Elizabeth nodded towards her brother-in-law. “You supervise the team, and I’ll handle Callen.” There was no doubt in her mind that she knew how he felt inside. She had wanted to see Ray before they buried him, and her own deputy they lost in Salem. Fortunately for her, the people who loved her wouldn’t let it happen, and now she was going to try to protect her loved ones too.
“Callen?” she called to him, getting his attention.
“Yes?” He was trying to not sound hostile. It wasn’t their fault his deputy was dead, and he knew they were doing their best to be respectful of his fallen man’s body.
Elizabeth sat right beside him in the back of the tech van. Reassuringly, she took his hand in hers and tried to offer him comfort. When he didn’t stop her, she took it as a sign that the hostility coming off him in waves wasn’t directed at her. “We need to talk.”
“Did Ethan send you?” he asked angrily, looking down at their twined fingers.
Elizabeth ignored the anger. “Nope, I’m here because I’m your sister, and I can see you hurting. You know your brother and I would do anything to help you, and I’m going to give you a valuable piece of advice.”
“Yeah?”
“Skip standing in autopsy. It’s going to be a hard thing to swallow, and it’s going to screw with you, Callen.”
His cheek twitched and clenched with anger.
Oh yeah, they were brothers. That was a completely, Ethan response. “Please?”
Whitefox didn’t answer her.
“When I was back in Salem, the serial killer got one last victim before I could catch him and stop him. He took my deputy and killed her. He left her in my driveway with a red bow around her neck as a present for me. He was taunting me.” Even now the memory hurt her, and she refused to think of the killer as her half-brother. It just rubbed her raw.
“What did you do?”
“I didn’t torture myself by standing there while my ME autopsied her. That wouldn’t have made me find him faster. All it would have done was make me more angry, bitter and willing to get revenge.”
“Is it wrong I want to kill this asshole myself?”
Elizabeth squeezed his hand reassuringly, “No, it makes you human, Callen. Right now, you standing in autopsy is just you punishing you. You feel responsible and want to punish the only person you can, and that’s you. Let me have him and let me find him justice. Ethan and I will figure all this out and find a way to bring him in to make him pay. I promise.”
“I believe you and I wouldn’t trust anyone but you both. You’re my family and I love you both.”
“Then let me take over here and get Chester Briggs justice.”
“I feel like I need to do something,” he whispered desperately, as he held her hand. “He was a good man.”
“Did he have family on the Rez?” she asked.
“Yes, he did.”
She touched his chin and made him look at her, lifting both their sunglasses to the top of their heads. “I need you to go tell the family. Tell them he went down in the line of duty, and the FBI is handling it. Inform them your own brother is handling it personally, and he won’t rest until the killer is caught.”
“I want this scumbag to pay.”
Elizabeth looked into his eyes, knowing she was going to make sure she did. “When you’re done with that you need to head to the Montgomery family, and tell them their daughter isn’t coming home. I’ll give you one of our techs to take with you to help you through it. But you need to take care of your people on this reservation. It’s your job and your responsibility, Callen.”
Whitefox nodded, knowing she was right. “I’ll do my job, and I’ll do it for Chester Briggs.”
Elizabeth pulled him to his feet. “I’ll figure this out, Callen. I just need a little more time and a couple pieces to the puzzle. See if Lila Montgomery was dating anyone,” she added.
“Elizabeth?”
She looked up at her brother-in-law.
“Thank you,” he hugged her against his body, and gave her a kiss softly on the lips. When he pulled away he was profoundly grateful for having her in his family.
Elizabeth wouldn’t let him do the notifications alone. From personal experience, she knew how brutal it was going to be. She whistled at a few of her tech team, and they all looked up. “Which of you three has ever done a family notification?”
Two techs raised their hand.
“You,” she pointed. “The caring, sensitive looking one with the brown hair,” she shook her head, as he pointed at himself. “Yeah you. I need you to head out with Chief Whitefox; he needs to have a partner for two notifications.”
“Sure thing, boss,” he said, walking past her. He stopped when she grabbed his arm.
“Get him through it and carry him. Consider it a huge favor for us,” she paused. “I’ll owe you one personally.”
He nodded understanding what she was asking. “Consider it taken care of Director.”
Elizabeth mentally crossed that off her list as she walked back over to her husband. “It’s fixed,” she said.
“Do I need to ask how you pulled it off?” He kept his eyes on his tech team, searching the weeds and looking for evidence.
“It’s genetic.”
He looked over and was confused. “What’s genetic?”
“Callen is half Blackhawk and no Blackhawk male is immune to my southern charm.” With that she walked away, to check on the team sweeping the deputy car and to call Gabriel Rothschild. Her husband would be submitting his profile update, and she wanted to make sure their boss knew she stood with whatever he sent. Right now she had to believe in her husband. Lives were counting on it.
Elizabeth and Ethan Blackhawk stood side by side near the FBI vehicles. They were conferring on what they planned on doing next, as the deputy was loaded into the back of the ME van and taken away. When they heard the shout, both spun and hands went to their guns.
