Dawn of Evil_FBI Flashback

by Morgan Kelley

  She leaned over and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

  “Holy shit! Where’s the real Elizabeth?”

  She punched him.

  “There she is.”

  “I don’t hold it against you. You’re smart. I would have done the same thing. I don’t know where I’m heading, but the FBI is my life.”

  “Then how do you fit in a guy?”

  She closed her mouth.

  “You don’t trust me?” Alex asked. “After everything, you don’t trust me?”

  She sighed.

  “I trust you, but if it gets out, Gabe is going to do anything in his power to keep us apart.”

  He knew in that moment who it was.

  “It’s Doctor Death!”

  “Don’t call him that. He’s sweet and kind, and I love him,” she said.

  He stared at her like she was possessed.

  “And that’s why I didn’t want to tell you. You’re making a big deal out of it.”

  “Wow! I never saw this day coming, LaRue. I’m happy for you. I won’t say a word,” he promised as he drove.

  “What’s up with your partner? Do you know he’s gay?”

  Alex laughed his ass off.

  “Yeah, I’m aware. He’s as gay as the day is long, but I’m good with that. I know he’s watching my back. Literally.”

  There were never truer words spoken, and his ass too.

  “Well, at least you know. He hit on Christopher, and I think it freaked him out.”

  “He’s homophobic? I didn’t picture him being afraid of a gay man.”

  “Well, Noah felt his leg up.”

  That made Alex laugh his ass off.

  “Oh, I bet that freaked him right out.”

  “You could say that.”

  Alex made an observation about the case.

  “We’ve been here before, but I’ve had some time to mull over the man.”

  “And?” she asked. “What’s your impression?”

  She trusted him.

  “He lives a normal life. His townhouse is in a nice neighborhood, and it’s pristine here. He gets paid well as a professor at Harvard.”

  “And?”

  “Why isn’t he just dating women? Why with the hooker? Maybe he’s into something more.”

  “Like?”

  “Gambling?” he offered. “We were wondering why the mob is involved, but what if our professor is part of that? What if he owes O’Banion some big bucks? Maybe the mob isn’t protecting him, but their investment.”

  She didn’t know.

  “How much could he be into the mob for?” she asked. “Look at his place. It’s pricey, and we know his car is nice. I have his information here. He’s paying a shitload of money out. How much could he really have to lure in O’Banion? He’s really rich.”

  Maybe she had a point.

  “It was a thought.”

  “Hey, I appreciate it. I’ll keep it on the back burner. Once we figure out more, we’ll be able to work it out.”

  He agreed.

  They parked and got out.

  As they approached the door, they saw something that alarmed them.

  It was open a crack.

  “LaRue,” he whispered, going for his gun. Immediately, she did the same thing.

  “We need to go in,” she whispered.

  Yeah, he knew they didn’t have a choice.

  That was never a good sign.

  At the door, she pushed it with her foot. Slowly, she headed in with Alex at her back. As they moved through the shotgun room arrangement, nothing was out of place.

  The place was spotless.

  Alex pointed at the stairs.

  They both headed up.

  Together, back to back and side to side, they did their jobs and cleared each room in the home.

  When they went into the biggest room there, she saw it. There were clothes all over the place. Someone had packed and done it fast.

  “He bailed,” Elizabeth stated.

  “But why? We don’t have any proof. He’s running as if he were spooked.”

  Elizabeth thought about it.

  “Well, I know why he lied. He bought himself some time. We let him slip through our fingers.”

  “We have to work this and hope if he’s the killer, we can catch him,” Alex said. “IF he’s the killer.”

  She needed to get back to the hotel and work. It looked like they had a lot to think about.

  First, she pulled out her phone.

  Max answered on the first ring.

  “Yo.”

  “Hey, I need a favor.”

  “What?” he asked. “You’re not backing out tomorrow, are you?” he asked.

  “Hell no! I need a BOLO on a suspect. Can you put it in for me? If I show up there, it’s a shit fest.”

  He got it.

  “Your case?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Who?”

  She gave him the information.

  “So the professor, huh?”

  “Here’s the thing, I’m not sure. We just need to question him. See if you can get the state police to locate him. He’s going to try and hide. He’s got something to hide. I just don’t know if it’s murder.”

  “Okay, Elizabeth. I’ll do it right now. See you tomorrow! Be ready. We have some scum to bag.”

  Yeah, she was well aware.

  When she hung up, Alex waited for her next plan of action.

  “You have paperwork to do and I have some porn to watch,” she stated.

  “Some women have all the luck.”

  Yeah, he couldn’t have meant her.

  The mob was after her.

  She had possibly just lost her suspect in a serial killing.

  Yeah, all the damn luck.

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

  Saturday Night

  Hotel

  When she arrived, she looked like she’d lost her best friend, and Chris could see it.

  Something bad had happened.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, meeting her at the hotel room door.

  “He’s in the wind. Professor Prince bailed, and we don’t know if it’s because he’s the killer, or he just didn’t want me asking any more embarrassing questions.”

