“Yeah, this crazy is. Those are our cases. There are only two ways the killer would know the details. They were there, or they read the case files.”
He got it.
“Tomorrow, after I help Livy, I’ll find out who accessed the files. I’ll figure it out.”
“Thanks, Gabe.”
“Watch your backs. Something big is coming. It’s building up to it.”
They knew he was right.
“We’ll be in touch.”
With that, the call was over.
No one spoke. Instead, they opted to finish their dinner. As soon as they were done, Callen handed them each a pair of latex gloves.
“Let’s get to work,” she said, unsealing the bag.
Now they had to hope that this killer wasn’t thinking this far ahead. This was a long shot, but it was the only one they had.
They had to figure this out.
If not, someone else was going to die, and they had no way to warn them.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Friday Morning
Damascus
It had been a long night.
Then it had been an early morning. The three of them had been awake until after midnight searching through the greasy bills from ‘Bubba’s’ but it had paid off.
Out of two hundred and twenty paper bills, they found ten which could be a potential match. They were safely tucked into another evidence bag and ready to be passed off to Merry when they got to FBI West.
That was the other reason they were exhausted. They had strolled out of the hotel well before the sun was even up. It was going to be an early day, and if the killer stayed in Black Mountain, they would only be two hours away.
As of yet, the phone wasn’t back on, and Callen hadn’t received any calls from the tech department. That gave them a little leeway. It appeared that their killer was taking a night off.
As they sat in the car, they discussed the case. Ethan profiled it a little more, and they were going in a different direction.
This was definitely a woman.
She was taking out more men than women, and there was no sex involved.
This screamed revenge.
Now it was only a matter of seeing who was after them, and why they were the targets.
Was this about ‘The Butcher’?
Was it about them?
Could it be both?
No one knew, but they had a gut feeling that once they got one viable lead, this would be broken wide open.
Well, that was what they hoped.
As they pulled into their driveway, it was a little after six in the morning. Elizabeth slept another hour in the Denali, and stiffness was her only reward.
She couldn’t wait to give birth and get this case finished. At the rate they were going, which came first was debatable.
At the front door, Ethan texted his agents, warning them he was home. He didn't really care to be shot in front of their kids.
When the door opened, Brody stood there with a gun in his hand and a smile on his face.
“We’re back.”
Elizabeth could hear silence, and that meant that most of their tribe was still asleep. She loved this time of the day, because it was her little tradition to go wake her boys.
As she wandered away, Wyler handed his sons a cup of coffee.
“You two look beat.”
“We are. It was a long night.”
“Do you need help on this one, boss?” Johanna asked. “We’re free to do research or anything else you need.”
He appreciated it. “I really just need one thing.”
Brody shrugged. “Anything.”
“We need you two to hang out here a little longer. We don’t believe the killer is done, and that means we’ll likely be heading back out.”
“He’s tricky?”
“We think we’re dealing with a woman, and off the record, I have to admire the way her mind works. This is one hell of a plotter. I’m still trying to profile her.”
“Could it be Bonnie?” Johanna asked, going with the obvious. After all, that was the logical route.
Both Ethan and Callen stopped drinking. That was a very good possibility, only this wasn’t fitting her MO. Bonnie liked to have sex with her victims. The only one who had sex had been their one gay agent—and that had been with his lover, also an agent.
“I think we’re safe on that one,” Blackhawk stated.
When they heard Elizabeth coming, she was holding two little hands. Her boys were at her side, and they looked like their fathers, with a kiss of Elizabeth thrown in for good measure.
“Look who I found,” she said.
The boys took off, running for their dads. Ethan and Callen both scooped up their sons and gave them kisses.
“Dads!” they shouted, as they were loved on by the men who helped create them.
They swapped, each taking their namesake.
The agents watched it all happening, and they were smiling. Yeah, it was cute, but after being there for a couple days, neither wanted kids. Johanna not being able to have them might have been a very good thing.
“Elizabeth, you should sit down.”
“I should be lying down,” she corrected. “I feel about four hundred today.”
Callen glanced over. “Are you okay?” he asked, moving closer. When he touched her face, she was warm. “I think you have a fever.”
Ethan was by her side, resting his face against her cheek. “You do. You’re going to bed.”
She laughed. “I’m going to work because there are no sick days in crime fighting. Batman didn’t call off when he had the sniffles. He knew better than to let Robin run around the city trying to do his job.”
“Elizabeth.”
She stared at Callen, daring him.
“Okay, she’s got a point.”
Ethan stared at him. “Are you sick too?”
He laughed. “She knows what’s best for her. We have to defer this one to our wife. It’s her body, and if she thinks she can do this, who are we to argue.”
“Uh, her husbands?” Ethan offered.
“Plus,” she began, cutting off any male testosterone fueled jackassery, “if this nut is after me, she’s going to find me here. Does anyone want our kids in the target on this one? For everyone’s sake, it’s best I keep moving.”
