Chapter Fourteen
Victim’s Home
Midday
Monday
With guns out, they cleared the space, and the whole time, Gene was continually cognizant of his partner’s location. He made sure he was beside him as they cleared room, and then, and only then, did he let his guard down.
Because they were most definitely alone in the dead man’s home.
With the state of it, too, there was going to have to be a forensic search. Due to the ransacked nature, this could have been the place the man had been taken.
All of this could be from a struggle.
Tucking away their guns, Gene scanned the room, and before he could say anything, Ethan went there.
“I told you. Not a religious killing. If it was, whoever did this would have scribbled on the walls, the furniture, and anything else they could.”
Now, Gene was calm.
Well, calmer.
There was no way he was going to get sloppy, but he could at least breathe. This wouldn’t be a repeat performance of when Ethan had been abducted.
The ghost of David Neives was not haunting him on this case.
Pulling out his phone, he made a call to the ME on duty, Ben Crowley.
As soon as he answered, Gene was off to the races.
“Hey, Doc, we’re at the latest victim’s home,” he said, surveying the space. “It’s been ransacked. Can I give you the address, and you send a team here to pull any trace?”
The man had bad news.
“Agent, I can, but it’s going to be a while. They were just called out to help Agent Gonzales. They pulled a body in a trunk, and there are only a few forensic scientists at this office.”
Well, shit.
“How long?” he asked.
Ben did the math.
“Maybe two hours?”
Gene never thought he’d say this, but he missed Philadelphia. Well, mostly the full staff they had there when it came to forensics and techs.
“I don’t have a choice,” Gene said. “Here’s the address,” he said, rattling it off. “We made entry through the back door that was unlocked,” he stated.
Ethan rolled his eyes in amusement.
Unlocked his ass.
That had been fine work not leaving any marks to show it had been picked.
“Okay, Agent. I’ll have them get there as quickly as they can. You know the rules. Don’t touch anything.”
Yeah, well, he had bad news for the man.
They absolutely were going to search the place, but in gloves.
“Sure thing, Doc. Thanks,” he said, hanging up. When he faced his partner, he shared the news. “It’s going to take them hours. Do you want to wait or break the rules?” he asked, knowing they couldn’t really manhandle anything until after photos were taken.
Ethan knew they had a full day of things to do.
“I say we do it carefully, and if we do move something, we document it. What’s Doctor Crowley going to do? Ground us and not let us go to the beach?” he asked.
Gene laughed.
That was a good point.
Pulling on their gloves, Gene knew what they were looking for here.
ANSWERS.
“Okay, so we have a dead fed, a dead cop, and a dead restaurant owner. What did they all have in common?” Gene asked.
Ethan didn’t know, but he was hoping whoever ransacked the place didn’t find what they were looking for here.
That would buy them time.
“I don’t know, but Jarod Shand had something that they wanted. This is feeling far more directed at him stumbling across something than some Voodoo priestess gone awry.”
On that, they agreed.
Killers rarely ransacked a place unless they were looking for something. What disappointed Gene was that they both wished they could check out the other two men’s homes.
But too much time had passed.
“Did you see anything in the files of the other men saying this happened at their place?” Ethan asked, proving their brains worked the same.
Gene shook his head.
“No, nothing. This is out of place.”
Yes, yes, it was.
Moving around, they looked at the man’s things tossed all over the place. What they didn’t find was anything weird or proving that the man was involved in something kinky.
What they also didn’t find was very telling.
HIS.
LAPTOP.
It wasn’t here either.
So if it wasn’t at work, and it wasn’t here, that only left two options. If he had a car, it was in it, or someone had stolen it.
Clearly, they wanted on that laptop.
Only, they had access to the man’s desktop, and saw what was there. It was all work related.
“I have a BOLO out on his car that’s still missing,” Gene admitted. “As I was leaving, I asked one of the agents if he drove it for work, and he did.”
Ethan was thinking about it.
“Well, then, it has to be on the island. It didn’t float away.”
They hoped.
“I’m betting the killer took the man, used his car, and has it either burned to the metal in some abandoned area, or they’ve tucked it away in the trees. I don’t think we’ll find it,” Ethan admitted.
Yeah, he kind of agreed there.
“Someone is blocking us at any given opportunity,” he admitted. “Someone does NOT want us digging into this.”
Clearly.
Gene was curious.
“We need to get into his cases,” he admitted. “And we need to get into Aaron Figueroa’s cases too. Something they might have touched got them killed.”
