Dead are Forgotten

by Morgan Kelley

  At the doors, they were given access by a tech, who saw them coming and let them in.

  “Doctor Vanbrunt?” she asked.

  The woman pointed, and they headed that way.

  “Uh, this might not be any of my business, Director,” Wilcox stated, “but the multiple spouse thing…”

  She gave him a look.

  “What? Is there a freaking jar for that too? With each husband, I have to drop a grand into it?”

  He laughed.

  “No, I’d just like to point out that there were multiple men in the Bible who had multiple wives, and God is cool with it.”

  She lifted a brow.

  “Like Solomon or Moses.”

  Well, this went where she didn’t expect it to go.

  “And?”

  “That’s it.”

  She shook her head. Her life was a box of Fruit Loops, and here was her proof. Now she had a security tag along that wanted to give her random bible facts.

  HER.

  Oh, the irony.

  She made a mental note to avoid Ethan’s new security.

  “Ethan, take Callen, security, and the techs to get the van ready for pickup. I want to do this fast. I’m going to use Heath.”

  “If you break him like you broke Rory…”

  She got the warning.

  She’d pushed the other man too far, and now it blew up in her face. She was dealing with some man who made her pay when she cursed and preached at her.

  Great.

  Lesson learned.

  This one might try to baptize her in holy water and hold her under. It was better safe than sorry.

  “I won’t break Heath. I actually like him.”

  Ivan laughed.

  “Oh, my feelings are so hurt, Cruella DC-Ville,” he stated. “Who will be my best man now?”

  She snorted.

  “Awww, I knew I was your favorite, Mrs. B. I could tell when you bring me snacks. Thanks for the cookies.”

  Ivan stared at her.

  “Yeah, about that. What is that jackassery?” he asked. “You’re cheating on me with Heath?”

  She liked to make them paranoid. It was fun to watch them wonder what was going on.

  “Yes, I am because he’s nice to me. He gets brownies too.”

  The big man smiled that big toothy grin that made him look like a big softie.

  “They had colorful candies in them.”

  “Now, he’s going to earn them. I need Heath to scare them for me.”

  He winked at her.

  “You got it, Mrs. B. I’ll get you that body,” he said.

  “NO PAPERWORK!” Ethan warned, “Or you’re doing it tonight!”

  She got it.

  Scare.

  Don’t touch.

  She followed Heath down the hall, and the other half of their group went to the pick-up bay to see if she could do it without making one hell of a spectacle.

  As Heath shoved the door open, it hit the wall.

  Everyone inside jumped and stared at the big man as he lumbered into the room wearing his normal military riot gear.

  “Director Blackhawk requests your attention,” he stated.

  They all pointed at the ME like they knew the shit was about to hit the fan.

  “Well, howdy. I came to pick up a body that seems to have been held up in transport.”

  Doctor Vanbrunt came forward.

  “I don’t like being forced to do anything, and until I see your ME’s report, I’m not one hundred percent sure this is the same killer. I don’t guess and assume.”

  It took a certain kind of person to be an ME, and that generally meant they were all like this. God knew she’d tried to get Chris to loosen up, and almost twenty years in, it hadn’t happened.

  It never would.

  Then there was the part of her where he was impeding her investigation. She wanted to compare any semen found on the first victim with the second.

  She suspected that Carl had help.

  But who was doing the deed?

  “Listen, Doctor, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  She handed him the transport form.

  The paperwork was done.

  “Heath. We’re going into the cooler. We’re going to find Beverly, and I don’t care if you have to touch all the bodies and destroy their evidence. Get me the woman.”

  “Do you want me to carry her out over my shoulder?” he asked. “I don’t need no stinking body bag. I’ve been covered in body parts before. Can you pick up any part of her that I drop?” he asked.

  She played along, and it was hard not to laugh her ass off.

  Elizabeth pulled gloves from her pocket.

  “I can do that.”

  He started toward the cooler door.

  “WAIT!”

  She stared at the doctor. “I can tell something is going on here, and I can smell a cover-up.”

  Jesus.

  Damn those smart ME’s with their big brains.

  It was time to do the dance.

  “Well, here’s what’s going on. We have two bodies, someone is throwing around the name of a dead mobster, and we are trying to keep from having some media frenzy. If this blows up, and people start the whole, ‘O’Banion was spotted in Vegas crap, like Elvis’, I’m going to be really angry. I have enough shit on my plate that I don’t need speculation and craziness. My boss wants you to hand her over, so we can handle this quietly.”

  “You won’t like her angry. She likes to punch people,” Heath stated.

  He didn’t want that.

  But still, something was definitely going on there, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

  “She’s on slab four in the cooler. Please make sure you use a table,” he added.

  She nearly snorted.

  What kind of sickos did he think they were?

  “Got it. Leave her in the bag and use a table to wheel her out.”

  Heath headed in there, and he pulled the body out. They began pushing it toward the receiving bay.

