Discarded by Fate

by Morgan Kelley

Well, that ended.

  “So, Bessie, did you ever think this day would come?” he asked, as he played with her nipples. Granted, they weren’t on her body anymore. They were in the palm of his hand.

  She sobbed, begging for mercy.

  He’d bit them off during sex.

  “Oh, don’t worry. I’m only using your head for my beautiful doll.”

  “I’m going to make sure she’s lovely. Your angelic face on his masculine body.”

  She whimpered when he touched her between the thighs.

  “Oh, look, Bessie, my love. You’re wet again for me. It must be time,” he said, smearing the blood across her stomach. “At one time, I wanted a baby to grow there. Now…I could care less. Now I want the festering pain to be born into your womb. You helped make me.”

  He climbed back on the table. With a fork from the BBQ, he stared down at a part of her he used to love.

  “I saved you for last. I can’t use your body, Bessie, because I’m going to destroy it all….night…long.”

  With that, he took her again, as she screamed into the night.

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

  Captain Patty O’Brien’s

  Home

  Outside, she leaned against the vehicle. When she saw him coming, she glared at him.

  “If you’re going to ride ass at this moment, Ivan, it’s a bad time.”

  He knew she was struggling.

  Reaching into the vehicle, he pulled out a pack of smokes. “I didn’t start smoking again until I started working for you.”

  She didn’t laugh.

  Yeah, she was in a bad place.

  Well, she’d played matchmaker, so he owed her one. He wanted to help her. Ivan wanted to make her feel better. Hurting sucked.

  He should know.

  He’d hurt a long time.

  “Want a drag?” he asked, handing her a lit cigarette.

  She took it.

  “Want to talk it out?”

  She took a drag and stared up as the smoke rings floated away.

  “I’ve lost my edge. This is the day I’ve dreaded for so damn long.”

  He stared at her, taking the smoke back so he could take a hit of nicotine too.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I think Bonnie broke me…here,” she said, touching her head. “I came into this case hoping I could do it. Now I’m sitting here thinking about how I blew it. My whole team needed me, and I dropped the ball.”

  “You’re too hard on you. Why do you have to be perfect?” he asked. “Why do you have to win all the time?”

  She looked over at him. “Because when I don’t win, people don’t get justice. I could have sworn this was off. Captain O’Brien was an asshole, but I met him before on another case. He was douche-y, but he didn’t scream killer.”

  “How do you know?”

  She took the smoke back and took another drag.

  “Birds of a feather…”

  He got it now.

  When Elizabeth handed back the smoke, he touched her arm. “I have faith in you. If my life were on the line, I’d hope you were coming to kick in the door and save my ass. There’s no one more tenacious.”

  “You’re clearly delusional.”

  “Tex, if you think he’s not guilty, fight for that gut feeling. If you think you’re right, don’t let this go down like this. Go in there, get your shit together, and find the real killer. You were on the trail. Get back on it.”

  |She stared at him.

  “Ivan, there are days when I want to beat your face in with my gun.”

  He laughed.

  “Today is not that day. Thanks for the smoke.”

  She flicked the butt into the driveway and crushed it with her boot. When she walked away, he heard Ethan and Callen over his earpiece.

  “Thank you.”

  “Copy that. The Eagle’s wife is heading into the house of horrors. Someone have her back.”

  He’d done his job.

  Elizabeth was back on track.

  Ivan really loved his job.

  Ulcer or not, it was a good gig.

  Hopefully, he could keep it.

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

  Bessie Sander’s House

  One AM Wednesday Morning

  She screamed and screamed and screamed. As she lay tied to the table, he stared down at the metal fork protruding from her body.

  He used to love fucking her with his dick.

  This might be even more gratifying.

  “Bessie, wake up,” he said, patting her on the tear stained cheek. “I want you to watch our friend. Remember him?” he asked. “He was being paid off by the mob, and then on that last day, the day I went to jail, he could have warned me. He didn’t. Patty O’Brien took money from the boss and let me fry. Now I’m going to make him fry.”

  He cut out Patty’s tongue and removed his eyeballs. All the while, she sobbed hysterically in fear that she was next.

  He carried them to the stove and turned the burner on high. “I hope you’re hungry. We shall be having liars tongue and the eyes of a turncoat.”

  She whimpered as he popped more pills. They silenced the demons.

  He mixed them with the Viagra he’d gotten to keep his dick up. The pills made him limp. They didn’t help him at all but he liked how he didn’t care on them.

  That’s why he let them rape him in jail.

  That’s why he didn’t fight.

  Now he was going to make sure she didn’t fight either.

  He pulled the gag out of her mouth and shoved two pills into her pie hole.

  Then he gagged her again, giving her no choice but to swallow them.

  “I bet this will make you horny as hell,” he said, punching her in the stomach.

  More blood oozed from her body where the BBQ fork was impaled.