“Boss, come fast,” yelled Christina, waving at them from the tree line.
Both Blackhawks crossed the distance quickly, wary of what could possibly be wrong.
“You are never going to guess what we found!” The head tech was excited, and it vibrated through her body.
It was never a good thing when the tech team was this excited. It usually meant more work. Elizabeth was about to make a comment, but her husband elbowed her before she could get the sarcastic remark out.
“You said go out one hundred feet in perimeter and we decided to take it another few feet to the river bed.”
“Okay, and Christina?” asked Blackhawk, getting that sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“You gotta see for yourself!” She led them through the bramble to the small clearing by the bed of the river. “Look,” she pointed down, and then with her gloved hand brushed aside some leaves.
“It’s a bone.”
“This is the same river tributary we found the other bones beside. If you just head two miles down, it ends up where we had the first scene. I think we found another burial site. Ground consistency is the same, and it has an easy access point off the reservation,” she pointed across the river.
“Great,” Elizabeth pulled out her phone and dialed her anthropologist. When he answered she gave him the bad news. He was now on duty too. “Hey Tony, I need you on site. We have a possible dumping ground. Same as the last one,” Elizabeth gave him the directions and hung up the phone. They were going to be bitchy. They had been worked into the ground the last week, and she felt for them. Both Blackhawks were close behind on burn out.
“Guys, shift your focus and suit up. This asshole has a possible second site, and before you tell me that you’re tired, stressed, and at the breaking point. We’re aware and apologize in advance. I promise all of you get down time as soon as the new staff is in house. When we catch the killer, you can all personally thank him for making you work the overtime.”
She could hear the grumbles from everyone around her. Dialing the ME, she wanted to be
at the hell out of the killer herself. “Chris,” she sighed into the phone. “Stay on alert, we may have more bodies. We think we just found another grave. So far all we can discern are bones, but you remember the last one. You may be coming back out.”
“No problem, Lyzee. You want me back out to help you dig through anyway? I can leave the deputy with the trace team. I know we’re short staffed, and any extra help is needed.”
“Could you, Chris? It’s going to be dark soon, and I don’t like sitting out here in the woods with all these happy body hunting techs in a killer’s sights.”
“Lyzee, you know I’ll do it for you.”
Elizabeth thought about it. “Chris, from me to you, vest up, okay? I know it’s not your standard request, but gun too.” Since he was FBI trained, he could carry and she would feel better if they all did. “In fact, contact Tony and tell him the same thing. Make it an official directive.”
“I love when you get all Director-y on me. Got it and see you in thirty, Director Ma’am.”
Elizabeth could picture him saluting, and she couldn’t help but laugh as she disconnected the call and headed back to find her husband. Her gut was telling her that what was coming was going to take this assignment from vile to horrifying in the next few hours.
Blackhawk was contemplating their options. A night recovery wasn’t high on his list of good things. “Christina, get the trace back to lab, send a few techs ahead. Not many, it’s going to be dark in three hours. We’re all hands on deck for the rest of the night. Get out the lights and set up for a night recovery,” he paused, “Everyone in Kevlar ASAP!”
“Yes, boss.” Christina whistled, and pointed at two techs and taking over. “The Blackhawks want three of you to transport all evidence back to base. The rest of us are dividing into two groups to begin night set up and digging, as soon as possible. Night is coming, so let’s move and suit up in the good stuff.”
Blackhawk met his wife halfway. “You got the ME on call?”
“He’s coming back as a personal favor to us. Chris is going to help with the bone removal. Doc Magnus will be more than grateful if we open the ground and find a mass grave. Maybe we’ll get lucky and it’ll be only one skeleton.”
“Do you believe that?” he asked, watching the team scramble before night fall.
Elizabeth took his hand and led him over to a quiet area. “Let’s keep this between us, until we see what’s in that area, but no. If there’s more than one body I have a theory and need your opinion.”
His wife had his attention. “What are you thinking?”
“What if this was the scenario. The deputy sees a vehicle on the side of the road. He stops to investigate and finds the killer trying to get to his stash. Killer takes him out and bails. If we open the ground and find women and fetuses, I’m going to say he was found mid dig, or just as he arrived. Deputy Briggs has no defensive wounds, and he’s a big guy. I think the killer surprised him, and he wasn’t targeted, but in the wrong place at the worst possible time.”
Ethan considered the theory. “I think I tend to agree with you.”
“I find it hard to believe we just happened to find his car parked one hundred fifty feet from the next batch of bones.”
“Again, I agree.”
“If that turns out to be a deer carcass buried there, then we’re clueless why the deputy was killed. I just have a sick feeling that this asshole is hiding bodies all along this river bed. It’s like some sick version of a storage place for him.”
Blackhawk watched the lights go up and the barriers to block any bystanders from looking into the scene when it’s lit up. “If the deputy was killed just because he happened on the killer, my assessment profile can stand. Mixed race, late twenties or early thirties, but I just don’t have any explanation on why the last woman was dressed up and not pregnant.”
“She was on birth control, Ethan. I’m willing to toss out there that he wasn’t aware of that.”
