by KJ Kalis
“The medical examiner, Dr. Wiley? He’s one of my best customers. Our families have been friends for generations. If anyone knows what’s going on, he will. If you’d like, we could head over there now. If there’s a body coming in, he’s either out in the field or he’s on his way back to the office.”
“For sure. Let’s go!”
Emily ran back out in the rain to the Jeep, getting it started while Bradley joined her. As soon as he got in, he looked at her, “We can go over there, but are you sure your FBI buddies aren’t going to be hanging out with Dr. Wiley? I mean, wouldn’t they do that?”
Emily’s stomach sank. Bradley was right. Sure, she and Bradley could go to the Medical Examiner’s Office, but what if Cash Strickland was standing in the lobby? Emily paused, blinking, “Well, that’s a chance we might just have to take.” She swallowed hard, chasing bile back down her throat.
35
After about twenty minutes of searching out in the mud, Cash turned around and waved his team back in. Dr. Wiley was waiting under the tent, the skeleton carried to their van by his assistant. “Anything?” he said as Cash ducked under the edge of the canvas.
Cash shook his head, “Nope. I didn’t find anything within about five hundred yards of the tent.” Cash almost referred to the skeleton as “the chunk of body,” but stopped himself. The stress of the case is getting to me, he thought. “What now?”
“Well, we’ll get the body back to the office and take a look at it in the morning.”
Raising his eyebrows, Cash said, “Any chance you might be able to look at it tonight?”
Dr. Wiley shook his head no, “I gotta get back to my farm, make sure all my animals are okay. We get some flooding out there. Gotta keep the living alive if you know what I mean.”
As Dr. Wiley picked up the last equipment bag and walked out into the rain, his head uncovered, his shoulders hunched against the wind, making his way back to his van, Cash groaned out loud. Janet Crenshaw ducked under the tent, “What’s going on?”
Cash shook his head, “Dr. Wiley isn’t available to take a look at our skeleton until the morning. He’s got livestock to tend to.”
Janet cocked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows, “Even with Lexi missing?”
Cash shrugged, closing his eyes for a second. Nothing about this case was ever easy.
Janet blinked, “Well, he’s in charge. He gets to set his own hours. It’s not like the skeleton’s having a heart attack or anything.” She unzipped her jacket and then looked at Cash, “What do we do now?”
“We wait.”
36
“I have an idea,” Bradley said, pulling an old flip phone out of his pocket. “Gimme a minute.”
Emily pulled the Jeep up at a red light in the center of town still worried about running into the FBI at Dr. Wiley’s office. She pulled out her phone and sent a text to Mike, “How’s that location on Strickland coming?”
By the time Mike texted back, Bradley was on the phone with who Emily guessed was Dr. Wiley. “James? How are you on this fine evening?”
Bradley pointed down the road as the light turned green, still talking to Dr. Wiley. “Listen, I heard you might’ve found something out in a field. You know how I feel about this stuff. Any chance I could stop by the office and hear more about what you’ve got going?”
Emily gripped the wheel a little harder. If she could manage to talk to the medical examiner, or better yet, see what they’d brought in, it would give her a leg up on the case. Some real information. But all of that would go away if the FBI was there.
“Yeah, that’ll work,” Bradley said. “Thanks, buddy. I’ll see you in a few.”
“Good news?” Emily asked.
“Yep. He said we can come to the office. We’re just around the corner now.”
Emily sucked in a breath. The fact they could see the medical examiner was great, but where was Cash Strickland and his team of agents? And where was Mike? What was taking him so long to get a location? Mike must have read Emily’s mind because a second later, her phone beeped. “His phone is pinging that they are on the road. Don’t know the destination. No info on that.”
A tightness passed over Emily’s chest. The next few minutes could determine whether she’d have to face down Cash.
