True Love Lost (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 3))

by Kelley, Morgan

  Ethan studied his wife’s tablet. “So he didn’t drive through Red River?”

  “No, he wouldn’t have driven through. He would have circumvented the town completely by about ten miles,” but he paused. “Maybe he came into town. There isn't much outside of town but mountains.”

  “We can canvas and ask the local shop keepers if they ever saw any of the identified victims. There’s a chance we’ll get lucky and someone might have seen one or all of them. Maybe they needed a pit stop, a coffee, or a place to stay,” stated Elizabeth.

  “We’ll hit the field as Doctor Adare does her autopsy.” Blackhawk watched his brother’s face for any reaction to being separated from the doctor, and he didn’t flinch. Apparently, the Blackhawk poker face was genetically handed out to his brother too.

  Elizabeth put the picture up on the board and wrote the information under the picture. “Who do we have next?”

  “Victim number three, Torrance Delmar. No wife and no girlfriend. He was the one missing his stomach. The prints came back when we searched the military databases. He was a discharged soldier, employment as a professor. He taught calculus at the local community college.”

  “Any missing person report filed on him?”

  “Yep, three months ago by the college. Christina called on this one. Her notes say that they called it in when Professor Delmar didn’t show up for class a full week. By that Friday, an irate student who was paying for the class and missed his calculus fix, called the school bitching and wanting a refund.”

  “Who actually misses calculus?” asked Blackhawk.

  “I liked it,” added Desdemona.

  “Yeah who here who didn’t go to an Ivy League college didn’t miss it?” Blackhawk said, smiling.

  “For the record, I had it and I hated it,” said Elizabeth. She noticed the look from the doctor. “What?”

  “You went Ivy League?” asked Desdemona. “That’s surprising. I just took you for a tough inner city school girl that had ass kicking as a requirement.”

  Whitefox cringed. That wasn’t exactly a compliment, and he couldn’t help but wonder if Desdemona knew it too. It felt like a cheap shot to him and from Ethan’s face, it seemed to be the consensus.

  Elizabeth laughed it off for Callen’s sake. “Nope, Cornell, but had they had that class I would have taken it,” she said, smiling. “Although I would have picked Harvard over Cornell, but they wait listed me for my major.”

  Whitefox stared over at his brother. “Do you feel grossly inadequate and suddenly not as smart as you were ten minutes ago?”

  “You get used to it,” he answered honestly. “I never thought to apply to Harvard, they would have laughed and burned my application,” he said.

  “Well hopefully Leroy Heathcliff Mick Blackhawk IV will be handsome like his father, and smart like his momma.”

  Whitefox choked on water he was drinking. “Please tell me that’s not going to be my nephew’s name. I’ll still love him, but using his name is going to be painful.” Then it hit him. “Where did the IV come from?”

  “Don’t ask. She’s sadistic.”

  Elizabeth pointed at her husband. “I am, and that will be our child’s name if his daddy doesn’t help me pick a name.”

  “Ethan, don’t do that to a kid. Leroy? Come on; pick a damn name for my nephew. Hell, name him Wyler at this point.”

  “I’m working on picking a name. It has to have some meaning to the Blackhawk family. This is the first of his generation. My first son needs a special name that speaks volumes about our family.”

  “Poor Leroy Heathcliff Mick Blackhawk IV,” giggled Desdemona. Watching the three of them play off each other was really entertaining. “I wouldn’t worry about his name. It really won’t matter.”

  “Why?” asked Blackhawk and Whitefox at the same time, looking over at her suspiciously.

  “Have you seen this kid’s gene pool?” she asked, laughing. “Look at his mother. She’s absolutely stunning. Then look at the father. He’s downright handsome,” and she paused. “Then look at the uncle. The boy is going to be handsome. No woman is going to care what the hell his name is once he’s an adult.”

  Elizabeth laughed at the point she was making. “So Leroy it is.”

  Blackhawk just shook his head in exasperation. “We’ll pick this up in private, Elizabeth. No one gets to know the baby’s name until he’s born. There should be some surprise.”

