Chapter Four #4
“Chrissy, I’m exhausted. Just lay it out. I can’t play ‘riddle me this, Native man’,” he said. “I need to catch some sleep so I can go back out and save ‘Gotham’.”
She did what he asked.
“Christopher Leonard offered to pay off our house, deposit one million dollars into our bank, and help us move West.”
He stared at her.
“Who do I have to kill? Because I just might.”
She was to the point.
“You don’t have to kill anyone. He needs a new head tech, and Elizabeth needs me. I’d get a promotion, and be back with the team. You could retire because we would have paid this house off. You’d be a full-time dad.”
He stared at her.
“What?” she asked.
“Are you fucking with me, Christina? Because I worked a late one last night, and I’m running on filthy dreams about the wife I have no time to touch, and some coffee.”
She laughed.
“I mean, were they good, filthy dreams?” she asked.
He snorted.
“Pretty good. Not my best work.”
She was to the point.
“Kane-y-kins, you can retire and be safe. Our kids could have STEM classes, and summer tutors. They could have all the things we can’t afford right now. All I have to do is take a job I loved in the first place, and talk you into staying at home.”
He was to the point.
“I’d have to bail on Quinn.”
She stared at him.
“I know. That’s why I told Chris I’d speak to you, and you get to make the final decision. I’m in either way.”
He stared into her eyes.
“You miss them, huh?” he asked.
She nodded.
“I miss using my brain. Don’t get me wrong. I love my job here, but it’s not the same. Elizabeth gets the fun cases. She gets the body parts cooked over a spit, and the crazies who make skin suits to kill more people.”
He looked horrified.
“What? They’re fun cases. I didn’t say I wished they’d kill more people.”
Kane laughed.
“I mean, I’d love to have some time with our kids.”
She was to the point.
“I’d like another child,” she admitted. “I’m almost to the end of my reproductive years. We have a small window, but if we stay here, me being off on maternity leave is a risk financially. If you’re home, you can take care of a baby.”
She had a point.
“I say we flip for it,” he said.
OOF.
Chrissy didn’t like those odds.
But she said he could choose.
“Okay, Kane.”
He called it.
“Heads we go. Tails we don’t stay here.”
It took her a second.
Then, it hit her.
“Wait. That’s us going either way. Are you saying we can go, Kane?” she asked.
He nodded.
“I’m going to miss my partner, but I’m tired, Chrissy. I’m running out of joy doing my job. I’m tired of looking at dead bodies and seeing what people can do when they’re high, or angry. I’m in. Let’s go.”
She jumped up and hugged him.
“Kane! Really?”
He kissed her.
When he broke it, he smiled.
“I’m going to enjoy being a stay-at-home dad. That’s a damn good way to spend my day. You get to be the worker bee. Kane-y-kins needs a hiatus.”
Chrissy was so excited.
“I’ll tell Chris.”
He stopped her.
“I mean, you could sneak upstairs with me and thank me gratuitously first,” he suggested. “You know…to celebrate.”
That made her grin even more.
It looked as if life was about to change for all of them.
It was time to go home.
AGAIN.
* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *
En Route
The Scene Of The Crime
Monday
Almost Eleven
It was time to update her team, and she was hoping that what she’d received from the one detective, to her email was going to be accurate.
In the vehicle, Ethan was in the back, texting, while Gene, she, and Callen were talking case.
“Okay, so we’re meeting two detectives on the scene. Toady has the location. Apparently, we have a collector.”
Oh, goodie.
No one looked happy about that.
No.
One.
Even Alex and Corbin, who were sitting beside her.
It was a tight fit in her blacked-out ride, but that was why they drove in vehicles that could hold this many people.
There was something to be said about being a sardine.
“I love a collector,” Alex offered, “said NO ONE ever,” he added.
She laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
Oh, that was accurate.
“Yeah, well, tell me about it. The local CSIs were given permission to go in and take photos by our ME. They are the only ones in the room. We don’t want to mess with Chris’ forensics.”
He pointed one thing out.
“I’m not the one who gets punchy when your evidence is messed with,” he stated. “You’re the one everyone is afraid of at that point. You know how you are when you’re called to the stand, and evidence is thrown out on the case,” Chris admitted.