37
Leaving the field where they’d found the skeleton, Cash and his team pulled their SUVs behind Dr. Wiley’s van on the way to his office. Although the medical examiner said he wasn’t going to work on the skeleton until the morning, the least they could do was make sure he got back to the office in one piece with the evidence. Although it wasn’t technically a chain of custody issue, since Dr. Wiley had ownership of the body, Cash knew he’d feel better if he knew everything got to Dr. Wiley’s office in one piece, especially with the weather howling overhead.
Cash leaned forward, squinting at the windshield, “Can’t remember when I’ve seen this much rain. Almost seems more like a hurricane than a tropical storm, don’t you think?” he said to Janet, who was sitting on the passenger side. She pulled off her rain slicker and stuffed it down near the side of her seat.
Janet reached over and pressed the button for the seat heater. “I know. Haven’t seen weather like this in quite a while. Gave me a chill.”
“In eighty-degree weather?”
“Don’t ask. You’re not a woman. We are much more sensitive to temperature.”
Cash shook his head. “I’m a little aggravated that Dr. Wiley doesn’t want to take a look at the skeleton until the morning. This is the first real lead we’ve had and with Lexi missing… I just don’t understand it.”
Janet shrugged, “I know. I don’t get it, but he’s probably thinking the bones have been out in the weather for a while. I guess it’s okay. What’s one more night?”
Cash pursed his lips. That very attitude was the one that might not let Janet ever move forward in her career, he thought. He shook his head a little, realizing that most of the agents on his team were as far ahead in the FBI as they were going to get. They didn’t have the urgency, the drive they needed to get promoted. But he didn’t want to be the one to tell Janet that. He liked her. “I guess you’re right. Just be nice to know if the skeleton we found is the work of the torso killer or not.”
The two of them said nothing more until they got to Dr. Wiley’s office. It was a one-story building with a garage door on the side. Cash pulled in right behind Dr. Wiley and his assistant, watching the garage door go up. As the van pulled inside, Cash watched. Dr. Wiley’s big, lumbering frame could be seen getting out of the van in the murky darkness of the garage.
Without thinking, Cash darted out of the SUV, running for the cover of the garage. “You need anything else? You want us to stay?”
Dr. Wiley shook his head a little bit, “Up to you, but all I’m gonna do is log the body in and head home.”
Cash nodded, his stomach tightening. It was going to be a long night of waiting.
38
As Emily and Bradley rounded the corner, she spotted the sign for the Clement County Medical Examiner’s Office. It was a low building, squat to the ground as if it was perched on the soil rather than towering over it. Made of block and brick, it was dark against the dusk and the driving rain.
Pulling into the parking lot, Emily was nearly on top of the FBI SUVs before she realized it, “No!” she whispered, driving slowly past them and around the back of the building.
“What’s the matter?” Bradley asked.
“You know as well as I do. That’s the FBI! I don’t want to get tangled up with them.” Emily gritted her teeth. He knew she was working on his brother’s case as an off-the-books pursuit. Getting involved with the FBI would be a mistake, one she wasn’t sure she’d ever recover from.
“Hang on there, Emily,” Bradley said, pointing around the back of the building. “Pull the Jeep in over there. It’s so dark that none of them can see us.” Bradley picked up his phone again and dialed.
Emily
picked a spot in the back corner of the lot, her heart pounding in her chest. Had Bradley done this on purpose, trying to get her in the hot seat with the FBI? Hopefully, that wasn’t the case. She chewed the inside of her lip, waiting.
Next to her, Bradley had the phone up to his ear. He didn’t say anything for a minute, and then he glanced at Emily, whispering, “Hold on for a sec. Let me see what I can do here.”
Emily stared off into the darkness, trying to stay calm. She knew she hadn’t done anything wrong. She hadn't broken the law while she was in Tifton. Why was she so paranoid? Knowing that Cash had all of her information at his fingertips resurfaced in her mind. It was nearly impossible to make any moves without running into these people, she thought. A tightness traveled across her chest. What had started off to be a major breakthrough in the case was rapidly turning into another dead end, especially if the evidence she needed to see was just a few steps from the Jeep, but she was unable to see it. She continued to stare off at the darkness letting her eyes remain unfocused, trying to relax, taking a few deep breaths.