  Whitefox coughed into his hand, “Control freak.”

  He ignored his brother. “Shall we continue with the assignment?” he asked, not even dignifying his brother’s comment with a retort. Over his dead body was his son going to be called Leroy or Heathcliff, but then no one was going to know that for a few more months.

  “Anyway,” Whitefox continued. “A student called it in, and they called local police to his house. No one saw him for over a week. Finally someone came forward to inform the police he had gone hiking in the mountains.”

  “Did he come through Red River?” she asked, as she scribbled the information on the board.

  “Nope, this time he traversed the other side of the town. But again, he may have stopped in for supplies. If he was hiking and needed water or even coffee, this is the closest town.”

  “If the killer is targeting this far a location around Red River, we’re going to have a big problem, if we can’t prove the victims came into town. The possibilities of how they were grabbed shoots up exponentially,” she said, looking over at Whitefox when he and her husband were grinning. “I’m going to ignore you both.”

  “Smaller words, Lyzee,” snickered her brother-in-law.

  “Can you print me out copies of the routes they took? I want to add them to the board later,” she requested. “How about Patrick Payne? We had his ID, but do we know what he was doing when he went missing?”

  “He has an ex-wife. When he was arrested for white collar crimes, she bailed on the marriage and moved on with her life. She was called and stated that she hasn’t spoken to him since she signed the divorce papers.”

  “So we have no idea where he was headed. We only know he lived eighty miles from Red River.”

  “Pretty much,” Callen Whitefox closed his folder.

  Elizabeth stared up at the whiteboard and took in all the information. Nothing about the victims was related; they appeared so far to be completely random.

  Desdemona’s phone began ringing. “It’s the lab at FBI West,” she answered it and spoke to the tech on the other end.

  “We need a push on the rest of the victims,” Elizabeth returned to the corner of the table. “Ethan, you know I hate to push you on this, but how’s the profile coming?” she asked softly, to not pressure him too much.

  “I don’t have much, Lyzee.”

  “I have more to add,” Desdemona said, hanging up her phone. “That was the lab, and they have tox in and the DNA profile on the blonde hairs we found on all the victims, well minus the deputy. The reports are on the way as we speak.”

  Elizabeth stood and went back over to her board, preparing to hopefully fill in more of the missing information and start to piece together a picture of what the hell was going on in Red River. “Okay, Doc. Make my day. What do you have?”

  “We’ll start with the whom. The blonde hairs are all female and they’re all one woman. The team checked the DNA on them against each other, and they are all the same person. Before you ask if the DNA is in the system, it’s not.”

  Blackhawk started mulling that over in his head. “So we have a female, and since she’s killing men between twenty and forty that is the age range I’d put her at. Women killers tend to focus on familiarity.”

  “Unless she’s a cougar and likes younger men,” added Elizabeth. “My next husband is going to be younger. I’m wearing the older man out,” she said, laughing when her husband lifted an eyebrow.

  “Then you better assure that I’m completely dead, because if you only maim me and try to move on, bad things will be happenin
g,” he said, laughing at his wife. “He better be fast, very fast.”

  “Just keep in mind that Ethan is the OLDER brother, and I’m really fast,” Callen stated, grinning.

  Elizabeth fist bumped him and then his brother just punched him.

  “Christ, don’t bruise her next husband,” muttered Whitefox. “Let her do that.”

  Desdemona tried to laugh, but the entire conversation made her angry.

  Elizabeth started laughing, and then noticed the look on Desdemona’s face. She was laughing, but it didn’t reach her eyes. It was time to refocus on work.

  There was nothing more in life that Callen enjoyed than teasing his brother and wife. Then he looked over at Desdemona, and wondered where she fell into the mix. Something in him felt very unsettled when he saw the look on her face. She was watching Elizabeth, but the look was very curious. She was joining in, but she didn’t look thrilled.

  “So, we have a female, twenty to forty.”

