by Kay Bigelow
Reagan sat the chart down and began her external examination. She resumed recording her findings. “The skin has normal texture, however there is evidence of faint bruising on the abdomen at least two weeks old. There is faint bruising on the victim’s right and left gluteus maximus muscles. There are also faint bruises on each of the wrists and at the ankles.”
After she finished the external examination, she said for purposes of the recorder, “There is no external evidence of a cause of death.” She picked up a scalpel and mouthed, “Are you ready for this?” to Leah, who wasn’t sure she was, but nodded anyway.
As autopsies went, Reagan’s was efficient and mercifully short. After she stitched the Y-cut shut on the victim’s chest, she told the recorder the autopsy was completed at 14:00.
“Well done, Leah. You’ve got the stomach to be a pathologist,” Reagan said, smiling.
“Thanks, but I’ll stick to investigating the deaths,” Leah said, not willing to admit she really didn’t have the stomach for being a pathologist. There’d been a couple of times she thought she’d have to run for the sink to vomit, and only just managed to keep the bile from rising up her throat.
Reagan stood looking at the body on the slab between them. “I wish I knew more about her. The bruising on her glutes could be from rough sexual activity or a punishment. It’s my opinion she’s too young to have been involved in consensual sexual activities of any kind. I’ve seen bruising similar to those faded bruises on her abdomen caused by abusers who use a heavy object, like a baseball, wrapped in an athletic sock to beat their wives so the bruises don’t show to outsiders. I want to know who was beating on this youngster. Plus, the bruises on her wrists are indicative of being restrained, as are the bruises on her ankles. Again, it could be sexual abuse, or even something more sinister. The latter could explain her borderline malnutrition.”
Leah asked, “What do we know now that we didn’t know before?”
“Not much, I’m afraid. I’ll run the labs on stomach content, et cetera. While I wait for those to conclude, I want to go over her body with a stronger magnifier. If she was poisoned, I’m hoping there’s a point of entry. You look disappointed that we didn’t find anything.”
“I was hoping we’d find an Indentichip on her.”
“You mean a chip imbedded in a muscle to identify victims under these kinds of circumstances?”
“Yeah. She’s the right age for it,” Leah said. The governments of most of the planets in the galaxy all agreed ten years earlier to embed a chip identifying a child with his/her name, gender, and other identifying information, thereby acknowledging there was a pandemic of kids disappearing, either stolen or sold to human traffickers, never to be seen again. At the same time, it also acknowledged there was a pandemic of unidentified dead kids in nearly every jurisdiction.
“I was beginning to believe the Identichip was an urban myth. By the way, thanks for getting the equipment for me.”
“You’re welcome. When will the lab results be ready?”
“Not for a few more hours. I’ll let you know.”
“Thanks for letting me stand in with you on this.”
“I wish we’d found the ‘smoking gun,’ but it’s rarely so easy.”
“Let’s go get it, then,” Leah said with more confidence than she felt.
Chapter Sixteen
Leah texted Dani, “Let’s go dancing.” And I don’t mean at the big barn dance tonight.
Dani texted almost instantaneously, saying, “I’m on the verandah.”
Leah found Dani surrounded by a coterie of young women hanging on her every word. Leah couldn’t hear what she was saying, but it had to be the most fascinating thing the young women had ever heard considering the adoration on their faces. Of course, she could be talking about picking up dog shit and the women would still hang on each word she said. Leah stood watching the tableau until Dani noticed her.
“Ladies, I must leave you now. The love of my life awaits my attentions.”
Leah was barely able to stifle a guffaw as the young women voiced their unanimous disappointment. Nearly everyone turned to look at Leah, several running their eyes up and down Leah’s body as if searching for what Leah had that they didn’t.
They walked silently hand in hand toward the back of the building where their hover-car was parked, and they were about to turn the corner of the big house when Leah heard voices. She flattened against the side of the house and held out her arm to make Dani do the same.
“What do you mean you can’t let me leave?” a voice sounding like Anabel Cooper’s whispered harshly.
“I have no choice, Coop. The cops are here and that Leah bitch is in charge. She has given orders that no one leaves until she says they can. Period. No exceptions.” The responding voice was Camryn’s.
“We’ll just see about that. I’m leaving tomorrow or there will be heads rolling.”
“I’ve got to go,” Camryn said.
“You’ll go when I say you can.”
“Get your hands off me, you lout.”
There was a loud slap, and Camryn yelped. “Ouch!”
Dani started to go to Camryn’s rescue, but Leah held her back. She didn’t want Cooper knowing they knew about her threats to Camryn and others.
“Get out of my sight. And make sure I know everything they come up with, understand? Or the next time I won’t stop with a little slap. The next time, I’ll put you in the hospital.”
Leah and Dani stayed where they were until they saw a hover-car speed off in the opposite direction of where they were standing.
That may be our first break. I hope so. I sure wish I could spend a few days of this vacation doing nothing but enjoying Dani’s body. “I’m ready to go home and make love all night,” Leah said.