A moment later, Bradley was off the phone. “Doc said to give him ten minutes and then hopefully the FBI guys will disappear. He said we can use the back entrance once everything is clear.”
Emily looked down for a second, just in time to hear her phone ping, it was Mike. “You are practically on top of Cash. Do you know that?!”
Emily texted back, “Yes. I’m aware. Thanks for the heads up.” At least she’d managed not to be short with Mike. After all, he and Flynn were just trying to help.
Bradley and Emily sat in the car in silence, the Jeep dim. To anyone who drove by without paying attention, they might not even notice the two people sitting in the front seat. The rain was working to her advantage, Emily thought, the mist and humidity and large droplets shielding the Jeep from prying eyes. Emily took a couple of deep breaths, glancing over her left shoulder when she saw the wash of headlights. “Get down,” she hissed, putting a hand on Bradley’s shoulder.
The two of them slid down, avoiding the headlights from the black SUVs as they passed by. Emily didn’t dare look until the darkness had covered the Jeep again. “Did two of them pass?”
Bradley nodded, his eyes wide.
“Are you sure?” Emily said, staring at him.
Bradley nodded again. “I think we’re good. Let’s go in and see Doc before he leaves. He’s waiting for us.”
Emily swallowed and hesitated. Having the FBI lurking around every corner had her off her game. Could this be a setup? Could Bradley be working with the FBI? Maybe the SUVs just pretended to leave, and they circled around the front of the building, the agents taking up positions inside as she sat in the Jeep. Emily swallowed again, realizing she had a decision to make. Could Bradley be trusted or not? She’d bumped up against the question a couple of times since she got into Tifton. It was time to decide. “Let’s go,” she said.
Emily slid out of the Jeep into the darkness, following Bradley. He was surprisingly fast, even with his limp. At the back door, Bradley put his hand on the knob and turned it, light from the inside of the building pouring out, welcoming them in. Emily stood in the doorway for a moment, taking in her surroundings, waiting to hear the voices of FBI agents yell at her, “Stop!”
They never came.
Water dropped off the back and sides of Emily’s rain slicker, leaving a puddle of the tropical storm on the floor. Emily stood there for a moment, listening, ready to run right back out to the Jeep if she needed to. She felt every muscle in her body ready to spring into action. Bradley’s voice broke through the noise in her mind, “Come on. His office is down the hall.”
In the back of the medical examiner’s building, there wasn’t a lot to see. Her heart starting to slow down, Emily was able to absorb more of the details of the space. There was a long hallway that ran parallel to the back wall of the building. The door they’d come in was a double door, one that could be open wide to allow for larger deliveries in and out of the building. Deliveries of bodies, Emily was sure. Directly across from the set of double doors was another set of matching doors, protected by a keypad. She followed Bradley down the hallway, the two of them leaving little drips of rainwater as they walked. The hallway itself was plain and looked much like a hospital — dull gray linoleum floors and vanilla painted walls, the harsh fluorescent light softened by some sort of filters in the ceiling. At the end of the hallway, there was a set of double doors that were open. Emily could feel the wind from the storm blowing outside swirling around. She glanced to her right to see a two-bay garage with an extra high ceiling. Dr. Wiley’s van was parked inside. As she turned the corner, Emily saw someone pushing a cart down the hallway ahead of them. He disappeared around the corner.
Bradley stopped at a door on his left and pushed it open, going inside. It was a brightly lit examination room, but not the kind that Emily had seen when she visited the doctor. There was a bank of steel doors against the wall opposite her. Cold storage for bodies. In the center of the room there were two stainless steel examination tables. To her right, there was a long table filled with scientific equipment — microscopes, an autoclave, and some other specialized equipment Emily didn’t recognize. In the corner of the room, she heard a grunt, “Over here, Bradley. Yeah, Buster, just leave it here. I’ll take care of it. Thanks. You can go home.”
The man pushing the cart walked right past Emily and Bradley, giving Bradley a tiny nod. “Have a good night, Buster. Be safe out there,” Bradley said as the young man walked by.
