He was thinking about the riding part. He only wished. “Take off the spurs, okay?”
She laughed. “Sure thing, Newton.” Elizabeth headed toward the door, but stopped. “About last night?”
He couldn’t speak.
“Thank you for what you did, and thank you for wearing those boxers. They reminded me of something important.”
“What?”
“That I can always count on you to protect my heart. I love you.”
With that, she headed out.
Chris stood there staring at her. He wasn’t sure what to do with any of this.
He felt like something had happened, but he wasn’t quite sure. Was she trying to tell him something?
Was he insane?
Chris hated when he couldn’t figure things out. With Elizabeth, he was a mess. She was one hell of a puzzle, and he was missing quite a few of the pieces.
And it sucked.
Out by the body, she was a different person. Elizabeth kept the soft hidden, and instead stared down the team as she waited for answers.
“Doc, I really need COD,” she stated.
Chris loved this game.
“I think she was hit by a bus.”
The whole team looked up as he put his fresh gloves on. By the looks they were giving him, they weren’t sure where this was heading.
“What color was the bus?” she asked, playing along. If he thought she’d give up, he was crazy.
“Blue.”
“Dark or light?” she asked. “I see the skid marks, so it had to be going pretty fast.”
He started laughing.
“She was garroted,” stated Chris, as he inspected the back of her neck. “I’m done playing with you, Elizabeth. You suck the fun out of it. You’re a pain in my ass.”
“You love me anyway.”
“That I do.”
A tech dropped a box and looked up.
Chris pointed. “Get moving.”
Elizabeth snorted. “What else can you tell me?”
He studied the wound. “There is the telltale sign of something cutting into her throat. That’s the same MO as the last two, so I’ll go out on a limb and say we have the same killer.”
“Want to go four for four?” she asked.
Chris knew what she was talking about. Elizabeth wanted to see if the woman had her eyes and face. That would tell them if this was connected.
“That’s my next step,” he offered. “Want to swap jobs?” Chris asked. “I’ll do yours, and you can play in the dead?”
She snorted. “Hell no! You look cute in the scrubs. They wouldn’t work for me.”
He was filling out the paperwork before they moved her. “Great. Every guy wants to be called cute. That’s like being called nice.”
“Okay, you look sexy.”
Another tech dropped something.
Chris looked up. “How sexy are we talking?” he asked, not sure if she was playing with the team or dead serious. With Elizabeth, you could never really tell.
“Like ‘let’s have a date tonight’, kind of sexy.”
He grinned.
The team watched it all go down. They stared from her to him, and then back to her again.
“I already have a date tonight. She’s pretty hot, so can I get a raincheck?”
The team was staring now.
“Damn! Lucky her! I can’t wait to hear all about it. Wear that cologne. Trust me on that.”
He stared at her. “Really?” he finally asked.
Elizabeth winked. “Really.”
Chris felt completely and totally lost. Was she flirting? This felt like flirting. At first, he was pretty sure she was tormenting the team, since they liked to gossip about them, but this was different.
Right?
“Roll her,” she stated.
“Are the pictures done?” asked Chris, trying to regain control over the whole thing.
“Yes, Doctor Leonard,” the one tech stated.
“Then make the lady happy.”
Elizabeth knew that this was his scene just as much as hers. He liked to see the body first.
Then he’d let her touch it.
When they rolled her, it was pretty much what Elizabeth thought. Her face was missing, and so were her eyes.
“Find me a face and eyes,” she stated.
The techs began the hunt.
“Will you give me official COD now?” she asked. “Or do I have to get on my knees and beg?”
Oh, he’d love to see her on her knees.
Shit!
The torment was back with that visual.
“I’m going to say COD is the strangulation and neck wound,” he offered.
Elizabeth was staring down at her, and something was bugging the hell out of her.
Why did she seem familiar?
She couldn’t put her finger on it.
“What’s wrong, honey?” he asked.
Elizabeth shook her head. “Nothing. Continue, Christopher. I was just thinking about something.”
“Okay, Lyzee. I can give you TOD in a minute.”
Elizabeth was good with that.
She was walking around the flop of an apartment when she heard the commotion outside coming from the tape. It sounded like men shouting. Heading out, she found the two vice detectives on the tapeline. They were pissed, and they were pointing at her.
Pointing wasn’t the only thing. They were glaring at her as if she was the enemy.
“What are you doing here?” she asked.
“This is Cathy’s place!” Glen stated. “Her wire went dead last night, and the vice cop on duty just noticed it. He called us. By the time we both got here, they wouldn’t let us in.”
She looked back at the legs sticking out the door.
Shit.
That’s why she got that feeling of familiarity. The outfit was the one Cathy McCall had been wearing when she’d seen her earlier.
Shit.
This was bad.
“Elizabeth, you need to see this,” Chris said, calling her from the doorway.
“We want in!” demanded Kaleb.
Glen agreed. “You blew her cover!”
