The men looked at each other. “Anything you want,” they replied together, right before breaking into laughter.
She rolled her eyes.
There were days she was outmatched.
This was one of them.
Pulling up to the sex shop, they noticed that it was quiet. What astounded her was that in the parking lot, there were people already waiting to shop for sex items.
It was early yet. Now, she knew why Devil’s Lake had very little crime. People were too busy having sex.
Hopping down from the Navigator, she approached the closest vehicle. Immediately, the man behind the wheel rolled his window down.
“She’s usually open by now, hot stuff. Want to join me in the back room to pick out a pair of handcuffs?”
The back door of the vehicle opened and Callen stepped out. His arms were across his chest, and his face said it all.
If that wasn’t a big enough deterrent, Elizabeth pulled her badge and held it up for him to see.
“FBI. You may want to head out of here, or I’ll be using my handcuffs on you for soliciting sex,” she said, pulling her jacket back. They sat right beside her sidearm.
It was all it took.
Both cars got the hell out of there, and fast.
Ethan and Callen snickered as they headed over to the door. It was indeed still closed, which was odd, since they opened an hour ago.
The lights were on too.
Staring in the window, something out of place caught her eye. “Ethan, does that look like blood?” she asked, pointing at the footprints across the floor, leading toward the door.
He peered inside.
“Yeah, it does.”
“This gives us reason to enter,” stated Callen, heading back to the Navigator. From the trunk, he pulled out a few tools. When he returned, he offered them to his brother. “You want to do the honors?”
He let his brother have this one. “No, have at it. I got to tackle Wade Dixon. It’s your turn to get her all hot and bothered with B&E.”
Callen dropped and began playing with the lock. It didn't take long for them to hear a click. Apparently, he still had it.
Getting up, they all pulled their weapons. Using the sleeve of her blazer, Elizabeth pulled the door open. Ethan kicked it back, far enough for them to enter.
Heading in, they immediately smelled it. The first time they were in there, it was all fruity from all the lube samples. Now, it reeked of death.
Yeah, someone was dead, and they had a good idea who.
Rounding the corner, they only needed to follow the trail of blood. It was then that they found her.
Toni Michelle was dead.
On the floor, her arms were splayed out at her sides and the rest of Toni Michelle’s body was mutilated.
“Well, this answers our question on whether or not our killer was going to take a break and regroup or go bat shit insane.”
Callen stared down at her. “Well, at least we don’t have to look for her missing parts. He took her eyes.”
Yeah, they really had a problem.
~ Chapter Seventeen ~
As the tech team and doctors began arriving, a crowd was also beginning to gather. Needing the help, they called in the local deputies to maintain a perimeter around the sex shop.
The last thing they needed was the media getting pictures of the woman.
When Zane was fully dressed in his protective gear, they all headed in. Once he saw the body, he whistled.
“Well, someone’s a tad bit pissed off,” he stated, staring at the remains. Their victim, Toni Michelle, was eviscerated, laid out with her arms at her sides, and had her eyes taken.
“Yeah, apparently, we were right when we believed he would escalate. This one time, I would have preferred to be wrong,” stated Elizabeth.
Zane crouched beside the victim after the techs had snapped pictures. When he went to move her arm, it was still stiff. “She’s been dead less than twelve hours. That’s going to be the best I can give you. If I check her liver, which is right there,” he said, pointing at it outside her body. “It’s not going to be accurate. The air conditioning is on in here, and it’s going to have dropped the core temperature,” he stated, picking up some of her intestines. “I don’t know if the killer did it on purpose or not, but he managed to mask TOD.”
Just at that moment, Tony walked in with Jaxon right behind him.
The entire team saw it coming.
The look on her face said it all.
“Get her out of her, Tony. She’s going to toss her cookies,” Elizabeth said emotionlessly. She only wished that she could still get sick over things like this. Unfortunately, this wasn’t her first evisceration, and in fact, it wasn’t Tony’s either.
Quickly, he pulled her back outside.
“What can you tell me?” Elizabeth asked.
“Well, from the way the she’s cut open, he used a very dull knife. It wasn’t a scalpel or medical instrument. You can tell that it’s jagged and the edges of flesh appear to be torn.”
They all crouched. There was nothing like the smell of inverted bowel to brighten your day.
“Was she alive?”
He examined the edges of her wounds before shaking his head. “No, she wasn’t.”
“Well, there’s a small miracle,” Elizabeth admitted.
“If he followed his previous MO, like with the other women, it’s likely she was strangled. If she still had her eyes, I would be able to tell by petechial hemorrhaging, but we’re out of luck,” Zane stated. “I’ll need to check out her hyoid when I open up her neck.”
“Yeah, I think she’s more the one who ran out of luck. We’re all still alive and our organs are innies, not outies.”
“We should bag her up. I don’t like leaving her spread out like this. It looks like he positioned her for some reason.”
Elizabeth stood. “He’s mimicking Christ on the cross,” she stated. “He was stabbed in his side with a soldier’s sword, and then strung up to die.”
“Or so the tale goes,” Doctor Zane said.
