Elizabeth hugged him. “Don’t worry Julian. Have faith,” she said, offering him comfort.
“I do. It’s all I have right now,” he said, hugging her back. “Now, what can I help you with?” he asked again, changing the subject.
Elizabeth glanced back at the board. “Can you look over the tox reports again for me?”
“I can do that,” he said, grabbing the files and taking a seat at her desk.
“We’re back,” said Blackhawk from the doorway.
Elizabeth turned smiling, and then saw the mess they both were. “What the hell?” she said. Her mouth hung open as she crossed the room to them both. “Was there an accident?” she suddenly felt sick.
“There was an incident at the police station,” began Whitefox, grinning.
Looking back and forth at the two of them, she noticed they both had cut lips, Callen’s cheek was red and swelling and Ethan’s dress shirt had a tear in it.
“Oh my God, you had a fight.”
Both men started laughing.
“I’ll go get some ice,” offered Julian. He had a feeling there was going to be another fight at any moment, and he didn’t want to witness a murder.
“Did you both do this to each other?” Elizabeth was appalled.
Blackhawk grinned. “Hell no, baby. We had a run in with four cops.”
She stared at him. “You need to explain that, Ethan,” she said, first going to Callen and checking his face. “Oh, Cal. You’re a mess,” Elizabeth said, kissing his lower lip gently, and then dropping a kiss to his cheek.
“If you think we look bad, you should see Detective Leto and his beefy friends.”
Elizabeth turned to her husband and hugged him. “Are you okay, Ethan?” she asked, running her fingers across his lip.
“Yeah baby, we’re good. Just a little banged up.”
“Good, because I’m going to kill Detective Leto,” she stated, angrily.
“No you’re not, angel,” interjected Callen. “We were defending our woman’s honor. You aren’t killing anyone. Let the men handle this one.”
She stared at him. “This was all about me?”
Both men laughed. “You think we run around getting into brawls in parking lots, at night, in the dark for just any old reason?” Blackhawk placed the Chinese food down on her desk.
“You beat the hell out of four men to defend my honor?”
“Yep,” they said at the same time.
Elizabeth was ridiculously touched by that. She should be very angry, but how could she get mad when the men were protecting her.
She went up on her toes and kissed Ethan gently. The kiss was filled with so much love for him. Her warrior deserved that moment as a reward. Slowly, Elizabeth broke the kiss. “Thank you, Ethan,” she whispered.
He grinned, surprised she didn’t get angry. “Any time, baby.”
Next she went to Callen, and did the same thing. He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off the ground in one of their hugs, as she kissed him. Breaking away she smiled at him. “My heroes.”
“Just so you know, my guys were bigger,” he added.
Blackhawk snorted as he stripped out of his destroyed suit jacket.
“Oh well then.” She kissed him again.
“You know he’s full of shit, right?” stated Blackhawk laughing.
Elizabeth ended the kiss and patted his unbruised cheek. “Yeah, I know.”
Julian came back in with two ice packs. “Here you go,” he said, tossing them to the men. “I hope you look better than the other guys.”
Blackhawk laughed. “They were lying on the ground, so yeah, we came out of this on top.”
Callen grinned. “Ethan broke Leto’s arm as a parting gift. He’s going to be out of work for a long time.”
She stared open mouthed.
“What?” he asked, looking around.
Elizabeth started laughing. Now she knew how both men felt every time she did something like this. The shoe was on the other foot. “Nothing, Ethan,” she continued laughing, as she left the room and gathered a new shirt for Ethan from his stash in his closet, and one for Callen from his closet. Both men were a mess. When she came back they were taking Chinese out of the bag.
“Julian you want some?” Blackhawk offered.
“No, I ate but thank you.”
Elizabeth handed the men their shirts. “Toss the ruined ones, boys.”
Both men began stripping and Elizabeth tried to not focus on them, but it was incredibly hard. Pregnancy hormones started firing and right then and there she wanted to climb over both of them.
Hell!
Blackhawk started laughing, knowing what his wife was thinking. “You should eat, Lyzee,” he stated, trying to distract her. She was staring at the black raven tattooed on his chest, and the look in her eyes was unmistakable. He’d seen it before when she was pregnant with CJ.
Her focus shifted to Callen and his body. He was just as delicious as Ethan, and the room suddenly got very warm, as eyes wandered down his body.
Callen winked, as he slowly buttoned his shirt. He sincerely wished Julian wasn’t there at that moment. He’d let her climb all over him willingly. Thank God for her sex drive.
Elizabeth sat on the couch with her Chinese food and the file from Captain Gilman, trying to focus on anything but the men. “Shit, the ME report needs to be translated,” she muttered, looking at her watch. It was too late to bother Chris. First thing in the morning he was going to have to stop at her office and decipher it.
