Chapter Nine
Homeless Encampment
Same Time
Monday Afternoon
After getting the location of the local homeless gathering spot from the homicide captain, both Alex and Corbin headed there to see what they could dig up. Part of their job as researchers and back up to the boss lady meant thinking outside the box.
And being one step ahead of her.
That was how you kept your job in The Violent Crimes Unit.
Only, ill winds were blowing, and Alex had worked as an investigator long enough to know it too.
The entire ride to the place was done in absolute silence, and that was not the norm for the other man. If anything, Corbin liked to talk.
Ask questions.
Discuss things.
After getting the information from the homicide captain, Corbin went silent.
As in radio silent.
At that moment, he was staring out the window, and he wasn’t saying jack shit to Alex, which was freaking him out. He wasn’t quite sure what he did, but his partner was icing him out for some reason.
And he didn’t like it.
So, he went there.
He had to.
After being friends with Noah, and loving him so much that it hurt when he got married, he knew he had to fight hard for this partnership.
The bottom line was something happened to Corbin.
He knew trauma when he saw it.
This man was going through something, and as his partner, he wanted to help him out.
What wouldn’t he do for his partner?
“Are you okay?” he asked, breaking the silence.
Corbin was inundated with emotions, and the scent of Alex’s cologne had been the catalyst.
The last thing he’d expected was that hard punch to the gut, but the hits kept coming.
It was like something in him snapped open, and all of those feelings he’d bottled up for years began spilling free.
The cologne.
The way he laughed.
All of it unnerved him.
How did he ask the man to change his cologne without sounding like a fucking idiot? How did he ask him not to laugh? Even he knew how absurd that sounded.
It might be too late anyway.
Those feelings were waking up, no matter how hard Corbin fought.
Oh, Jesus.
He now understood the last two weeks of joy whenever he was around Alex.
He was attracted to the man.
Well, goddamn it.
His husband had been dead a long time, but it felt like yesterday, and an eternity all at the same time. It was like being held in statis, unable to break free from the nightmare, until that moment.
It always popped up on the oddest occasions, and he never knew when it would hit, but it never felt quite like this.
Like now.
“I will be,” he said, knowing he needed to say something, or his partner was calling the Blackhawks to get him a psych evaluation.
From his spot behind the wheel, Alex wasn’t sure how to help him.
Reaching over, he put his hand on his leg, and tried to comfort him. He knew what it felt like to be lost in a storm.
“If you want to talk it out, I’m here to listen,” he said. “I’m here for you, Corbin.”
He didn’t look down at his hand on his thigh, but he wanted to, and for a myriad of reasons.
It was the little licks of pleasure that radiated from where he touched him that scared him stupid.
Instead, he kept staring out the window, that mantra in his head berating him over and over again.
‘Will died because of you. Don’t make someone else a victim.’
He took a deep breath.
“I don’t need to talk it out, but thanks,” he said, as the man parked the car on the side of the road that led down past the railroad tracks and the location of the homeless encampment.
At the icy tone in his voice, Alex moved his hand.
“Okay, partner,” he said, hoping the man understood that if he needed to talk, he would always be there. “Want me to handle this alone?”
There was no answer, but his actions spoke loudly.
Instead, Corbin got out.
Okay, then.
Immediately, he headed toward the trees, and down the incline, forcing Alex to jog to catch up.
Yeah, something was eating at this man.
So, he didn’t let up. That’s exactly what Noah did when Alex was floundering.
“Getting shit off your chest can make you feel better,” he stated.
Corbin hated that Will always said that to him. Mostly because he was right, but also because Alex was starting to sound a little too much like a man he desperately missed.
And loved.
Hanging onto his memory was all he had left because there was no way he could have that love again.
Especially with his partner—who wasn’t gay.
“I don’t want to talk about it, Alex. Really,” he said. “You wouldn’t understand. No one ever does.”
He didn’t know what that meant, but he knew how to back off. Later, he was going to have to talk to Elizabeth. She’d asked him to keep an eye on Corbin, and now, he was suspecting this had something to do with it.
He was also going to do some research.
Something was up, and he’d been an agent long enough to know that.
As they cleared the trees, he saw a couple homeless people’s tents, and their things gathered around them.
As soon as they approached, one shouted to alert the others—and for no reason.
“Cops.”
Alex took over.
