Discarded by Fate

by Morgan Kelley

  She was aware.

  “What did you find?”

  “Here’s the byline of his blog.”

  She read the paper that Blue handed her.

  ‘The enemy of the state. Are we really protected by the Federal Bureau of Instigation?’

  It was dated years ago.

  “We can’t get the rest of it without a warrant, BUT that’s enough to make you want to wonder what’s going on in his head. You worked with his deceased father here in Boston. Maybe he’s playing a game. You said, ‘The Puppet Master’ wanted to play.”

  Johanna could be right.

  “Joey, find him. Take Blue, but don’t tell him why. I want to see him. Soon. Here.”

  She smiled.

  “On it, boss.”

  Before they could leave, she stopped them. “Did you really find this?” she asked Blue. “Or did Kissey McKisserson give you the information?”

  Ivan stared over his paper coffee cup.

  “What? Are you insane? Who calls people things like that?” he asked, trying not to laugh.

  “The same people who make up names like hagzilla.”

  She had a point.

  “It was me, boss. I swear. It did involve some shower sex, and…”

  Ivan sputtered.

  Elizabeth snickered evilly. “Aww, the woman you’re having sex with works for me. How can I use that to my advantage?” Elizabeth asked, rhetorically. “It’s as if the Gods have smiled upon me for having to deal with you for the last year.”

  “She’s not the ‘woman I’m having sex with’,” he clarified. “She’s my girl, and I believe in her smarts. You won’t get her to blab.”

  Ethan and Callen both laughed.

  “You are screwed, son. Calling her hag, riding her ass, and being a pain is going to hurt you now. She’s evil. She waits, bides her time, and then strikes. Why do you think we’re afraid of her?” Ethan asked.

  Ivan groaned.

  She snorted.

  “Go. Bring me that detective. We’re going to have a talk, and then Blue and I are really going to have a talk.”

  “I hate you.”

  She laughed. “Well, you won’t be the first, and I’m sure the detective, when I grill him, won’t be the last. I hope he doesn’t cry easily. That ruins my fun. I’m going to make his life hell.”

  “Are you going to marry him?” Ivan asked. “That has to be hellish, you harpy.”

  “That’s funny. You make that one up yourself? PS… your fly is down. Way to go commando!”

  He looked down suddenly, and then stared at her.

  “Why did they marry you?”

  “I’m charming.”

  He tried not to laugh. Yeah, she was, but he’d eat his boxers, that were on his body, before he let her know that.

  It looked like Blue wasn’t the only treasure he found.

  He’d found a family.

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

  Morgue

  Christina was running all the evidence from the last scene. When she got the reports back, she was smiling.

  Pulling out her phone, she made a call.

  Elizabeth answered on the first ring.

  “Chrissy, we’re heading there now. What’s up? Please tell me that Doctor Julliard isn’t back?” she said immediately.

  “She’s not, boss.”

  “Way to go on handling her, Chrissy. I’d give you a gold star, but those are reserved for work not play. I know you had to have fun.”

  Oh, she did.

  “I am actually calling with some good news. We found that blood on the window, and a hair. I’ve matched it in the DNA.”

  “To?” she asked.

  “An Alex O’Malley.”

  She began laughing.

  “How do we have his DNA?” asked Ethan. “That seems a little convenient.”

  “Well, since he’s a nosey reporter, I hear that he once went to a crime scene and snooped around. They found his DNA there, and he had to cop to it.”

  Elizabeth laughed even more manically.

  “Oh, Chrissy, I take that back. You get the gold star.”

  “YAY! Does that mean you’re buying me and the techs pizza?” she asked.

  “Really? The glory of a job well done isn’t enough? What’s happened to my team?”

  She snorted. “Come on…buy us pizza.”

  “Fine, but Ethan’s paying. He makes more money than I do. I’m just a slave to the man.”

  Chrissy laughed because they knew that wasn’t true. Both men let Elizabeth spend whatever she wanted.

  “Thank you, boss. Enjoy!”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah…the highlight is I don’t have to head to the morgue for a check-in.”

  Oh, the techs were glad for that too.

  Elizabeth made people nervous.

  Chrissy hung up, and the other techs cheered her. They were getting lunch, and in their world, that was always a good thing.

  “Let’s find something else! Maybe we can get dinner too!” she said, rubbing her baby belly.

  The way to her heart was right through her stomach and a very hungry native baby.

  Sue her.

  Christina Redwolf was food motivated.

  Hanging up the phone, Elizabeth was all smiles. She and the team didn’t have to head out after all.

  “When you do that, it creeps me out,” Ivan stated, as he watched her.

  “What? Breathe with my mouth closed? You should try it. All the mammals do it these days,” she said, busting Ivan’s ass.

  He couldn’t help himself.

  He laughed.

  “I’m glad you’re back,” he said, when no one was around. “I’ll deny it, but I’m glad you’re not in your funk. Watching a zombie form of you wasn’t fun. I like the unpredictability of never knowing what you’ll do next. It keeps me on my toes.”

