Unspoken Bundle - Box Set Books 1-6

by Danes, Ellie

  “And she controls her son the same way…and that’s why we were there today. To find out exactly how much she controls him.”

  Dad rubbed his chin and looked at Reese. “What do you think?”

  “She’s right. We’ve talked to the kid and now we’ve talked to her. There’s a strong chance that he had something to do with this case.”

  “And she knows more than she’s letting on…” I took another sip of water and looked at Dad, who hadn’t even acknowledged my comment.

  “So your job is done. You’ve gathered enough information to show that Brice’s client may have had outside influences affecting him that night. Write up the report, turn over the information to Brice, and move on. Case closed.” Dad leaned back and crossed his arms. “I don’t want to hear anything else about this case.” He stared directly into my eyes. “Not a word, Jennifer. This is done.”

  Dad got up and left the office, shutting the door behind him as Reese and I stared at each other. “Well, you heard him, Jennifer. Case closed. I, for one, am glad we can put this one behind us and move on.”

  “Reese, he’s not the boss. It’s my name on that door.”

  Reese sat and laughed. “Jennifer, you have a lot of energy and a lot of passion. I used to be like that as well. You need to direct it at the right things. Like your father said, we’ve done exactly what we were hired to do. Find doubt. It’s now up to Brice, not us. There isn’t anything else for us to find here. We aren’t the police, we’re investigators. We get facts and we turn them over.”

  “Ok. I’ll call Brice and see if he can stop by this afternoon so we can wrap this up. I’ll let him know what we found.” I pushed myself off the couch and moved to my desk, which was cluttered with casefiles.

  “You’d better make it late, late afternoon. You and I have another meeting.”

  I cocked me head to the side and looked at Reese “With?”

  “The medical examiner. We have another case we’re going to start working.” Reese moved toward the door. “And Jennifer…don’t eat lunch.” Reese laughed and left the office.

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  I had driven by the medical examiner’s office a million times, but I had never had a desire, or need, to go inside. I wasn’t looking forward to anything I was about to see. I enjoyed the type of work I did, which focused on living people. The thought of dealing with corpses, morose crime scenes, or anything of that nature, turned my stomach. Reese was apparently overjoyed that he would be getting to go back inside. He seemed even happier that he would be watching me struggle through my first, and hopefully last, visit.

  Reese signed us in and we were escorted to the chief medical examiner’s office. The building was nothing like I had expected. Even though I didn’t watch much television, I had seen a few crime dramas, and I couldn’t help but compare what I had seen on those shows to this experience. I half expected to see mood lighting and lots of people running about with vials and reports. Instead I found myself in a building with bland white and green walls, lit by bright overhead florescent lights. The smell of medical grade alcohol filled the air. I laughed to myself as I thought just how wrong I was. As we turned the corner we were met by an attractive, petite woman with jet-black hair. She was dressed in a white lab coat and pants suit, not the blue scrubs I had imagined.

  “Erica, it’s good to see you. You haven’t changed a bit.” Reese smiled and gave her a hug.

  “You too, Reese. You look great. It’s only been a year since you’ve had any interesting cases to bring you back here. Hey, I thought you were retiring?” She laughed.

  “Me too, but I was convinced I needed to hang around a bit longer by her father.” Reese nodded at me and stepped back to introduce us. “Dr. Erica Lee, this is Jennifer Dunning.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you.” I was surprised; she had a firm and commanding handshake for such a petite woman.

  “Likewise. So, you’re Jack’s daughter? How’s Jack doing?”

  “He’s good.” Reese chimed in. “We have this new group that Jennifer is now running, which is why I stayed on board a bit longer. We’re getting this started so I can really retire, once Jennifer get all of this under her belt.” Reese gestured around he hallway.

  “Well, good luck with that…and hopefully you have a stronger stomach than your father.” Dr. Lee laughed. “Come, let’s head downstairs.”

  My stomach immediately sank as I imagined walking into the worst possible scenario.

