Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2))

by Kelley, Morgan

  “I have the tech team trying to find where the Chloral Hydrate came from, tracking all the distributors. I asked them to see if we can break it down chemically to see if any of them match. There are only three people on the reservation that have access to that drug.”

  “Doctor Wolman, Doctor Reginald and Doctor Barnes,” he read from her paper.

  “Medical, dental and veterinarian, in that order,” she supplied. “I need to lean on the team to get me the next two victims’ names. I think we’ll have a bit more to go on, if I can put names and locations to the faces. Two girls were Native American, one Caucasian and the bones were split fifty-fifty.”

  “Want me to yell at them?” Blackhawk gave her that boyish grin that made her want to jump him. His wife could only hold out so long. He’d win this battle yet.

  God, she loved looking at him, but she needed to focus on work and not her hormones. “I’ll yell at them, good cop, bad cop.” Elizabeth dialed the tech lab and put it on speaker phone. There was uproarious laughter when the call was picked up. “I’ll assume by the celebration going on in my lab, that you have now gotten the last two identifications and the final weapon to determine the cause of death.”

  There was dead silence on the phone, as if all of them had forgotten how to breathe.

  “Oh, Director Blackhawk. Um, we’re working on it right now,” said the tech.

  Elizabeth could hear hushed whispers. This was her favorite part, and now she’d screw with them. “I want it emailed as soon as possible. I’m in route to be in the office within the hour, and I better get it before I arrive, or I’m coming down there. I think we’re all smart enough to deduce what will happen if I arrive there empty handed.”

  “Yes, ma’am!”

  “Thank you,” she disconnected the call and looked superbly happy.

  “Are we going into the office?” he asked, eyebrow lifted in question. That was going to greatly interfere with his plans for his wife.

  Elizabeth leaned back on the couch and smiled at her husband. “Hell no. You and I know that it’s a lie, but we’re high up on the food chain. Our tech crew hasn’t a clue. I like to keep them on their toes.”

  Blackhawk leaned over her and kissed her, just enjoying her being beside him on the couch. “I love a devious woman,” he said, as he tried to lure her into fooling around.

  “Anyway,” she mumbled, as he kissed her and she tried to continue, “I noticed,” he was still kissing her and it was getting distracting, as his hands started wandering. “Ethan,” she laughed. “Focus for me. I know you have your shirt off trying to bait me into sweaty sex on the couch, but focus and then you’ll get the sex.”

  “Talk fast, Elizabeth. You only have a small window of me having control being this close to you.” He bit her earlobe, and continued onto her throat. Now his hands were working their way under her shirt and to the prize.

  “Anyway, I cross checked the list of people who can dispense Chloral Hydrate with those on the shaman list, and guess what name comes up on both?” She could feel his hands trying to unhook her bra.

  “Who baby?” Blackhawk was listening, just multitasking. Sundays for him meant lounging around and getting his wife naked as much as possible. It was his plan for the rest of their lives.

  “Doctor Wolman, the medical doctor who inspected the bones the first day, and then his wife Julia Wolman is a practicing shaman for the tribe.” Elizabeth noticed he already had her jeans unbuttoned. Man, he worked fast.

  “I don’t believe in coincidence, and I say we hit them first thing tomorrow.” Finally he got the clasp for her bra undone under her shirt. He leaned down and whispered something in her ear and she practically gasped. He wiggled his eyebrows and jerked his head towards to the stairs.

  Elizabeth chewed on her lower lip and ran her hands across his shoulders and tattoos in consideration. Sweaty sex with her truly sexy husband or some boring tech report that she already had the information from.

  “I’m game, Cowboy, but lock the bedroom door. We don’t need your brother barging in on that,” she whispered, letting him pull her up off the couch. “You have a dirty mind, Mr. Blackhawk.” Dropping the papers Elizabeth ran up the stairs.

  Ethan grinned wickedly. She wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know.

