Chapter Thirteen
The Rundown
Building
Monday
Seven P.M.
When they pulled up, the building was being left alone—for the most part. The police tape was up, but there were a few reporters across the street, doing a newscast from the scene on the situation that had gone down earlier.
Talk about bad timing.
On her part.
In Corbin’s report that he’d sent her, he mentioned that the council man had been alerted to the eyeballs in jars by the homicide captain, and she was willing to bet he’d called out the dogs on her, too.
Yeah, no shock there.
Immediately, Ivan knew what she was thinking the second the media came into view.
“Want to head out?” he asked. “Or do you want to deal with the media knowing you’re on the scene? We can do either,” he offered.
She knew it was going to blow this up, but then again, that was going to happen regardless.
By the time they had the DNA and federal warrants to exhume, it was going to be a wild ride into chaos.
There was no point pretending as far as she was concerned.
“I’ll stay,” she said. “We’ll go in, but I need you and Uriel to keep them back. The last thing I need is to be talking about the case and have one of them sneak up on me.”
He got it.
But it worried him.
“Can you not get shanked by a killer who is looking for organs? My face hurts, and I really don’t need your husbands riding my ass over you getting into a bad situation.”
She didn’t miss a beat.
“If it’s hurting you, please know that it’s killing me.”
He stared at her.
“I hate that you can throw them back at me so fast. It’s annoying that I walked right into that.”
She laughed.
Yeah, and that was why she did it.
“What’s going to be annoying is when Blue sees that, and she texts me to ask why I let the pretty boy get beat up. Trust me. I’m annoyed, too. Bob and weave, Marine. They teach you that when they hand you a knife at basic.”
He just rolled his eyes.
Yeah, they also didn’t teach you how to protect a director who was as wily as they came. That should be in the handbook, too.
Getting out, they headed toward the building. As soon as they got inside, they heard growling.
Oh, boy.
“A dog, huh?” Callen asked, pulling his gun. “That would have been nice to know beforehand.”
Gene just laughed.
“If you read the report that Corbin filed, or listened to Alex at dinner, you’d know that the dead man’s dog was MIA. I’m betting we found him.”
As Callen held his gun, his wife stared at him.
“What the hell are you going to do with that, Callen James?” she asked.
He stared at her like she was crazy.
He wasn’t getting bit, that was for damn sure.
Elizabeth laid down the law.
“Uh, Alex told us the homeless people said the dead veteran’s dog was protective and a shadow. I’m not getting rabies. That was his pet.”
It was official.
His wife was insane.
As she turned, Elizabeth focused on the growling, and she didn’t look away.
“Okay, try not to get rabies,” he suggested, knowing exactly what she was going to do. “I don’t want rabies.”
She was to the point.
“It’s a shot you’ll have to get if he bites. You’ll live. You’re not shooting a dog who is upset his person died. That’s crazy.”
Gene just laughed.
“I have fifty on her talking the dog down. I’m calling it now, and I can’t wait to see it happen.”
She pointed at him.
“You’re my favorite.”
Callen sighed.
“Okay, Captain Crazy, go dog whisper the rabid dog. I’ll hold your hand at the ER, but you’re calling Chris to tell him that you’ve been bitten by a dog. I’m not telling him shit. He’s already pissed at me for letting you get knocked around by big, loco, and flower crazy.”
She snorted.
As they moved closer to the room where Jonathan Miller had been shanked and died, she saw it.
There was a dog sitting by the dried blood.
It was a big dog, and it was a mix of German Shepherd and something else. Mastiff? Saint Bernard? Something. All she knew was it was scared.
Its eyes were wide, and its ears were back.
The second they appeared, it began barking.
When Ivan came in, hearing the commotion, he also pulled his gun.
“Oh, shit. Is that a wolf?” he asked. “It’s HUGE.”
She pointed.
“Put the gun away. Back up. I’m going to talk to it.”
Ivan sputtered like a teakettle.
“And do what? Ask it if it saw the killer? Are you loco? That dog is SNARLING. What is it about you? What part of ‘don’t get hurt’ didn’t make sense? Do you need a psych evaluation? Are you trying to die?”
Well, not yet, anyway
As for the dog, she wasn’t worried. Elizabeth was good with animals. It was people she pissed off.
“He’s just upset.”
Ivan stared at the two men like they somehow could talk her down. Only, no one stopped Elizabeth from being Elizabeth—especially if a dog was involved.
No.
One.
Moving closer, the dog growled, and she sat down.
“Give me the jerky you keep in your vest for when I get hangry,” she said.
Ivan couldn’t believe this.
“Why are we catching this dog? Did he kill the dude? Is he a material witness?”