  “So, Jennifer, do you know much about what we do here?” Dr. Lee looked over her shoulder as she walked down the hallway.

  “No, ma’am. Just what I’ve seen on T.V.” I giggled a little.

  “That’s what I was afraid of.” She glanced at Reese. “I’ll give her the quick overview and tour, then we can tackle this case, if that’s Ok.”

  “No, please, I don’t want to take up your time.”

  “It’s no trouble at all, Jennifer. I promise.” Dr. Lee pushed past double swinging doors and we entered a large room that resembled an operating room. Rows of silver doors lined the walls at varying heights, and long stainless steel silver tables sat in the middle of the room, flanked by lights and trays of instruments.

  “So this is where it all happens?” I looked around the room, half expecting to see some bodies lying on the tables; there were none.

  “It is. We conduct roughly six thousand autopsies a year throughout the state. In this office we only handle about seventeen to eighteen hundred. You just missed us wrapping one up. There’s another one going on the in the room next door, but we can save that for your next visit.”

  I felt my shoulders slump a little and a little of the tension held there disappeared. “So that many people are killed that required you to…?”

  “Perform an autopsy? No. We don’t always have to open them up. Sometimes it’s just us looking at the body. Other times, more is required. And it’s not just people that are killed the way you’d think. I’m sure you’re thinking gunshots and stabbings, but we do a lot more than that.”

  A cold shiver came over my body at the thought. I wasn’t much one for death. I looked around the room and tried not to imagine what it would be like on a busy day.

  “Any time anyone dies from something other than what may seem obvious, we get involved. For instance, a man died a few weeks ago. He seemed fairly healthy, turned out he had a heart defect. He ended up dying in his sleep. We had to rule out any sort of foul play.”

  “Who asks for that? The family?” All of this seemed very confusing.

  “Sometimes. Sometimes a family member wants to know. Other times we are required by the state to look into it. Any time someone dies and it is out of the blue or unexpected, the family doesn’t have a choice.” Dr. Lee kept moving through the large room toward a bank of file cabinets.

  “Any time?” I looked at Reese with raised eyebrows. “Who gets a copy of those reports?”

  “It depends. If it’s suspicious, the police. Otherwise we’ll provide a copy to the family and we list the cause of the death on the certificate. The reports are available for specific reason.” Dr. Lee seemed excited that I had taken a quick interest in the process.

  “So if someone came into the E.R. complaining about being sick, and then died a few hours later…”

  “You mean like the flu? We do investigate deaths that occur at the hospital outside of normal circumstances.”

  “Not really the flu. Maybe they just came in really sick but weren’t sure why, and then suddenly died. Like you said, out of the blue.” I caught Reese’s disapproving stare.

  “Yes, we’d look into it. Depending on what we found we may run a tox report and do a complete autopsy.”

  “Jennifer, I don’t like where this is headed.” Reese shot me an angry look.

  “What am I missing, you two?” Dr. Lee looked confused.

  “Nothing, Erica. Nothing you need to be concerned with. Jennifer was just trying to get to the bottom of a case that we
had recently closed.” Reese looked pointedly at me with narrowed eyes. “Jennifer, I think we’ve covered enough here. Why don’t you let me and Erica catch up for a few minutes and I can get the info on this case.” Reese nodded to the doctor as they moved toward the small office to the side.

  “Feel free to look around, Jennifer, we’ll be right back. I’d just suggest staying on this side of those doors.” Dr. Lee pointed to another set of double doors on the far side of the room as she led Reese to a small office.

  I watched as they exchanged a few laughs and joked around. It was a side of Reese I rarely saw. Dr. Lee pulled a thick file from a tall tan file cabinet in the office and opened it. Reese quickly scribbled notes on the file he had brought with him and nodded. I watched the interaction between them and was intrigued. I wondered if I was going to have what it took to add this part of the business into my life. I quickly turned and began looking at the wall charts as they moved from the office. I immediately realized my mistake; I stood staring at photos of an autopsy taped to the wall. I felt my stomach turn and a knot form in my throat.