  As he flipped the tongue and eyes, he hummed a happy tune.

  “We should let them cool. I feel like having some fun.”

  He stared down at his dick. It was back. “Well, Bessie, you always liked me like this. Now you get me like this all-night long.”

  He climbed back on the table between her quivering legs. He pulled out the bloody fork and she screamed in pain.

  “That was nothing, Bessie. This is really going to make you scream my name.”

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

  Patrick O’Brien’s

  Home

  Two Thirty AM

  She headed in, and the first stop was the body in the living room. She was loaded up on adrenaline, nicotine, and anger. Yeah, that was a healthy combo.

  Not.

  “What do we have?”

  “Blue pulled up the ID on Suzan Golden. Her driver’s license appeared on the tablet. “That’s her head. Only, he hacked off her hair and gave her a wig.”

  Yeah, she could see that.

  “That’s not a wig. I’m willing to bet the waitress was scalped.”

  “Ewww,” Blue said. “This guy is loco.”

  Yeah, she was well aware.

  “And the rest of her?”

  The detective came up behind her.

  “Uh, were you sleeping?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Yeah, I went home, my phone died, and I passed out on my couch. I only woke up when a cop was banging on my door. The commissioner called me here.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Well, I’m glad nap time is over.”

  He knew he’d screwed up. “I’m sorry.”

  She was just cranky.

  “We have the judge’s hands,” Elizabeth stated. “When Molly waited on us that day, she didn’t have nails. She had nubs. These have to be the judge’s hands.”

  She was probably right.

  “How will we get her ID?”

  The detective raised his hand. “When I talked to the patrons at the bar, they said she had tattoos on her back. One was a giant heart with ONLY her name and a plus sign—as if she was waiting to find
the man’s name, and she had a tramp stamp in Gaelic. No one knows the meaning.”

  Christina was finished with the pictures.

  “You can roll her.”

  They moved her from the chair and face down onto a black body bag.

  On her back were the tattoos.

  “So the judge’s head and the waitress’s body. Why?”

  “Because the captain is a sick man?” Chris offered.

  “He didn’t do this.”

  Chris looked over.

  It was time for her to prove her chops.

  “I rode him hard today. About two hours before. I made him flip a desk, lunge toward me, and leave work in a tizzy.”

  Callen and Ethan let her work this one out.

  They had to.

  If they wanted their wife to get her confidence back after letting Bonnie slip away, they had to let her find her bearings.

  “Okay, and?” Chris asked.

  “He came home and delicately placed the victims in this chair, lined up the heads and…cleaned? There’s no blood. There’s no smell. He has rotting heads in a basement where it’s been hot the last couple of days. Plus, I didn’t see any saws. We said the killer was playing chop shop.”

  “Elizabeth.”

  “NO, Chris. He’s not the killer. He’s going to be a victim. We have a cop. We have a judge. We have a few other women, but I will figure this out.”

  “Tajel wasn’t the target,” Blue stated. “Her father was.”

  They told her about him being a DA.

  “We narrowed the cases down by two hundred. He worked with Suzan Golden in court.”

  “A cop, a judge, a DA. Someone was trying to get even. I know I’m right.”

  “How do you explain the freezer full of body parts?”

  “I need you all to believe me.”

  “Lyzee, honey,” Chris said. “I go by scientific evidence. This can’t be personal, and you know it.”

  She pulled on gloves and headed toward the basement.

  “I am not wrong,” she said, disappearing through the doorway.

  “Chris, cut her a break,” Callen muttered.

  “I can’t,” he said. “I get she’s struggling, but Lyzee, my BFF, would kick my ass for not making her work for it. It’ll piss her off enough that she’ll focus on it. Trust me. We’ve done this dance.”

  They headed downstairs.

  She was leaning over the open freezer. She reached in, pulled out a leg, and squeezed it.

  “Okay, that will forever be in my mind,” Callen offered. “That was all kinds of wrong.”

  “If these body parts were here long term, why aren’t they rock solid? Dig to the bottom and prove me wrong.”

  Chris did.

  He touched the ones at the very bottom. They were solid on the outer layer, but it had some give.

  If they’d been there for a day, they’d be hard as rocks.

  “He’s not the killer. I’m going to bet if Christina luminols the room, we have no blood.”

  Chris pointed at her. “Do it. If you have to do the whole house, you have my approval.”

  She stared at him. “I know I’m right.”

  “I believe you. I just needed you to believe you.”

  She pointed at her team.

  “Back to the hotel. You have those cases. You have the detective. Get them down. Run all those names and see what pops. The sun will be up before we know it. When it does, we’re going to have an idea of where the hell this killer is hiding.”

  It was in those victim’s names and the past.

  She just didn’t know how she didn’t know what was going on. If she came here, she worked with the captain, and the dead cop who had a son, how did she not know what case this was pertaining to?