She was aware.
And as they should be.
There was nothing fun about going to court and playing defense lawyer tango.
And that sucked.
BALLS.
“Well, I don’t think it’s so much to ask for people to not barehand evidence, or to tie their hair back so we don’t analyze our own DNA. I’m crazy like that.”
Chris laughed.
“Ben is still apologizing for that. Lucky for us, the killer was blonde, and he’s got bottle black hair dye on board. It saved us some work.”
Yes, that did work to their advantage.
Only, it was getting exhausting. What was next? Mandatory hair nets for everyone?
It was why she wore her hair pulled back in a ponytail. She’d learned that lesson on day one.
Her techs?
Not quite yet.
She just rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, they are photographing, and we’ll get the first look. The two detectives, a Detective Quinley and Yardley, will be on scene waiting for us.”
Callen clued them in.
“Both have good records,” he said. “I ran them since Elizabeth is suspicious of everyone.”
She laughed.
Yeah, she was the crazy one on that.
“Uh, because we’ve been bitten in the ass more than I like to admit,” she said.
That wasn’t exactly an exaggeration.
Now, was it?
They’d all been to that rodeo at least once in their careers, and she liked to keep breathing.
She was crazy like that.
Callen continued.
“They are clean. The female detective, Quinley, has been a detective for four years, working a year in Holladay, and the rest in Salt Lake City.”
Gene was running the information on the case, meaning the location as Callen shared what he’d found. He was barely listening. At that moment, he was on a hunt for whoever owned that building.
Why?
Collectors were particular about where they stashed their collections.
“The second detective, Yardley, has been at the Holladay police force his whole career. Both are single, live modestly, and have no skeletons that I found. I’m on their social media, and neither have anything off there.”
She was listening.
“He’s a big sports fan, and she’s into MMA fighting in her downtime.”
Elizabeth lifted a brow.
“MMA. Like kicking asses around a ring and kneeing people in the face? That kind of MMA?” she asked.
He nodded.
Well, then…
“I mean, I have that kink too, but it’s in the field. I can vibe with that.”
They all laughed.
The Marines in the driver seat and passenger seat were the two laughing because they’d been the ones kicked around by her.
They called it one thing.
Training.
“So they sound like they are on the up and up. I like not being surprised. Gene? What do you have?” she asked, keeping it going.
He was to the point.
“I’m playing find the owner. The building address, when I ran it, came back to a company. It’s owned by Slater Enterprises. It’s a real estate group.”
Elizabeth was listening.
“When did they acquire the building?” she asked. “Or has it always been theirs?”
Gene had the answer.
“I found a purchase date a year ago. Apparently, it was owned by some kind of conglomerate before, and the owner got it in a deal with a few other buildings. I bet they didn’t think they’d get eyeballs in a jar as a present in that sale.”
Oh, probably not.
Callen was curious.
“Are we going to speak to the owner?” he asked, planning out their day.
She wasn’t sure.
“I’ll see when we get there. If this is a collection, it likely dates back for a while. We’re going to need DNA, COD, and TOD of the eyes. It takes time to collect fifteen to twenty pairs of eyeballs.”
Hearing that, Chris started laughing—outrageously, as a matter-of-fact.
Someone was out of their mind.
“Elizabeth!” he said, knowing where this was heading. “If he pickled them in a brine, I can’t give you TOD. That’s not happening. You know that. This is not our first eyeball case.”
She was aware, but it flustered him, and she lived for that. Old habits died hard in her world.
She liked reverse shrinky-dinking Ethan, asking Chris TOD when she knew he couldn’t possibly know, and stirring up Natives that Callen had to calm back down.
And Gene…well, he was her partner in crime in it all.
Yeah, she was crazy like that.
Sue her.
“I know, Christopher. I just can’t help myself.”
When his phone chimed, he pulled it from his pocket, and there was good news on the Christina front.
DAMN.
GOOD.
NEWS.
It looked like he had his own partner in crime.
‘I’ll be there as soon as I can. I want to hit the ground running. Send me the address, and I’ll make sure your tech team there is my bitch. Let me surprise the boss. I like getting her giddy. We’re both in.’