  “Good job in there, Heath. I couldn’t have set that one up better.”

  “I’m just glad there’s no dangling or loose parts, Mrs. B. I hate dead bodies,” he whispered.

  “Are you saying you’re freaked out?” she teased. “You?”

  “Yes. They give me the heebie-jeebies.”

  Elizabeth couldn’t help herself.

  That made her laugh her ass off.

  It looked like you learned something new every day.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  He was proud of his apprentice.

  Everything had gone as planned. He was able to get things taken care of, and he was now one step closer to getting his ultimate revenge.

  It had been years.

  Finally, he would get his payback.

  It would be swift, and it would be fast.

  When he called him, he was amped, and that worked for him.

  “I want another,” he begged into the phone. “Let me have this next one too.”

  “Well, she was supposed to be mine.”

  “Please?”

  He laughed.

  He was not going to do any killing. If this went bad, he didn’t want to go to jail. He’d been so careful, making sure that his apprentice didn’t leave a trace, didn’t make any mistakes, and couldn’t be traced back to him.

  He was a professional.

  “Okay, you can, but do it tonight. We have to keep them on their toes. We have to make sure we keep them shocked and off balance.”

  “Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll take her. This is so much fun. I can’t believe I never thought to do this sooner. I think I’ve found my calling in life.”

  Oh, he was so glad. This one was malleable and impressionable, and he’d do his work.

  It was perfect.

  He hung up.

  Everything was falling into place as he chased the revenge that he’d
lost sleep over each night in his cage.

  This.

  The victims.

  The apprentice.

  Now it was only a matter of time. He would get the last laugh. It was years in the making.

  * * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *

  They were just getting the body secured when her phone went off.

  “Yeah, Doc?”

  “You’re going to want to come back. We have something for you, and it’s big.”

  “Can it wait until after I make some workers go postal?” she asked. “You know how I like to torment the shit out of federal employees.”

  He paused.

  “You may want this before you hit them up. It might benefit your investigation.”

  She glanced at her watch.

  Elizabeth had time, but not much time. The post office didn’t open for thirty more minutes, so this would have to come first. She’d been planning to send the techs back with the body, but alas, she had to do what she had to do.

  “We’re on our way there. It had better be damn good, Christopher. I don’t like playing yo-yo when it comes to work.”

  He was aware.

  “I found it odd, and you will want to see it.”

  That was enough for her. Chris knew her, and this wasn’t their first day at the rodeo together. If he had something, it was time to listen.

  It looked like they were heading back.

  Maybe they would get lucky.

  When they arrived, the whole room was amped up. Techs were moving around, and Chris had Mary face down, and the back or her neck was peeled off to reveal her skull and neck.

  “Okay, Christopher, blow my mind.”

  He pointed at Max first.

  “You’re up, Detective. You get only one chance to make a first impression. Rock her criminal world.”

  She turned.

  “Yes, Detective. Show me how good you are at your job, or I’ll kick your ass.”

  His eyes went big.

  Well, in that case…

  “I went through the footage. You have a problem,” he stated.

  He sent the video footage to the monitor, and they all watched as they scrolled across the screen.

  They saw the woman heading toward her vehicle, the man jumping out, the knife to the back of her neck, and then him dragging her.

  They watched as he placed her in the vehicle, and all the time keeping his back to the camera as his hoodie was up. They even saw the rape. He unzipped, pushed up her skirt, and did the deed.

  No one made a peep as she moved closer to the screen to take it all in. They knew their boss.

  Then it got to the part that Max wanted her to see. It was clear why.

  The man had to have known the camera was there.

  “And watch…”

  Max slowed it down.

  The man flipped the camera off, then took off around the corner at a jog.

  “So, he flipped me off. That had better not be why you called me back here, Christopher, or I’m going to jog my way over there and smack the stupid out of both of you.”

  Chris urged the man on.

  She’d do it.

  “Max…”

  He pulled up records from the prison.

  “I found this medical report. Right after prison released him, before he headed here, he had an accident. He damaged his knee.”

  Max pulled up the motor vehicle report, and he’d contacted the hospital.

  “It looks like he tore something,” he said, as he pulled up the bus station footage and blew it up. He had a slight limp.

  Chris spoke up.

  “I spoke to the doctor at the hospital when Max called to confirm that he’d been brought in there. They wouldn’t release any medical records, but I kind of bent the truth.”

  She lifted a brow.

  “YOU?”

  Chris laughed.

  “Yes, me. I told them that I needed information on a possible dead body.”

  “Okay, and?”

  “He had an anterior cruciate ligament tear in his knee from the impact of the vehicle. He can’t jog on it. We know he got out of jail and there was a gap in time before he headed here, but now we know why.”

  “You know I can’t use any of that in court,” she stated.

  Oh, he was aware.