  “We also now have COD on all the victims but two.”

  Elizabeth got excited about that. It meant they had another avenue to focus on. “Spill it Desdemona.”

  “Victim four lost his tongue, he definitely bleed to death and choked on his blood. COD is suffocation by the tape and profuse bleeding. Victims one, two, three, and five were poisoned along with varying degrees of bleeding out from losing organs or appendages.”

  “Poisoned?” Blackhawk wasn’t expecting that. “Poisoning is a very ‘female’ orientated crime. Men don’t usually poison, but women will use that as their method of eliminating a victim.”

  “What was the toxin of choice?” asked Elizabeth.

  “Ethylene Glycol.”

  “Antifreeze?” asked Whitefox, not sure if he was right or not.

  Desdemona blinked at him with green eyes. “Yes, or something that contained enough of it to use it to kill the victims. It may be how they were incapacitated.”

  “Doc, what would the symptoms be of a poisoning?” Ethan Blackhawk inquired. “Or is it instantaneous?”

  Desdemona pulled up a list on her tablet and shot it over to Elizabeth to add the information to the board. “First you’d feel drunk, dizzy, off-balance, much like if you drank too much. Then you’d possibly have seizures, and blackout. Coma is the next step.”

  “Can you recover?”

  “Yes, but if you go past the thirty six hour mark, it’s not likely. Renal failure and system shutdown is the outcome. In pets it’s within a couple hours, but the human body can survive up to the twenty four hour mark as long as the kidneys are working at optimal output. Once they start to fail then it gets sketchy past that timeframe.”

  “They’re drinking it?”

  “Stomach content report isn't in yet, but I would imagine it’s on its way. It’s easy to mask in food and especially drink. Alcohol is the perfect medium if it’s some fruity drink.”

  Blackhawk sat back. “That would explain how the killer is getting the victims subdued. If they’re in a drunken stage and more willing to take help offered to them, she could have them walk to where ever they are being killed.”

  “True,” Desdemona agreed. “They have no defensive wounds, and the lab is saying no other DNA but the blonde hair. So, the killer is at some point, gloving up. It’s impossible to not leave some trace of evidence without taking some sort of precaution.”

  “So we have a blonde preying on men with food or drink?” asked Desdemona.

  Elizabeth turned her focus back on the men sitting at the table. These two men mattered to her more than anything else in her life. “Both of you,” she paused, when she had their attention. “Neither of you eat or drink anything while you’re alone,” She was dead serious. “If this killer is taking out men she finds in this town, then that makes you both equally alluring to a killer.”

  Callen Whitefox was touched that Elizabeth was so worried. “You have nothing to worry about with us,” he motioned towards his brother.

  “Yeah? Why’s that?” Elizabeth crossed her arms and rested them on the baby Blackhawk bump.

  “Blondes aren’t our type,” he said winking at her, and joining his brother laughing.

  Elizabeth hoped by the end of this all, they were still entertained.

  ~ Chapter ten~

  Ethan Blackhawk dismissed everyone and sat in the conference room alone, reading and re-reading all the tech reports that came in on the trace evidence. A big part of him was relaxed, knowing his wife wasn’t a target in Red River. Because of that simple detail he was able to breathe a little easier. Now the only thing that he was dwelling on was his own brother. Part of him wished he could send him back home, keeping him busy with something else. Just thinking that he’d ever leave was comical. Where ever Desdemona was, he was pretty sure his brother would be right behind her or worse in front of her.

  When he first met his wife, Ethan had been the same way, and was pretty sure his face held the same look of fascination. Falling for Elizabeth had been the best thing in his life, but now there were twin feelings of happiness and worry for his brother. Ethan was genuinely happy for the man, if this was what he wanted in life, but he was worried for his life. The killer and stalker made him feel very unsettled.

  It wasn’t hard to see that his brother had a ‘thing’ for his wife. Not that he didn’t trust them both completely, but there was a little wave of awareness whenever he saw Callen Whitefox watching her. Part of him wanted to be angry and push the man away, and part of him wanted to pull him closer. There was this need to protect his baby brother over everything else.