“Well, that’s quite a change in topic. Didn’t you hear that? Couldn’t you arrest her for assaulting Camryn?” Dani asked once they were in the car and out of the parking lot.
“I could, but I think there’s more than just Cooper bullying your staff.”
“Care to share?”
“No. I want to focus on you,” Leah said as she put her hand on Dani’s thigh and started moving her hand slowly toward the apex of Dani’s legs.
Once they were home, Dani said, “Let’s relax in the pool. I took the liberty of ordering dinner for us. It should arrive in a couple of hours, and I told them to leave it on the porch if we didn’t answer the door.”
“Sounds wonderful,” Leah said, wanting to clear her mind of the results of the autopsy and still not having an identity for their young murder victim.
They didn’t bother changing into different clothing before getting into the lap pool. They frolicked in the warm water until Dani took Leah by the hand and moved them to the edge of the pool where the water came to their shoulders as they stood. “Turn around, baby.”
Leah turned around and held on to the edge of the pool while Dani moved to press her body against Leah’s. She put both hands on Leah’s breasts and began caressing them gently at first and then with more pressure. Leah was breathing through her mouth and moaning.
“Be inside me,” she told Dani.
Dani moved her hands down Leah’s body.
After they made love and when they could move again, Dani said, “You are the most sensuous woman I’ve ever been with. The sounds you make when we fuck can make me come as surely as if you were inside me.”
“I only make those sounds with you. I don’t recognize any of the sounds I make with you because you are the only woman to make me do that.”
“Really? It pleases me that I can be the first for you, and we’ve only just begun getting to know each other’s bodies.”
“There have already been many firsts for me.”
“Do tell. What are the other firsts?”
“We’ll save that discussion for later because I want to know what firsts you’ve experienced, too.”
“Are you hungry?” Dani asked. “Dinner’s arrived.”
“How do you know?”
“I heard the knock on the door.”
“I’m starved,” Leah said.
They exited the pool, and Dani helped Leah into a robe from a pile near the pool. Leah watched Dani dry her hair and then run a hand through it. Leah didn’t bother drying her shorter auburn hair, but she did run her fingers through it hoping she hadn’t left it standing on end.
Dani retrieved their dinners from the porch, and as she took them from the warming box, Leah saw they were going to have filet mignon, baked potato, and salad. She began salivating immediately. After dinner, they headed for the bedroom.
When Leah and Dani were sated, they lay in the dark holding one another. “How are you doing?” Leah asked.
“I wish our first days together weren’t going to be forever associated with a murder. I enjoy being a part of the investigation. I love watching you work and learning how your mind functions. But it will be bizarre when people ask how we got together, and we tell them, ‘We got together over a dead body.’ Wouldn’t it sound more romantic if we could say, ‘Oh, we went to Wild for two weeks?’ Even our friends might find it weird when we say we met over a dead body.”
“Baby, we didn’t meet over a dead body. We met in a park near your father’s home. You drove in on a motorcycle and when you dismounted and came toward me in full leathers, I fell instantaneously into lust with you.”
“I like that better,” Dani said as sleep overcame her.
“Goodnight, baby. I love you,” Leah said.
“G’night…” Dani said, and then she was asleep.
Leah was only able to stay awake a few minutes longer before she, too, succumbed to sleep. The image of Dani in her leathers striding toward her was her favorite mental image of Dani so far, although there were several others vying for first place. In the park, Leah had thought Dani was so hot, and wondered what it would be like to be between those long legs. Her fantasies had not come anywhere close to reality.
Chapter Seventeen
The next morning, Dani was up before Leah. She found Dani doing her laps in the pool, so she returned to the kitchen without interrupting her. She poured the pot of coffee Dani had made into the carafe, and took it and two cups out to the lanai. She sat in the shadows and watched Dani swim up and down the pool.
She heard her phone announcing she had an incoming call. She went into the house and found her phone where she’d left it in her bag in the living room. She noted who was calling and returned to watching Dani swim.
“Cots, how are you this morning?”
“Someone got laid last night.”
“And your point is what?”
“On top of my head?”
Leah laughed at the ages-old joke coming out of the staid Cots’s mouth. “What are you, ten?”
“Always,” Cots said, laughing, too. “I went over the infrared images Peony sent. What the hell do you think is going on there?”
“I have no idea, and, until we find out who those three people are, we can only conjecture and make guesses as to why Cooper has them in her bungalow and why the resort had no inkling they are there. Reagan’s autopsy showed bruising around our victim’s ankles and wrists.”
“Leah, I think those three people are not adults. Didn’t you say your victim appears to be about eleven years old? By my estimation, the three at Cooper’s house are the same age or younger.”
“Are you sure?”
“No, just estimating based on what I think their height might be.”
“Phuc.”
The only thing that makes sense at this point, given what we know and that our victim was a young girl, is that Cooper is trafficking in young girls or something very similar to that. Why else would she have an enclosed space inside her bungalow that reminds me of a cage? Leah wasn’t ready yet to tell anyone what she was thinking. She wanted everyone to remain objective and keep their minds open to all possibilities.