“Hey! Wait a moment. We don’t know that I blew her cover,” Elizabeth stated.
“You had to. We brought you in, and now she’s dead,” Glen stated. “She was safe before you started digging!”
She went to object.
“Elizabeth! Now!” Chris shouted.
She turned and hustled up the steps. Once inside, Chris was standing in the bathroom. On the mirror was a message.
‘You’re a whore, Cathy.’
Only that wasn’t the most horrific part. On the glass was her face. He’d stuck it there, and it still hadn’t slid down the glass.
That was gross.
If the killer was trying to make a statement, he’d managed to do just that. This guy was bat shit insane, and this was adding to the mounting proof.
“Where are her eyes?” she asked.
“We can’t find them. He took them.”
“None of this makes sense. He didn’t garrote the first girl, and he did with the later ones.”
Chris helped her out. “He didn’t take the first two’s faces, but he did with number three.”
Elizabeth was running through it and talking out loud might help. “We found the eyes of victims one and two, but not three and four.”
“Not yet, anyway. The team is still searching,”
Chris touched her arm. “Elizabeth, you’re lost in thought. What are you thinking?”
She stared at the words for another second. That’s when it hit her.
“You used my name.”
He wasn’t sure what she was getting at, but he was beginning to think she was overwhelmed.
“Yeah, because it’s your name.”
“And hers.”
“What?”
“We have a huge problem.”
“Honey, what are you talking about? You’re not making any
sense.”
It was time to let him in on it.
“Outside, there are two vice cops, and they want to take this case from me.”
“Can they do that?” Chris asked.
“I don’t know, but what I do know is I know who this is. She was undercover and a cop.”
“Oh boy.”
That was bad. It basically meant that any vice cop from her precinct was going to want their hands all over this, and having a Fed running it…yeah, they weren’t going to be happy.
Elizabeth’s life was about to go from bad to shitty, and fast.
“Only, it’s worse, Christopher. That’s not even what has me worked up.”
“How does it get worse than that?” he asked out of curiosity.
“She’d been living undercover for three months as a hooker. This isn’t her real home. These aren’t her things.”
“And?” he asked.
“The killer called her Cathy.”
Chris got it.
“He watched her or it was someone she knew.”
Yeah, and still, it got worse.
“The two men outside and the other hooker were the only three who knew she was a cop.”
“It’s one of them?”
She didn’t know.
But it was going to suck to find out.
* * * E l i z a b e t h L a R u e * * *
Hoover Building
Friday Morning
Gabe Rothschild’s
Office
Well, now they had a mess, and it was a huge one too. Not only did they have a dead cop on their hands, but Elizabeth LaRue was in the media. That, in itself, wouldn’t be bad, but they were making it one hell of a story.
When he woke, the top news headline on the local news was horrifying.
‘Fed who blew ‘The Butcher’ case is now heading the Hooker murders. Will she drop the ball…again?’
That was the last thing he wanted to wake up to, and the last thing he wanted Livy hearing that morning. Elizabeth’s face was all over the news, and now she was going to either make or break her career.
Time would only tell.
Add to it that Metro Vice was all over this one, and they likely weren’t going to give up. Gabe couldn’t blame them. It was their cop who was killed, and suddenly, they now wanted the case back.
Well, that wasn’t happening.
He didn’t care how hard the police commissioner threatened to tap dance all over his colon. Gabe had Elizabeth’s back.
He’d dropped the ball with her once. He wasn’t doing it again.
What she needed was to see that the FBI had her back. They weren’t turning on one of their own, no matter the circumstances. If that were to happen, then heads would roll.
At this very moment, she was sitting outside his office as he finished with the two cops. They’d asked for this meeting, and he was playing nice.
Far be it for him to shatter their hopes and dreams without an audience from the FBI. Plus, he didn’t trust his boss. The man didn’t like the screw up with ‘The Butcher’, and he would feed Elizabeth to the vultures in a heartbeat.
Yeah, no. Gabe would entertain the commissioner’s jackassery, for the time being.
What irritated him most was that while they were pissed, the two detectives had pulled out all the stops and brought their boss. Like that was going to save their asses?
Hell!
He had bad news. They were shit out of luck.
Still they tried.
“Your agent screwed up that last case. She’ll never be able to handle this,” Captain Hardy Lewis stated. “You need to give this to a better agent, or let us have it back. We want it brought in-house.”
His detectives agreed.
“Detective Sheehan, why exactly do you think she blew this?” Gabriel asked, leaning back in his chair.
“She was involved in this for less than five hours, and the killer found our detective. Cathy was under. She’d lived the alias of Precious. She didn’t do anything to get her cover blown. Do you really think it’s a coincidence?”
“I think we should ask her before we lynch my agent. Elizabeth LaRue isn’t a bad Fed.”
The head cop stepped in, pointing out exactly what the news had said that morning.
When he dropped the newspaper on his desk, it only pissed him off.
