Dawn of Evil_FBI Flashback

by Morgan Kelley

  “I’ll be honest.”

  “Oh, well, now’s a great time to do that.”

  “He shredded his copy of the file. I have what I have in the one I gave you. He’s not thrilled to help you, and he wants you to fail.”

  She wouldn’t hold that against this man. At least he was trying to help her.

  “Let’s just go do the interview.”

  “I’ll apologize for his idiocy.”

  Elizabeth laughed.

  “I’m accustomed to it,” she said. “Detectives think I’m not effective because I’m a woman.”

  “And are you?”

  She laughed.

  “I haven’t lost a round yet.”

  And she wasn’t losing this one.

  She was damn positive of that.

  Chapter Eight

  Morgue

  T he second he saw the bones, he realized that something was not the same as the first and third victims’ remains. The woman had definitely put up one hell of a fight, and it was noticeable as they examined the skull.

  Tony saw it and confirmed with Chris.

  “We need to call Elizabeth,” he said, the second he saw the fracturing.

  Chris agreed.

  Pulling out his phone, he called her. There was no way she’d want to wait on this one.

  She answered on the second ring.

  “Lyzee, honey, it’s me.”

  “Hey, Doc! Did you find something?” she asked, keeping it professional.

  “Yeah, we definitely did. Doctor Julliard called COD on victim two, Mirel McGowan, as strangulation. It wasn’t the way she died.”

  Well, that was interesting.

  “Give me the dirt, Doc.”

  “She had fractures of the skull. Yes, she had a fractured hyoid, but it looks like this killer beat her head off the floor, a wall, or something hard. She died from a blow to the back of the head. I’m changing the COD.”

  “And the other two victims?” Elizabeth asked.

  “No fracturing. He was in a rage when he killed her. Tony concurs.”

  She thought about what she’d just learned.

  The professor who’d been told to pound sand might be their suspect.

  It fit.

  “Do we have anything on trace from the team yet? I could really use something.”

  “No. Nada. He didn’t leave anything behind. No semen, no hair, and no fingerprints. The house was clean. There were her prints, her cleaning lady’s, and the gardener’s. That’s it,” he said, reading the lab report to her.

  “Well, this actually fits. She was seen arguing with another professor about sex. I’m on my way to interview him now.”

  “Be careful, honey.”

  Her heart flipped.

  “I will, Christopher.”

  “Still on for dinner tonight?”

  “Yeah, we are. We may have to talk shop,” she offered. “Are you okay with that?”

  Was he?

  Hell yes!

  It was about being with her.

  “I’m okay with having dinner with a gorgeous woman and letting her pick my brain over food.”

  She laughed at the visual.

  “I’ll see you later. Stay safe yourself, and tell Tony to stop staring at you like you won the freaking lottery. I can hear him breathing. This isn’t a sex call. He can calm down.”

  Chris laughed as he glanced over at Tony.

  He indeed was staring.

  It was like she had eyes everywhere.

  “See you later, Lyzee.”

  “Bye, Christopher.”

  He hung up.

  “Holy shit. You did score a hot babe.”

  “Did you think I was lying?” he asked.

  “No, but knowing you, you likely misunderstood it. Think about it. You’ve jacked up a lot the last few months.”

  He had a point.

  Chris was horrible with women.

  “You lucky dog!”

  And here was the street cred he craved. At the Hoover building, Elizabeth had originally let people think she was his girlfriend to build him up.

  Now it was fact.

  Yeah, he was lucky.

  “Let’s keep examining the remains. We might find something else. Elizabeth is absolutely going to ask me all the standard questions at dinner. Let’s not disappoint her.”

  Tony was down with that.

  When the door to the morgue opened, Doctor Julliard strolled in reading a report.

  “Oh, you’re still here,” she said, focused on Tony. “Didn’t you work all night?”

  “Yes.”

  “You should go home. There are no gold stars for dropping from exhaustion. Doctor’s orders,” she said, smiling a little too brightly.

  Chris was staring at him and giving him the look. It screamed ‘DON’T YOU DARE LEAVE’.

  “I don’t require a lot of sleep. I have work to do, and for the record, I’m a doctor, too, so…”

  She looked irritated.

  Chris would have kissed the man.

  Then again, if he did, maybe the female doctor would leave him alone.

  “He can’t leave,” Chris stated. “We are revising your COD on Mirel McGowan.”

  “WHAT?” she asked, staring at him. “She was strangled. What the hell is there to revise?”

  Chris picked up her skull and turned it in his hands, so she could see it post de-fleshing.

  “She hit her head, likely in a struggle. She was gone before he strangled her. I would have been able to prove that inconclusively had you not dumped her body in the beetles. There would have been bruising on her neck, and damage to her brain.”

  “We took pictures.”

  “Which show shadows,” Chris stated. “The ONLY way to do it right is to view the body and make notes. You have no notes about bruising. I’m overriding your findings and correcting them.”

