Chapter Thirteen #6
“I like vehicular homicides. Straightforward and simple,” he stated.
She laughed.
Yeah, well, her world was seldom straightforward.
That was for damn sure.
“They were definitely helping him,” she admitted, and then went there, elaborating.
“I’m willing to bet my badge on the fact that he gave them all his semen and instructions to put it inside the skull’s mouths.
He’d want to have it match, so I’d not figure this out too soon.
Then, if it came up in court, he’d have an air-tight alibi how it wasn’t him, and he was nowhere near those scenes. ”
Chris shook his head.
“He’s crazy like a fox. This is like multilayer chess. He’s got two games going at once, and he was blurring that so we would make missteps.”
Yeah, definitely.
“It’s safe to say that he never used the heads of those women in Corpus Christi either.
He literally had the ME bruise their throats and leave his DNA knowing I wouldn’t doubt it was him.
What gave it away is the surgical precision.
An ME has that precision. What he didn’t know was I’ve had recent cases like that, and it had given the killer away before.
He only had access to my earlier cases, likely by his father buying them when he was alive. ”
Ethan was grateful. His wife now had the advantage. He just wished she looked or sounded better. This was still weighing heavily on her, and he suspected that at some point, something had to give.
Callen shook his head.
“So, he’s been here the whole time, and he’s never left this area?” he asked.
She nodded.
“Yep. Since we began playing this game, he’s been here. That’s why we can’t track him. He’s not flying around. He’s using money instead. We assumed that since he was digging up bodies, he was going to kill for the enjoyment. The enjoyment is fucking with my head.”
Well, if that was the case, they knew what that meant, and it was terrifying.
“He’s been watching us,” Chris said. “He’s been all around us, taking it all in. He planted that information to get you shot in DC, so it would hit the news, so he would know what stage you are in the game.”
She nodded.
Definitely.
“Same with the crime scenes. The media was all over them, and that tells me they were alerted. How much do you want to bet that as the cops showed up, the media was notified? He drew the sheriff there with a note, and he knows me well enough that I reached out to friends to help me find the church. He pointed me right at it.”
Yeah, he had.
She was curious.
“Dex, are there any phones or electronics there, or have they all been taken?”
He showed her a baggie.
“Quinn found it in the man’s coat, hanging by the door. An alarm was going off. Someone was reminding himself to take his meds.”
He wasn’t done.
“Also, in his office, there’s computer wires, but no actual computer. It’s gone.”
No.
Shock.
There.
The minister leaving his phone hidden in his pocket, and the person who killed him not having time to do a thorough search, might have just bought her a victory.
The universe seemed to be on her side with this one.
Now, she needed that phone.
“Get it to the FBI building. Get it to my team there. Johanna will know what to do because I have to hope the hacker that he’s hired to erase his trail to help him fuck with me won’t get to that phone before we do. Turn it off and transport.”
He smiled.
“My pleasure, Director.”
Elizabeth wasn’t done.
“And lock that place down. As far as he’s concerned, we don’t know about this yet. Leave it as is, and make sure it doesn’t get out. I need him to think I haven’t figured out that he’s bought help. That’s my only advantage right now.”
Dex was to the point.
“Wednesday night bible study was canceled due to the mess found at the church. You have a few days before people will be showing up for church.”
And she’d need it.
This was going to be about catching him off guard.
“If I’m going to trap him, I have to keep him surprised. I need him to think that I didn’t decipher the one-hundred-dollar bill clue. Thank you for your help, and I’ll be in contact.”
Well, he could do that.
Willingly.
Hanging up, everyone began clapping for her. The men in her life were so proud of her. Through it all, she’d found a way to figure it out when the odds had been against her.
SERIOUSLY.
AGAINST.
HER.
“Thanks, but this is just the beginning. We still have things we need to find. We just have to figure out who the bones belong to so that I can make sure nothing is going to jump up and bite me in the ass. With each clue he left, one that can lead me to him, he left a pitfall with it. Assume we’re surrounded by them. ”
Chris pushed up from his chair.
“I’ll go pressure Tony. He knows how serious this is, but when you leave him alone for too long, he gets into trouble.”
Elizabeth laughed.
“I mean, at least he’s consistent. You can always count on him for that.”
Yeah, that was the truth.
Leaning down, he kissed his wife.
“Glad you’re back,” he said. “I didn’t doubt it for a second, Sweetness. I knew you’d figure this out.”
Yeah, but they weren’t done. Figuring it out, and taking him down were NOT the same thing. One was the process, and one was the outcome.
One was legal.
One was not.
Before Chris could leave, they had someone coming in hot. Uriel raced into the cafeteria, and all the security that had been there jumped up, causing all of them to do the same.
“Jesus Christ, Uriel! Are you insane?” Ivan asked with his hand on his gun.
The man looked worried.
“I have a problem.”
Oh, boy.
“What?” she asked.
Caspian began explaining, and it was all coming out in one big rush of words.
“I-I-I was s-s-supposed to have a phone date with R-R-Rayna. I was supposed to talk to her tonight s-s-since I haven’t been able to talk to her f-f-for more than a few minutes here and t-t-there. I’ve been calling h-h-her, and I can’t g-g-get her.”
Oh, shit.
This was bad for a few reasons.
Rayna wouldn’t bail on a call, and Caspian was stirred up. When his stutter came out, he was beyond stressed. That told them he’d tried everything but leaving the building to find her.
That hung there.
All the men looked at her, and their faces said the same thing.
This.
Was.
Bad.
Uriel pleaded with her.
“Elizabeth, she a-a-always answers me. She was w-w-working in her office, headed out to d-d-deal with a bar fight, and then when she got h-h-home, we were supposed to have our c-c-call.”
This didn’t sit well with her, but she tried to stay calm for Caspian’s sake.
Normally, she’d blow this off, but with Devon just looking for ways to chip away at her…
This would do it.
Uriel was hers, and Rayna was his.
If she lost any more security, she was screwed, and that put her in his sights. Now that they knew he had time to lurk around here, watching them, this was a possibility.
Taking out an Archangel would help make them more vulnerable. If he couldn’t get to security to hurt them physically, he had to find a way to take them out any other way possible.
By their loved ones.
For Caspian, she stayed calm.
“Ethan, Gene, and Callen, stay here with Chris. I’m going to go check on Rayna.”
Their eyes went huge.
Only, before they could say shit, she went there.
“I’m going with four Marines. I’ll be okay. We’ll take the Navigator, and we’ll just head to her house. Ivan will be so far up my ass that we’re technically joined at the spleen. We’ll be safe. With everyone on me, he won’t get close.”
That was the ONLY reason they weren’t losing their minds. Well, that and they all knew if they went out, she’d worry and be off of her game more than she had been.
“Okay,” Ethan said, speaking for them.
Now that was over, Ivan picked the team that he’d use to get her in and out of the reservation without being hurt. It was going to be him, Raphael, Gunny, and Gryphen. As he picked them, pointing at each one, someone wasn’t happy.
Who?
Uriel.
When he saw that he wasn’t picked to go to his girlfriend’s home, immediately, he interjected.
“I’m g-g-going.”
Yeah, no, he was not.
The last thing he needed to see was what she hoped they weren’t finding. Only, if Devon had taught her anything the last few days…
It would be bad.
What wouldn’t she do to protect him from that?
So, she stopped Uriel.
“No, you’re not.”
He wasn’t having it.
“Yes, I am, r-r-respectfully.”
Jesus.
The man was not going to back down, so, she laid down the law.