Chapter Twenty-Five #3
She’d been jerked all over the place on this one. At this rate, she’d never have the forensics in time to catch him. He’d stay a step ahead.
“Chris, stay in the morgue, and keep Callen and Raphael with you. I have to go,” she said. “Don’t send a tech. The body can wait, and so can the head. I need to get my bearings, and get Alexi’s address. Be safe,” she said, hanging up.
Elizabeth tucked the phone away.
Then, she began moving around the room without saying a word.
Both Gene and Ethan stared at her.
And she said nothing.
Instead, she pulled on gloves, and tore the room apart looking for something.
“Are you okay?” Gene finally asked. “Honey, what are you doing?”
She was about to lose her mind.
And she knew why.
This.
Freaking.
Nut.
He was coming for her family, and she might not be smart enough this time to stop it.
* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *
The Morgue
Same Time
The bodies and evidence were being brought up, and he was pissed.
Ben couldn’t believe that he had been not only demoted, but now, he had a babysitter.
He was a smart man, and he’d earned his way into the FBI, but ever since the director had gotten there, it had sucked.
Big.
Time.
And honestly, it wasn’t fair.
What he needed was to talk to someone, and it looked like he was going to head to HR to see what could be done. How could they take a position away from him?
Yeah, he was still a head tech, but he was a co-head tech. That wasn’t right.
Not in his book.
Heading to his car, he needed a smoke break. He was so angry that he was ready to quit.
You know what?
That was exactly what he was going to do.
He was done.
Fuck this.
Elizabeth had been right about one thing when she showed up there weeks ago. She was a terrible boss to work for, and that not everyone could.
He couldn’t.
She’d replaced him before he could even show what he could do.
Yeah, he was going to complain too.
Getting into his vehicle, he reached for his smokes, and the lighter nearby.
Only, he didn’t get to light up.
Not.
Even.
Close.
There was something around his neck, and he felt the sharp pain as it rocked his body, and everything around him went fuzzy.
He didn’t understand what was happening.
Not until it was too late.
Now, Ben knew what it felt like.
To die.
* * * The Blackhawk Family * * *
Jeffrey’s Home
Same time
Yeah, she couldn’t believe this.
How had she missed it?
Because they were worried about her, Elizabeth was to the point.
“Ethan said it. He’s not leaving evidence. He’s leaving clues. Jonathan Miller was a clue. That kidney is telling a story, and it’s not what we think. I have to stop being Elizabeth. I have to be the killer playing the game.”
Ethan was watching her.
His wife was onto something, but they weren’t quiet sure what that was.
“Pull up the evidence log. What was on the dead homeless man?” she asked. “Read me everything. He’s leaving little clues with all the big ones. We’re just not picking up the subtle ones. Those are the ones we need to see.”
As she walked the room, pulling the very modest house apart, Gene did just that. He went into the drive, and located what she was looking for to help.
Then, he told her.
“He had his dog tags. In his pocket was his wallet. There was a dog biscuit in his other pocket. In his front pocket was seventy-seven cents.”
She was opening couch cushions as the men all watched her like she’d lost her mind.
She hadn’t.
This was a special kind of insanity, and now, she wasn’t looking for answers.
She was looking for what didn’t belong. Jeffrey and his head was the big clue. Now, she had to find the smaller ones.
“What was in the wallet?”
Gene went over the list.
“There was four dollars, a few business cards…”
She stopped.
“I need pictures of them. Pull them up,” she said. “What do they look like?” she asked.
He pulled them up.
“One is for a shelter, one is for the VA and his counselor there, and one is a blank card with just a phone number scribbled on it.”
Oh, that would be one she absolutely would overlook, and if she was killing people, and leaving bodies, she’d pull something similar.
She pulled out her phone.
“Give me the number,” she said. “Now.”
He read it off, and she dialed it, keeping it on speakerphone so they could all hear.
It rang five times.
Then, it went to voicemail, and it was an automated voice that spoke.
‘You have reached the mailbox of The Grave Digger, Oh, and Elizabeth, I’m proud of you.
You figured out an Easter egg. You’re one step closer.
That won’t matter, because I’m cleaning up the loose ends.
Tick Tock. You’re still behind. Has anyone ever told you that you’re beautiful when you’re exasperated?
I can’t wait to have you. See you soon. The Grave Robber. ’
She hung up.
“Trace that phone,” she said, tossing Ivan hers. “He’s smart, and he wanted me to call him. Do we have the address for Alexi Redmond yet?” she asked.
Ethan read it off.
“Let’s go,” she said.
Ivan protested.