  Callen walked around his deputy’s house and knocked loudly on both doors. It wasn’t like Chester to not answer his phone, or for him to blow off a work assignment. The man, if anything, took the job too serious. This just didn’t feel right, and something was making him incredibly nervous about the entire situation.

  Maybe the neighbor had seen him sometime that morning. Whitefox opted to head there and hope that it was just his mind screwing with him, and that there wasn’t an issue.

  It was an older Native man that answered his knock, staring at him over his glasses like he was some criminal trying to break and enter. “Yes?”

  Whitefox pulled out his badge. “I’m Callen Whitefox, Chief of Reservation Police,” he paused, taking off his sunglasses, “I’m looking for Chester, did you see him today?”

  “You’re Timothy Blackhawk’s grandson, the one not in the FBI, right?”

  “Correct, sir. I’m the non-Federal one.” Everyone wanted to remind him of that little fact, and it twisted the knife in his soul a little bit more.

  “No, I didn’t see him, which is odd for him on a Sunday. Normally he stops by and drops off a copy of the paper for me when he goes into town, but he never showed today. Last time he did that he was down with the flu. I hope he’s not sick.”

  That wasn’t what Whitefox wanted to hear, and now his sneaking suspicion was turning into raging paranoia. “Thank you, if you see him have him call his boss as soon as possible, okay?”

  “Sure thing, tell your grandfather I send my regards and hello.”

  This was definitely wrong. He wasn’t sure what he should do, but he reached for his phone, hoping his brother would answer his call. Maybe, he was over the edge with worry over nothing, but if something bad had happened to his deputy, he was going to need the FBI again.

  This time to search and hopefully rescue.

  Ethan and his wife were rolling across their bed in a tangled mess when the phone rang. He stopped and rested his forehead against his wife’s, knowing that it was going to be official business.

  “Don’t answer it!” Elizabeth laughed, knowing he absolutely was going to do it anyway. They were both on call.

  There was a brief minute when he thought about letting it go to voicemail, but he just knew he couldn’t, so he reached for it.

  “Blackhawk,” he answered his phone. If it wasn’t an emergency, he was going to hurt someone. He finally got his wife naked and trapped beneath him, and was seconds from scoring.

  “Ethan, I have a huge problem. My one of my deputies has gone missing. No one’s seen him since last night, and I just have a really bad feeling about it. Chester is all about his job, but he blew me off this morning and his neighbor said he hasn’t been home.”

  “When was he on duty last, Callen?”

  At the sound of her brother-in-law’s name, she knew the relaxation was over.

  “Last night, and his patrol car isn’t in his driveway or the office. He’s the one we stopped to talk to before I dropped you off at granddad’s house. I think we were the last ones to see him.”

  Blackhawk slid off the bed and started getting dressed, noticing his wife was joining him and not complaining. “Give me his address, and we’ll be right there in a few,” he said, knowing his brother wouldn’t call him if it wasn’t important. When he hung up the phone he looked at his wife. “I’m sorry, baby; one of his deputies has vanished, and Callen thinks something bad has happened.”

  “It’s okay, let’s head over and start looking. We can split up.”

  “You're sticking with me!” Blackhawk realized how it sounded, and he corrected himself after the fact. “Please?”

  Elizabeth laughed, “Throwing please a
t the end of a demand doesn’t cancel it out. For the record I meant Callen go one way and us the other. We can’t call in the cavalry for a ‘suspected’ missing deputy. Gabe will get wind of that and lose his mind on the overtime. It’s already Sunday and the team is on the clock.”

  Blackhawk zipped up his jeans and tucked in his t-shirt. “I’m trying not to be too bossy,” he answered her. “Just give me a little leeway. I’m working on not being controlling.” Ethan Blackhawk took a deep breath. “As for Gabe, I’ll handle him. He owes me for tossing us out in the field,” Blackhawk sighed. “We could be naked in bed right now. This deputy better not be in a bar somewhere getting drunk or off getting laid.”