The men glanced down at their sons.
That was a big, fat negative. Elizabeth had a fighting chance. Their kids…didn’t.
“We’re going to head to FBI West now. I want an update on the Dean Quinlan, and I want to see what Merry has from Kay’s murder too.”
She grabbed Callen’s coffee and chugged it.
“Hey!”
“Turnabout is fair play.”
“Ma’am?” Johanna said, getting her attention.
“In our home, you can call me Elizabeth. We’re not on the clock yet.”
“Thank you for taking us with you to DC. Brody and I are ready for a change.”
She simply nodded. They were more people who were going to be disappointed. Elizabeth hated that she’d let the cat out of the bag, and had to take it back.
Merry.
Johanna.
Brody.
They were going to have to adjust to being there.
“Well, don’t sell everything yet. I still have to get through this case, and this killer.”
Brody grinned. “You’ll catch her. You’re the best at this kind of thing.”
Funny, today, she didn't feel like it. She felt more like someone had drop kicked her ass across the US.
And it sucked.
As they headed out, Elizabeth took a moment with her kids, and Ethan kept Callen behind.
“Keep your eyes on her. I don’t like that she has a fever. That worries me.”
His eyes showed his concern. “Do you think she’s going to be okay, and the baby too?”
Ethan wasn’t sure.
“Yeah, I’m sure she’ll be fine. Later, we’ll have Chris Leonard check her out. He’l
l tell us what to do. Plus, she won’t scowl at him. She misses him.”
Callen relaxed.
They could trust Chris. When it came to their woman, he was their private physician.
Ethan had a great idea.
When dealing with a pregnant woman, make it seem like you were giving her what she wanted.
Then, do the opposite, as you prayed she didn't find out.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
At the ringing of his doorbell, Chris Leonard grabbed his tie and headed toward it. He was excited to be back on duty, and he couldn’t wait to get to the office.
When he opened the door, Elizabeth stood there.
Immediately, he threw his arms around her in a hug and kissed her on the cheek.
“Hey! You came to bring me to work.”
She laughed. “Yeah, we just got home, changed, and are heading back out. Do you want to carpool? The weather is getting nasty out, and I wouldn’t want to see you wrap one of your pretty Mercedes around a pole.”
He held the door open for her, inviting her in.
“Yeah, that sounds great. Maybe you can catch me up to speed?”
“So are you saying you want back into this mess?”
Chris grinned. “Hell yeah!”
“You’re nuts, but since you insist, you and Zane are playing tag team ME today. We have a zillion pieces of trace, and I have some of the reports from Merry to go over. She pulled an all-nighter, but we have more to work with thanks to her.”
He finished his tie.
“Am I straight?”
“You got married to a girl, didn't you?”
It took him a second, but he got it. “I’ve missed you. There’s nothing like Elizabeth humor at six thirty in the morning. Now, seriously. Am I straight?”
Elizabeth was accustomed to doing this. She fixed Ethan’s tie, Gabe’s, and now Chris’s. “You look good, Doc. All spiffy and professional-like,” she drawled. “Anyone who can wear a tie with skulls and not bat an eye is okay in my book.”
He stared into her eyes. “Spill it. You look pale. Are you okay?”
She pointed at the baby. “He’s making me work for it. I’m so glad this is my last baby. I can’t do this again. I know I’ve said that before, but this time…I’m tapped out.”
He dropped his arm over her shoulders. “When you know, it’s best to listen to your body.”
“Amen, brother. Amen.”
Before he could say anything else, Cyra came around the corner with his medical bag and cane. “Here you go, Christopher. I threw some candy into your bag. I figured you could share it with your friends at lunch.”
She smiled at Elizabeth.
There was tension there.
Elizabeth could feel it.
Even Chris was tense. Yeah, someone had to fix this and fast. Crossing toward her, she gave the woman her warmest hug. “How are you, Cyra?”
She relaxed.
“I’m good. Just take care of my husband today. You took him out in one piece, I expect him back exactly like you borrowed him.”
She laughed. “I think I can do that.”
Chris figured there was no time like the present.
“Elizabeth, can I ask you something? I don’t mean to put you on the spot, but it’s important,” Chris asked.
“Sure. What?”
“Can Cyra come back to the FBI?”
Both women stared at each other.
Chris held his breath. He knew this was a potential landmine. It could blow up in his face. He was putting all his trust in his best friend.
Elizabeth knew she was in a tight spot. If she said yes, Cyra would come back, and she didn't really believe the woman’s heart was in it. When you were a Fed, you had to be a Fed. From an outsider observing her, she noticed that this looked like something to amuse herself while she was bored.
Doing shit like that was always a bad idea.
That being said…if she said no, Chris would be upset.
Finally, she made up her mind. “That depends on one condition.”
They waited.