“Can we play ‘what if?’ If there are girls being held against their will inside Cooper’s cottage, where do you think she could find either the girls she’s got locked up or the women who would want to buy them? And why would a woman want to buy a young girl?” Cots asked.
So much for no one else thinking in terms of human trafficking.
“Without knowing more, this is pure speculation. And until we have more proof, I want us to keep open minds. What I can’t get my head around is the possibility the buyers will turn out to be women.”
“You should know better to think that women aren’t capable of the same crimes as men.”
“I know, but these women buyers would probably be lesbians.”
“Yeah? So? And why would you think they were lesbians?”
Leah didn’t want to get into a discussion of how often the sins of one lesbian was visited upon every lesbian, while the achievements of one lesbian was considered to be a fluke.
“Because Cooper is a lesbian and she might be meeting her buyers here on Wild.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re lesbians. Although that probably makes more sense than the buyers being straight women looking for help around the house. They can hire or buy servants anywhere they live. Why would they go to the expense of traveling to Wild to pick up a serving girl?”
“Do me a favor and call the police chief you’ve been working with and ask for search warrants for Cooper’s bungalow and her ship using the infrared images Peony got as the basis. I want to get those girls out of Cooper’s grasp sooner rather than later.”
“Will do. Leah?”
“What?”
“Be careful. Don’t let your guard down just because she calls herself a lesbian. Do you have your weapon?”
“Yeah, I do. I cloaked it to bring it here, and I don’t think Dani knows I have it with me.”
“I bet Dani’s even more unwilling to believe that lesbians can be killers, too.”
“I doubt that considering her occupation, and I think she’ll be equally incensed that Cooper is doing what she’s doing on Wild.”
“Agreed. I’ll send the warrants when I get them.”
Ten minutes later, Leah got a message from Cots saying the judge had her requests for search warrants. The judge, he said, wanted to ensure she was who she said she was, and would be calling the Police Chief to make sure she had the authority to execute the warrants. Cots said he’d forward them the minute he got the signed warrants from the judge. As she wondered how long it would take the judge to get her questions answered, Dani climbed out of the pool, and headed toward her.
“Good morning, love,” Dani said as she bent down to kiss Leah’s lips.
“Damn! That water’s cold. Isn’t it supposed to be warm?”
“Sorry for dripping on you, but I find you too irresistible to keep my hands off you. It takes a while for the water to warm up in the morning. Did I see you on the phone?”
“You did. It was Cots. I’ve asked him to get me search warrants for Cooper’s bungalow and her yacht.”
“Why? I thought you said it could wait.”
“I think you were right. If we want to keep those people alive, we need to get them out of Cooper’s grasp.”
“Thank you.”
“I told Cots that my first reaction was that Cooper is trafficking in young girls. She probably takes them from various planets, holds them for a while, then transports them here where she meets the buyers. He agrees with me from studying the infrared images of the people in Cooper’s bungalow.”
“Is that possible? If it is, it’s despicable.’
“I can’t get my head around the buyers being women and probably lesbians.”
“I would think if anyone would know there’s no such thing as a typical killer, it would be you.”
“I know, I know, but it doesn’t mean I don’t wish we were all fine upstanding citizens of the galaxy,” Leah said with a smile.
“Well, we can’t all be like you.”
“God, I hope not. I can barely
deal with myself, and wouldn’t want to deal with tons of me.”
“The idea of there being hundreds of thousands of you excites the hell out of me while at the same time exhausts me just thinking about making love to all of you.”
“You have a wondrous imagination. I wonder why you didn’t decide to write fiction. With a fertile imagination like yours, you’d never have writer’s block.”
“I’ll give that some thought if I ever decide to give up psychiatry. What’s next for us?”
“Us personally? Or us and the investigation?”
Dani smiled. “For now, the investigation. We’ll get to us personally before we leave here.”
“I look forward to hearing your ideas. For now, though, I’m waiting for a judge on Xing to sign our search warrants. Cots will forward them to me and then I’ll need to get them copied so we can give one to Cooper when we go to her house.”
“When are we going to her house?”
“As soon as I get the warrants and we find a copier or printer.”
“Too bad you didn’t bring Rusty. She could have fixed us breakfast burritos to tide us over until lunch.”
“We could always sneak into the kitchen and teach the chef how to make them.”
“You know how to make those things?”
“I do.”
“I knew I loved you for a reason beyond the fact you’re beautiful, intelligent, incredibly kind, sexy beyond all imagination, and gentle. Will you make me breakfast burritos for the rest of our lives?”
“Why, Dani, are you proposing to me?”
“Yes, I am.”
Leah was stunned. She had not expected that answer when she’d asked the question. And was not quite sure what to say. Every fiber of her being wanted to say yes, but she still wasn’t totally convinced Dani was the marrying kind. Or that she’d actually meant to propose.
“Why are you at a loss for words. Did I misinterpret your feelings for me?”
“No, you didn’t. I want to ensure I remember this moment for the rest of my life so I’m memorizing this scene. And I know your grandmother will want the details right down to the fact that you’re dripping wet and nude.”