Discarded by Fate

by Morgan Kelley

  That was the question.

  “Is he leaving any trace?”

  “No. Nothing. Not a hair, not a fiber, nothing.”

  “Yet he’s sloppy. He’s begun stringing them through the leg meat and not the bone. Why?” Callen asked as he read Chris’s report.

  “I talked to Tony. He’s coming here in the next day or two. He’s going to beetle those bones.”

  Chris looked excited.

  “NO, you two are not going to have fun. You two cause trouble when you’re together, and I don’t have time for that—so you get to work.”

  “Yes, Mom.”

  It made her laugh.

  They were like kids.

  “He’s also going to look at the bones. I told him about the etching, and he said he’s seen it before.”

  Chris lifted a brow.

  “When? We usually worked together. I would have recalled it had we had it in a case.”

  “Well, we didn’t use him on every away case,” she admitted. “Maybe he worked with another investigator. Who knows with Tony. Before Doctor Michaels was dismembered by Bonnie, she had been a hell of a boss for him. She gave him the weirdest shit to handle.”

  “Yeah, Tony likes the weird.”

  That reminded her.

  She pointed at the detective. “If he offers you a snack, don’t eat it.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  “He really likes bugs.”

  He stared at her. “As in consuming them?”

  They all nodded.

  “Uh, thanks for that heads-up.”

  “You’re welcome. So, he’s coming, and we’re going to have our bone guy do his mojo, and see what he can dig up.”

  Ivan cleared his throat. “I know I’m not on your team, but maybe someone should check that tunnel again.”

  She looked at Blue. “Well, that’s the best thing I heard from you. Thank you, Agent Garrick. I’m impressed by your ventriloquism.”

  She laughed. “I try, boss.”

  “Only, that will have to wait for a while. I need some searches run.”

  “On?”

  “There has to be something that ties them all together. There has to be some thread. We know this is happening around the epicenter—which is the pub—why?”

  No one had the answer.

  YET.

  “Until we find out why, we start digging into it. Since no one has seen this killer, and he seems to know the area, let’s go to what we do know.”

  “Which is?”

  “The victims. Ethan, are they random?”

  “Not likely. He’s patient, methodical, and he’s likely picking them for a reason. Tajel West went there, and he likely saw her there, but why is she significant?”

  “How do we know she is?” Max Chase asked.

  “She’s the only African American victim so far. He wouldn’t start with one and then switch. He took her for a reason. She’s not mixed race. This was intentional.”

  The cop made notes.

  “Lucy O’Donnell was picked for a reason too,” Elizabeth stated, helping Ethan out as she went to her whiteboard and wrote down what he’d said.

  “What is it about her?”

  Again, no one had a clue.

  “We know that Elijah Elliot, the banker used her services, and so did Joseph Gates. He liked being seen with her because it upped his cred.”

  “With a hooker?” Blue asked. “I’m in the wrong line of work if that’s what men are looking for in a girl.”

  Ivan couldn’t let that go. “We, men, aren’t looking for hookers. We like good girls who are happy to eat pretzels and pizza.”

  “Yeah, we, good girls are gems,” Elizabeth stated.

  Callen snickered. “Yeah, dirty gems you like to rough up to get them to shine.”

  “Shut it, my sexy Native, or I’ll be bad—just not with you,” she said, pointing at Ethan.

  It stopped him in his tracks.

  “Anyway, I want to know if Elijah or Joseph are connected to this too,” she said.

  Her agents made notes.

  So did the cop.

  Elizabeth stood at the board. “We also have a nurse who everyone loved and was a saint. We need to figure out why she connects to the sinners in this game. What did Melanie Coffman do to make her part of this?”

  She drew a question mark on the board.

  “Are we counting Tajel as a sinner or saint?” Blue asked. “She was a Harvard student, but she was sleeping with a dean.”

  “She’s both. Maybe that’s the angle. What’s good and bad about each of them? Secrets get you killed. We all know the big killers of people. Anyone want to give them to me?” she asked, since she had newbies.

  Let this be a teaching moment.

  “Sex,” Joey stated.

  “Money,” Brody said.

  “Greed,” Blue offered.

  “Yep. That’s your trifecta. That usually covers all kind of sins.”

  “What about crazy?” Callen asked. “We get that one a lot—people hearing voices, God spoke to them through a plant they bought at a farmer’s market…”

  “Was that really a case?” Max asked.

  “Ignore him. He’s a writer. He takes creative license with EVERYTHING.”

  He laughed. “You love me. I know you do.”

  Oh, she did.

  “Last but not least, we have a stripper. What is it about that particular girl that got her noticed?”

  They all made notes.

  “Joey, Brody, Blue, and Max, you’re on that. I want this worked out of the morgue. I want everyone to keep their lips sealed. Am I clear?”

  They all got it.

  “We can go back to my room,” Blue stated.

  “Okay, head out.”

  “What about me?” Chris offered.

  “You are going to go over the evidence as Christina is sending it in. Flag me if you find anything.”