  He handed Tony the skull, and he carried it back to the rest of her remains.

  Chris had never been happier to piss someone off. Now maybe she’d leave him alone.

  “Is that so, Doctor?” she asked.

  “Yes, it is.”

  Heather moved closer. When she was inches from him, she leaned in and kept her voice low.

  “It’s sexy when a man knows his way around a set of remains.”

  Then, she walked past him and grabbed a handful of his ass.

  He was shocked.

  Tony returned, and he was filling out the report.

  “What?” he asked when he looked up to see his friend standing there with his mouth hanging open.

  “She just grabbed my ass.”

  He blinked.

  “Like a grab-grab?” he asked. “You know, a full-handed grope?”

  Chris nodded.

  Tony whistled.

  “This won’t turn out good. The second Elizabeth finds out that a woman is poaching…”

  Oh, he knew.

  This was a very bad situation to be in.

  Tell her, and she might blow.

  Don’t tell her, and if she found out, she might blow.

  Shit.

  What was he supposed to do?

  Chris had just waded into territory he wasn’t familiar with at all. Never, in all his life, had two women wanted him at the same time.

  Ever.

  He prayed Heather Julliard backed off.

  Or she was likely dead.

  * * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *

  When she hung up the phone, she was smiling, and Detective Bronson found that odd.

  “Good news?”

  “My ME just found me the good shit, while yours did no such thing.”

  Yeah, this was exactly why she liked using the FBI’s people, and not a town or city’s. They made more mistakes. The feds…not so much.

  Max was curious.

  She was a little too happy for it to be something minor. That meant that it had to be big.

  “What?”

  She told him.

  “Doctor Julliard w
as wrong?” he asked. “That doesn’t sound like her. Then again, who knows. She’s easily distracted.”

  Elizabeth didn’t get it.

  “What do you mean?”

  “She has been known to get physical with anyone in her lab. Again, she’s been put there, and she gets away with everything.”

  Elizabeth put two and two together. “If she gets ‘physical’ with my boyfriend, I’m going to be the one getting away with something—her murder.”

  He laughed.

  “You’ll never know.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” Elizabeth asked.

  “It means that no man is going to tell his girl that some other woman is trying to ride that train. He’ll secretly enjoy it and say nothing.”

  She stared at him.

  “No, Christopher wouldn’t do that.”

  He laughed even more at her naivete.

  “Yeah, he would. He’s a man. No sane man is going to not enjoy two babes wanting him. Was she staring at him lecherously yet?”

  “Yes.”

  “Was she giving him the girly eye?”

  “I don’t know. I’m here with you.”

  Max hated to burst her bubble, but he would.

  “She’s going to dog him until he gives up or he tells her off. I hope he’s good at being an asshole. With her, you need to be. I stopped going to the morgue.”

  Well, now she felt sick.

  Chris was a gentleman.

  He was sweet.

  He was…

  Heather Julliard was dead.

  “Ahhh, love. Isn’t it grand?”

  Elizabeth had to let it go. She had to focus.

  “Let’s find the Casanova, Professor Prince, and see what he has to say about his behavior?”

  That they could do.

  Heading to the building, across the quad, they found the office number in the lobby of the building.

  As they climbed the stairs, his phone went off and immediately, he pulled it from his pocket. He sighed when he recognized the number.

  “Detective Bronson.”

  There was a pause.

  “Yeah, Patty, I’m at Harvard. How goes it?”

  Elizabeth gave him a look. It was the wayward detective checking in.

  Awesome.

  Clearly, someone didn’t give a shit about their partner. He should be out in the field with them, not moping because the FBI took his case.

  What a crybaby.

  Elizabeth waited as he talked some more, and then finally, he hung up.

  “Sorry, he’s working some other cases, and was checking in with me.”

  She got it.

  At the office, she had some things backing up too. Her desk had about seven files on it. Whoever was sitting there had better not have jacked with them, or she’d hunt them down and kick their ass.

  “He likes to make sure I’m okay. The mob is always gunning for us.”

  “Literally,” she stated.

  He laughed.

  “Yeah, I know.”

  When they arrived at the man’s door, they knocked. When it opened, it was a pretty coed holding some folders.

  “We need to see Professor Prince,” she stated.

  “He’s not here. He left me a list of things to handle for him. I’m his TA, Francesca Jackson,” she said, leading them into the man’s office.

  Elizabeth took it all in.

  The man was a big fan of showing off. He had awards, pictures with important people, and way too many mirrors.

  Narcissist alert.

  “We need to talk to him about Professor McGowan and her murder.”

  The girl looked distraught.

  “It’s terrible what happened to her. God! What is this world coming to?”

  She had no freaking idea.

  Each day, the crazy was getting worse. Elizabeth couldn’t imagine what it would be like in twenty years. By then, it should be a shitastic mess of epic proportions.

  “Where is he?”