Gabe was irritated by so many things, but this?
Yeah, this was a miscalculation on their behalves. This wasn’t going to help them.
It was about to blow up in their faces.
“She dropped the ball on the one big case of her career.”
That pissed Gabe off. Now he’d work this fucking case with her to prove a point.
“She’s staying on, and you called us to handle this case. You can’t have it back. Denied.”
“We want in.”
“Then you have to discuss that with the lead agent. I’m leaving this up to her. I, unlike you, trust her judgment.” He buzzed his secretary. “Send in LaRue.”
She entered the room carrying a coffee and one hell of an attitude. If looks could kill, the two cops would be dead. Someone would be picking out their caskets.
Apparently, voices carried right through his door.
“You’re wasting my time. I could be out finding a killer,” she stated. “I have interviews today and leads to follow.”
Neither cop would look at her.
Yeah, she’d heard them through the door. She had excellent hearing.
“They want their case back, Elizabeth. What do you say to that? In fact, convince me why I should boot them out of the Hoover building.”
She laughed. “Yeah, they can’t have this back. That’s never happening on my watch.”
“Why not?” asked Captain Hardy Lewis. “Give me one good reason.”
Oh, she could do just that.
She pulled a file out of her messenger bag. In it, she had her one ace in the hole. It was also why she was pissed.
She felt played.
Set up.
Screwed over.
Well, that was going to end.
“I would ask, Gabe, that you dismiss the detectives. I’ll give you the file and let the Captain see it, but not them.”
They protested.
“What the hell, Elizabeth?”
They threw her under the bus, so she was going to do the same damn thing.
“Hey! I’m just returning the favor, boys. Loyalty is a two way street, and at least I didn’t go crying to your bosses with this mess,” she said, rubbing it in. Elizabeth knew both men would be dying to know what was in the folder.
The cops went to protest further, but Gabriel Rothschild wasn’t having it.
At all.
“Out!” Gabe said, pointing at the door.
The captain sat. “This had better be good. If it’s not, I’m taking it to the director.”
Elizabeth knew Gabe was getting really pissed. When he leaned forward and glared at the man, she was waiting for the bloodshed.
Elizabeth dropped her gear and handed Gabe the file.
“What am I looking at?” he asked.
“That’s Cathy McCall’s face. The killer stuck it on the glass to add to the impact of finding it. Her eyes are still MIA.”
“While gross, I don’t get it.”
“Look at the message.”
He did.
“Okay. I don’t get it. What exactly are you trying to get at here, Agent?”
“Someone’s been off the street a little too long,” she said, sarcastically.
“Control her,” Captain Hardy Lewis ordered.
Gabe wasn’t going to do that. Well, not that he really could. Elizabeth LaRue wasn’t easily contained, and she was about to show the man up.
He was looking forward to it.
“Elizabeth, do the honors.”
“The killer called her Cathy. He didn’t call her Precious. He didn’t use the name she’d been living under for the last three months.”
Gabe grinned. “What my agent is telling you, Captain, is that he knew her real identity.”
The room got quiet as he stared at the photo.
Elizabeth smiled triumphantly.
“He used her name, so he’d followed, stalked her, or she revealed herself to him.”
They let it hang in the air.
“No way!” Captain Lewis stated. “She was under strict orders to stay under fulltime.”
“If the killer was a John or the pimp, he would have called her Precious. I NEVER used her name. Whoever it was who stole her life either had to know the truth, or she slipped up and gave it away. This isn’t on me.”
He hated how she had a point.
“Like I said, she stayed under.”
“All the time?” Elizabeth asked. “Are you telling me she didn’t break cover for a single second in three months?”
The man closed his eyes.
“What?” Gabe asked.
“She broke cover once a week when she was picking up her check and expenditure money. She’d head to the precinct to get it.”
“Well, there you have it. He followed her, he knew who she was, and she outed herself, Gabe. This wasn’t me. I didn’t screw up.”
He was glad she’d figured this out. He’d go to bat for any of his agents, but especially this one. He owed her.
He smiled at the cop. “Anything else you’d like to dump on my agent?”
Captain Lewis knew he was done.
They were dead in the water.
“No.”
“Well, I’m not done. You have two cops out there who were pretty quick to blame me. Who knew where she lived?”
He didn’t say a word.
“Let me answer. They did.”
“Who knew her name?”
Again, nothing.
“They did.”
Gabe stood. “It looks like you have a problem, Captain. Someone in your house might be a killer.”
“I stand by them. I know them.”
“Oh, I do too. I know them well, and I’m going to question them.”
“No.”
“Yes, I am.”
“You can question the captain, too, Elizabeth. He knew about the undercover assignment, and he knew where she lived.”
“You don’t say,” she said, feigning surprise. “If I had a partner, I’d be high fiving them right about now.”
Stalked by the Past: An FBI Flashback Novel. (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 17) Page 18