  He grabbed Callen’s tablet and headed to the table in the corner.

  Ivan didn’t move.

  “We’re heading out,” she stated, grabbing her gear. Just then, Ethan’s phone rang.

  “Deputy Director Blackhawk,” he said, when he didn’t recognize the number.

  He listened.

  “Yes, commissioner. Text it to me.”

  When he hung up, he stopped his wife. “Before you plan to ride roughshod over the reporter, we have another issue that is more important.”

  “I don’t want to hear about that harpy putting her man hands on Chris.”

  Callen stared at her.

  “What? She did have man hands. They were the size of yours.”

  He laughed.

  Ethan didn’t.

  “What?” she asked. “Don’t be cranky because you have to deal with that jackassery.”

  “I wish it was that. The commissioner was notified of something that stunk like our case,” he said.

  She couldn’t imagine what that could be.

  “What?”

  “Judge Suzan Golden never made it to work this morning. She had a case to preside over, and when they went to her house, the door was open, and it looked like a struggle. There was blood.”

  “How do we know this is connected?” she asked.

  His phone chimed.

  “He left a note.”

  He handed her his phone and she read it.

  ‘Elizabeth,

  This one is for you. You’re falling behind. Be careful. You never know who’s next.

  The Puppet Master.’

  She stared at it.

  Then she flipped her shit.

  “Someone had better find me something that connects someone to this case! This game is going to end with me. As in me kicking this dickwad’s ass to jail!”

  No one was going to screw around.

  Elizabeth was on the edge.

  And someone was going to pay.

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

  Judge’s Home

  At the scene, they
worked it like there was a body. They didn’t know if the judge was dead, but they hoped they could find something to track this asshole.

  When they arrived, she walked into the house, and there was her unfriendly neighborhood cop. Detective Tom Nealson was standing there, and he was glaring at her.

  Great.

  Like she needed this.

  “Well, it’s about time you got here,” he said. “Were you nice and comfy in your penthouse at the hotel?”

  “And you know where I rest my head, why?” she asked. “That’s a little stalker-ish of you. Then again, I’m betting that’s how you get all the ladies, right?”

  He moved toward her, only to have his new partner stop him.

  “I see you’re using my partner still. Do you hope he’ll make you look good?”

  Elizabeth ignored him. She did her own investigating.

  She noticed something.

  “Did you walk in here with your shoes on?” she asked. “There’s mud on the floor.”

  “Yeah, her sprinklers were on when we arrived.”

  “Jesus Christ!”

  “Yeah, I heard you’re an OCD neat freak.”

  “What I am is a cop, and you contaminated this crime scene. You’re standing on drops of blood. I can see them from here!”

  He looked around.

  He was on a black tile.

  “No! I’m not!”

  She whistled.

  Christina came running.

  The minute she got in there, she gasped. “You’re on the evidence!”

  Again, he looked around.

  “What?”

  “BLOOD!” she said. “Now I have to run your shoes, check the mud, and cross compare it in subpar equipment. Because of you, I’m not sleeping tonight!”

  The man backed up and leaned against a wall.

  Christina freaked out.

  “NO!”

  “Strip him down,” she said to the techs who came in with Christina. “We now need his pants, his shirt, and his shoes. He’s part of our DNA process. Are you sure you know how to be cop?” she asked. “Or is it dementia? I can excuse that. Stupid I can’t.”

  He sputtered.

  She walked away with the cop toddling after her.

  “He’s going to hate that,” Max said, trying not to laugh. It was hard not to.

  It was funny.

  She was amused too. “Yeah, I know, but it keeps him out of my hair. They’ll give him FBI sweats. I definitely need a picture of that.”

  As they wandered the house, Elizabeth took in everything. Ethan and Callen were by her side, as she checked out each room. Upstairs, she started the analyzing.

  “She woke up,” Elizabeth said, looking at the bed. “She didn’t have time to make it. He had to ambush her somehow.”

  “How do you know it was right out of bed?”

  “You saw the rest of the house. She’s a neat freak. No kids, no mess, and she likely didn’t leave her bed unmade before she started her day—even if she has a maid.”

  Ethan agreed.

  “So, we start here.”

  She looked at the wall.

  “Three robes. One is missing,” she said, as two were on the outer hooks. “She got up, grabbed one, and then what?”

  “What do you do?” Callen stated. “You’re a woman.”

  “If I don’t have sex, I’m brushing my teeth and washing my face or showering.”

  They headed into the bathroom.

  The towel was wet. There was one pair of clothing in the laundry hamper. Pajamas.

  “So, she wakes, showers, and grabs a robe. She knows she’s going to have court today, but she has time. So what does she do?”

  Elizabeth thought about her life before kids.

  “Coffee.”

  They headed down the back stairs that led to a kitchen. The coffee pot wasn’t on, but the pot was warm.

  “Callen, find out how long this brand stays on before automatic shutoff.”

  He began Googling.

  The detective watched her. He was learning a shitload from her. She was technically a homicide cop, but for the federal government. He wanted to be able to do what she did one day.