  “Or he’s in mourning, Lyzee. He lost a woman he cared about. Maybe he grabbed some things and had to put some space between her death and himself.”

  There was that, but she wasn’t betting on it.

  “Uh, he was getting his sexual perversion handled at the house of ill repute. I don’t think that shows him being all lovey dove-y.”

  She may have a point.

  “I’m sorry that I have to work.”

  Chris gave her a kiss.

  “Hey, Lyzee, you don’t have to apologize to me. We’re in the middle of a case. I’ll relax when we take our vacation on the yacht.”

  “Uh, you said boat.”

  “I lied a little.”

  She snorted.

  “Christopher, I needed that laugh.”

  He could tell.

  Well, there was more.

  “I set up your board for you, and Tony is in his room showering. We can sit and talk it out, watch the video, and then we can get some sleep. You look tired.”

  Oh, she was.

  She pulled the disk from her purse and handed it to him.

  “Ah, watching porn with my girlfriend on a weekend night. How normal is that?”

  She laughed even more.

  “How lucky am I? My girl is a freak!”

  Elizabeth gave him a kiss.

  “Wait until later.”

  He laughed like a loon, and it helped cheer her up.

  She tugged off her pullover, and he helped her out of her vest. “I’m going to get changed. You can’t imagine how uncomfortable jeans are without britches.”

  He grinned.

  “Best day of my life.”

  “You’re insane, Christopher.”

  He gave her a kiss. “Insane about y
ou. Do you want me to order dinner?”

  “Yeah, thanks. We’ll need it.”

  “Pizza or Chinese?”

  “The latter. You know what I like.”

  Oh, he certainly did.

  As she got changed, he ordered them something to eat. Having dinner every night with someone you loved was an amazing thing. Most times, before he met her, he’d eat a bowl of cereal and call it a night.

  Now…he had his own little unit.

  It was nice.

  Damn nice.

  When she came out, she was makeup free, her hair was up, and she was wearing a pair of FBI sweatpants and a tank top.

  “Did you rectify the panty problem?” he teased, pulling a beer from the mini fridge for each of them, opening them, and sipping from his.

  “Nah, why bother. When we do it later, that’s one less layer of clothes.”

  He choked on his beer.

  She grabbed hers and patted him on his back. “Are you okay?”

  “I just forget that I have a girlfriend, and I no longer have to worry about things like sleeping alone, will I get off, or eating by myself. This relationship thing is pretty sweet. I think I have all the perks.”

  She sat in his lap on the couch and rested against him for a few minutes before she began thinking case.

  “I’m just as lucky. I’d work a case, come home, have a drink with Livy, and that’s it. The brownstone was empty, and I didn’t realize it until we began sleeping together that I was miserable. Now I see it. This is why people pair off. This feeling of completeness.”

  “Tony would have something anthropological to say. It would be some lesson.”

  Yeah, she was aware.

  “I don’t want this to change,” she admitted. “We’re happy, and I want to stay in this moment forever.”

  Chris kissed her. “Okay. Nothing changes, but we should get a pet together.”

  “WHAT?” she stared at him.

  “You know, like a cat. Happy people have cats.”

  “Says who?”

  “Happy people.”

  She snorted. “I’m a dog person. I like big, furry, and protective dogs.”

  “Well, we aren’t home often, but a cat can survive a few days without us.”

  “Why do you want a cat?”

  “I like pets. I had a bunch as a kid, but my mother was allergic to cats, and dogs. We never had them. I had a spider.”

  “Chris, if you bring a spider into the brownstone, I’m moving home, or you are.”

  He laughed. “I like the sex with a gorgeous woman too much to risk that. Let’s get a cat.”

  “Well, if you want a cat, we can get a cat.”

  He kissed her.

  “See? Happy couples have cats.”

  “You realize that if we both die, the cat will eat us. I know we’ve seen that before in the morgue.”

  He snorted.

  “I am aware. We just won’t die.”

  “I’ll tell you what. I’ll say yes to a cat if you say yes to going to the gym with me. We can get memberships far from work. No one will know.”

  “You’re trying to protect me, aren’t you?”

  “Yeah, I am.”

  “I have two spare bedrooms in my brownstone. Let’s make one a gym. We can work out there. No one will see us. Plus, we can have sex at the gym—since you like to get it on in weird places, like the morgue.”

  She laughed.

  He had her there.

  Elizabeth had jumped him in the morgue, but in her defense, he had a raging erection.

  She was helping him out.

  Like now.

  Beneath her, he was rock hard.

  “Well, that’s intriguing, Doctor. I wouldn’t mind running beside you on a treadmill and then rolling around on the floor.”

  He grinned.

  “Sold, but we had better work. I’m easily distracted while a sexy woman is on my lap.”

  She gave him a kiss.

  He held her against his body, enjoying that moment. In a few, they’d have to work, but for now…there was this.

  “I can’t wait for vacation,” he stated, once he broke the kiss. “All that nakedness. Where do you want to go at Christmas?”

  She stared at him.

  “Uh, one vacation at a time.”

  “Where?”

