Chapter 45
Dom stood over the body of their latest OD victim and swore. He looked at the M.E.’s assistant. Daryn had called him in special for this. Dom had just about been ready to clock out for the day. His dad had requested he stop by for dinner on the way. Dom was going to have to skip that now.
This was another murder. In a city of sixty thousand people, they shouldn’t have these many people being killed. No. One to three people per year was far more reasonable. That would match the national average a bit better. Not double digits.
“What exactly happened?”
“I’m not making any definitive statements yet, Dom, but I wanted to dial you in quickly on this.
” Daryn moved around the table a bit awkwardly.
He thought she was about halfway through her pregnancy now.
Her husband Mike was upstairs going over assault reports for the last fifteen years, looking for connections that they hadn’t found before.
It was long, tedious work. Mike hadn’t looked like he was getting anywhere with it either.
“It is the similarities to what happened to the Tuell victim really.”
“I thought this was an OD.”
“That was what the report was.”
And Miguel was the one who was supposed to be handling all homicides—along with his team. “Wasn’t MacGregor on tonight?”
Dom was handling half of Daniel’s duties, and was assigned to figure out what in the hell was happening with Grundenman. He wasn’t certain why he had been called in to this particular body. “I’m not sure what’s going on here.”
“Commander Rodriguez wanted me to call you in on this,” Daryn said. “He ran upstairs to take a phone call, I think.”
Cell reception in the morgue and lab area of the building wasn’t all that great.
Madison had griped about that before. And it made Dom leery.
Anything could happen to someone down here.
And it had before. They were lucky everyone had survived.
Daryn’s sister-in-law almost hadn’t been that lucky.
A.J. could have been killed, and she wasn’t much further along than Daryn.
That explained it. If Miguel thought Dom needed to know about this one—then Dom needed to know about it.
Miguel came in, a pissed off expression on his face that told Dom something else had happened. Miguel looked at Daryn. “Tell him what you told me. Then we need to roll. Something’s come up that he’ll want to help me deal with.”
Daryn nodded. “Basically, I’ve seen this kind of wound before. On a teenager who supposedly OD’d. I didn’t do his autopsy. It was Dr. Vawtyer, back then.”
“Who?”
“A teenager named Ricardo Ahumada.”
“That’s a cold case I inherited when I took over Homicide,” Miguel said. “I’ve been working it when I can. There are several inconsistencies on the TSP end that I do not like.”
In other words, Miguel suspected dirt.
“This right here? It was a particular knife. Probably bent here. It’s a distinct pattern. Very unique. Whoever did it, used the same weapon on this man, on the Ahumada boy, and…Jaylon Tuell. I found the similarities this morning.”
“So we need to figure out what the three had in common. And how in the hell did this particular weapon get into the jail to begin with?”
Dom suspected he knew the answer.
Money. It all came down to the green. Who had it, and who wanted it, and who was willing to look the other way.
He and Miguel listened to Daryn give her beginning findings, then the two men stepped out into the hall.
Something else was going on. It was written on the other man’s face. “What is it?”
“I just got a call from…a friend…who is busy working an undercover operation out of Fort Worth.” Miguel gave him everything he knew. With what details were the most relevant. “He heard rumors that someone needs to clean up some of our forensics crews. Before certain information gets out.”
Miguel was almost prowling. Dom understood. No one threatened the ladies-of-the-lab. No one.
“I’m headed over to the Colesons. I’ll update McKellen and whoever else has found their way there. I’m staying with them as long as it takes.”
Dom just nodded. Miguel had his own lady-of-the-lab to protect now.
Even if Hope didn’t seem aware of that.
He was going to find those assholes and rip them apart. But first… “If someone is after the lab ladies, there is a reason. We need to figure out what they know that someone is afraid will get out there.”
Dom stepped outside, Miguel beside him. They were in the back parking lot now—where Haldyn had been abducted and Luke Bell had been run over by his own damned SUV. He turned to ask Miguel what else he knew when his own phone rang.
Dom looked down at the screen.
This guy…well, well, well. Tony only called when he really had something to say.