  Callen finished. “Four hours is how long it stays on.”

  She looked at her watch and touched the pot with her gloved hands. “It’s full, so she didn’t drink any. I’m going to say she hit this button, turned it on, and then headed that way.”

  “Maybe someone rang the bell,” Max offered.

  “She’s an older woman. I’m going to bet she was going to grab the paper and read while she had her coffee.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I saw the paper on the floor behind the detective.”

  It made sense.

  “That’s how he got her,” Callen stated.

  “This house has security,” Ethan offered. “I saw it as we walked up the path.”

  “Go find it.”

  He wandered off.

  “So, she got up, she showered, she made coffee, and grabbed the paper. That’s as far as she got, and we can assume he got her four hours ago—or five, since her coffee is only warm.”

  She headed toward the front door and the techs.

  “I smell bleach.”

  Christina knelt down and smelled the floor. “He bleached it. It’s dry, but I can feel the residue.”

  When she stood, the knees of her pants had some white on them.

  “Yeah, bleach.”

  Elizabeth sighed. “Well, that screws us royally. He cleaned up.”

  Christina wasn’t willing to give up.

  “Let me see what I can do. I have luminol and phenolphthalein. One of them will pull something.”

  “DNA? Doesn’t bleach destroy it?” the detective asked.

  Christina began spraying.

  “No. It can change it, but it doesn’t always destroy it. Close the door,” she said, handing Elizabeth and Callen a pair of glasses. She hit the black light as another tech blocked the window with a tarp.

  There was a glow.

  “There was a lot of blood. This is where it went down,” Christina stated.

  “I thought the bleach would work,” Max stated.

  “You need oxygenated bleach to remove it. Too many people think Chlorine bleach will do it. They are wrong.”

  Christina got out her swab.

  “What about anything he might have left behind?” Elizabeth asked.

  “If you’re asking if maybe I can find some sweat or spit, I don’t think you’re going to get it. Bleach won’t kill DNA, but cleaning will lose the sample. If he dumped bleach and then cleaned it up, it’s gone.”

  Well, shit.

  That was irritating.

  “So basically, we have a missing judge, a missing waitress, and this guy is a ghost?”

  Ethan returned.

  “Worse.”

  “How can that be worse?”

  “Well, she had security cameras. He cut the feed and took the DVR.”

  “So he’s in the wind? AGAIN?”

  Ethan nodded.

  “He pulled another Houdini.”

  That meant one thing.

  This guy was a pro.

  Now she just needed to figure out how.

  Callen got her attention from the door. “Hey, angel, remember how you wanted to kick around a reporter?” he asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “I have a way to kill two birds with one stone.”

  She headed his way.

  At the police line was Alex O’Malley, and he was trying to interview a cop.

  “PERFECT,” she said, tossing her booties and gloves to the tech at the door. “Let’s do this now.”

  Elizabeth crossed the well-manicured lawn and headed his way. When he saw her, he got red.

  Good.

  She was pissed too.

  “Hey, Alex, do you have nothing better to do than bug me on a scene?” she asked.

  “No, since you nearly tanked my career with that
fake information.”

  She laughed. “Well, if you’re going to buy your information from the ME, you’re going to risk getting bad intel. I hate when that happens.”

  He glared at her.

  “Want an interview?” she asked.

  He stared at her.

  “I don’t trust you not to lie.”

  “Oh, I can promise on a Bible that I won’t be lying in this interview.”

  “Sure. I’ll bite.”

  She pointed at the cop. “Let him through.”

  Elizabeth led him as far from the doorway of that house and the chaos as she could. When she got him somewhere secluded, she got ready.

  “Ask,” she said.

  “What do you have on this killer?”

  “Well, he left DNA behind at the last scene.”

  He scribbled notes.

  “I can’t believe you’re playing nice.”

  Oh, she wasn’t.

  “Well, you know me.”

  “Yeah, I do.”

  She smiled at the redheaded man. He had been a thorn in her side in Boston before.

  Not today, Satan.

  Not today.

  “Yeah, he left DNA on a window he climbed through to get access to the building.”

  The man kept writing.

  “It seems he popped a lock on the apartment, climbed in, headed up, and strung the girl up.”

  He looked up.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, so Alex, why did you do it?”

  He stopped writing.

  “What?”

  “Come to think of it, why are you on the scenes first and before the cops?”

  “I didn’t do this.”

  “Your blood is on that window. Oh look, a bandage on your finger. Tag. Your turn. Tell me I’m wrong and prove it with evidence like I just did.”

  He tried to walk away.

  Only Callen and Ethan blocked him.

  “Well?”

  “You don’t have enough to arrest me, so I can leave.”

  She laughed.

  “Well, I have enough to put your name in the paper of your biggest competitor, and I’m betting they’d love to take you out.”

  “It won’t be true.”

  “Awwww, pumpkin. You mean that everything that goes in the paper isn’t factual? Shit! I better reevaluate my life. Just last week, I had sex with my ME and an alien.”

  Ethan watched the man.