Oh, he couldn’t wait for his wife to see his little present for her. This was going to be fun.
Chrissy was about to be back in charge.
Hell.
Yeah.
Now, he was in a good mood.
“Everything good?” she asked, assuming it was part of the tech team.
So, he lied so they could surprise her later.
“Yep, the vehicles following would like Speed Racer, here, to slow down. The tech vans can’t go from zero to cuckoo in three seconds. They are made to carry bodies and scientists, not impatient investigators and their lead-foot Marines.”
Ivan grinned.
“Then, tell the harpy. She told me to step on it. We all have a boss, Doc. She’s ours too.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes.
“Just slow it down a bit,” she said. “The eyeballs aren’t going anywhere. Apparently.”
When he did, she continued.
“Anyway, as I was saying, most collectors have a collection for a long-ass time. If they just bought the building, they might have inherited a crazy squatter.”
That was true.
Ethan was already profiling this.
“I’ll work as quickly as I can. I’m heading back tonight. I have that meeting with Lance Running Wolf. Dad is going with me. I’ll be back and I’ll have your profile for you then. Just keep sending me information.”
That worked for her.
It was a balancing act, but if she wanted Ethan to follow his dreams, she had to keep the balls in the air.
That was a her problem.
Also, apparently.
“We’ll look around, and go from there. We’re going to be light on suspects for day one, since we don’t know who the victims are yet, or where the rest of them are. If there are skulls, I’ll need to know how the flesh was removed.”
Oh, and Tony would love that.
Chris knew who she was talking to, and it wasn’t Callen.
“I’ll get him on it, right away. You know he’s excited already, since there’s skulls. I quote, ‘Oh, hell, yeah! Another case with skulls. I wonder if these were eaten too’,” he admitted, not surprisingly.
It made her laugh.
Why?
She wasn’t sure if he really said it or not, because Tony was a wild card. It sounded like something he’d say, so the chances were, it was.
“Thanks,” she said, amused.
Ivan chimed in.
“Your destination is right up ahead. Try not to make some cops miserable. You’re absolutely a menace and nightmare for the local law.”
Yes, yes, she was.
That was how she rolled.
Only, most of the time, she expected them to be dicks, solely based on the fact that they were dicks. It was rare she was caught off guard when meeting cops.
Once in a while, there were decent ones.
Right now, it was anyone’s guess.
As they pulled up, a rundown building stood in the background, and in front of it were police cars, police tape, and cops.
PLENTY.
Of.
Them.
Not far from it, she could see the two detectives. The woman was standing with her back to them, staring at the building, as her partner was saying something to her.
Not far away, tech vans pulled in next to Elizabeth’s chariot, and everyone started getting out.
They had quite the entourage.
Elizabeth gave security the heads-up.
“Call me paranoid, but I want Raph all over Ethan, and Saint all over Chris. Uriel and you get Callen. We know there are assholes out there, and this case might be a setup.”
Ivan lifted a brow.
Oh, boy.
He didn’t like that.
Not.
At.
All.
“You want me worried?”
She nodded.
“Yes.”
Well, that said it all.
Elizabeth explained.
“Eyeballs in glass jars and skulls? Collector cases are my bread and butter. Someone watching me would know that. I will know more once we see the scene. I can smell a setup a mile away,” she said.
And thankfully, that was the truth.
At her comment, he was hyper-focused. Normally, he was suspicious, but now, Ivan was taking it seriously, and with good reason.
He didn’t like surprises.
Or getting shot.
Both of those things tended to happen when she was on a case.
Unfortunately.
“FBI,” Elizabeth said, getting everyone’s attention in that parking lot as she and her people headed toward the cops who were monitoring the scene.
When the woman turned, she stared at them, and immediately, jogged their way.
The smile on her face was huge.
REALLY.
HUGE.
Before Elizabeth could say anything, she was on Ethan, jumping up, and hugging him.
“DAD!” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and legs around his body.
What?
The?
Unsanctimonious?
Fuck?
Elizabeth blinked.
Yeah, this was exactly what she meant.
This had caught them all off guard.
And she didn’t like it one bit.