  “Ethan, you already had me naked in bed this morning.” Then she got serious, and touched his face gently. “I know that you’re trying really hard to not be overbearing, controlling, and a monster. That’s why I didn’t just kick your ass for the order you barked at me. Don’t forget your Kevlar,” she reminded him. “Because you were the one shot at, and this would be a good way to get us out in the open,” she said, slipping on her boots and clipping her badge and gun to her hip. “I’ll meet you downstairs.” She headed down to the living room to get her phone and her tablet.

  Blackhawk closed his eyes and took a deep breath, silently sending it out to the universe to get them back home and in one peace. At the last second he changed his plea. Just get his wife and child home in one piece. He’d take the chance with himself, just not the ones he loved.

  Whitefox immediately felt better as the big, black Denali pulled up in front of the deputy’s house. His sister-in-law hopped down from the driver’s seat and placed her sunglasses on her head, as she scanned the area. It wasn’t missed by him that she was keeping an eye on the surrounding area, as if expecting worst case scenario. It never even occurred to him that this might be a trap, and he dragged his family right into it. Protectively, he blocked her body with his just in case.

  “Thanks for coming. I didn’t know who else to call. It just feels all wrong to me.” Whitefox broke down everything he knew, and what he had planned for the day with his deputy. “He’s more responsible than I am. This isn’t like him.”

  “So we split up. What is his normal patrol route and which way does he come home from work?” Elizabeth pulled up the map on her tablet and pinpointed their location. Then she drew out the possible scenarios as Whitefox pointed the different options that seemed logical.

  “Okay, you head this way, towards the burial grounds and granddad’s house. Lyzee and I will take the more secluded route, the one over by the river. If you find anything, call us immediately. Don’t get out of your vehicle! You're going to be alone, so watch your back and if it looks and feels off it probably is.”

  “Got it,” he said, walking to his truck.

  “Callen, wait!” Elizabeth ran to the back of the Denali, pulling out a vest and a handgun from the lock box, slipping in the magazine and checking the chamber. “Just in case you get into trouble a handgun is going to be faster than a shotgun.”

  Ethan helped him into the vest and handed the gun over that his wife had loaded. “Don’t play hero Callen. If he’s now a victim there isn’t anything we can do about it. Don’t forget that this guy takes shots at cops and has a problem with us Blackhawks.”

  Whitefox noticed he included him in the family name, and he couldn’t help but wonder if the killer did too.

  “Be careful, Callen,” nodded Elizabeth. There was no doubt she was going to be all over her husband, making sure the killer wasn’t going to get in a shot.

  “Don’t worry about me. Make sure you both are safe,” he replied, hopping in his truck and pulling onto the main road. That uneasiness filled him, and he didn’t think that it was going to have the outcome he wanted.

  “Want to navigate for me?” she asked him, hopping into the driver seat and not giving him the option to drive. She wanted to be in control, just in case they had to get out of there fast. Elizabeth could tell he was already distracted. The profile wheels were turning in his head at the possibilities.

  “Yes,” he answered quietly, as he buckled his seatbelt and stared out the window.

  Elizabeth could see the tension on his face and the lines that gave it away around his mouth. “Spill it,” she said, finally.

  “This worries me. If the unsub took the deputy, he’s now completely gone the other way with his killings. I can’t profile someone that isn’t following pattern. I can’t do my job effectively, and we’re all at risk now.”

  Elizabeth patted his knee. “We just need to stay one step ahead Ethan, let’s just aim for that and go from there. I have complete and total confidence in you, as my partner and the profiler on this assignment. I don’t doubt you for one second.”

  Blackhawk felt the tension loosen in his chest. Out of all his partners in the past, she was probably the easiest he’d ever worked with. He had been notorious for going through a partner a year, but with Elizabeth, they slid into the partnership easily. Even if they weren’t a couple, he’d still want to work with her; they complemented each other’s skills perfectly.

  “Really, I trust you.”

  “If he’s going after men now, no one is safe, and as a profiler I can’t do my job and help my partner.” Blackhawk knew that they were going to be at a disadvantage from here on out, and he was relying on just his wife to put the puzzle together.

