Chapter Three #3
“I see. Well, that was unexpected. As my husband, and my best friend, I thought that I had at least that.”
He knew he’d hurt her.
“I’m scared,” he said. “For the first time, we’re up against something better at playing a game. You not seeing that is putting you at a disadvantage.”
Not seeing it?
WHAT?
She was not only seeing it, but she was also all over this. Well, so much for a nice little update about the killings. She was the one being killed here.
Well, her heart.
At his words, her icy eyes went even chillier—if that was possible.
“And you should be scared. We should all be. I’m not on a jet heading to DC because I want to go home and find someone I love is cut apart, but I am. The difference between us, Ethan, is I’m running toward the problem.”
And she landed that one.
KABOOM.
Oh, never let it be said when two people were out of control, they couldn’t do maximum damage with just words. Because that was a direct hit.
“And I run away?” he asked, daring her to say it to his face.
AGAIN.
Only, she didn’t get to.
That’s when the other people in the room interjected before this got really bad.
It was already ugly, but it had the propensity to be far worse. Ethan had alluded that he had zero faith in her, and she called him a runner.
This.
Was.
Sketchy.
Calmer heads had to step in to stop this from escalating any further. They all knew who the two ‘big dogs’ were in the family, and they just happened to be the two who could burn it to the ground with their tempers.
This was not the ideal time for this.
“Okay, fam. Let’s stop this right here,” Callen said. “This is divorcing territory, and really, we can’t sustain that right now. We have a million and one issues, and this shouldn’t be one of them. We have to stick together.”
Only, Ethan and Elizabeth stared at each other, and neither looked ready to relent.
That’s when she said it.
“I have NEVER doubted you, Ethan. I didn’t doubt you when you decided to become the head of the FBI.
I didn’t doubt you when you wanted to quit.
I didn’t doubt you when you took a break or when you went back to school.
I didn’t doubt you when you decided to stay in Damascus.
All of those times, I was scared, but I had faith in the man I married because by being my husband, you deserved it.
If you don’t have that for me, we have nothing. It’s already too late.”
Ethan opened his mouth, and Gene was right there to stop that. He knew what it was like when Ethan went off the rails, and if he did, Elizabeth was spent enough she might never forgive him for doing it.
“Don’t,” he said to his man, as he put his hand on his arm to get his attention. “Words hurt, and you can’t put them back in the box. She doesn’t need to deal with this, too,” he whispered.
Finding some control, he closed his mouth.
“You should say what you called to say, Director,” Ethan said, instead.
And it was just about as bad as if he said he didn’t trust her anymore.
Yeah, their world was falling apart, and she had no idea how to make this better.
She wouldn’t let this break her. There was too much on her shoulders. She was worried about her kids, her grandson, her friends, and them.
The weight of it all was crushing. The day Timothy passed this shitshow onto her, was the day he damned her.
Focusing on her ME, she reined it in.
Temporarily.
“Doctor Monroe, the city ME, is sending you the bodies, Christopher. Our facility down there processed all the evidence, so you should have access.”
He was shaken.
Watching Elizabeth and Ethan get pissed at each other was a scary thing. They were the foundation of this whole relationship.
Elizabeth continued.
“I’m going to need you to redo all of the autopsies. I know I shouldn’t have to do this, but I can’t trust anything anymore,” she said. “I need to make sure we’ve extracted every possible clue he’s left me, and a city ME…while highly recommended, isn’t MY ME.”
Chris was worried, but not about that. He’d do a million autopsies to save his family.
It was eroding in front of him. What the holy fuck was Ethan thinking?
Jesus.
H.
Christ.
This was a bad time to scatter her focus when she was out there playing sick games.
He stayed calm.
For her.
“I don’t mind, Sweetness. What do we have? Do I get a sneak peek?” he asked.
She nodded.
“The city ME already sent them to you. The bodies were being loaded up before this call. Whatever you find, send to me encrypted. I need to make sure that nothing gets leaked or hacked. As I was reminded, this killer is smarter than me.”
That hung there.
“Password-protect it. Make it the name of the place we got married,” she said.
That worked for him. What didn’t work for him was the pain he saw in her eyes after she said that about the killer being smarter.
He had faith.
Always.
As for the password, he knew the chapel name in Colombia.
“Got it, Bethe.”
“Thank you, Christopher. Let’s go over it,” she stated, wanting to get off this call in the worst way.
She waited until he opened it. On the screen, he saw the autopsies.