Ethan was to the point.
“You think it was more than the restaurant owner’s death, and then the cop’s?” he asked.
He wasn’t sure what he thought, but he was damn good at smelling a mess, and this was definitely that.
“Here’s what I think,” he said. “I think that whoever perpetrated all of this, knew what was going on tied to Jaden Mendin. It looks like he’s victim zero—where this all started.”
Ethan was with him so far.
His partner kept talking.
“He or she likely watched Jaden, and kicked this off by taking his life. Then, it was dominoes. The first kill kicked off the second, and the third.”
That definitely made sense.
Gene held up his fingers, ticking it all off.
“Next, we know that this killer pointedly is trying to make this look like Voodoo, but not doing it correctly. That tells me they have no clue how to be a nutjob who is religiously motivated. The walls here say it all. Not one blood smear or jumble of symbols.”
Again, Ethan followed.
“So, in order to hide the crime, this person picked the scapegoat—the woman who left working there who just so happens to own a place called Dark Spirits.”
Ethan listened.
“This feels like a distraction, and you’re one hundred percent right. This isn’t a religious killing. There’s no way this is Voodoo. By now, we would have found something that was more indicative. All we have are the greasy symbols drawn on the victim.”
Yeah, it didn’t fit.
Not.
At.
All.
Gene went there.
“So why is this all going down around Jaden Mendin? I think this is a distraction to tie us up on chaos—or whoever was going to work this. Everyone said the Feds here weren’t really go-getters or masterminds.
The ME said it. In Corbin’s notes, he took when dealing with the homicide captain, he said it.
They are incompetent, and this killer likely assumed one of them might handle the case. ”
Ethan’s eyes went huge.
“Oh, Gene. That’s genius.”
The big man grinned.
“Not bad for a Mid-West boy who grew up on a farm, huh?” he asked.
Ethan winked at him.
“I do like a farm boy,” he said, but then refocused. “We’re both onto this. It’s off so bad that it’s not connecting,” he said. “In my head, when I have a puzzle, one-by-one, the pieces fall into place. This feels like someone created a crime that’s not there to cover up a crime that is there.”
Gene pondered it.
“I don’t think it’s going to be in any of their old case files, EJ. I feel like this is cut and dry. We’re thinking too hard about it. This isn’t a mastermind. This is all going to be about Jaden Medin. I’d bet my badge on it.”
Blackhawk considered it.
“Then what do you want to do?” he asked.
Gene knew.
“We play along. We keep following, but we focus on the forensics and the facts. We know this all began at victim one, so let’s work this and find the things that connect to that.”
That worked for him.
“I’m going to ask Greyson to check into the cop’s and agent’s files, but I’ll bet big money that they’ve never come across the first victim, unless it was to just eat at that place.”
Oh, Ethan trusted his partner’s gut.
“I’ll start digging, and you start digging. Let’s see what we can find. If this is someone setting this all up, that means they’ll be watching and waiting.”
He was aware.
“So let’s be careful, but let them think we’re just like the agents here. If they think you and I are the village idiots, they might not make this harder. So, let’s have fun with them.”
Ethan loved nothing more than a reciprocal mind fuck, and that was what Gene was suggesting.
He wanted to know.
“So we’re going to be visiting Jaden’s restaurant and then we’re going to be hitting up Dark Spirits tonight? All in the effort to make this person think we’re following the trail?”
He nodded.
“Yep. We’re not dealing with the caliber or criminal we normally do. Crime here isn’t like crime in DC or Philly. This person underestimated us. Now, we’ll show them what happens.”
Ethan was good with that.
He loved a game.
“Once you finish your research on the restaurant, we’ll figure out our next step.
So why don’t you grab your laptop, and get to work, and I’ll finish clearing this place?
We aren’t going to find shit here. I’m willing to bet on it.
I think that the killer was looking for his laptop, so no one knew what was on it. ”
Ethan pointed one thing out.
“Nothing was on it.”
Yeah, he was aware, but the killer clearly wasn’t.
“Maybe Jarod said something to the killer, or this person watched him and is freaked out. That would be a good indicator that they are in a panic.”
Yes, it would be.
“I’m kind of glad we worked this one,” Ethan admitted.
Gene laughed.
“Yeah, it’s a refresher from the normal crazy we handle on a daily basis. Maybe we’re due one like this every once in a while.”
That made Ethan laugh as he got ready to research the restaurant.