Chapter 24
“He’s escalating,” Dex said, staring at the body sprawled on the turf of the football field. “They’re escalating.”
“What’s happened to make him lose control?” Dover wondered aloud.
This time, the victim wasn’t lying relatively peacefully as if he fell asleep.
The victim’s throats were always abraded, but nothing else was disturbed.
This was way beyond that. The body had been stabbed repeatedly, the genitals cut off, there were what looked like whip marks everywhere, and his intestines lay next to him.
“Something made him angry. This is extreme overkill. It could have been his partner, this particular victim, or even some situation that has no bearing on this that made him snap. It might just be the break we need. I would be very surprised if they don’t find DNA on him this time.”
“Christ! You could warn a guy,” Sean said, stepping inside the tent.
“Why should you be the only one to get a warning?” she fired back.
“Fair enough,” he answered. He knelt down next to the body and opened his bag. “I can get you an approximate time of death and then I say we let forensics process the scene. I’ll stay in here while they work in case they need me.”
“Let me know what you find out,” she said. She and Dex stepped back out of the tent. They wrestled off their Tyvek suits and tossed them in a bin.
With any luck, the next time she saw the victim it would be in a clean autopsy room. Preferably one that was air-conditioned. It was going to be another scorcher today. She would rather be sitting by a pool.
“Lawn company found the body,” Danny said. He had chosen to coordinate everything outside this time. “I have officers taking statements, but they don’t know anything. The head of the school is on his way here. I’ll have one of the other detectives interview him. I doubt he knows anything either.”
“I’ll pull prints,” a crime scene tech said, stepping past them. “They should start running shortly. Hopefully something will pop on this one.” He ducked inside the tent almost running into Sean on his way out.
“It’s going to take a while. They’ve already swabbed a bagful. We’ll put a rush on them,” he said.
“I’m heading back to the office. If we can identify him, I’ll start pulling everything we can find,” Dover said. “I’ll also ride the lab on those swabs and whatever else they can find. Here’s hoping this is the one that busts this case open. We could use a break.”
She started for her car with Dex beside her. He was texting something on his phone.
“I told my guys to be ready to run prints just to speed up the process,” he informed her. “Looking at that crime scene, there has to be DNA somewhere. It was too chaotic for there not to be something. I can walk it through our labs if you need me too.”
“Thanks, but I think everyone wants this guy caught. It’s a top priority at our lab now.” They reached the car, and she slid behind the wheel. “Jesus, I’m tired of chasing this guy. We have to get ahead of him.” She rubbed her temples trying to will away the headache that had already started.
“We will,” Dex assured her. They drove back to headquarters both lost in their separate thoughts. Dover hoped Dex was right.
The incident room was buzzing with activity when they arrived. It wasn’t chaotic to the trained eye. Everyone knew their job and was carrying it out with efficiently. But to anyone else, it looked like a disturbed ant mound.
She was hit the moment she walked in with new information. Dex was being bombarded by his people, she guessed, with the same things. Unlike in the movies, the two groups worked very well with each other. Dex handed her a piece of paper.
“Listen up,” she said loudly after reading through it.
“We’ve got a name. Popped on the global entry registration list.” She walked to the front of the room and picked up a dry-erase marker.
They were starting to run out of room on the boards.
More would have to be brought in if this continued much longer.
“His name is Peter Hansen. He’s a professor in England, here on a research trip. ”
“ME puts time of death at between ten and midnight,” Dex continued as Dover wrote. “Initial examination states cause of death can’t be determined due to trauma to the body. Visible marks on the neck strongly suggest strangulation, but there are also multiple stab wounds, and evisceration.”
“I need to know everything there is to know about Mr. Hansen. Where he’s staying, where he’s been, about his research plans,” she said. “Danny is tied up at the scene, so I need someone chasing down the bar. If our unsub held to the same pattern, he was picked up in one of the locals.”
“Got it,” someone in the room said. She didn’t bother to find out who it was, assuming they would do a good job.
“If you find it, get down there and interview everyone.” She pinned a recent photo of Peter Hansen to the board.
“Someone saw this man. We need to know who he was with. With any luck there’s camera footage this time.
I’m going to head to the medical examiner’s office and see if I can get them to move up the autopsy. ”
“Do you need me to go with you?” Dex asked when she stepped to the back of the room.
“No, I’ve got this. Can you see if you can speed up the lab?”
“I can handle that. I’ll keep you updated on anything we get in.”
“Thanks. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” She marched out of the building on a mission. Now, she just had to hope the sexy new examiner would find something she could use.
That morning Fox woke with a raging headache. They were becoming the norm instead of the exception. The stress he was under was closing in on unbearable.
He knew the person lightly snoring next to him was the main cause. Unfortunately, he couldn’t put off dealing with the situation any longer. He needed to break up with her now, but he needed her to leave Ethan behind.
Quietly, he climbed out of bed. With any luck, a hot shower would help his head. That and a cup of coffee should give him just enough energy to deal with Brooke.
He turned on the water as hot as he could stand and stepped under the spray. With the water pounding on his shoulders, he waited for it to relax his muscles. It didn’t work. He was just as tense after the shower as he was before.
He tiptoed around the bedroom trying to dress without waking her yet. There was no reason to deal with her fallout until he had to.
The timer on the coffee maker had his cup ready when he walked into the kitchen. When his sister gave him the machine, he thought she was being ridiculous. What man couldn’t make coffee? Turns out, she was right, it was the best gift he had ever gotten.
Sitting on the couch, he tried to frame the conversation he was about to have in his mind. He couldn’t think of how to do this without drama involved. Hopefully, Ethan would sleep through the entire thing. He sighed as he pushed up from the couch. It was time to get this behind him.
