Chapter Seventeen
Saint Mary’s Cemetery
After Dark
Scene Of The Crime
Monday Night
As the techs unloaded from the vans, Chris made sure everything was ready to go. The last thing he wanted was to be in a cemetery after dark, and it wasn’t because he was afraid of the dead. No, it was the living who posed the greatest risk.
There was no doubt that his wife had stirred up a hornets’ nest, like always, and that never ended well.
Someone tended to get hurt.
All he could hope was it wouldn’t be her.
As he approached the site, his wife, Callen, and Gene were standing there, and Shadow was on guard.
The first thing Chris did was pet the dog.
“Okay, how bad is it?” he asked.
She actually laughed.
“Come on, I’ll show you.”
Chris warned her, as he carried his medical kit with him. She deserved to know.
“We’re going to be bogged down with evidence,” he admitted. “If we’re exhuming in the morning, that’s going to make the team have one hell of a backlog. So don’t get bitchy.”
She snorted.
“It’s like they know me,” she joked.
Uh-huh.
They did.
“You can’t ask for miracles. You know what we’re working with,” he admitted.
Yeah, she did.
What wouldn’t she give to have Chrissy on her team? The woman was a one-person firecracker who outworked most people when it came to doing her job.
“I’ll be patient,” she said.
Would she?
Likely not, but that was neither here nor there. She’d ask forgiveness later.
As soon as Chris saw the tombstone, he sighed.
“You bring out the worst in people,” he admitted.
That amused her.
“I mean, it’s a skill,” she said. “Some women are pretty, and some are smart. I just piss a killer off,” she stated.
Oh, well, the ironic part of that was she was both pretty and smart, and that’s why killers tended to focus on her. They thought she was an easy opponent.
Spoiler.
She.
Was.
Not.
As Chris stared at the tombstone, he shook his head. This person was out of their mind. The horns gave it away.
“We’ll have to run the species they belonged to, because from here, I can tell they didn’t grow naturally.”
She actually laughed.
“Thank God. I thought he’d caged and skinned Satan, and was wearing his goat suit. That’s the only good news in all of this. Someone likes some late-night crafts with animal parts, and skulls.”
Chris whistled.
“Tech!” he called right after. “Clean up in aisle cuckoo!”
Elizabeth stepped back, and as she did, a tech went to move past her.
“Hey, boss,” Chrissy said, pulling on gloves.
Elizabeth nearly fell backward into the pile of dirt.
That’s how startled she was by the woman’s very familiar voice.
“The fuck?” she asked.
Chris just enjoyed the show.
Yeah, he’d surprised his wife.
“Uh, do you want me to bag and tag?” Chrissy asked, playing dumb. That was half the fun when it came to Elizabeth. The look on her face was priceless.
It was rare you could catch her off guard, but it was clear that was exactly what had happened.
“Am I having an existential crisis where I doubt my whole existence?” she actually asked. “Because that’s Chrissy, and I’m thinking I’ve fallen and hit my head.”
Chris laughed.
“That’s actually Chrissy. Guess who I hired to come work out here, and who is now your head tech slash morgue manager?” he asked.
Elizabeth looked back and forth between Chrissy and Chris, trying to figure out who to kiss first.
“Legit?” she asked.
Chrissy grinned.
“I hear you’ve missed me.”
Oh, hell, yeah.
Heading her way, she grabbed Chrissy’s face, and planted one on her mouth.
Then, she walked toward her husband and did the same thing to him.
Only, she REALLY kissed him stupid.
Chrissy laughed as Callen and Gene hugged her. It was clear they all missed her.
“I feel a little cheated. Where’s Ethan? He should hug and kiss me, too,” she joked.
Elizabeth broke the kiss, and stared into her husband’s eyes. In them, she found the amusement.
“I love you so much,” she said. “Thank you. Now, that’s how you give your wife a goddamn gift!” she said loudly, making Gene laugh.
“Take notes, Callen,” Gene said. “That was directed at you, not me.”
Elizabeth was so goddamn giddy.
“I don’t care how. I don’t care about what this took to pull off, but I’m seriously going to be happy all night. My lab is back in capable hands!”
Chrissy laughed.
“I met your current head tech,” she said, keeping her voice down so only they heard. “Uh, you’re welcome.”
She snorted.
Oh, tell her about it.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Elizabeth said. “Benjamin Lucifer Longfellow is entertaining, but he’s not able to do what you do. Thank you, Chrissy.”
She gave her a fist bump.
“No, thank you. I’m expensive.”
Oh, she bet.
Glancing over at her husband, she went there.
“Are you buying people now?” she asked, waiting for him to answer.
He simply nodded.