“How bad is it?” asked Whitefox sitting beside her closely. When she rested her hand on his thigh and leaned against him, his whole body tensed.
“I can understand the drawings and about thirty percent of the medical talk.” Elizabeth closed the file and started eating her food.
“You should eat and then crash on the couch for a while, Lyzee. Once Chris comes in we’ll start back up early.” Ethan suggested. “Julian, you can crash on Callen’s couch.”
The man nodded. “Thanks,” he said, standing up. “Can I take a few of these files in case I can’t sleep?”
“Absolutely,” answered Elizabeth. “Have at them. Maybe a fresh set of eyes will help me out.”
Julian sauntered away and closed the door.
“He looks like hell,” muttered Blackhawk, “which is funny since we’re the ones that had the fist fight.”
Elizabeth nodded. “Yeah, he’s having woman issues. Unrequited love on Tori’s behalf,” she added. “He’s already stated he’s going home when this is all over.”
“What about her?”
Elizabeth leaned her head on Callen’s shoulder. “I plan on stacking the deck.”
Blackhawk watched his wife, lifting a brow. “What are you planning on doing?”
She shrugged. “I’m going to get her into a VA hospital as close to Julian as possible, and just trust that love will figure it all out.”
“You’re such a hopeless romantic,” grinned Whitefox.
“Everyone deserves love, and I hope they figure it out.” Elizabeth handed her take out to Callen.
The men sat there eating in silence. Blackhawk was flipping through the files. When he glanced up, he noticed Elizabeth was asleep on his brother’s shoulder. His heart skipped in his chest. Ethan tapped Callen on the leg and pointed. “Let’s keep working and let her sleep for a while,” he whispered.
His brother handed him his food, and gently slid down the couch, letting her head rest in his lap. Gently he stroked her hair. “We need to find something for her,” Callen said, worrying about her.
“We will,” reassured his brother. “Come on, let’s get to work.”
* * *
He paced his living room wondering what to do next. The place where he liked to get his women from was now off limits. The FBI was onto him. Now his choices were limited. He needed to make amends for screwing this one up too. Had she not hit the dumpster so hard, maybe they wouldn’t have come running and right now he’
d be enjoying himself.
But no. It was all starting to unravel. Then there was the fire ax. He left it there purposely, to point the suspicion away from him.
He had a plan, and tomorrow he’d take care of it. But first he had one person to take care of before then. It shouldn’t take long; after all, the man was an idiot.
It was time to get rid of the loose end and toss him to the wolves.
Yeah, he was more than ready.
* * *
Tossing and turning, she clutched the bed sheets in her hands. The dreams were back, and the skeleton Quinn was there too. He was leading them through the streets of the tiny desert town. Again she followed him and listened to his babble.
“You need to get as far away from him as possible,” he said, aiming his M4 at all the slight sounds.
“What if I don’t want to leave him?”
Quinn laughed. “Don’t you get it? You’re a disaster Tori. You cost me my life. You’re going to cost him his too. It’s only a matter of time.”
She said nothing back, because it was probably the truth.
“Your best bet is to walk away and let the man find someone that isn’t fucked up.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Yeah, I know.”
The insurgent rounded the corner and looked right at her. This time she was slow, and the bullet hit her in the chest. Gone was her Kevlar, and all the pain washed over her as she realized the bullet hit her heart.
“What’s wrong Tori? Does your heart hurt?” inquired Quinn, laughing. “It’s about time you felt some pain for all the hurt you’ve caused everyone.”
Tori closed her eyes and didn’t speak. Why fight with a dead man over lies.
She knew pain; she was living it every second of every day.
Quinn’s sick laughter jolted her awake and her hand went to her chest to make sure it was a dream. Lying back against her pillows she let the tears come.
Now she could cry, because she was alone and no one would know the truth.
The cold hard fact was that Victoria Christensen was destined to die alone.
~ Chapter twenty ~
Thursday Morning
The rest of the night Tori paced her house like a caged tiger. All she really wanted to do was call Julian and talk to him, but she knew it was better this way. Hell even dead skeleton Quinn knew it was for the best.
Just the fact she was having conversations and justifying a figment of her dreams was proof. Tori needed help and soon.
Dropping onto the couch she closed her eyes and thought back to the space behind ‘The Pussy Cat Club’, when she opened the back door. Ethan had asked her if she remembered anything, saw anything, or smelled anything.
Tori had been quick to say no, but maybe she did. Letting her mind relive the moments she took it all in and patiently thought about it.
