“So you had a nice time then,” she said and chuckled.
“I honestly did. Good to get away from our kids for the day.”
Reed handed his badge to Danny, and Sierra walked Reed out the door to the black SUV the agent had left for him.
“I’ll see you in the morning.” She tried to sound lighthearted and look anywhere but at his eyes and failed.
He held her gaze. “You promise you’re going to bed and not back to work.”
“I promise.” She laughed. “I can barely keep my eyes open.”
“And you won’t start without me in the morning?”
“You don’t trust me,” she said feeling the sting of it.
“It’s not that at all. I feel like I’ve gotten to know your character today, and I doubt you could lie to me if you tried.”
She opened her mouth to say she could, but she knew he was right. Lying wasn’t something she was any good at. “So why do you need to dog my every move?”
“I need to see everything with my own eyes if I’m going to get my supervisor to trust in forensics that the official team missed.”
“Ah, he doesn’t trust us.”
“Exactly. And you do have a vested interest in skewing the results. So watching you eliminates any question of conflict of interest.”
“I don’t like to think anyone would doubt my work when I do my very best to remain impartial in the lab, but I get that he might be suspicious.”
“All he would have to do was spend a day with you and he’d know that about you.” He smiled.
“Still, promise me you won’t bring him with you in the morning.” She grinned at him.
He laughed. “What time do you want to start?”
“Is six too early for you?”
He shook his head and reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. “Goodnight, Sierra. Sweet dreams.”
A shiver started where his finger brushed her cheek and flooded over her body. She thought she might melt into a puddle right there in the parking lot.
He smiled, an intimate one, that made the shiver start all over again. Just when she thought he might kiss her, he turned and strode off.
She exhaled. Did he know the effect that look had on a woman? Likely.
They worked together—that was all. A statement she kept repeating all the way up to her condo, through her shower, and until she crawled into her bed and turned off the lights. Then his face replaced all thoughts, and she drifted off to sleep.
13
Sierra struggled awake. Struggled to figure out where she was and make sense of her phone ringing from her nightstand. She saw Maya’s name and that it was one-fifteen a.m. and quickly answered. “You have results for me?”
“No. A murder.”
“What?” She shot up in bed.
“The Washington County Sheriff called me personally,” Maya said. “Apparently, the victim is some big shot in the county and the sheriff wants quick and thorough results.”
“Which means us, but I’m really swamped with looking for Eddie.”
A strained silence stretched out.
“Go ahead.” Sierra got up to get a glass of water. “Say whatever it is you’re not saying.”
Maya blew a breath through the phone. “You not taking this callout isn’t in the lab’s best interest. Not with our contract with the county coming due soon.”
“But I…” Sierra didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t possibly manage a murder investigation and find Eddie at the same time.
“You could process the scene like the sheriff is expecting,” Maya said. “And then have Chad do the lab work.”
“I don’t know.”
“You keep saying he’s ready to do more. Let him prove it.”
“And what if he screws up, and we lose the contract?”
“I’ll get Blake to check in with Chad on a regular basis, and you can too. Just to be sure he’s on track.”
Sierra let the idea settle in. She didn’t like giving up control of part of an investigation much less the whole thing, but it was looking like she didn’t have a choice. “It might work.”
“Sure it will. I’ll text you the address. Just get over there now, and we’ll figure it all out tomorrow.”
“Okay. Talk to you then.” Sierra went to the bathroom to clean up and brush her teeth but didn’t bother with makeup. She slipped into jogging pants and a T-shirt as she would be wearing a coverall on the scene anyway.
At the house located in a new and pricey subdivision on the outskirts of Washington County, she parked her van near the crime scene tape strung by the reporting deputy and opened the back door to slide into her coveralls. She hung her camera strap around her neck, picked up her kit, and slipped under the tape.
“Excuse me,” a man called out from the sidewalk.
Startled, she spun to look at him. She’d been so focused on getting ready and inside the house that she missed seeing him. He stepped closer, and she took in his athletic pants and T-shirt, both black, on a buff body. Had he been out running at this time of night?
“Sorry to bother you.” He smiled.
His smile might be meant to disarm her, but she knew to keep her guard up with any stranger approaching a crime scene, especially in the middle of the night. “Can I help you?”
“Something bad happened, didn’t it?” A deep frown marred the very handsome face with wide jaw and deep-set eyes.
She wanted to tell him everything was okay and to go back home, but as Reed recently pointed out, she didn’t lie very well. “I’m not at liberty to say.”
“Sorry. It’s just…I live next door.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at the large two-story home on the next lot. “This is a quiet neighborhood…safe neighborhood, and I wanted to know if we need to be concerned about our safety. I’m former military, and I can sense danger in the area.”
She noticed an Army Ranger tattoo on his forearm, and found it a bit odd that someone who served in that capacity was so concerned about safety. But then if he had a wife, which his wedding ring suggested, and kids, she could understand he would want to protect them.