  “The doctor would lose his job. He gave me patient information and I lied, but now you have your confirmation. Your killer couldn’t drag a body, lift her into the car, and then jog away merrily. Your suspicions are right. He’s got a helper.”

  She pointed at Max.

  “Let me see it again, but play it at regular speed.”

  He cued it up at the part where the man was lugging the woman to her vehicle, and then jogging off. It appeared the cab driver had been right. From here on out, they were going to be focusing on someone assisting Carl in his killing.

  That had to be her new focus.

  “Well, we suspected, but this is proof.”

  “I have more,” Chris stated.

  “Who did you illegally shakedown for this information?” she teased—sort of…

  He picked up trajectory stick and slid it into the wound. “Now, think back to the show and tell yesterday. What was the angle?” he asked.

  “Horizontally across,” Tony stated. “When the person was standing, it was parallel to the ground.”

  “Now picture Mary standing. Where is the angle?”

  “Pointing up with the stick pointing at the floor.”

  She understood.

  “This is scientific proof that the helper is doing the dirty work. I’m not looking for one person, but two.”

  “Yep, and person number two is going to be shorter. When we did the show and tell, this angle is more likely someone Tony’s height. We know Carl Fitzpatrick killed these victims,” he said, pointing at the bones on the tables, “but we know he didn’t do this one.”

  She pointed at the body bag that was just rolled in.

  “Get her prepped. I want to see if Carl’s helper had his hands all over Beverly too.”

  They worked fast.

  As she watched, she mulled this over. She didn’t doubt why Carl had help. One, he was getting up there in age. Two, he’d just gotten out of the clink. He likely didn’t want to go back. Three, he didn’t want anyone recognizing him.

  Yeah, she had his number.

  When they had Beverly face down on a table, Chris pulled on new gloves and began making an incision down the back of her neck to peel back the dermis to get to the flesh. Then he did the same thing as he opened her up to reveal her vertebrae.

  Chrissy handed him the trajectory stick, and he slid it into the wound.

  It, too, was at an angle pointing up with the stick aimed at down her body. It had been the upward motion of a shorter man.

  “Lyzee, honey, it’s the same as with Mary.”

  Okay, so the hunt began.

  “Carson Gallagher, the cabbie who picked Carl up as he headed to DC, said there was a second person. Allegedly, we have a blonde smoker with a fake mole, and they were friendly. That, to me, means he knew him. Let’s see what we can find out about the man’s time in prison, shall we?”

  “How are you going to find him?” Max asked. “This is a needle in a haystack.”

  Yeah, and that was her thing. She found the best way to find needles were to roll around on everything until one poked you in the ass.

  She was going to locate anyone who helped him.

  “You’re going to contact the prison, and I want transcripts of all of his calls in and out and the visitor log. If he was communicating with this person, we’re going to make sure we get a face.”

  Max got to work, making calls.

  “Alex, see if you can get that video cleaned up. I want to focus on everything else on the video—reflection, cars driving by, or shadows. Use our new tech and isolate something that I can use to find this happy killer.”

  “You think Carl would watch?” Callen asked
, getting where she was heading with this one.

  They turned to Ethan.

  This was his area.

  “Okay, so profile me this, Profiler God. One, why is he getting help, and two, is he getting off on watching it?”

  Ethan gave her everything he’d been working on up to that moment. He knew she’d want it, and he had some psych evaluations on the man.

  “It would make sense, baby. Carl is aging, but the need for retribution would be there. He’s going to find someone he can train to do his dirty work. As for watching, hell, yeah! He’s going to want to make sure his revenge is done according to plan.”

  That made her wonder.

  “The sexual assault…”

  Ethan knew where she was heading with that too.

  “It was my gut instinct to say he isn’t aware it’s being done, but then again, if he wants to hang someone with these crimes, he’s going to let his helper screw up. That way, if it goes down, it goes down without him being implicated.”

  “But why the notes? It points it at himself.”

  He understood her confusion. He’d tripped on that too.

  “Because we can’t pin it to him. He can wear a shirt that says, ‘I did it’, but unless we have evidence…”

  Yeah, they were out of luck.

  “That can’t be easy to find someone who is that cuckoo. What can you tell me about them?”

  “Younger, average to below intelligence. You might want to look for someone who failed at entering the military, or was deemed incompetent to be a cop.”

  “Why?” Callen asked.

  “He’s enjoying the kill, which means he’s got a fascination with it. He’s in your face with his flip off, and he wants to prove he’s smarter than he has been accused of being. If he’s doing this, and not for money, he’s going to have some sort of gain behind it.”

  “Glory?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Notoriety?” Callen added.

  “Yes, and yes. This killer will be impressionable, so he will be young. He’s being molded, shaped, and made into a killer by a killer. It’s going to be someone he idolizes. See if Carl had any fans from this area.”

  The three men got to it.

  Alex, Noah, and Max were going to be damn busy with this one.