“Cyra has to pass the physical and the qualifications. I can’t pull strings, even for you. If she can handle the requirements, then she can come back.”
He kissed his wife. “See? Now you can think about it.”
Elizabeth suspected as much. This felt more like Chris trying to get his wife busy, so she got off his ass. Later, they would have one hell of a talk.
Make that lecture.
“Okay, Christopher, I will. Have a good day.”
As he pulled on his coat, he remembered. “Shit! I forgot to take out the trash.”
Cyra laughed. “Shocking.”
“Want me to get it?” he asked.
“No. You just go. I’m going to take it out when I put Bethe down for her nap.”
He grabbed his bag and cane. “I love you, Cyra. Kiss my girl for me.”
With that, they headed out. Once outside, he waved at his wife and linked his arm through Elizabeth’s so she wouldn’t fall on the slippery driveway.
“This is seriously the best day of my life. I’m going back to work. I love it!”
She laughed.
Elizabeth was glad someone was excited about the FBI. All she was excited about now was a good night’s sleep.
Oh, and catching one hell of a killer.
* * * B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x * * *
Hoover Building
DC
Livy sat in her husband’s office as he was on the phone taking a conference call with the President of the United States. It never ceased to amaze her how influential her husband had become. He was hobnobbing it with the most powerful man in the free world.
It turned her on.
When he glanced over at her, Gabe winked. He knew what she was thinking. The flush must have given it away.
Forcing her mind back to work, she studied the papers before her. She was running a background check, and something else she thought might be advantageous.
Helena Brennan-O’Brien was nowhere to be found. The woman hadn’t used a credit card, gotten a loan, or tried to use her social security number.
She was a ghost.
Then it occurred to her. What if she checked the Jane Does who had turned up in the morgues? A person didn't stop existing like this unless they had a bad end to their lives.
It was a hunch.
She ran the parameters, of the search, adjusting to the new technology. A lot had changed in the last fifteen years. She just had that gut feeling, and she went with it.
Pulling up the local ME, close to where Helena had lived, she searched all his cases. It was a long timeframe, but she still had that hunch.
Then she found her.
“Holy shit,” she muttered.
That had Gabe’s attention as he hung up with the president. “What did you find?”
“Helena.”
“Really?
“She turned up in a shallow grave. She was beaten to death.”
“How do you know it’s her?” he asked, crossing the room to get to her side.
“Look at the artist’s rendition.”
Gabe examined the picture and then compared it to the woman’s final driver’s license photo.
She looked almost the same.
“She was killed.”
“Now we just need to find out by who?”
She laughed. “COD was a stab wound with a butcher’s knife. Her husband is a butcher, and her ex was slicing people apart. I think we have two good suspects.”
Gabe smiled. “We have one. You must be rusty.”
She lifted a brow. “Am I?”
“She married the brother after Seamus was dead. There’s no way in hell a dead man came back and murdered his muse.”
“Good point,” Livy stated. “I am rusty.”
He sipped his coffee. “So, you think it was him?”
“She was beaten, and then buried. In most cases, where a marrie
d woman goes missing, it is almost always the husband. He didn't file for divorce because he didn't know where she was. Yeah, he could have applied for a legal injunction. I’m betting he didn't want to bring up her name, in fear there would be a case.”
“I agree.”
As if to solidify her opinion further, Livy pushed on. She had something to prove, and she knew it. “If I disappeared, what would you do?”
“I’d call out the National Guard and tear this country apart to find you. I wouldn’t stop looking. Any husband, who was in love with his wife, would.”
“So why didn't he?”
“He killed her.”
“I think I have a little side case when this is over. I’m going to put James O’Brien’s ass in jail.”
“It’s not our jurisdiction.”
“It doesn’t matter, Gabriel. She was a person. She’s been a Jane Doe for the last decade. Someone has to stand for her, even if it’s not my job.”
He kissed his wife. “That works for me.” Before he could say any more, his secretary knocked. When she came in, Paulina wouldn’t look him in the eye.
Gabe lifted a brow.
Livy simply grinned in triumph.
“Sir, here’s the report you asked for earlier. I had to wait because one of the ME’s was waiting on an attendance report.”
Gabe loved paperwork. It made his day. He loved nothing more than putting everything in tidy folders for future reference.
“Oh, is someone out?”
He didn't normally get attendance reports, but he needed it to give Elizabeth a count for her team. He didn't need her going over the top and hiring too many for the budget.
“Yeah, Carol Spade is out again.”
Livy lifted a brow.
“She must be trying to avoid Elizabeth,” he joked. “Or she’s looking for a new job.”
Paulina handed him the report and hustled out.
“What was wrong with her?” he asked.
“I told her we’d had sex, I marked my territory, and she knows the next time she pictures you naked, she’s dead.”
He stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “What?”
Livy ignored him. “Did you hear what she said?”
Choices will Destroy (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 14) Page 44