Chapter Seven
The Morgue
Monday
Twelve Thirty P.M.
When she arrived, Chris and the techs were working on getting set up. As she walked in, he put down what he was doing, and focused on his wife. He was aware that she’d been talking to the homicide captain.
From the look on her face, he knew instinctually that something was up.
As he reached her, she pointed.
“Can we have a minute to talk alone?” she asked.
Yep.
There it was.
Callen had been sitting by Gene not far away, and he lifted a brow. They were working on research, and trying to figure some things out for Elizabeth.
Whenever Elizabeth wanted to ‘talk to someone’ alone, it didn’t bode well.
Something was up.
“Uh, sure.”
Chris looked around.
“Doctor Redmond, can we use a space to talk?” he asked, pointing at his wife.
The man nodded and motioned off to a door not far away from the main part of the morgue.
“I don’t have an office, but there’s a storage closet that I go to when I need to do paperwork.”
That would work.
Heading that way, she followed Chris in, as Ethan went to clue the other men in.
When the door was closed, Chris was concerned.
“What’s wrong?”
She went there.
“I may or may not have kept a little bit of information from the homicide captain.”
Chris stared at her.
Uh-oh.
Apparently, he was about to become an accomplice in something. Chris could already feel it coming. It was just going to be a matter of how much.
“What part?” he asked.
She told him, knowing he was going to lose his shit. Chris didn’t like to play games with reports. It put doubt into the case, and that always bit someone in the ass when they were on a stand.
Been there.
Done that.
“The embalmed part.”
At her words, his eyes went huge.
“ELIZABETH! That’s the most important part of the information. That gives them back jurisdiction of the case if there weren’t any homicides!”
Yeah, she knew.
Again, it was a risk, but one she was compelled to take on for this case.
Why?
She had no clue.
Her gut just told her to do it.
Besides, they’d done this plenty of times in their lives, so there was no way she could plead ignorance to Chris. It was best to just be honest.
“Hear me out.”
He stared and said nothing.
At that moment, he was questioning her sanity.
“Have I told you how nice you look in aqua scrubs?” she asked, going there.
He shut that down.
“No. You are not pulling a Tony.”
Yeah, that was bit much, even for her. So, instead, she was to the point.
“The homicide captain is a dick, he treats Tora like shit, and I happen to like Mac, too. They can’t handle this case if we bail, and Ethan believes it’s going to escalate shortly.
So do I. We need to stay here because we just took the collector’s collection.
Now, he’s gonna get spicy, and I don’t mean painting the roses red with cum. ”
He closed his eyes.
Lordy, but they were going down the crazy rabbit hole again. What wouldn’t he give for just a normal serial killer who liked eating toes?
“Why do I feel like you’re about to tell me I have to do something nefarious? Because you’re staring at me with that look on your face.”
She laughed.
“Because I’m about to tell you that you need to do something nefarious?”
He laughed.
A little.
Nervously.
“What do you need me to do to be your accomplice?” he asked. “Oh, and when I hire that man out there, I want to give him whatever money he asks for, and you’re going to clear that in my already tight budget. There will be NO questions asked from my boss, or my wife.”
Oh, he knew how to bargain, and he would make sure the risk was worth the reward.
She didn’t hesitate.
“Deal.”
Oh, shit.
“Well, now, I know it’s bad. What?” he asked.
Elizabeth was to the point.
“You need to get to get the guy you are fawning over not to mention the embalming part to the homicide captain. I need a little leeway—like a day.”
He stared at her.
Oh, this was more than him bending the rules. Now, she wanted him to taint a perfectly rule-abiding ME?
WHAT?
“Elizabeth, he’s by the books. That’s why I want to hire him. He’s not going to let me pull one over the homicide captain’s eyes.”
Elizabeth just grinned.
They’d already made the deal, so…
“Well, that’s a you issue, boo. I need you to buy me a day. If they pull this, we’re coming back regardless. Ethan said escalation, and you know how often he’s wrong.”
Damn.
It.
He was well aware.
“Fine,” he said. “I’ll figure it out, but you take WAY TOO MANY liberties because I’m your husband.”
She moved closer.
“Want to take liberties with me?” she asked. “After the wedding in DC? Don’t you have a conference coming up soon?”
He was against her.
“That’s not going to work,” he said, knowing what she was doing.
And it absolutely would work because she was beautiful, and he was a man. More often than not, he was thinking with his dick, and not his brain.
When her hands slipped under his scrubs, and ran up his body, and back down, he sighed.
