Chapter Twelve
The City Morgue
Same Time
Monday Six P.M.
Well, she was back to the original scene of the crime, and the fun was about to start all over again. When the jet landed, both Chrissy Redwolf and her husband, Detective Kane Redwolf walked off of the flight, and into another adventure.
Had someone told her it would be back in Damascus, she would have told them they were crazy, but here they were.
With them, they carried their luggage, and their kids. Both of them were excited, and with good reason.
This changed everything.
With Chris’ talk, knowing that their house was paid off, and that they had a good chunk of money in the bank, they could make the move.
Because being left behind in DC…
It sucked.
Chrissy needed cases that challenged her, and honestly, while she loved working with each of the teams, and Zane and Dalia, she missed working with Chris and Elizabeth.
When you’d been Elizabeth’s head tech for years, having to work with anyone else was disappointing. The woman’s cases were just far superior, and they challenged her as a forensic scientist.
When the lab was a-rocking, you didn’t come a-knocking. They had the most challenging cases, and not being part of that…
It was like the fear of missing out, and she had FOMO all the time, as of late.
So, when she spoke to Kane, and asked him if they had a million dollars in the bank, could he retire, a new chapter opened for them.
And here they were.
They got on that flight, ASAP, and booked a hotel room until Chrissy could talk to Chris, and figure all of this out. If Elizabeth was making Damascus home, again, they would close up their now mortgage-free home, and commit to the bit.
She was back on the team.
Oh, and Chrissy couldn’t be more excited. With a promotion, and no money worries, she could just do her job, knowing that she, Kane, and the kids were in good shape.
So, as they exited the jet, a car was there waiting for them. It drove Kane and the kids to a hotel, and Chrissy to the police station.
When she was dropped out front, she was giddy.
She.
Was.
Back
Oh, and she was going to run this bitch like she stole it.
Chris told her about how the team there needed to be whipped into shape, and she was more than willing to handle the job.
She could do that.
Willingly.
Heading into the building, she flashed her creds, and they directed her to the morgue downstairs.
As she approached, she heard music, and knew that the bosses couldn’t possibly be there. It was blasting, and sounded like there was a dance party going on inside.
Oh, boy.
Someone wasn’t exaggerating when he said that the ship needed someone at the helm to keep it going in the right direction.
Everyone knew that Chris HATED music when people were working. That told her that Tony was running the place, and not running it well.
Oh, the shit was about to get real.
For.
Them.
Heading in, she opened the door, and while people were working, this was definitely a free-for-all.
There were papers all over, and techs were drinking at their stations. The chaos was running wild, and she had to put a stop to this before it drove Chris insane, and got Elizabeth hurt.
She was a girl’s girl, and she had her friend’s back.
Now that she was back to being Chris’ head tech, she knew how he wanted it run.
Oh, and it would be her pleasure.
“MATE, turn off the music, and lock it to my voice command ONLY,” she said.
And MATE complied, hearing her over the sound.
Just like that, the music stopped, and EVERYONE LOOKED UP.
Oh, and one person in particular knew that the shit was about to get real.
How did she know?
Well, Tony dropped a metal tray.
“Oh, no,” he said.
Benjamin, who had been shaking his ass as he processed something for mass spec, looked over.
“Uh, can we help you?” he asked.
Tony shook his head.
“We’re boned, and not in a good way,” he said, grabbing his spider, tossing it into a case, and putting it in his bag like its life depended on it.
Because it absolutely did.
Chrissy walked around, and checked the place out.
Oh, it wasn’t bad for a city facility, and from all the high-tech equipment that they brought with them, it could be a temporary Autopsy One.
It would do for now, but she couldn’t wait to get back to the office to really set the place up.
And fix the mess.
While they were here, this would be run exactly like an FBI lab.
Period.
Autopsy One wasn’t a specific place, but a group of people who set the bar high in forensics. It could be in the FBI building, or a shack in the woods.
They were Autopsy One.
And some people forgot that.
This was a legacy, and the next generation was shitting all over the work that had gone into it to become the best forensic lab team in the country.
Her blood, sweat, and tears went into it, along with Chris, and Tony’s.
That he was acting a fool…
It was time to scare him.
BIG-TIME.
Putting down her bag, she opened it, and pulled out her lab coat. The second she did, Ben looked over at Tony, as if he might be able to clue him in.
“What the hell, man?” he asked.
Only, Chrissy cleared her throat.