But she wasn’t the one to tell him about the murder. “I wish I could update you, but I only handle forensics, and it’s not my place to share.”
“I understand.” He smiled. “Thanks for talking to me and not just blowing me off.”
She nodded and smiled then stepped up the long walkway to the contemporary home with odd slanting rooflines. She found the door open and entered the large entryway with wood floors and pale gray walls covered in expensive artwork and a high ceiling holding a ginormous gold chandelier. The house smelled like tangy barbecue sauce as if someone had recently grilled dinner.
The responding deputy had his back to her but he spun, and she almost sighed when she realized it was her brother Brendan. She had to admit her younger brother looked handsome in his uniform. He’d inherited their father’s chiseled good looks, and at around six feet tall was one of the shorter brothers. He worked out, and his posture was nearly perfect.
“Hey.” He gave her a quick smile and handed her a clipboard to sign in. “I always figured we’d run into each other at a crime scene one day.”
“Yeah, me, too,” she said as she scribbled her name on the log, but wasn’t as excited about seeing him here as he seemed to be with her. She worried that he might say something personal around other officers, and her reputation as a no-nonsense investigator might be shot.
She slipped into her booties and was glad to see Brendan was wearing a pair, too.
“This is a bad one, sis.” He cast her a concerned look. “Maybe you want to sit it out, and we can get someone else out here.”
She lifted her shoulders. “I’m a professional and can handle it.”
“Always so stubborn.” He watched her for a few more moments then spun. “Body’s this way.”
He headed into the family room, and she heard a television playing a mattress commercial in the next room,
but she tuned it out to squat down by the body. The victim was lying face up with a violent slash on his neck and multiple stab wounds to his torso and chest.
“I told you it was bad,” Brendan said.
“Yeah,” she replied, but instead of thinking about hating to see this brutally murdered man, she honestly hated that her little brother had to see the results of a brutal attack. She started at the victim’s head and counted the stab wounds as she moved down to his waist. Ten punctures in all. “Everything but the neck looks like it was inflicted postmortem.”
“How can you tell?”
“Not much blood.”
A swatch of blood was smeared across the floor but most of it pooled around his upper body. He could’ve been moved, accounting for the smeared blood. “You touch him or anything in here?”
He snorted. “I know what I’m doing, Sierra.”
She’d like to think her brother wouldn’t make a mistake after being on the job for five years, but he could’ve been spooked and forgotten all about his training and experience. “Who called this in?”
“His daughter. She’s been trying to reach him for hours and finally came over to check on him.” He tipped his head at an adjoining room. “She’s waiting for the detective in there.”
She heard the front door creak open, and whoever entered stopped at the door. A breeze rushed in after the person, and the enticing smell of warm cinnamon mixed with leather came along with it. Even before turning, she knew she would find Reed standing at the door.
She slowly got up, schooling her expression, and faced him.
He stood up from putting on booties from the box Brendan had left at the door and gaped at her for a moment. “What are you doing here?”
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
That eyebrow arched up as he grabbed the clipboard and signed in. “You don’t know who this is, do you?”
“ME’s not here so we haven’t gotten an ID yet, but you obviously know him.”
“It’s Ira Caulfield. Barnes’s accountant.”
“His what?” She spun and looked at the man who’d lost his life to a very violent death. Did Reed think Eddie did this? Probably.
She heard Reed start across the room, but Brendan stepped in his path. “You are?”
“FBI Special Agent Reed Rice. I’ll be partnering with your agency in finding the person responsible for killing Caulfield.”
Sierra didn’t have to look to know Reed’s entitled tone would make Brendan bristle and he wouldn’t back down and let Reed pass. She turned and the pair were engaged in a visual battle of wills.
Brendan glanced at her. “You know this agent and can vouch for his right to be here?”
She nodded but didn’t introduce them as she didn’t want Reed to know Brendan was her bother. Thankfully, he stepped back to let Reed pass.
“We can take if from here,” she told Brendan.
He stood watching her for a minute like he wanted to argue and whisk her out of this gruesome scene, but he shook his head and strode to the door where he would meet with his sergeant when he arrived and then make sure everyone who arrived signed in.
“Glad to see the deputy is doing his job.” Reed snapped on latex gloves.
The perfect opening for her to tell him Brendan was her brother. Instead, she kept her mouth shut and crouched down by Caulfield’s body. Now that she knew who he was, before the ME took the body away, she wanted a closer look at the wound that had likely taken his life. She lifted her camera and zoomed into the wound that crossed his entire neck.
Reed squatted next to her, and now that her initial shock had faded, she noted his attire. At least what she could see without shifting to look up at him. He wore another custom suit, this one gray, his shirt was white, and his tie blue.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
Um, that you smell great and that suit looks amazing on you. “Someone wanted him really dead.”
“That’s a vicious wound for sure. And that many stab wounds says this is very personal.”
She tilted her head and looked at Caulfield from another angle. “Smear on the floor looks like he was trying to get away. Or get to something. Then the killer flipped him over and started stabbing.”