  He remembered being kids, when both of their mothers died. Blackhawk shouldered it like a little man and Callen crumbled, not because he missed her but because then he was alone. The two mothers were like night and day. Catherine Blackhawk was very maternal and doted on her son. Charlene Whitefox had the mothering instinct of a rock. She forgot often to feed her child, come home to him, and never once kissed a cut or made cookies.

  That alone, made Ethan want to do anything to protect his brother. He’d had plenty of knocks to the heart in his life. Of the two, his brother could be wounded more easily and struggle to come back in one piece. It was that fact that made him willing to share the love his wife had for them. Blackhawk would do anything to keep his brother from breaking down, including giving him the precious gift of his wife’s love and affection when he desperately needed it.

  Yeah, Callen betrayed him in the past, but this was completely a different thing. Ethan wasn’t a boy anymore, and he wasn’t thinking about his own needs solely. Family was paramount.

  Blackhawk put the reports down and looked up. The awareness of eyes watching him drew his focus. As if he knew he was just thinking about him, Callen stood in the doorway. Again, the same shuttered look on his face, but he could see beyond it.

  “Busy?” he asked, once his brother was focused on him.

  “No, come in and close the door.”

  He did just that. The fact that there was an issue between him had the man off balance. When his brother came back into his life, he gave him so much. There was no other person he loved more in life than his brother, with the exception of Elizabeth.

  “What’s on your mind?”

  “We are,” he answered, sitting in the chair closest to his brother, and he could feel the tension there. It broke a part of his heart that he caused this between them. Before the fight they were fine, and again a woman came between them. Just not the one he always believed would. Go figure on that one.

  “What specifically?” Blackhawk felt bad too. Not only had he punched his brother again, but he was gripped with tension over his wife and the man here before him.

  “The fight we had. I’m sorry I got pissed and punched you in the face over a woman,” he said, looking into his brother’s eyes. “I was way across the line, and I wasn’t thinking. You matter more to me, and I just need you to know I was way over the line.”

  “It’s okay.” Blackhawk sighed. “If the truth is
to be told, I punched you back for the same reason.” Where to even start with this? “Part of me is edgy about the relationship between you and Elizabeth.”

  Whitefox looked surprised. He didn’t think his brother was angry. “I wouldn’t ever cross that line, Ethan. I swore to you that it wouldn’t happen. I gave you my word.”

  Blackhawk nodded at his brother’s words and steepled his fingers. If he was going to trust him with something so precious, he at least wanted honesty. “So you aren’t in love with her?”

  Callen wasn’t going to lie to his brother. “I am in love with her, but you’re well aware of that and so is she.”

  “So Doctor Adare is going to be enough to help you forget how you feel about Elizabeth?” he asked, seeing the pain in his brother’s eyes and already knowing the answer to that question.

  Whitefox thought about what he was going to say, and he weighed it all in his head first, unsure if he should just say it or bury some of it deep.

  “Man to man, Callen, and brother to brother, I think I deserve to know the truth.”

  “I’ll always be in love with Elizabeth. I can’t help how I feel about her, and it’s the equivalent to me asking you if you can flip a switch and turn off love for her too. The first day I met her in your office before I knew she was your wife, I fell in love. I don’t know why it happened, and I can sit here and apologize about it daily if it’ll keep us on solid ground, but it’s the truth. I fell for her the same way you did. The only difference is you found her first.”

  Ethan had to respect the man for not lying. They all were aware of his feelings, and it was the big pink elephant in the room when the three of them were together.

  “What about Desdemona?” he asked his brother again. “Where does she fit into this?”

  Callen leaned back in the chair. “I really care about her. I don’t believe one is a replacement for the other. I’ll be in love with Elizabeth for the rest of my life, but I still wouldn’t risk the love I feel for my brother. Your wife is in love with you, she just loves me because of you. There’s a big difference.”