“You confirmed?”
“I did with Chris,” she answered. “He found an IUD implanted.”
“You think he knew her personally?”
“I think he knew them all personally,” she paused. “Before you told me a killer relates to his victims. He’s picking these women for a reason, and I don’t think you can randomly make a pregnant woman disappear.”
The muscle in his cheek twitched.
Elizabeth touched her husband’s hand. “I think this has been personal from the start, Ethan. I’m not the profiler, but I’m willing to bet he did know her and every one of the women he killed. I just need to figure out how.”
“I happen to be with you on this one, and I’d like to add that I think the killer is mentally unstable. If this is personal, at some point, then he’s going to up the stakes.”
Elizabeth agreed and fear filled her. The prize would be either her husband or her brother-in-law. “Now I agree. He’s baiting us and playing a game. We just need to figure out what the game is and how we can get ahead of it, and beat him at it.”
“Yeah, before it’s too late.”
* * *
In the brush across the river he stayed hidden, watching the FBI defile his sacred collection. As they set up their lights and prepped to dig, he felt the anger flood his body. The fury he felt for the raven and the fox was immeasurable. There was such hate filling his body that he almost could taste it, as it built up in his gut, eating away at him.
Those incompetent assholes just stumbled onto all his bones for the medicine wheel. Every skeleton he had left was hidden there. When the rain unearthed the other spot, he should have come to check on this one and moved it then.
If only he crossed the river last night, instead of looking for that stupid Blackhawk bitch. Then the deputy wouldn’t have found him, he wouldn’t have had to kill him, and they wouldn’t have found his bones. This was all her fault, and now he would have to make someone pay. Without the bones, he had nothing to offer the spirit world.
He stared at the woman as she gave directions. By her side, her husband was standing and guarding her. If his brother only knew that the plan was to take her, he’d be scared shitless. By stealing away his wife he could lure the brothers into the game and end their lives. Then there would be only one son, and the heir to the shaman’s family name.
Before the week was out, the bull would be the replacement for both the raven and the fox. Seamlessly, he would move into their lives and take over as the beloved heir. No longer would they even be remembered as Blackhawk blood. He would be all that mattered.
Out with the old Blackhawks and in with the new.
He slowly stood, trying to make no motion to draw attention. He needed to screw with them and make them turn on their own. It was time to put the bull into play.
Losing the bones would be okay, because now he had a new sacrifice.
A very pretty one.
* * *
Sunday Night
Whitefox believed he had the worst day of his life. He lost a friend, and then had to tell two families that they lost loved ones. The tears and the cries of anguish made his heart ache. He was beginning to wonder if Elizabeth Blackhawk even liked him, or if she secretly despised him.
Sending him on that assignment had to be punishment.
How could that have been easier than watching an autopsy? He had to admit, the tech that went with him helped greatly. He was sensitive and caring and let the families cry all over him, and he did a far better job than he did as chief of police. He felt stiff and discombobulated over the entire thing. Notifications weren’t his thing.
When he arrived at FBI West, he was told by the techs in the lab that they were all still on scene. Something about that didn’t seem right and instead of waiting there, he headed over to see what was holding them up. They all should have been clear of the scene and had the body returned for the autopsy. When he pulled up he saw the road blocked and the spotlights in the woods. Something bad had to have gone down since he left three hours a
go. The entire FBI West seemed to be on duty after dark. There was no doubt in his mind that if they were still here then there was a huge reason. His brother wouldn’t want his tech team or wife out in the dark as sitting ducks.
After being cleared by one of the agents at the tape, he walked past the spot his deputy was found and into the tree line. What waited for him stopped his heart and filled it with revulsion.
It was like deja vu.
Here they were standing beside the water, on the bank of dirt with more body bags, all waiting for cargo to be taken off to FBI West. Yeah, his day had been bad, but his brother and sister-in-law’s had been far worse.
On the bank of the river, there were teams excavating, sifting, and digging through the soft soil. They had ground penetrating radar and everyone was working. In a row were ten body bags. Beside them, his family diligently worked, gently digging remains from the soil to fill them. As he grabbed gloves and a clean suit, he got dressed and pulled back his hair. He had to tell people they lost loved ones, but his family had to sit in the open chasm to unearth them.
There was no doubt that his brother was distracted. Ethan was working beside his wife and trying to watch across the river to keep an eye out for anyone with a rifle in the darkness. Right now, they were sitting ducks, and he looked concerned. They had constructed barriers, but they were made of material. A bullet would tear right through them and still find its target.
Elizabeth was working on a fetus housed in the remains of a woman. Her brow was beaded with perspiration, and she was concentrating on not damaging the bones. When his shadow fell across her work, she stared up with all emotion void from her face, but visible in her eyes.
Whitefox knew this was costing her.
“Welcome to the party, Callen. Meet victim number seven, and we’re still only four feet down. Doc Magnus thinks we may have up to ten bodies before the night is over. That’s what the radar says anyway.”
“Holy shit,” he mumbled, kneeling beside her, and he slowly began brushing the dirt away with the brush the tech handed him.
Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) Page 35