“Do you think that’s a good idea?” he asked. “It’ll be dangerous, or a trap.”
She shook her head.
“No. This is part of it. He won’t be the killer. In fact, I’m willing to bet that he’ll be dead. It’s too easy. He knew we’d check the DNA. He knew I’d assume. It won’t be him. It’s someone I’m not focused on. It’s the least obvious.”
Then, she paused.
As she was walking past the curtains, she smelled something.
Oh, and she knew that smell anywhere.
It hit her like a punch to the gut.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” she said, grabbing Raphael’s phone off his belt, and dialing.
“Nine-one-one, city and state?”
She went there.
“I need an ambulance to fourteen Greenbridge Lane in Holladay. There’s an injured man there. He’s been attacked, and he’s dying. Send police!” she said, hanging up.
Then, she focused on Raphael.
“I hope that was encrypted or the cops are coming for you,” she said.
Uh, it was.
She grabbed Ethan by the shirt, and dragged him toward the curtain.
“SMELL THIS.”
She found her small clue, and it was so minuscule that almost everyone would miss it.
BUT HER.
He did.
“It’s cologne. I don’t know what you are smelling. What are you worked up about? You’re worrying me.”
She wasn’t having a breakdown.
Oh, not at all.
She got the game now.
“I smelled this before. When we walked into the fancy office of Devon Slater, and he shook our hands, this was his cologne. It’s expensive. I remember thinking…he’s rich-rich, like Callen. Because it screamed wealth.”
Ethan lifted a brow.
She wasn’t done.
“The father-son link was a clue, but he hid it so deep in other bullshit, I’d never normally question it. He said he saw me around DC, but we ignored that because he’s a power player in DC with lots of money. He was giving us a little clue that I’m always in his reach. He was bragging.”
Ethan’s heart was starting to thump in his chest.
If she was accessible, so were their kids.
“Gabe knows him, and he cleared him. This person knows that Gabe was MY MENTOR. I was trained by him, and knows that. What Chrissy said was another clue. He was trained by someone to be the best. Ethan, who did Gabe train to be the best?”
They all pointed at her.
“We didn’t think anything of the rest of the things tied to him.
Because for me, Gabe’s word is golden. He knew I’d trust it implicitly, and it would remove him from my suspicion, making him the least likely person.
I’d think that a rich person like himself, wouldn’t do the dirty work of this, and he was right.
I thought that, but I was wrong. He was trained by a psychopath to do the dirty work. ”
Ethan listened, and it was fitting for him.
“His parents were divorced, and how much do you want to bet that he sympathized with his daddy. That he spent time with him too. He made a point to tell me he stayed here with his mother, but he was based out of Salt Lake City, where his father lived. Twenty years ago, he would have been fifteen-ish, and his father started sharing that with him. He taught him. His father likely hated women, after his wife divorced him, or maybe his wife divorced him for something she knew.”
She was right.
“So, he pointed us at the right people. He said he inherited that business. How much do you want to bet that if we dig into that pharmaceutical company, his father was on the board or tied to it.”
Jesus.
“MATE,” she said, and her AI assistant popped in.
“You rang?” she asked.
Elizabeth was to the point.
“Is Devon Slater’s father on the board of trustees for the pharmaceutical company that owned Sundown Realty?” she asked.
MATE began working.
“The clue was the realty company. He’s all about real estate. He was giving me another clue, to see if I picked it up. Again, I didn’t because I passed it off to the detectives.”
MATE alerted her.
“There is no Slater mentioned on the board.”
Elizabeth thought about it.
It was her ADHD against this nut’s.
“Pull up the birth certificate for Devon Slater. Then, find the marriage license for his parents.”
MATE hummed, but in front of them, in holographic form, there were both forms.
“Jesus,” Ethan said.
And she knew why.
“Richard Devon James married his mother, and look at her maiden name. Slater.”
Gene got it.
“That was one of the clues. When he pointed this at Alexi, he took his mother’s maiden name to not be tied to his father’s crimes. We never researched Slater’s family because the dude was dead.”
She nodded.
“Yeah, again, there are sick little Easter eggs all over this shitshow. We’re not going there. That’s what he’s expecting. We’re going to his business. We might catch him there, and trust and believe, I’m putting a bullet in him.”
Racing out of the vehicle, they climbed in.
“Ivan, get me there ASAP,” she said. “Light it up,” she said, and he did.
The blacked-out vehicle hit the main road, lights on as it blew past traffic.
When her phone rang, Callen answered the phone.
“Uh, something weird happened.”
She was worried.
“What?”