  “If he’s switching it up is it possible he’s screwing with us? Is it possible that he knows how to profile or has a degree in psychology and he’s possibly tossing us bodies to make us lose focus?” she asked, and took his hand in hers, squeezing it.

  “He could be screwing with us.”

  “We still have a physician to interview, and they have psychology rounds in medical school. Maybe we have a direction to head now too.”

  “I hope so.”

  “For now we should stick with our original profile and go from there. I trust your judgment, Ethan, and I think that he’s got something he’s trying to convey. We just need to stick with it and get to the bottom of this mess. Don’t let him screw with your confidence. That may be his plan,” she reassured him.

  “You might be right. I just have to stay focused on the facts. Tomorrow we do the interviews with the doctor, vet and dentist. I remember reading in the file that Doctor Wolman is a little too old for the profile, but he has a son.”

  “Don’t stress it now. Let’s stay focused and just not get shot at while we search for the deputy.”

  Ethan Blackhawk nodded.

  Elizabeth hoped her husband could pull it off. Without an accurate profile, she just had a bunch of crime scenes and no directionality. This killer was definitely screwing with them, and that just pissed her off. When they finally caught the killer, she was going to kick his ass for screwing with the Blackhawks.

  It didn’t take long to find the patrol car off to the side of the road. Both agents exited their vehicle carefully with guns drawn and sunglasses on, in case any thing glinted in the woods. Elizabeth took the car, and left her husband to watch the surrounding area for anything suspicious. He was watching her back to make sure that they weren’t being ambushed.

  “Anything, Lyzee?” he shouted over his shoulder, as he continued to scan the area. So far everything looked clear, he just wasn’t happy about the trees surrounding both sides of the road. It would make it easy to be caught off guard and shot, if the killer was sitting in the trees tracking them. Just the mere idea made him edgy, and he just kept focused on the trees, looking for the telltale glint of a scope in the sunlight. It wasn’t a guarantee that he would see it, but he might get lucky.

  The keys were still in the ignition, and the car was out of gas. “No one in the car,” she answered, looking around at the gravel on the road side. “Ethan, we have drag marks,” she yelled back, pointing. This time she scanned the area to protect her husband and partner while he was inspecting the ground. Elizabeth stood behind him with her back to his, as he c
rouched down to look at the marks.

  “They lead this way,” he stated, following them into the taller grass.

  Blackhawk was careful to not step on anything that was hidden or could destroy possible evidence. The dew had been disturbed on the tall grass. There were definitely signs that a large object or body had been pulled through there.

  “Anything, Cowboy?” she asked, still alert and focused on the tree lines. There was that bad feeling brewing deep within her gut.

  Blackhawk stood and sighed when he finally saw the body. “Yeah, we have something. Call in the cavalry, Lyzee. Deputy Briggs is dead.”

  ~ Chapter Fourteen ~

  Sunday late afternoon

  Elizabeth stood above the dead man, and she waited for the ME to start his initial check of his body. He was just removing the liver probe, as her husband walked over to join them. He currently had their tech team checking the woods for footprints, or anything that might give them an idea of who left the scene.

  “Doc,” he asked, beating his wife to the question. “Give me something.”

  “TOD is approximately ten or eleven p.m. I don’t have anything else, he’s not bleeding from anywhere, and I don’t see gunshot wounds either. I need to get him back, get the trace done, and then I’ll start the autopsy in two hours. It’s going to be a late one, Directors.”

  Elizabeth patted his arm. “I’ll get your whole team dinner. Hang in there, Doc. You found the backup ME and the paperwork’s being processed.” The whole team was on burn out, and they needed the rest of the hires on soon.

  Blackhawk pulled his wife away discreetly. “Callen isn’t doing so well. I don’t know how to help him,” he whispered, leaning down towards his wife. “He wants to see the autopsy.”

  “That’s a bad idea,” she whispered back.

  “What can we do?” he shrugged. If it was someone from his team, he would be insisting he see it too. “Can you try to persuade him to forget that idea?”