Rising from behind one of the examination tables which had blocked her view, Emily saw a large man with rounded, sloping shoulders stand up. He had on a one-piece jumpsuit, much like the one she’d seen veterinarian’s wear. As he turned, he looked at her and then Bradley and said, “I didn’t know you were bringing a friend. Who’s this?”
The way he said the words didn’t stir up any alarm inside of Emily. It was as simple as if he’d asked about the weather outside. A sense of calm began to settle over her. Emily sighed as she listened to Bradley. “Doc, this is Emily. She’s giving me a hand trying to figure out what happened to my brother. We heard through the grapevine you might’ve found something tonight. I was wondering if you’d do me the favor of sharing what you know with Emily so maybe she can put the pieces together for us.”
Dr. Wiley came out from behind the examination table and leaned his back on it, crossing his legs at the ankles and his arms over his chest, “You’re interested in the torso killer case?”
Emily cleared her throat, “That’d be right.”
“Are you some sort of private investigator?”
“You could say that, too.”
Dr. Wiley stared at Emily for a second and then at Bradley, a broad smile covering his face that pushed his cheeks up underneath his glasses, “I like this one, Bradley. Doesn’t waste time with chit chat.”
Before she could say anything else, Dr. Wiley walked past her to the long steel table and opened a file drawer underneath, pulling out a thick manila folder. He laid it out on the steel examining table, sorting the papers into different stacks. He glanced over his shoulder and looked at Emily and Bradley, “Here’s some basic information on the torso killer.” As Dr. Wiley straightened up, he looked at Bradley, “You think she can do a better job than the FBI?”
“Well, you know what the FBI has done for us…”
The words hung in the air for a moment, the reality that even though seven years of bodies had accumulated, and now another, the FBI had been unable to solve the case. They hadn’t made much progress even though they’d been coming to Tifton twice a year for almost a decade. Emily wondered why they hadn’t narrowed down at least a suspect list. Or maybe they had, and they were running through the list at that very moment. That was something to try to remember to ask Mike about.
Dr. Wiley’s voice interrupted Emily’s thoughts, “That’s true. What did you say your name was?” he said, looking at her.
“Emil
y.”
“You don’t sound like you’re from around here.”
“I’m not.” Emily glanced at the stack of papers and then back at Dr. Wiley. She wasn’t about to get into a discussion about where she was from. “Can I ask you a few questions, especially about what you found today?”
Dr. Wiley went back to leaning on the edge of the metal examining table, re-crossing his ankles and his arms over his chest, “Shoot,” he nodded.
“I heard that you found something today out in the field. What was it?”
“Yes, that.” Dr. Wiley pointed over to a cart sitting in the corner of the room. It was covered with an off-white sheet. “That over there is a pile of bones that some kids found in a field not too far from here. Local detective said they were riding ATVs around there — some of those fields used to be planted up with corn, but it’s been going fallow for a long time now — and they ran across what looks like a rib cage and spine from a human body.”
“Human?” Emily said, walking over to the cart, “Mind if I take a look?”
Dr. Wiley shook his head, “If you're a friend of Bradley’s, you’re a friend of mine.”
Emily walked behind the stainless-steel examining table and lifted the edge of the sheet. Laying on a metal tray was exactly what Dr. Wiley had described – what looked like a complete rib cage still attached to the sternum, a line of vertebrae and pelvic bone. The bones were off-white. Emily bent over, looking more closely at the pelvis and the top of the spine, squinting, careful not to touch anything. “These marks on the edge of the bone, Doc, what are those?”
Dr. Wiley walked up behind her and then stepped to the side, pointing with a pen he pulled out of his chest pocket, “The ones right there?” he said.
Emily nodded.
“I think those are cut marks.”
The reality that the skeleton found out in the field was likely part of the torso killer case made Emily swallow, the bile rising in the back of her throat. She pressed her lips together and sucked in a breath. Looking at Dr. Wiley, she said, “Anything else you can tell me about the skeleton?”