  “I have absolutely no clue, but he may be mourning her death. I hear they were close.”

  She didn’t doubt that.

  Only, it was beginning to seem that he wanted to be closer than she did.

  Kinky may have collided with rational, and it was never pretty. When you had a certain sexual preference, you had to find a partner who rolled the same way.

  Clearly, Professors McGowan and Prince didn’t mesh. Elizabeth was grateful that she and Chris did.

  “Will he be in?” Max asked.

  “Again, no clue.”

  Elizabeth handed her a card.

  “If you see him, can you call me?” she asked Francesca. “It’s important that we speak to him regarding his relationship with her.”

  The woman went red around her ears.

  Elizabeth knew what that meant.

  “Sure. I can do that.”

  The detective had a few questions before they cut out of there.

  “Have you ever noticed him behaving badly with anyone female?”

  She laughed.

  “You mean like hurting someone? No. Flirting? Yeah, he’s a huge flirt. Then again, most men are. I get hit on regularly by a few professors.”

  Elizabeth knew how she felt.

  It seemed to run rampant on Harvard’s campus.

  Thank God she never came here. She would have been hurting people each and every day.

  “I wish I could help you more.”

  “We appreciate it.”

  They headed out and Elizabeth stopped him in the hall. She wondered if he picked it up.

  “She was either pining away for Professor Prince, or she was getting off with him,” Elizabeth stated.

  “Yeah, I noticed. Too bad we don’t have a woman killer. There’s rape, or she’d be on our suspect list.”

  Oh, yeah, she would be.

  “It looks like on top of a serial killer, we now have a missing professor—who might be one in the same.”

  Yeah, it was looking that way to him too.

  “Want to get lunch?” the detective asked. “I’m starving. I could eat a horse.”

  She stared at him.

  “Uh, no. I want to find a killer. Grab a candy bar, and let’s get moving.”

  “I like a forceful woman.”

  She stared at him.

  “I see you forgot the gay TA already. You know the one who wanted to suck your…”

  “STOP!”

  She grinned.

  Two could play this game.

  “I don’t want to hear about the horny TA, and I don’t want to put that picture in my head.”

  “It’s already there, isn’t it?” she asked.

  Christ.

  It was.

  And Max had a feeling she wouldn’t let it go away.

  * * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *

  Across Boston

  At the Bank

  When he got the call, he was amused. Michael O’Banion was impressed by the balls this young Fed had. One of his killers took a shot at her, and she kept on her toes.

  Not only that, but she saved that pain in the ass detective’s life.

  That was impressive.

  It looked like he was going to have to keep his eyes on her. She sounded like she was worthy of him.

  That wasn’t the norm—as he was finding out.

  In fact, he was going to have to meet this woman face to face. From the reports coming in, Michael was intrigued.

  Who didn’t want to ‘acquire’ this kind of woman?

  For now, he called off his killer. Joey tended to get a little too enthusiastic about his work. The man loved killing people, and he needed to make sure to keep him on a short leash.

  When he didn’t, bad things happened.

  Picking up his phone, he made a second call. When the detective answered, he was pleased.

  “Are you watching her?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Where is she?”

  “She’s on Harvar
d Yard with my partner. They are asking questions about that professor.”

  “Well, that’s inconvenient. She’s truly digging around, isn’t she?”

  “Yeah, what do you want me to do?”

  He thought about it.

  “We have to stall her investigation. Do what you can. I think you can handle it.”

  “Oh, I can, Mr. O’Banion.”

  He laughed.

  The man was such a kiss ass. He was eating out of the palm of his hand. He wanted to be a head honcho at the police department so badly that he’d do anything.

  “Get on it.”

  The call went dead.

  “Carl!”

  The man came into his office, eating an apple.

  “Yeah, boss?”

  “All those bodies?”

  He waited.

  “Make sure no one finds them. We bury them deep, and we don’t tell anyone where they are. I want you to make sure that we keep them hidden.”

  “I’ll need help, boss. That’s a lot of remains to move.”

  He assumed.

  “Take Joey. He’ll help.”

  “Boss, he’s not right in the head. Last time he had a body…”

  He raised his hand to stop him.

  “I don’t want to know. The less I know, the better.” Michael knew, and he was pretty sure it was going to be past perverse and into creepy.

  Kinky he got.

  Sex with the dead…

  No.

  Carl zipped it.

  “Just handle it, Carl, and tell him not to screw around with the remains—my orders.”

  “On it, boss.”

  With that, Michael O’Banion pulled out the police report to play ‘follow the Fed’.

  He had what the police had.

  Now he was going to throw up some roadblocks along the way.

  It was time to see what the pretty Fed was made of and if she’d be willing to do the dance.

  With him.

  * * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *

  Friday Afternoon

  It was time to work out his next victim. He saw her and knew he had to have her.

  She was definitely the one.

  The second he got close to her, his body had reacted in all kinds of ways.

  He got hard.