  “Next time I’ll take you in so you can see the real thing. What do you think?” Dr. Lee approached with Reese.

  “We’ll see. One step at a time.” I spun around, grateful to no longer be staring at the dreadful photos that almost burned my eyes. I tried to laugh but it came it more like a hiccup.

  “Jennifer, it was a pleasure meeting you and I look forward to seeing you again.” Dr. Lee extended her hand. “Give your father my best. Reese, you take care too, and try not to work so hard.” Dr. Lee reached for her phone and read a quick message on the screen. “If you don’t mind just showing yourself out, it looks like I’m needed on site.”

  “Thank you, and I will.” I gave Reese a wide-eyed stare. I needed fresh air and I needed it quickly.

  Reese took time on the ride back to the office to poke fun at my weak stomach. He reveled in telling stories about the things he had seen and cases he had worked on with Dr. Lee and my father. Things that could really make me feel queasy, just his description was more than enough. We pulled into the garage and decided to take the long way up. I needed the cold air to burn my lungs and settle my stomach. I decided to call Brice and let him in on the news that we were closing the case.

  “Hey, Brice, listen, I had a meeting with Reese.” I didn’t want Brice to know that it was my father who had pushed to close this case. “I believe we have everything we need for you to move forward with the case and help John and Macie out. Can you swing by the office tonight on your way home and I can give you everything?”

  “Close it? Really? I felt like we were really making some progress here, Jen…” Brice’s voice trailed off.

  “I understand, but we’ve done everything we can at this point.” I felt like a hypocrite arguing with Brice about this; I didn’t want to close this case myself, but my hands were tied.

  “Ok, I can’t stop by the office tonight, though. I have a…I have a meeting scheduled for tonight. How about I stop by first thing in the morning and we can talk about this? You can show me what you have.”

  “Fine, but can we make it first thing in the morning? Say 8 a.m.? I have a full day tomorrow and I’d like to get this wrapped up.”

  “Sure, I’ll see you then.” Brice hung up.

  I stood in the cold air outside the Hancock building and shivered. I watched as people moved in and out of the building, going about their business. I found myself thinking about the lives of other people a lot recently. How many of those people were making decisions that could change a person’s life in an instant? I thought about John and Macie, and I wondered if there was anything else I could do, or could have done.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Reese and I arrived at the office at the same time. He appeared somewhat disheveled, his white dress shirt partially untucked and blue blazer barely fitting. I gave him in awkward stare and laughed.

  “What’s wrong? This is they way I normally look first thing in the morning. You usually just don’t see me.”

  I rolled my eyes. “I’ve actually seen you look a lot worse; at least you’re somewhat dressed up today.” The dynamic between Reese and I had changed over the last several months. We had become much more like partners than the boss and employee relationship we’d had in the past. I had always been somewhat scared of him but realized just how caring and approachable he could be once I got to know him; once he opened up and allowed me to get to know him. I was happy he had decided not to retire and that I’d still get the opportunity to work with him and learn the tricks of his trade.

  We hadn’t been in the lobby of the office more than a minute when Aimee came through the doors, with Brice only a few steps behind. Aimee looked a little less put together than she normally did, and Brice’s disheveled appearance matched the rest of the group. “Wow, you two have perfect timing.” I looked at Aimee as she smiled and looked down at the floor and then up at Brice. “You two? Was that your meeting last night, Brice?”

  Brice immediately shook his head in disagreement. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Who, us?” Aimee smiled. “No.”

  I dismissed the comments and moved toward my office. “Let’s meet I the conference room in ten minutes. I just need to grab my notes.” Brice headed to the conference room as I pulled on Aimee’s arm, leading her to my office. “Did you two? No! Don’t tell me…”

  “I’m not saying a word! You still owe me details about your trip. Maybe this time we can exchange stories over a drink after work.” Aimee blushed.