“Yeah, he’s escalated,” stated Callen.
Elizabeth looked around the room. “I don’t see cameras, do you?” she asked, hoping for a visual on their killer. Instead, it looked like they were shit out of luck.
“Nope. It’s Devil’s Lake. I doubt there’s a ton of crime here.”
“Tell that to Toni Michelle. She’s the new poster child for having extra security.”
Ethan pulled up her address on his tablet. “She resided upstairs. We should go check it out while our team does their thing.”
They all watched Zane and a tech try and place her intestines inside a body bag. It was sad, gross, and a little comical all at once.
“Yeah, we will, but first I want to go talk to the other doctors.”
“Are you going to bust balls?” Callen asked.
She sighed, lowering her voice. “No. I’m going to send them back to the cabin. Our victim is fleshy. Tomorrow, she’ll be bones, and they can come in and help. For now, I’ll cut her a break.”
They watched her walk away. Yeah, someone was definitely mellowing.
At the door, she encountered Deputy Turner. “Put your eyeballs back in your head. We’re not selling tickets to this show,” she growled, unhappy with the way the man was staring at the victim.
Okay, maybe she wasn’t mellowing at all.
Blackhawk was glad. It was nice to know some things wouldn’t change.
Tony held her hair as she tossed her cookies. He felt sorry for her, because he remembered the first time he’d been on a scene and had done the same thing.
When he saw his boss strolling toward them, battered jeans and boots, he knew there was going to be a flaying. Whenever someone puked on one of her scenes, Elizabeth made them toughen up real fast. It was like FBI hazing at its finest, and he was helpless to stop it.
“Hey, you okay?” she asked, standing there.
She shook her head. “No. I’m a bone person.
I don’t do fleshy really well.”
Elizabeth waited until she finished puking, then handed her a bottle of water. “Let’s have a seat over there,” she said, pointing to a location without vomit.
When they followed her, she sat in the grass. It wasn’t lost on her that Tony had Jaxon protectively under his arm, as if he was waiting for her to try and break his babe.
Today was his lucky day.
“For the record, this wasn’t too bad. I have a story to tell you,” she stated, dropping her elbows to her knees. “When I was first starting out, one of my first serial killings was this animal called the Boston Butcher.”
Tony knew where she was going. It had been one of his first cases too. He’d been called in to find the bones of the victims, and he never left the team. It had been the turning point in his life, which put him on this path.
“Well, he liked doing just about the same thing to his victims. Only, he didn't know I was willing to do just about anything to stop him.”
Yeah, like kill him in cold blood.
“I was assigned this green ME. He was right out of college. You haven’t met Doctor Leonard yet, but he’s a hoot. Together, we had to go on this sick scavenger hunt to dig up his victims who were buried all over the place. To make it more hellish, they sent me this anthropologist. He was young, crazy, and didn't listen to anyone.”
Tony grinned at her.
“Well, we hunted this asshole down, but in the process we had to find all his victims. They were the key to unlocking the nutjob’s mind. It was a disgusting, bloody mess most of the time. On one of the very first scenes, my anthro started spewing all over the place. It was like he was possessed.”
That made Jaxon laugh.
“The most memorable part was he puked on our ME.”
“That sounds revolting,” she said.
Elizabeth laughed. “Yeah, for them it was. For me, it was a box of chocolate covered shits and giggles. To this day, I can still hear Christopher cursing. It was a thing of beauty.”
Tony snorted. He remembered that day well.
“After we plugged up Mount Vesuvius, we got to work. It was the nastiest, vilest, and hardest work I've ever done in all my life. In the end, we all forget the puking, the humiliation, and focused on the important part.”
Jaxon waited.
“We were there to stand for the dead. When it all comes down to it, puke, cry, or punch the shit out of something, but remember that we’re the last line of defense for them. If we don’t stare at it and wade through it, they have no one to give them a voice.”
She stared at her.
“You’re stronger than you think. I know that this little episode won’t scare you off. You can do this, Jaxon. Once, I didn't think I could do it every day. Now, I can do it in my sleep.”
As they all stood, Jaxon glanced over at the woman. “What happened to him?”
“Are you asking about the killer or the anthropologist?” Elizabeth questioned.
“I guess both.”
She dropped her sunglasses back on her face. “The killer got away, but the killing stopped.”
Yeah, justice was served when she secretly blew his brains out.
“And the doctor?”
“He became one of my closest friends, and is still doing the job today. Only, he’s smarter, kinder, and one of the most compassionate men I know. This job doesn’t harden everyone. Sometimes, it just makes the good come out.”
Tony patted her on the shoulder. “Yeah, you turned out pretty good too, Director Bad Ass,” he said.
Jaxon glanced over at him.
Elizabeth offered him a fist bump. “Take her back to the cabin, Tony. I’ll be over to see you later. I have to go through a dead woman’s possessions to try and figure out what the hell is going on here.”
Walking away, she whistled, scaring a few techs. They scrambled like soldiers being ordered around by a general.
“So, you two go way back?” Jaxon asked.
“Yep.”
“Will it really get easier?” she asked, as he dropped his arm over her shoulders.