“Hey, Brooke,” he said as he stepped back into the bedroom. She grunted and rolled over away from him. He lowered to the edge of the bed. The coffee had been left in the kitchen this time. He didn’t want another blackeye to explain. “Brooke.”
“What,” she whined, turning over to face him.
“We need to talk before I leave for work.”
“Why? Can’t it wait until later? That’s all you ever think about now. Talking.” Expecting her to roll back over, he was surprised when she sat up. “What? What is so important it can’t wait until I’m awake?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Well?”
“I wanted to talk about us. I think you’ll agree that we no longer work as a couple. You’ve been unhappy for some time, and if I’m to be honest, so have I. I just think we’ve run our course.” It worried him that she wasn’t fighting back. She simply remained glaring at him with her arms crossed.
“You have so many friends,” he continued.
“I thought you could move in with one of them until you found your own place. Of course, Ethan can stay here for now. I don’t mind continuing to pay for his school.
You can still spend time with him, and I can pick him up in the evenings or whenever.
Just temporarily of course until you find something. ”
He knew that if she saw how much easier her life was without her son in tow, she would leave him with Fox permanently.
But he didn’t want her to think he was trying to steal Ethan away from her.
He just wanted what was best for the little boy.
Ethan stuck his head inside the bedroom with a grin on his face as if he had conjured him.
“Hey, buddy. Why don’t you get dressed, and we’ll get breakfast on the way to school?” Fox said.
“Yay!” Ethan shouted before slamming the door closed again.
“Okay, well, I think I said everything I needed to say. Is there anything you want to say?” He waited while she continued to glare at him. After a few minutes of silence, he stood from the bed. “Just find someone else to stay with tonight, and we can make arrangements to get your stuff moved.”
He left the bedroom to find Ethan trying to tie his shoes in the living room.
They had been practicing bunny ears, but he still hadn’t mastered the skill.
Fox ruffled his hair gently on the way to pack their stuff up for the day.
Brooke still hadn’t emerged when they left.
Ethan shouted goodbye to responding silence.
“What would you like for breakfast?” Fox asked as they pulled away from the building.
“Pancakes!”
“Always pancakes. Okay, pancakes it is.” He pulled into one of the fast-food restaurants that served breakfast. Ethan played on the playscape until their pancakes arrived.
Fox couldn’t help but wonder what Brooke was doing as he cut her son’s breakfast up. Would she be gone by the time he came home tonight? Would she take Ethan with her?
The thought that this might be the last time he saw Ethan was soul crushing. He had to hope that, for once, Brooke would put her son above herself. In the short time they had been together he had already begun to think of Ethan as his son.
“Are you not going to eat your pancakes?” Ethan asked.
“Oh, yeah, buddy. I just have a lot going on up here.” He thumped the side of his head for emphasis.
“Is it about Momma?”
“Some of it.” Ethan was always so perceptive.
He debated trying to explain that his mom was moving out.
That he hoped Ethan would get to stay, but it wasn’t certain.
Instead, he decided to let him enjoy what might be his last day in the school he had settled happily into.
He would find out soon enough that life was often very unfair.
“You need a butterfly.”
“Is that what my problem is?” He couldn’t wait to see where this was going.
“Yeah. Ms. Wynn says sometimes you have to let your worries go. Just like a butterfly.” He mimed setting a butterfly loose from his hands.
“Ms. Wynn sounds like a very smart person.”
“She’s very smart,” Ethan agreed. “And pretty.”
“Mmm, sounds like the perfect combination in a teacher.”
“Yeah.” Ethan giggled.
They finished their breakfast while Fox learned the other virtues of Ethan’s teacher.
He cleaned up their trash, and they walked back out to the truck.
They sang along to all of the new songs the kids were learning at preschool on the way.
When they arrived, Fox pulled over to the curb.
It was policy that the four-year-olds were walked to class.
“Okay,” he said, squatting to Ethan’s level. “I want you to have the best day ever. Can you do that?” He pulled Ethan in for a tight squeeze. It took everything he had to finally pull back. “Bye, buddy.” He watched from the hallway as the boy ran to greet his friends.
“Is everything all right?” Ms. Wynn asked.
“Not really.”
“Oh no.” Her gaze drifted to a happy Ethan before moving back to his. “Well, we’re just going to wish for the best.” With a nod, he left the building.
He returned to his truck but didn’t drive away. Typing out a text to Bailey was next on his list before getting to work. He decided it made more sense to just call. Her voice would make everything better anyway.
“Hey,” she answered.
“It’s done. I broke up with Brooke this morning. She’s supposed to find someone’s couch to sleep on until she gets her own place. I can’t spend another evening having things thrown at me or wondering where she is. I’m worried about Ethan, though.”
“I know. I’m so sorry, but I think you did the right thing. Did you talk to her about letting you keep Ethan for a while?”
“I did, but I don’t know. She wouldn’t even talk to me about any of it. We’ll just have to see what she does. This is all such a fucking mess.”
“It will get better,” she answered. “Just give it time. I’ll keep up with Ethan if nothing else. I don’t think she’ll cut me off. She still wants a free babysitter, and with Jimmy in jail, I’m it. This will all work out in the end. We just have to believe that.”
“I hope you’re right.” He sighed. “I’ve got to go, or I’ll be late to work. His majesty will never stand for that.” He rolled his eyes even though he knew she couldn’t see him.
“This too shall pass.”
“From your lips to God’s ears.” They disconnected. This would have all been so much better if he had just met Bailey first. At least he was on the right path now.