  “So you did!” I was partially horrified at the thought of her and Brice and partially happy that she seemed happy, even if it was only for the moment. I dropped my bag on the corner of the sofa and fumbled through the folders on the desk. “Ok, tonight. Tarrant’s like the old days. We haven’t done that in a long time.”

  “Sounds perfect.” Aimee nodded. “Is there anything I need for the meeting this morning?”

  “Nope. I have it all. We’re actually getting ready to close this case. This is just the final meeting, we need to deliver everything to Brice.” I picked up the folders labeled “Doll.” “I just have to finish up a few notes. I’ll be in there in a minute.”

  Aimee trotted out to her desk with a bounce in her step and I rolled my eyes as I shook my head. I had seen that walk before and I’m sure tonight Aimee would confirm exactly what I already knew. She and Brice were becoming an item.

  I sat down at my desk and looked through the folder containing all my notes from the Doll case. It contained notes from our meeting with Jacob, and the notes I had made from speaking with Louise Harritan. Everything seemed to be in place. I took a deep breath and realized that our first big case had come to a close, but I didn’t feel very satisfied. I wondered if that was normal.

  Brice, Reese and Aimee were already in the conference room when I arrived. Aimee and Brice sat across from each other, smiling and joking about nothing at all as Reese buried himself in a file in front of him. “I don’t think this will take too long.” I slid a folder across the table to Brice. “That has all of the information Reese and I gathered on this case. It’s all of our notes.”

  Brice opened the folder and thumbed through it. “So this is it? You two are just handing it over like this?”

  Reese chimed with his gruff voice, clearly put off by Brice’s attitude. “We’ve done what we were hired to do. We helped you identify that your client wasn’t directly at fault for the hit and run. That not only was he protecting his girlfriend, but that there’s a pretty good chance that Jacob Harritan had something to do with it.”

  Brice shook his head. “That’s not good enough.” He reached into his black briefcase and pulled out a manila envelope and tossed it on the table in front of me. “This came last night, after you called me.”

  I sat and looked at it for a moment before I opened it and remove the papers. “What is it?”

  “John’s blood analysis.
He had a .01 blood alcohol level. He wasn’t drunk.”

  “That’s what John said. So now you have even more evidence stacked in his favor, what’s your point?” I pulled the papers from the envelope and started to flip through them just as Brice ripped them from my hands.

  “Here.” Brice pointed to the third page of the report. “John had traces of other toxins in his system; saponins and hellebrin.”

  I grabbed the report and thumbed through it.

  “What are those?” Reese leaned forward and turned his attention to the report I was reading. “I guess it doesn’t really make a difference though. We’re finished here.”

  “That’s what I asked the girl at the lab. They’re found in plants.” Brice leaned in and mirrored Reese’s posture.

  “So John got into something at work that made him sick. He’s a landscaper. I can’t see how that’s going to make a difference.” Reese grumbled.

  “I’ll be right back.” I ran down the hall to my office and returned with my laptop.

  Brice shook his head. “Not just got into something, Reese. He ingested it.”

  I pecked at the keyboard of my laptop and scoured the internet for information as Aimee looked over my shoulder. “There…” She pointed at the screen as I clicked.

  I quickly read through the first entry. “Saponins aren’t necessarily toxic. They just give the plant a bitter taste, mostly so animals won’t eat something.” I looked up at Reese and Brice but received no reaction. I typed in my next search and followed the first link. “Helleborus, found in the hellebore plant.” I continued to scan the page and read the highlights. “It can be used as an herb and has been used in witchcraft rituals for banishing and necromancy.”

  “Ha, great!” laughed Reese. “Witchcraft? This just keeps getting better.”

  “There’s more, Reese. It says it had been used historically to cause miscarriages in small doses, commonly found in the Black Hellebore.” I scrolled down the page and felt my heart stop momentarily as the blood left my face.