And he gasped at the sheer brutality of it all. Devon didn’t just kill people.
He mutilated them.
His horror had everyone’s attention.
“Elizabeth,” he said.
She was well aware he knew what she was thinking because there were too many similarities.
She knew it too.
“Doctor Monroe said Sister Mary Cramer had her uterus removed and all of the removals were done with precision as if it was a hysterectomy.”
Chris didn’t like this.
Not.
At.
All.
Oh, and there was a good reason, too.
Elizabeth continued.
“And he put it in a jar with a crucifix. The Jesus was pulled from the cross. He raped her, violated her mouth, and then did the same to the two hookers. Both hookers are missing their appendixes. He took their nipples and clitorises too.”
Chris looked up.
This was getting worse and worse.
“You don’t have your appendix, do you?” he asked her. “You had it removed.”
She nodded.
“I don’t have it. My appendix was removed when I just turned ten before my mother died.”
Ethan felt sick.
And he knew why.
“And you had a full hysterectomy after a case,” he said. “He has your medical records. He’s telling you that he knows everything about you, even the most intimate details.”
She nodded.
Yeah, that’s exactly what put her in a tailspin. Not only had this nut learned how she thought, but he was now digging into her personal medical history.
But she had bad news.
Over the last twenty-four hours, she’d put two and two together to come up with a terrifying conclusion.
“Worse. What’s pierced on my body?” she asked.
As soon as she said it, Callen wanted to vomit. He’d been ill before, but now, he was really sick.
“Your clit and nips,” he said. “Jesus. H. Christ! How? He knows everything about you.”
She nodded.
“I’m willing to bet that the guy who pierced me is dead. I haven’t searched it yet, but I’ll bet my badge on it.”
She waited as Gene did just that. He knew who it was because it was the guy who did all of them. So, if Devon knew about her, he knew about them too.
When he found it, he looked up.
“He was killed in a hit-and-run driving accident two months ago. He was walking across the street, leaving the tattoo place, and someone ran him down.”
That made them all pause, and for one reason.
“Sound familiar to anyone? That means that Devon was getting ready to make his move on us months ago. I’m going to bet that us finding his stash was intentional.”
Ethan went there.
“He started the game. What we thought was a case that shined the light on it, was actually him initiating it.”
She was aware.
“That tells me that going forward, everything is set for this. There’s no way to alter the path or stop it. He’s already put the pieces into play.”
Oh, shit.
Only, she wasn’t done.
“Research the shop.”
When Gene did that too, he gasped.
“The owner’s wife went missing?” he asked. “Around the same time?”
She nodded.
“I’m willing to bet that the owner shared information with her, and she knew all about us. We don’t really hide when we go in there. They shut the place down for us, but I’ve seen her in there. In fact, she was there when Gene got pierced.”
Yes, yes, she was.
“So, he took her, got the intel, but then why did he kill the actual piercer?” Gene asked.
Ethan knew.
“So, we’d pick up the correlation. We’d see hit and run, and we’d know that’s his MO. We might not realize if a woman goes missing. That’s more common. Her eyes might be in the jar of the ones we found in Holladay. We might have ID on them now.”
She was aware.
“How much do you want to wager that she’s dead, and was tortured to get anything from her that Devon could? I fully expect to find her remains.”
No one wanted that bet.
It appeared that this was going to be the most prolific killer they ever went up against.
“On top of that, he has my medical records and knows about my hysterectomy. All this confirms I need to be in DC right now. He’s thorough. We can assume he knows about all of us. Chris, I also think he’s coming for you.”
He didn’t look shocked.
Not.
At.
All.
“How do you know?” Callen asked. “Other than the whole, he doesn’t carry a gun thing?” he asked. “Which he probably should start doing that.”
Yeah, Chris was about to make that happen. While he wasn’t fond of them, he was certified to carry.
“When I had my hysterectomy, it was because I was hurt after a case. We named Christopher Anthony after you and Tony. That tells me he is well aware of our children’s names, too. If he can’t get to you, he’ll go after my child named after you. He knows all our personal things.”
He didn’t like this.
Callen either.
That was his son.
This piece of shit would never see his kids or put his hands on them. Callen would open Hell on this man and make sure he died a painful death.
Chris was to the point.
“I don’t care what he says or does. He can release that I have HIV. The worst that will happen is I won’t be able to autopsy anyone. I’ll still keep my job. I’m the Director of Medical Forensics for the FBI. That trumps autopsies.”
She shook her head.