“Maybe Caulfield was trying to get to the phone.”
“Maybe. Or he was going after something else. A gun maybe.”
“We should consider that in our search.” Reed stood.
She took a breath and stood, too, refusing to look at him and get distracted when she needed to be sharp. “I’ll need to get scene photos before the ME arrives.”
“Have at it,” Reed said.
She wanted to point out that she didn’t need his permission when she’d been hired to do this job by the jurisdictional agency, but she didn’t want to start something with him. Especially not with Brendan watching and listening. He’d chime in about her stubbornness, and that wouldn’t go well for either of them.
She raised her camera to her eye again and started snapping pictures, making sure to get the body from all angles, and mentally marking the distance he lay from landmarks in the room so she could accurately sketch the scene. She also made a mental note to suggest to the partners that they hire a forensic photographer in the future. With the center gaining notice in law enforcement circles, they were getting called out to more and more crime scenes. She was doing both jobs along with processing the trace evidence, and it was getting difficult to do it all in a timely fashion.
The door opened again, and the ME bustled into the room. Dr. Albertson was slender, medium height with a short bob of gray hair and a wrinkled face. She looked at them both.
“Sierra.” She smiled then held out her hand to Reed. “Good to see you again, Agent Rice.”
“You two know each other?” Sierra asked.
“I posted a victim in one of his recent investigations.” Dr. Albertson looked at the body. “Must be something big going down here if the bureau’s involved.”
“It’s simply related to an ongoing investigation.” Reed sounded like he was trying to downplay his involvement, but Sierra had no idea why he would do that.
“But it’s your investigation?” Dr. Albertson asked.
“I’m not assuming jurisdiction at this point, but that could change.”
“Got it.” She snapped on gloves and went straight to Caulfield. “Well, now. This is a particularly nasty bit of work.” She glanced at Sierra. “You get his photos yet?”
Sierra nodded.
Dr. Albertson looked at the body.
“Killer surprised him from behind,” Sierra said without thinking. “And the wound suggests the killer didn’t pull the head back, right?”
“Yes.” Dr. Albertson nodded her approval at Sierra. “Not many CSIs would notice the lack of a gaping wound suggests his head was forward when the wound was inflicted. And in my experience that means an experienced killer.”
“Military?” Reed asked.
“Could very well be.”
Sierra’s alarm bells went off. She talked to that Army Ranger outside. Coincidence?
“And what about time of death?” Reed asked. “Hazard a guess?”
“It would be just that, a guess, but…” She reached for Caulfield’s arm and lifted it. “Rigor has fully set in, so four hours at a minimum. I’ll know more after we take his and the surrounding air temperature and can run our calculations.”
Sierra looked at the arm. “He’s wearing an Apple Watch. After we take an image of it we can look at it to see when his heartbeat stopped.”
The ME looked up at Sierra and smiled. “Yes, of course.”
Sierra was thankful Dr. Albertson had caught the case as many MEs could get snippy when offered suggestions or ideas.
The doctor removed the watch and handed it to Sierra. “I don’t know how to work this, and I’m glad we have people like you who do.”
“Actually, that will be Nick, but we’ll get the time for you.” Sierra took t
he device and dropped it into a plastic evidence bag.
“I want to attend the autopsy if possible,” Reed said. “When do you think you’ll get started on it?”
“Not today, I’m afraid. We’re swamped. I’ll call you when it’s scheduled.” She returned her attention to the body.
Sierra needed to get the other scene photos taken, but first she had to tell Reed about the Ranger. She tipped her head at the other side of the room, encouraging him to join her out of everyone’s earshot. He took her hint and followed her.
“This might just be a coincidence, but I talked to an Army Ranger on my way in. He said he lived next door. The house on the south side. He seemed legit, and was concerned about the safety of the neighborhood, but you know how killers like to come back to a scene to watch. He could be the one who killed Caulfield.”
She expected Reed would be happy for a lead, but he frowned.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“I don’t like that you might have run into a vicious killer. He could’ve—”
“But he didn’t.” She tried not to get angry with his protective reaction instead of thinking about the investigative value of her sighting. “I saw him well enough to sit with an artist to have a sketch made.”
He ran his gaze over her like he had to visually confirm she hadn’t been harmed. “The blood on your legs.”
“From kneeling by Caulfield.” She gritted her teeth to keep from saying anything else and waited him out.
He blew out a breath. “Okay, I’ll go check out the neighbors. If he doesn’t live there we’ll arrange for a sketch artist.”
“No need to arrange. Kelsey can do it. She’s often drawn reconstructive photos and has done witness directed sketches too.”
“Perfect. So I’ll head over to the neighbors, but I’m also going to call in ERT to process this scene with you.”
He couldn’t have found anything more upsetting to say to her. “You don’t trust me?”
“No, it’s not that at all. I want to give you help so we can do this faster.”
Was he telling the truth? She searched his eyes and found them free of any duplicity. “Help or not, I’ll still personally want to review the entire scene.”
Dead End Page 11