  HOW?

  That was making her crazier than the rest.

  And why the hell was this guy not leaving any trace?

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

  Wednesday Three

  AM

  He’d raped her, he’d forced her to eat the other man, and now she was dead. Ironically, she choked on an eyeball.

  Who knew?

  So, as he began working on setting her up, he rubbed his eyes. He was tired, but he wanted to leave this one last body before the end was near.

  He wanted to make sure they all paid.

  The cops, the judge, the DA.

  And the profiler too.

  He couldn’t forget him.

  He had a plan.

  It was infallible.

  Just like him.

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

  Morgue

  When he arrived, he was worked up. His flight, which should have been no more than ninety minutes, ended up being delayed on BOTH tarmacs.

  Flying with the citizen stiffs sucked.

  Tony never wanted to be on a public flight again. There was some teenager flipping him off, and one small kid trying to get to his gun, even though it was hidden.

  Kids were NOT conducive to flights.

  He was never taking their kid on a plane.

  EVER.

  But that was okay. He was at the morgue, and he only had to get to those bones.

  He was dying to see his family.

  When he strolled in, they looked like hell.

  “WOW, is no one sleeping anymore?” he asked. “Is that our new thing?”

  They all looked over.

  “TONY!” They all shouted.

  It woke Ivan up, and he fell off his chair when it slipped out from under him.

  “Assholes,” he said, when Elizabeth began laughing her ass off.

  Tony hugged them all.

  “Are you pulling an all-nighter?” he asked, pulling out some beetles.

  “How the hell did you get those past TSA?” she asked, pushing the bag away. “Seriously. I’ll kick your ass.”

  He grinned.

  “We all know the TSA only pocket checks you if you set off alarms. They look in your shoes, not your pockets.”

  “Oh, and your crotch,” Ivan said, settling back on the chair as it leaned precariously against the wall.

  “Where are my bones?”

  Well, it was clear that Tony was done with the meet and greet. He wanted his favorite thing in the world.

  Skeletons.

  She took him over to a section and pointed. “Have at it. Chris is doing the autopsy, and we are trying to figure out what the hell is going on here. I told them to head to the hotel, and then Ethan reminded me there are beds there, and they will sleep.”

  Tony laughed as they all booed the boss man.

  “My job sucks. Now back to work,” Ethan stated.

  Tony walked around until he was acclimated. Then he settled down. Elizabeth grabbed the pot of coffee and headed their way. She poured some in each of their cups, and she drank right from the pot.

  Why not?

  It had a freaking handle.

  “I can’t believe you found a tunnel, some marionettes, and a killer with legs in a freezer. I miss all the fun.”

  “Yeah, the luck we have. It should be illegal. Oh wait! It is illegal!”

  Tony began talking to the live beetles, not the snack ones. That would have been just weird.

  Elizabeth pointed at her team. “Who wants to play recheck the tunnel to make sure the crazy isn’t hiding there?” she asked.

  Ivan raised his hand. “You’re not going. I’ll go.”

  Blue raised her hand next. “I’ve already been there, so I should go.”

  Yeah, she didn’t want to picture anyone lying on her man.

  Boyfriend?

  What was he called?

  “Okay, team. At sun up, you two play that angle, and the rest of us will stick to these files unless he delivers another body.”

  They groaned.

  “Let’s begin.”

  Callen handed her some files that Detective Chase had personally pulled for them.

  “We have it down to
eighty-five cases. We have to run these by reading the files. This was a while ago. They aren’t uploaded.”

  She sipped more coffee.

  Callen took her picture without her knowing.

  Then he took one of Ethan, with his shirt rolled up at the sleeves, and his face locked in concentration.

  “Keep going team,” she said.

  She was praying for a miracle.

  They needed one.

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

  Tunnel

  Six AM

  He headed there.

  When he parked his vehicle, he was going to start to carry the body into the tunnel. He had been spying, and no one was using that room. Placing the body there would drive the profiler crazy. How could it not?

  There was no way the FBI could get his genius. They were clueless.

  So, as he prepped the area, knowing the times the school busses headed by, he was angry with himself for falling asleep. That one nap killed him. He could have been in and out. Now he had a smaller window.

  And it was closing fast.

  When no one was looking, he gave the woman beside him in the car a kiss.

  “Oh, Bessie, we are about to have some fun.”

  And then he sat there and held the dead captain’s hand.

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

  The sun was up, and Blue knew they should get to the tunnels, and then back again so they could keep working. When she approached him, his eyes popped open.

  They were clear and void of sleep.

  “Handy trick.”

  He grinned at her.

  “Ready?” he asked.

  Yeah, she really was.

  Blue wanted to get this spider walk over with. It wasn’t exactly fun.

  As they headed out, he held her hand. He didn’t care what anyone said. He wanted to be close to her. Being in the same room, but not being able to touch was hell.