“I’m going to need a gun. Mine is back in Philadelphia. I have my badge. Is there any way I can borrow one?”
Lucas nodded.
“I can get you that. We keep a spare locked in the car in case backup is needed. I can’t issue one to the detective,” he said, pointing at Corbin.
The man smiled.
“Not the gun I wanted to handle on vacation,” he joked, giving Gene a little piece of payback from earlier.
He stared at him like he’d lost his goddamn mind because clearly, he had.
“Ignore him. He was drinking—a lot,” Gene said, glaring at the man.
Lucas laughed.
“Again, no worries,” he said.
Since the man was being magnanimous, Gene needed a few other things too.
“Can you get me a laptop? So I can get reports ready, and I can get them transmitted at the end of this?”
The man nodded.
“We also keep a spare in the office vehicle. I’ll go grab it.
Like I said, if you need help, by all means, reach out to me.
I won’t get pushy, but please know, we all liked Jarrod.
This matters to us,” he said, touching the man’s head with a gloved hand.
“I’m sorry this happened to you, Buddy. I’m going to miss you. ”
His voice was full of sadness, and so were his eyes. It was clear they’d been friends.
Yeah, everyone there understood that.
When you lost a friend, it hurt.
“I’ll go get your laptop for you, and gun,” he offered. “I’ll be right back,” he stated.
When the man was gone, Gene was curious.
“What’s his deal?” he asked, trying to get to know the people he’d be amongst the next few days.
Ben looked up.
“Oh, Lucas? He’s a good guy. He’s so laid back you sometimes will think he’s comatose. Most of the people who work in the office are. The weather here makes you that way,” he stated.
That made him laugh.
Because the weather back home made him bitchy, cranky, and depressed.
“Thanks for the warning. I’ll try not to let it make me the same way.”
Ben clarified.
“Everyone is really cool out of the office. I just got here a few months ago, but I can tell you that they are a close-knit family. They will likely be up your ass if you let them. Consider that the warning.”
Oh, well, he got that too.
If something happened to Greyson, or Antonio, he’d want, no, demand to work it.
He was curious.
“Who is his partner?”
The ME was direct.
“They’re short-staffed here. All the agents pretty much run solo.
Hell. I barely have a lab crew. What you see is what you get.
The only good thing is we are rarely overridden with murders.
It’s normally the cops who take the heat with that.
We don’t get a lot of other issues. Maybe some drugs, maybe some gun running, but for the most part, it’s nothing difficult.
Lucas, I believe, handles Vice issues more than homicides. ”
Gene was listening.
“So you’re not busy?” he asked.
The man confirmed.
“Half of the time, I’m shocked I was put here when the city ME could do my job, but here I am.”
Yeah, the upper management had questionable decision-making skills. Look how they got saddled with Sasha, the not-so-real ME.
That made Gene want to be VERY careful when it came to this ME.
Once burned.
Twice shy.
As the man worked, Gene focused on Corbin, wrangling him away from the ME.
“What the fuck, Corby?” he asked.
The man kept his voice down.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Is it uncomfortable to have to listen to two people flirt nonstop?”
Gene wanted to slap the shit out of him.
“Corbin, use the gray matter between your ears. Why the hell are you giving us more problems?” he asked.
He looked surprised.
“What are you talking about?”
Gene was to the point.
“I didn’t introduce you and have you act like an idiot because what do you think will happen when your name shows up in a report with us both being here at a gay resort?”
He waited.
And it wasn’t registering, so Gene told him.
“Gabe will take back the offer for you to work with us if he thinks you and I are having sex! You literally just put a bulls-eye on your brand-new liaison job! He won’t care from my angle, but he’s certainly going to be angsty from yours!”
Oh, holy shit.
“Oh, no,” he muttered.
Yeah, exactly.
“So say nothing and don’t be drawing attention to yourself. If Lucas ever talks to Gabe, and he asks about us, your name can’t come up. It’s not just myself and Ethan under fire here, but now you too!”
Oh, crap.
“I didn’t think about that.”
Gene shook his head.
“This is chess. You have to be ten moves ahead when it comes to Gabriel Rothschild. Don’t play checkers when the stakes are high.”
He got it.
“Sorry, Gene.”
Oh, he would be if he lost that liaison position because that would mean working on his own.
Now that the man was warned, Gene went back to doing what he did best.
Investigating.
“So, Doc,” he began, once back near the man. “What’s his COD?”
He laughed.
“Oh, I see you missed my hint when I said that the agents here are laid-back. That was your cue to calm down and follow suit.”
Gene laughed.
Oh, they had no idea what kind of storm was bearing down on this island.
Gene planned on running this hard so he could close it and salvage what was left of his vacation with Ethan before the week was up.
There would be no ‘laid-back’.
Getting this done was his priority.
“Yeah, I come out of the Philly office, Doc. I literally run back-to-back cases continually. Sometimes, I have two at once. I don’t do laid back. I do fast-paced in a race to the finish line.”
The man understood.
That was how it had been in his last office.
“I worked out of Denver before this. I get the picture, but I’m going to have to open him up. What I already told you is that he has bruising in certain parts of his body. That tells me he was alive at the time. Thus, how I knew the rocks didn’t cause it.”
Yeah, someone wasn’t sharing information. That ‘do not go there’ sign was up.
So, Gene would work with what he had.
“Okay, then, someone broke his bones and then wrote on him?” he asked. “That sounds…ritualistic.”
Ben pulled out his liver probe, and started his process without looking up at the man.
“It could be. Like I said, they look familiar. I’ll see if I can find an origin for those marks in some old cases I’ve worked back home, and we’ll go from there. Here’s my card,” he said, turning his hip, so Corbin could get his badge from it. “It’s behind the ID.”
Yep.
He was done talking until the autopsy was officially done. Someone didn’t play ball.
So, Gene did what he could.
He grabbed a card.
On it, there was the office address.
“Pop in tomorrow morning, and by then, I’ll have COD, TOD, and anything else I can process tonight. You might get toxicology if I can get that too. I’m not giving out anything else tonight, Agent, and let me reassure you that I’ve had plenty of agents try to get me to talk. I don’t.”
The line was drawn.
But at least the man would work through the night.
Gene appreciated that.
As they saw someone approaching, as barriers were being put up by the cops, it looked like Gene was getting his laptop tonight.
Thank God.
“Sorry, no gun,” Lucas admitted. “One of the other guys had to have removed it from the lockbox.”