  “Like with the agent? You have a hickey on your neck, Igor, and I’m thinking you did more than wash her back in the shower.”

  He zipped his mouth.

  No.

  Way.

  He wasn’t talking about Blue.

  “Well, I’ll go on the record and say one thing about the whole thing, and then I’ll never bring it up again.”

  “What?” he asked, suspiciously.

  “She’s good for you, and she’s going to make you happy. I worry about you.”

  He softened.

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, all that masturbation must wear you out.”

  He stared at her.

  Then roared with laughter.

  He gave Elizabeth a fist bump. “Good one, Tex.”

  Ethan came into the room after slipping into some jeans and a t-shirt, and he’d caught the last part.

  “Do I want to know?” he asked.

  “Nope,” they both said.

  “Good.”

  “Oh, can you order Pizza for our team?”

  He took a seat.

  “Are you bribing them or rewarding them?” he asked, as he pulled out his phone.

  “Why does that matter?”

  “If you’re bribing, I get them toppings. If you’re just rewarding them, I go with cheese. You don’t want them to get accustomed to it. Then they expect it.”

  “And that’s why you’re running the FBI. You are a sadistic man.”

  “Sexy, huh?”

  “God! Yes. I’d jump you right now if we were alone.”

  Ivan began making gagging noises to remind them that they were NOT alone.

  “Shut it, toad,” she said, pointing at Ivan. “Anyway, the team found me something interesting. Think back to that blood they found this morning.”

  He was aware of it.

  “What about it?”

  “Well, there was a tiny bit of blood, and they found it in the system. When Christina ran it, they came back with a match to someone we know.”

  “Who?” Ethan asked.

  “A certain reporter who has been hounding me. If you still don�
��t know who that is, let’s just add he’s been riding my ass since I was a newbie.”

  He smiled. “We’re going to interrogate him, aren’t we?”

  She nodded.

  “You’re going to have fun, aren’t you?”

  “Yep.”

  Callen heard the knock on the door. “It’s going to be our team. Let’s see if they found the detective.”

  When he opened up, they headed in, the man smiling as he followed.

  “Hey! I found some good stuff,” he said, taking a seat.

  “We did too,” she offered. “The internet is a plethora of exciting shit when you dig back about a decade.”

  He could only imagine.

  “You first,” he said. “Ladies before gentlemen.”

  Well, she could play this.

  “Okay, Max. Riddle me this. Why do you have a blog talking shit about the FBI when you’re working side by side with us? You hate us. Why?”

  He stared at her.

  “Because the FBI killed my dad.”

  Well, at least he didn’t lie.

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

  Across Boston

  Hiding Spot

  When he got her there, he began stripping away everything about her.

  He took what was left of her clothes.

  He hacked off her hair until she was hideous.

  Then, he placed her on the table with the waitress.

  He was going to get this one done early, and he was going to leave her tonight.

  He was getting a high from taking them apart.

  That was important to him. It was the only thing he enjoyed in his life. Nothing else seemed to make him happy.

  But this...

  Yeah, it was perfect.

  So, he started up the saw, and he cut her to pieces. When he was done, he started on the waitress.

  As the saw hummed, the chunks of bone and flesh flew, he was at peace.

  For years, he’d been in hell.

  It never abated.

  For years, he’d sworn his revenge, and now he was getting it by making them pay.

  Beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and he saw what they could be.

  Some had betrayed.

  Some wouldn’t love him back.

  It didn’t matter now.

  He’d had the final say, and in the end, that was it. He was right there, watching, lurking, and seeing what they were doing.

  He didn’t have many more to go.

  Elizabeth…she was his goal, and they’d crossed paths before.

  In the end, they would play a game.

  One where she would be shocked that he’d found her again. He’d bided his time, and he was going to get his reward.

  Her.

  On his table.

  She was going to be his final masterpiece.

  And the best thing?

  She didn’t even know it.

  No one did.

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

  Hotel

  He sat there in silence.

  “Well, Detective?”

  “Despite my opinion of the Feds, do you really think I’m doing all of this?” he asked. “You think I’m killing these women?”

  She shrugged.

  “Well, it’s come to mind now that this has come to light. I know, let’s play a little game.”

  “Yes, clearly, you like them,” he said. “I don’t. I’m a cop. I like black and I like white. I play by the rules.”

  “Well, then you’ll like this one. It’s true or false. Feel free to play along. It’s very telling.”

  He crossed his arms and defensively stood up in anger.

  “True or false? You know who I am?”

  “You’re Elizabeth Blackhawk.”

  “Detective, really? Do I need to treat you like a criminal? I can get you dragged into your own house interrogation room in a pair of cuffs. I can make your life hell, and then you can hate me even more,” she stated.

  He didn’t flinch.

  For a young man, that was astounding.

  “You’re obviously good at what you do, or you wouldn’t be a detective.”