“I’m the new head tech,” she said, staring at Tony like she dared him to fuck around and find out.
She’d caught him red-handed, and the LAST thing she wanted was to get her ass chewed by the boss. She was officially on the clock, and things were about to change starting…now.
So, there would be compliance.
Or there would be hell to pay.
She took her job damn seriously, and someone wasn’t. That told her that Chris hadn’t been exaggerating.
Ben protested, not catching the cues Tony was giving him about zipping his lips.
Chrissy didn’t play.
“I’m sorry, but I’m the head tech, Doctor Benjamin Longfellow. Do you work for the city?”
Yeah, he’d wish that by the time she was done.
Oh, she’d been briefed.
Chris made sure she had access to ALL of their files. Not only was she restructuring, but she was going to get this ship back afloat. That was where her promotion came into play.
One million dollars was a good way to motivate a person. There was no way she was letting Chris down, or as her new role as manager of this ship.
“Yeah, I don’t care. You’re demoted,” she said, bluntly. “Consider this your peer-to-peer review.”
The man gasped.
“Who the hell are you?” he asked.
MATE appeared, and she was standing next to Chrissy, wearing a lab coat, too.
“This is Doctor Christina Redwolf ,” she stated. “Your worst nightmare. She’s baaaaacccckkkkk,” she added in a creepy voice to be amusing.
At the mention of her name, Ben blinked. He’d spoken to her a few times on the phone, but now, she was here.
“Oh, crap,” he muttered.
Chrissy headed their way as she was pulling her hair up so it wasn’t a trace risk.
“Oh, I’ve heard some shit,” she said, “and I’ve been brought here to clean it up.”
Tony went there.
“Hey, Bestie. How long are you going to be here?” he asked, smiling at her like he hadn’t just been caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and his spider out of a cage.
She walked over to this bag, took out the container, and moved it to the LOCKED evidence box that they brought with them from Damascus to store evidence. She put the code in, and slid the whole box inside before CHANGING the code.
Tony sputtered in horror.
“Morticia!” he said.
She pointed.
“She can go in the deep freeze, or she can stay locked up until you’re off shift,” she offered. “Her babies won’t survive that, but I’ll be nice and let you decide their fate.”
He shut up.
FAST.
“From here on out, Anthony, if I see, smell, or sense that spider around, she’s going to be taken away from you like a child—because here you are acting like one. Am I clear?” she asked.
Tony nodded.
Then, she focused on the rest of the team.
“There is NO eating or drinking in the lab, here or when we get back to Damascus,” she said, walking around with a wastepaper basket.
“If you want to eat, you do it in the hall. You do it on your break. You do it on your way to your hotel room. Hell! You do it IN the bathroom, for all I care if that’s your kink, but in MY LAB, or any lab I’m in charge of, we don’t have straw papers on the floor, the consoles, or near the VERY EXPENSIVE lab equipment.
Am I clear? We are borrowing this lab, temporarily, and we are not going to wreck city equipment. Back home, we will do it with RESPECT.”
There were nods as everyone began throwing their things in the can.
Chrissy wasn’t done.
“There is no music in Autopsy One, and since that’s not just a place but a team of people, that means here too.
There is only the hum of the very expensive lab equipment, the sound of keyboards, and the echo of hamsters running in the wheels in your heads.
That’s done, and NEVER coming back while we’re on a case.
It risks issues with the evidence, and our job is to keep Elizabeth alive.
The ONLY time there will be food in where we are working is if we are rewarded for our work.
I don’t see that happening anytime soon. This is a shitshow.”
The ‘old’ head tech sputtered.
“HEY!” Ben said. “You can’t just come in here and replace me,” he said. “You’re not the boss.”
At that exact moment, the doors to the morgue opened, and Chris walked in with Saint behind him.
Immediately, Saint began laughing, and there was a very clear reason why. There was horrified silence, and Chrissy was standing in the middle of the room.
The shit was hitting the fan, and the blowback was not pretty. The woman might be little, but she packed a mean punch when you pissed her off.
“Oh, you chucklefucks did it now,” he said, as Chris smiled at them all.
Yes.
They.
Did.
Chris was incredibly giddy to see Chrissy standing in the midst of them.
The city lab was quiet, and the team was not acting up. Someone already had the ship going in the right direction.
That was the best million dollars he’d ever spent.
Well, that, and when he’d bought Himeros Collar.