“Hey, calm down. We’re not here to make you leave. We need to talk,” he said.
The one woman paused, and eyed him up suspiciously, just in case.
“Really?” she asked, seeing his gold badge.
Because they needed to be upfront and honest, Alex pulled his badge, and held it up.
“We’re not local cops. We’re the FBI.”
Then, he explained.
“Do you know a Jonathan Miller?” he asked.
The woman nodded.
“Johnny is our friend. What about him? We haven’t seen him since yesterday. Did he get picked up by the cops?” she asked, hopefully.
Looking around, there was an extra tent, and that was likely the deceased man’s home.
They were going to have to check it out.
Alex hated that people were forgotten like this. He was a firm believer that everyone deserved a home, food, and a chance. It broke his heart to see this.
He’d seen too many dead who were forgotten in the many years of being a cop and Fed.
It was heartbreaking.
“I’m sorry to tell you this, but Jonathan Miller was found dead this morning.”
That was all he had to say.
She began crying.
And the whole time, Corbin watched his partner interact with them. It was so goddamn sad, and it never stopped being sad.
“I’m sorry,” Alex admitted.
Truth be told, he felt so bad about it, that he offered her some comfort.
When Alex hugged her, he gently patted her back, not caring that she was touching him.
Sometimes, you needed a hug.
It wasn’t lost on Corbin that kindness was hard to find anymore, but Alex tended to be kind.
That reminded him of Will even more, and despite feeling shitty for being rude, it rattled him further. He knew that feeling brewing in the pit of his belly, since he’d only ever felt it once before in his life.
For Will.
One of the other homeless men shook his head.
“Poor Johnny,” the guy said. “It’s the government,” he admitted, pointing at them. “YOU stole him once, and took his kidney! Now, you took his life,” he said, raging. “Killer!”
Woah.
What was this?
On top of the anger, that information caught them off guard.
Instinctually, Corbin took a step back as the man moved toward him.
His partner set the woman free, and moved to help his partner.
“We didn’t hurt Johnny,” Alex said. “We’re here to find out who did. Who took his kidney?” he asked, using what they told them to find out more.
There was that wave of awareness that this might be connected since there were found eyeballs.
Already, he was suspicious.
How could he not be?
The woman shared.
“Someone came up to him and offered him money for it. He told them to fuck off and that he was using it. He disappeared that night, and when he came to the next day, he was in a lot of pain, and his kidney was missing. A cop found him on a bench, and took him to the hospital, and they told him it was gone.”
Jesus.
Christ.
What was this?
Alex was pretty sure this was going to somehow connect to the situation.
There was no way this could be a coincidence.
After all, they had jars of eyeballs.
Was this something more than what Ethan had profiled it as a collector? Could this be hidden inside that guise?
Maybe an organ harvesting situation?
Was Johnny killed because they were going to harvest more organs from him?
Had they been interrupted, maybe by security, and they took off without it so as not to get caught?
He glanced over at his partner. Corbin had put himself between the two other homeless people and Alex like he was ready to protect him.
He was listening, taking it all in.
“That’s terrible. When did this happen?” Alex asked, trying to get more.
The woman shared.
“Six years ago they just took his kidney. What did they take this time?” she asked.
They’d both seen the autopsy report.
“Someone took his life.”
She sniffled.
And no one blamed her.
This was crazy, and heartbreaking all at once.
“Where is his dog?” she asked. “He had a dog with him, and he never went anywhere without Shadow. That dog was his security and backup. They didn’t hurt the dog, did they?”
Um….
They didn’t find a dog.
“We don’t know. Can we look in his tent, possibly? Maybe we can figure out what happened to him.”
The one man shook his head.
“NO! You’re not going through his things!”
When he moved menacingly toward them, Corbin held out his hand.
“Okay, we won’t.”
That seemed to calm the man down.
“We’re so sorry for your loss,” Alex admitted. “Did he say anyone was following or bothering him?” he asked, trying to get any information that he could.
She nodded, and then lowered her voice like the CIA was listening in.
At this point, who knew?
“He said weird shit was going on there. He had been there one night when we got that really bad rainstorm. His tent leaked, so he would find shelter for him and Shadow so they stayed warm. We all do. He said someone was upstairs, and he heard him talking to someone.”
Oh, this was good.
Real good.
Immediately, Corbin began writing it all down.
“What was he saying?”
She tried to recall.