  Max didn’t like this game.

  “So?”

  “I worked with your father.”

  He didn’t even flinch. “I know.”

  And that was what she wanted. Acknowledgment that he was aware of who she was.

  “So, all this time, you didn’t think it was important to mention it?”

  “Listen, if we don’t have anything to update on, I’m going to head to the commissioner and tell him I’m off this team. It’s clear you have an issue with me.”

  “And you don’t have one with me?”

  He stood.

  “I didn’t. My father was a cop. I barely knew him. When he did come back into my life, I had him for about one year. I was barely a teen. In that year, I learned a lot.”

  “Like?” she asked.

  “To believe in myself. You wanted to know why I’m a cop at this age? I worked hard. I worked thousands of hours of overtime to earn my gold shield. When people wouldn’t take the shit duty, I did. I watched people, I protected and served, and I did the job. When the commissioner saw how hard I was working, he saw something in me. Was there preferential treatment because my old man was a cop? Yeah, likely, but there’s always that in the world. I could use it to be lazy, or I can use it to make a difference.”

  She listened.

  “I took the exam, and I passed. I got my badge, and I got my commission in Homicide. I ride my old man’s desk. When I got it, I sat down, and read something he’d carved into it.”

  “What?”

  He repeated it from memory.

  ‘Forgiveness finds you answers, anger finds you dead ends.’

  He pointed at her. “I forgave you when I found out he went through that door first. It was you or him. He died, and you didn’t. I had to grow up with that.”

  “And?”

  “I was an angry teen. I got into trouble, and I made my mother cry. Then one day, I realized something. I was only hurting myself. So, I closed the blog, and I walked away from that. I wanted to be one of the good guys. I wanted to stop the corruption and hate.”

  She watched him. It was so hard not to react. She’d thought about Max Bronson’s kid for the longest time—especially when she had kids of her own.

  She knew he wasn’t lying.

  “Then why didn’t you say something?”

  He laughed. “Say what? My dad worked a case with you and he died because of it? Would you have let me work this case?”

  “Yes,” she said. “I would have, because contrary what the asshole cops have told you, I liked Max. He was one of the cops I continued to respect after his death. That day, he told me something.”

  “What?”

  “We were about to go into that building to find that killer, and he said, ‘I do this for my boy. I do this so he remembers that even though I didn’t do the right thing when I walked away from his mother, I’m still worthy. I do this so he’ll know I’m one of the good guys’.”

  His eyes filled with tears.

  “Your father was tough, and he was a damn good cop. He’d fought the shit mess and mob in this town, and I had nothing but respect for him. Had you come to me, you would have had that respect too. I don’t like lies.”

  “So where do I stand?”

  This was a tough one.

  “Have a seat, Detective Chase. It’s nice to meet you. I run my team with an iron fist, but I can promise you that we’ll find who is doing this, and your daddy will be proud.”

  He sat.

  Could he get this lucky?

  He didn’t see this coming.

  “Okay, Christopher, drop some knowledge on me. I need to get this wackadoo under control.”

  He opened up a file.

  “I finished the autopsy, and I was able to match up the bodies with the original owner’s. We had positive ID on the
head, one hand, and the torso.”

  Callen made notes.

  “Okay, and what did you find?”

  “One foot had a destroyed arch and spurs, and one foot did not.”

  She’d seen this before. “Half of our victim was in uncomfortable shoes?”

  “Like a stripper or hooker?” Detective Chase asked, joining in.

  “Yes. So, I got her prints, and you are correct on both assumptions. Our legs, arms, one hand, and one foot are from a Kellie Benson. She was arrested on prostitution charges, and she then began stripping.”

  Elizabeth pointed at Johanna. “Find me the club because a day doesn’t go by that I don’t love when a strip club comes into an investigation.”

  Johanna went to work.

  “Ethan and I also noticed something unusual, and that’s what I’m going to hesitantly call COD.”

  “Why hesitantly?” the detective asked.

  “Since I don’t have the majority of her, I can’t figure it out. I can’t test her heart, liver, lungs, or brain. All I can go with is what I see to the body parts we have.”

  That made sense.

  “She was likely electrocuted. I analyzed the burns on her body, and they had to be enough to kill her. Whatever was used had enough voltage that one shot, and she was a dead woman.”

  “That sounds like fun.”

  Ethan picked up for the doctor. “We think he souped-up a stun gun or Taser.”

  She thought about it.

  “Then what made those marks?”

  “A cage. He likely hit the bars, it was sitting in water, and she fried—literally. If I had her internal organs, they’d likely be cooked.”

  “Well, that’s insane,” she stated. “He’s keeping them in a cage and then frying them. Nice touch to the crazy. Death by electrocution and then dismemberment. Not how I want to go.”

  Yeah, her husbands could second that.

  She leaned back in her seat. “What I don’t get is what does a call girl, a striper, a Harvard college student—who is a congresswoman’s child, and a nurse have in common?”