“That’s going to work.”
She kissed him, and while she was kissing him, he swore she was trying to crawl into his body via his mouth.
And he was good with that.
Yeah, he sold his soul to this she-Devil a long time ago, and he was more than fine with that, too.
Wrapping his arms around her body, Chris took over, dominating the kiss.
Yeah, Elizabeth had him wrapped around her little finger, and she knew it. This was his wife of his heart, and on paper. Legally, she was a Leonard—not a Blackhawk.
Technically.
When he slowly broke the kiss, her lip was between his teeth.
“Later, you and I will be having some fun. If we can’t be alone in bed, I expect soapy shower sex. Because liberties.”
She peppered his face with kisses.
They were filled with so much love.
“Anything, my love. I’m going to be heading out to go talk to some real estate dude, so hold down the fort.”
While he had her attention, he updated her.
“We couldn’t get a penthouse. There are none in Holladay. We went with two business suites. Three and two. Ethan will likely want to be with Gene.”
She teased his ear, knowing that Ethan was staying in Damascus tonight, and they’d likely have Gene with them.
“I’m sure we can find some alone time in a hotel shower,” she admitted.
“More so, someone needs to go check-in. You have to sign the paperwork and authorize it. It’s your card.”
She understood.
It was one more thing on her list of tasks for the day.
“I’ll swing by after we talk to the real estate guy. I’ll assume you sent me the email?”
He nodded.
Then, set her free.
Once more, he had an erection in scrubs.
That was dastardly, and she knew it.
“Go. You make me want to do questionable things, like have a perfectly good ME corrupted. Now I understand how civilizations fell because of a woman. Men are weak.”
That amused her.
So, she slapped him on the ass.
“I do love a corrupted ME,” she said, winking at him. “Sir.”
He let her leave, and just sighed. Honestly, Chris couldn’t believe he was going to break the rules with a dude he wanted to hire because he followed the rules.
The irony.
As he headed out, Ben was heading toward Elizabeth, and he just shook his head. The man didn’t know when to avoid. Well, tomorrow, when Chrissy booted his ass around the room, he’d learn.
FAST.
“Can MATE stay with us?” Ben asked her.
She focused on him like he had lost his damn mind, and that was the least surprising thing all day. The man was questionable at best.
“What are you talking about?”
He went there.
“MATE. Can we have custody?” he asked, smiling a little too brightly.
Yeah, that was a no.
“Absolutely not. Chris, they don’t get to use MATE. I want them to do the forensics. They can’t lean into AI all of the time. That’s my luxury.”
He laughed.
“You heard the boss. No playing with the AI. Everyone needs to use their own squishy gray matter for the boss.”
Elizabeth pointed.
“GO. Forensic something for me. I need all the eyeballs run for DNA, and I need them by morning. So start processing. Hear me?”
He rolled his eyes and walked away.
God.
It was like having another child in the lab—Tony two-point-oh—as a matter-of-fact.
When they had silence, she jerked her head toward the door, and the people doing the investigating got the hint.
It was worktime.
Outside, she looked at her watch.
“I don’t need this many people to talk to the real estate guy, so we’re going to divide and conquer.
Alex, you and Corby are going to head to the city council building, and talk to a man by the name of Trenton Balkin.
He’s up in my business about this case, and likely going to make our lives hellish. ”
Oh, boy.
That didn’t sound like a good plan on his behalf.
She continued.
“Downplay it, and no matter what, the phrase ‘embalmed eyeballs’ is not to come up. If it comes up, you’re both going to be doing desk duty until my mood improves—as in EVERYONE’S paperwork.”
They got it.
The boss wasn’t playing. They knew the plan. It was to update, but say nothing about that one specific detail.
“Chris is going to get the ME to say nothing in his report. That’s the ONLY way we’re keeping this case—for now. I don’t want to go home, only to be called back here in three weeks to be further behind.”
They got it.
Mum was the word.
“Head out. We’ll meet you at the hotel after you handle that. We have light duty today. Until we have DNA, we need to bang out the interviews.”
Corbin saluted.
“Do you want the groundskeeper interview, or do you want to pass that off to us?”
Yeah, no.
That was hers.
She’d take that after talking to the real estate dude.
“We got that. Be safe out there, and we’ll text when we get to the hotel. We’ll grab dinner to talk this out. Like I said, today is the legwork as we wait on DNA. Have I said how much I miss Chrissy?”
Mac was curious.
“Who is Chrissy?” he asked, as all the men were behind Elizabeth, trying to warn them.
Too late.