“I guess you can say it will in a way. You’ll still see them and hurt, but eventually the puking stops.”
She was curious. “How long until that happens?”
“Well, I’ve been doing this almost thirteen years. I think I stopped last year.”
She stared at him.
“I’m kidding!”
Jaxon let him lead her away. If he said it would get better, she trusted him.
With her life.
* * *
Elizabeth navigated her way up the two flights of stairs until she was met at the top by her husband. Callen was already inside looking around, searching for any signs the killer had been up there.
“How bad is it?” she asked, stepping in and looking around. The last few times they’d had to search a person’s home, they’d encountered a plethora of mess.
“Well, she either really liked sex, or she was using her place as a storage unit for vibrators.”
She shook her head. “In or out of the packaging?” she inquired.
“Wait. Why does that matter?” Blackhawk asked all of a sudden.
“If they’re sealed in plastic, they’re new. If they’re not, glove up. I see you never bought a girlfriend a sex toy,” she added.
Callen started laughing from the other room. “I love the conversations we have. With any other company, we’d all be fired.” As if to prove a point, he tossed her a box. “Hey, Miss Kitty, I found you some edible undies. I don’t mind tropical fruit. I bet it would be tasty.”
She found that funny. “Damn, I miss Chris Leonard. If he were here, I’d have something totally inappropriate to say.”
Ethan moved toward the kitchen. “I didn't buy my girlfriends sex toys. I am the sex toy,” he teased back. Unfortunately, it was just as the two agents walked in the door.
From the looks on their faces, they were both mortified and amused, but afraid to show it.
Elizabeth, on the other hand, was thoroughly enjoying the look of horror on her husband’s face. She couldn’t help but laugh at how Ethan embarrassed himself.
He had the worst sense of timing.
“Again, I love my job,” Callen stated, snickering like a madman.
“Ma’am, the tech team is dividing up and heading back to the morgue. Do you want us to stick around and babysit them, or head in to start working?”
“Can one of you stay and one of you go?”
Johanna pulled out a coin and flipped it. Her partner called it in the air.
Obviously, this was common between them.
“Heads, you lose,” she said, pocketing it. “See you later, alligator,” she said, heading out.
“Where should I start?” Broderick asked.
She stared at him. “You just trusted your partner and didn't ask to see the coin.”
Broderick Seaton didn't get it. “She wouldn’t lie to me.”
Both men found that funny as hell. This man had a hell of a lot to learn about the opposite sex.
Uh, yeah, newbies were the best.
“Are you dating anyone, Agent Seaton?” asked Ethan.
“No, why?”
“Next time, ask to see the coin. That’s just a little advice from man to man. Women are sneaky.”
Elizabeth was amused, but focused on work. “You can have the kitchen. It’s probably the least offensive room in the house.”
As he headed off, they wandered into the bedroom.
There was porn, sex toys, and other things all over the place.
“It looks like our victim liked to bring her work home with her,” Callen stated, picking up a pair of fuzzy handcuffs. “I never saw the point of these. Who needs the fuzz?”
She stared at him. “Uh, so it doesn’t hurt?”
As Callen walked past her, he swatted her on the ass. “We don’t have that problem. No one ever died from a little pain.”
“Are you out of your da
mn mind?” she asked, staring at him.
He simply laughed before heading into the bathroom.
Ethan took his position at the one side of the bed. “Want to help me look in the drawers?” he asked.
“Ah, it’s like date night for the Blackhawks,” she quipped, before opening the one closest to her. “I’ve got lube and other toys.”
Blackhawk found meds inside his. Digging through them, he didn't find anything that was alarming. “We have birth control, some vitamins, and what do you want for your birthday?” he asked out of the blue.
“What?” she said, slipping her hand beneath the mattress. “Where did that come from?”
“Every holiday, I get you jewelry. I want to know if there’s something specific that you want for your birthday.”
“Running out of ideas, huh?” she teased. Ethan was amazing at picking out presents. He didn't just buy jewelry. Each piece had some meaning behind it. It made them special.
“Honestly, yes.”
She thought about it. “I don’t really want anything.”
Callen stuck his head out. “I have your gift already,” he stated, tapping his head. “It’s going to make you cry.”
There was no doubt in her mind. When it came to either of these men, she was a big puddle of mush. “Really, I’m good this year. You don’t have to get me anything,” she said.
Both men began laughing.
“Yeah, that’s a bad idea,” stated Ethan. “You’re a girl. They like shiny things for any, and all occasions.”
There was one thing she wanted, but she needed to take care of it on her own. This year, she’d be giving them the gift.
“Really. I don’t want anything. I have four babies, Wyler is healthy, we have a good life, and I get to work with the men I love. I’m golden.”
Blackhawk looked skeptical.
“Okay, how about you two men bake me a cake, cook me dinner, and we have a little party at home.”
Broderick walked in on their conversation.
“Really, baby? You don’t want anything for your birthday?”
The agent stared laughing at the conversation as he passed through the room.
“What’s so funny, Agent Seaton?” she demanded.
Redemption is Here (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 9) Page 42