The dog went nuts, and he actually took a step back.
“The jerky.”
He threw it to her, and she opened it. When the dog saw it, he focused on her. Elizabeth pulled a piece out. When she did, the dog’s ears perked up.
“I bet that Jonathan fed you all the good treats,” she said. “He loved you a lot, and I’m sorry that your person is gone. This has to be so scary for you.”
The men watched.
When the dog sat up, Elizabeth tossed him a piece of jerky, and he sniffed it.
Then, he ate it.
“You have to be hungry. You missed dinner. Here,” she said.
When the dog moved a little, she tossed him some jerky, and he ate it.
“We’re getting a dog,” Callen said. “Someone tell Ethan. She’s about to adopt that stray, and we’re sleeping with it. I can already feel it in my balls. That massive beast is becoming our lapdog in this journey through the cuckoo.”
She flipped him off, but kept feeding the dog.
The dog moved closer.
“Hey,” she said, as he sat in front of her, and was about the same size as she was when sitting.
“You don’t bite, do you?” she asked.
He laid down, and rolled over.
“Son of a bitch, she did it again,” Ivan said. “She’s tamed something with balls.”
She actually laughed, and when she reached for the dog, he licked her hand.
“Hey, Shadow. You can’t stay here, buddy. You gotta come with us, or I have to get animal control here. You’ll starve here.”
When Ivan moved closer, Shadow started barking.
“Uh, he’s not friendly.”
She didn’t think that was the truth.
“Sit,” she said.
And Shadow sat.
Getting up, he leaned against her leg, and she fed him jerky.
“One for transport,” she said.
Callen just laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
“Ethan is going to MURDER you. He got you a German Shepherd puppy already that is currently being trained. This isn’t a dog. It’s a liability. We don’t know this dog.”
She didn’t care.
Scratching the dog behind the ear, its foot thumped on the ground.
He was hardly a killer.
If anything, she was always rooting for the underdog, and the dog of a homeless man who was dead? They’d send this dog to the pound, and because he was part Shepherd, he’d never survive it.
So he’d be killed.
Yeah, not on her watch.
“We’re going to take you home, and get you fixed. Oh, and if anyone with balls in the house says a single solitary thing, they’re getting neutered too. Because what momma wants, momma is getting, or what daddy wants, he’s not having anymore.”
That message was delivered.
Loud.
And.
Clear.
Wisely, Callen shut up.
From where he stood, Gene just laughed.
“Not me. I like dogs. I say the more the merrier,” he said, moving closer.
When he did, Shadow looked wary, but he didn’t growl. Instead, he was watching to see how Elizabeth reacted.
When she handed Gene jerky, the dog’s tail moved.
So he fed it to him, and then petted his head.
“I kinda like him. Willa can ride him. All we need is a saddle.”
She laughed.
It wasn’t like he was wrong.
Only, they had work to do, and now that they’d managed to locate the missing dog, they’d start doing it.
“Okay, now that is handled, Ivan, stay with the dog, and we’ll check the place out.”
He laughed.
“Absolutely not. He doesn’t like me. He’s eyeing me up. The second you leave, he’s killing me.”
She snorted.
“You’re a grown man. Get your kids another pet. Hey, need a dog?”
He didn’t hesitate.
“NO.”
She didn’t think so.
Anyone who knew her knew that she was saving a dog, and saving a soldier. That was kind of her thing. Oh, she’d ask Jonathan’s family, when she did the notify, if they wanted his dog, but if they said no, she was keeping him.
At least she was predictable.
As she began moving around, Shadow was…well, a shadow. It appeared he’d found another person to tail, and there wasn’t going to be a way to stop that.
And she let him.
She was comfortable with a German Shepherd being up her ass. It was like being at home. Plus, she missed her dogs back in DC at the house with security.
Moving through the area, she checked to see if there was anything that might give her any idea about who might have snuck up on Jonathan Miller.
Why?
Because she wasn’t buying that it was coincidence.
In fact, Elizabeth was betting that he was killed to clean up loose ends. This wasn’t going to be a coincidence. This killer was proving to be very smart, and even more cautious.
After twenty minutes of wandering around, to see if they missed anything, she noticed a few things.
Whoever was collecting eyeballs and skulls upstairs was also leaving no trace downstairs.
Ethan had been right.
This collector was smart.
They normally were, but she had the feeling that he was going to be extra tricky.
“Nothing. Not a toothpick, not a hair, and not a single, solitary trace of someone killing him or lying in wait.”
Gene agreed.
“So much for finding the bloody knife he was shanked with. We’re going to have a bitch of a time against this one. I can feel it in my gut.”
Oh, she was willing to bet that was the truth.
After years of this, you just knew.