“That was the best million I’ve ever spent. Oh, and by the way, I did create a new position. She’s in charge of the morgue and answers to me. Since I need backup, I hired backup. Approve her salary.”
Oh, she would.
In.
A.
Heartbeat.
Honestly, she didn’t care if it was sketchy as fuck, or could be problematic. Chrissy could run circles around Ben, and Tony was terrified of her.
When Chrissy whistled, she got the anthropologist’s attention. Tony headed her way.
“You can look, but no touching,” she warned him.
Elizabeth just stood back and smiled the whole damn time. Her nightmare was looking less scary, and she knew they would be okay.
“How did Ben take it?” she asked her husband as they watched Chrissy taking photos, and Tony checking out the skull with that look of fascination on his goofy face.
Ahhh, the forensics world was looking up again.
Elizabeth had her tech back.
“I mean, I fully expect to hear him complain about it, but he’s technically still in his position. He just has a partner in it, and he has to answer to Chrissy as manager.”
She laughed.
“Oh, he’s going to bitch and moan. You left him at the city morgue?”
He nodded.
“Yep. Chrissy made that choice, actually. She’s got free rein to run it how it’s normally run. Oh, and she locked Tony’s spider in the evidence cabinet and changed the code.”
Elizabeth laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
The tide was, finally, turning. It looked like she and Chris were back in control on this side of the country—well, when it came to the morgue staff.
“What do we have?” Elizabeth asked her anthropologist.
He got the okay from Chrissy to pick it up, now that pictures had been taken.
“It’s a female skull,” he admitted. “The horns are attached with some sort of epoxy. I won’t know what until we test it, but it looks like some construction-grade stuff.”
Elizabeth listened.
“The horns are also bone, and are actually from animals. I’ll know more when I do a scraping and run some pictures to find the origin.”
That worked for her.
“What can you tell me about the skin and eyes, Chris?” she asked.
He moved closer, and picked up the skin to reveal a much better look at the eyes.
“Well, it’s definitely human. I’m not sure who it’ll belong to, but we’ll play match up the DNA when I get the rest of the remains in. Same with the eyes.”
Elizabeth knew by morning, now with Chrissy there, they’d have something.
“Well, then, let’s take a look at the body in the casket,” she said.
Chris was ready.
As he approached, he saw where the individual who had disturbed the person in the casket had stepped, and he lowered himself down to the same place to minimize wrecking the scene.
Then, he straddled the victim, to assess the situation. He already knew what was coming.
“Before you ask COD, I swear to God, I’ll take Christina away from you.”
She snorted.
“I already know COD originally. She died from an Insulin OD. One that I’m betting wasn’t accidental.”
Chris listened, and took the time to assess what was left of her body.
“Steph had been buried and was at peace,” Elizabeth stated. “Ethan thinks that this person wanted her head and eyes, and then was going to rebury her. The skull won’t be hers. I’m betting it, and the eyes, are someone else’s. Possibly whoever he bothered before this.”
He understood.
“I’ll get you as much as I can as quickly as I can.
What I can tell you is her head was roughly hacked off.
The satin beneath her is filled with embalming fluid.
The bone is damaged. I’m going to say that from the angle of the marks in the flesh and spinal bone, he stood above her and made little swings.
The tool was sharp, but the range of swinging prohibited it from being a clean removal, so he hacked. ”
Gene was making notes from beside Elizabeth, as she and Callen listened.
Chris stood on the edges of the coffin, keeping his balance. As he turned, he needed to assess what they all assumed had happened. Steph’s skirt was askew, and that likely meant one thing.
Sexual assault postmortem.
When Chris pulled her skirt up, he saw the problem.
“We have semen, and her panties are missing. It’s safe to say he’s collecting them too.”
Well, that was nasty as fuck.
Elizabeth sighed.
“And the pit of nastiness gets deeper by the second,” she admitted, not the least bit shocked. “As a heads-up, Chris, Ethan warned us that this person will be absolutely genius-level intelligent. You aren’t going to find his DNA in the system. He is leaving trace because he can.”
Chris didn’t doubt that she was right. Already, they’d come up with nothing on the semen from the scene and on the skulls.
“I don’t like when they’re smart,” he admitted.
Yeah, her either.
When Chris held out his hand, Callen pulled him up, and they all stared down at the headless corpse of Steph Lewis.
“We have a lunatic on our hands.”
Yeah, that didn’t bode well for them.
Not.
One.
Bit.
* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *
Washington, DC.
Same Time
Oh, someone was absolutely running, and he knew it. The sex had been off the charts hot, and Axelle hadn’t given him a break for hours.
She was running like she was being chased.
By reality.