  “To visit my father.”

  “Okay, one holiday at a time.”

  That amused her.

  “Out of my lap. You ruined my mood. Back to work,” he teased. “Get your whiteboard fun done.”

  At her whiteboard, she began writing down the names of everyone they’d crossed paths with who might be a killer.

  Professor Daryl Prince

  Ryan Burch

  Arthur Morton

  Leland Brooks

  It was a small list.

  “Who’s Leland Brooks?” Chris asked.

  “He’s the security guard. He was on campus, and he’s got a good chance of being the killer. He admitted to walking the professor to her car, and he had interaction with the students. He gave me that weird creeper vibe too.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, like when he lecherously kept checking out my breasts and ass. I caught him a few times, and he kept doing it.”

  “In his defense, I do it, Tony does it, and your ex-partner does it too.”

  “Yeah, well, you are in my pants, Tony does it to bust my ass, and my ex-partner has tried to get into them.”

  “Pardon?”

  “He’s asked me out a few times.”

  Chris’s face said it all.

  “Oh, and I told him I’m in a relationship, so he knows about us. Actually, he guessed. Apparently, we are a little too buddy-buddy.”

  “Why didn’t you date him?” he asked curiously. “I know we had both said if someone came along, we were just bed buddies.”

  That was easy.

  “Because I don’t do one-night stands. When I slept with you, I hoped we would be more.”

  He smiled at her.

  Elizabeth’s heart skipped.

  “Yeah, because of that.”

  He laughed.

  “I am so glad I brought this up with you. I don’t ever want to go back.”

  Her either, and she could see he still had an erection.

  Jesus!

  This was distracting.

  Elizabeth forced herself to work.

  “Anyway, Leland makes me itchy. I’m going to shoot him over to Noah, and hopefully, he can find me something to use against him. I’m sure the university did a background check, right?”

  “More than likely.”

  She figured as much.

  “Then I have to take those four men and try to figure out why the mob—specifically Michael O’Banion is trying to stonewall this investigation. He’s trying to distract me.”

  “Like you said when we came here. This is his town. Maybe you have to keep that in mind, and also that he wants you. I think he’s more about claiming a prize he sees than stonewalling.”

  She thought about it.

  “Maybe.”

  “Definitely. He sees a pretty woman, who is a Fed, and he’s curious. He’ll want to challenge you, but he’ll also want to prove he’s the big man by owning you.”

  “I’m not property.”

  “No, but you’re mine. When someone is married or in a relationship, that seems to make them more attractive. I want her, so I’ll destroy what they have.”

  She stared at him.

  “I won’t cheat. I’m happy.”

  “I know you won’t, but you’ll be a lure for him. I know how a man thinks. I’d want you even more than I did if someone else had you.”

  “Weirdo.”

  “It’s a guy thing. To think that you would sleep with me, but start a relationship with anyone else drove me insane. I spent hours dwelling on it.”

  She was so glad he asked her to be more than just bed buddies. Elizabeth didn’t feel so cheap.

  There was
a knock on the door.

  “Chinese or Tony?” Chris asked, heading for the door with his wallet. When he got there, it was both.

  “I paid. I know you had to get me dinner because if you didn’t, that would be wrong,” Tony stated.

  “We did,” Chris offered. “We got your favorite.”

  Tony headed in, and he saw her.

  “Uh oh. She’s on the board. This will be a quiet evening,” Tony stated.

  It made her laugh.

  “No, because we have a video to watch, and I can’t believe I’m going to do this with you two. One comment about a threesome, TONY, and you go back to your room.”

  “Wait! What are we watching?”

  She told him.

  “Oh, this is the best night ever,” he said, grinning wickedly. “I love my job.”

  Chris handed out the Chinese, and they each sat on the couch. One man on each side of her.

  This was normal. They hung out all the time, played cards, went to dinner, and even had movie nights. Tony had found his way into their tiny circle, and made it better and bigger.

  She popped the disc into her laptop and hit play.

  As they sat there, they watched the fun happen. Only, to no one there did it look like fun.

  Someone really liked pain.

  “Jesus.”

  “And that’s why he’s at the top of my list,” she said, as Mistress Melody gave him twenty lashes with a whip as she stuck one wicked heel into his back. “After all that, he didn’t get off. So he withstood that pain, and what next?”

  “He took it out on some women?” Tony asked.

  She wasn’t sure.

  “I’d run too,” Chris said, “if I told you I was being the bad ass, and you were going to see this. That man is on the run because his dignity is gone.”

  She laughed.

  “I’d spank you if you wanted me to,” she teased, knowing that would never happen. “Half the fun is when we both get off. He was missing that part.”

  “Pass. I like good, old, straight sex.”

  “You can spank me,” Tony offered, wiggling his eyebrows. “I’ll call you mommy.”

  She snorted as Chris pointed at the door.

  “There’s a sentence I do NOT want to hear,” Chris stated.

  “She said I couldn’t bring up a threesome. She never said I had to stop with the innuendos. If you’re going to lay down the rules, you can’t change them.”