First the door swung open, and she stepped out into the chill. Her body enjoyed the cold clear air. It felt refreshing. Looking around the employee parking there were cars parked there. There was Ethan’s Mustang, Julian’s sedan, the vehicles owned by the doctors and then the stripper’s cars. Then she recognized it.
The black Charger reminded her of a car she’d seen before. Wait, not once but twice before. Once at the strip club and then once at… Patrick Wells’ house.
“Oh shit,” she said, staring at her watch. It was just after seven, and surely Elizabeth had to be up.
Picking up her phone she dialed her boss. It rang and went to voice mail. Hanging up, Tori sent her a text message telling her what she remembered.
Rushing to her bedroom she started dressing. There still was no reply from Elizabeth. Again she sent another text message, telling her she’d meet them at Patrick Wells’ house.
Hopefully Elizabeth wasn’t going to kick her ass for going out in the field. Right now she had to get there and keep an eye on the man.
Running to her garage, she backed out her vehicle and tore towards the development. She should probably call Julian next, since Elizabeth wasn’t answering her phone. Reaching in her pocket she couldn’t find her phone.
“Shit, I’m an idiot,” she muttered. Tori left her phone sitting on the counter. “Come on, Elizabeth. Read your damn text messages,” she said to no one in particular.
It took Tori ten minutes to get to the house. Sitting in her vehicle, she could see the Charger in the driveway. It was the same one that was at the club, she was sure of it. Tori needed to make sure. She remembered seeing pin striping across the hood. If she just snuck over and looked quick, she could be sure.
Pulling her clutch piece, she ran down the street to the driveway. Looking around she waited to be sure Patrick Wells wasn’t anywhere around. When the coast was clear, she approached the vehicle. Stopping in front of the car she saw the striping and knew she was right.
There was a crunch behind her and she spun; only to be struck so hard across the face she saw stars. Falling to the ground, her head struck the concrete. Everything started going gray and closing in on her. The last thing Tori remembered seeing was a man standing over her. Only it wasn’t he man she thought it would be.
This time it was the son.
Elizabeth stood with Callen, Julian and Ethan in the autopsy suite. Chris Leonard was going over the files the ME had written up on Amanda Callister Wells. She was trying to be patient, but it wasn’t really happening.
“Doc, can you maybe just hurry up a little bit,” pleaded Elizabeth. Right now there was a killer running loose, and she’d actually slept the night away. No thanks to the men, who let her.
“Okay, geez Lyzee. Where’s the fire?” he said laughing. When he noticed none of them joined him, he shut up. “Okay, here’s what the ME recorded,” he said, flipping the page. “Amanda Callister Wells had abrasions and wounds similar with falling down the stairs, or more likely pushed. When you fall you don’t have that velocity of high impact. If it were me looking at her wounds I would have said shoved is your better option. In all my years of experience, rarely do you fall forward down the stairs. You generally tumble and this woman took a header face first.”
“What else?” she asked, getting excited.
“There was smoke in her lungs. The woman wasn’t dead when she hit the bottom. She lived through the fall, but the smoke is what did her in.”
“And?”
“That’s it,” Chris said. “Now you just need to figure out who pushed her.”
Ethan pulled out the other file on the arson. “Patrick Wells was at work that day. He was on duty at the fire station and was alibied. The men there say he was on cooking duty. When they got the call to the fire, he was in the kitchen making chili. They even produced the meal planner with Patrick and another fireman’s name. Both were side by side cooking up a storm.”
“God damn it!” exclaimed Elizabeth kicking the morgue table. “What am I missing?”
She started pacing.
“Maybe he wasn’t a bad guy. What if he wasn’t a cheating, abusive bastard who killed his wife?” stated Callen. “Maybe he’s just a happy go lucky guy.”
Elizabeth stopped moving. “What did you say? Not the last part, the first part.”
He looked around. “Maybe he didn’t hate his wife, abuse her or want to kill her.”
“Ethan, you said that in the profile of the killer that there was an issue with a female authority figure.”
“I did, why?”
Elizabeth could feel the tiny wisps of truth surfacing through the fog. “Can you run any searches and find out of Amanda Callister Wells was arrested, or investigated for anything?”
He sat down at Chris’s computer and logged into their records and began the search.
“Julian, can I have those folders you’re holding?” she asked laying them out on the lab table. She then grabbed seven sheets of paper and wrote victim one through seven on them.
“Lyzee, what are you doing?” asked Callen, worried for her. She looked crazed.
“Let’s lay out these files in the o
rder of what happened, starting with the arsons. There were no people involved. They were all abandoned buildings, right?”
All the men watched her. Ethan continued his search, but saw where she was heading.
Elizabeth laid down files one, two and three. On the front of them she wrote ‘no deaths’. Next she placed files four through six besides them. On the fronts she wrote ‘animals killed’. Then she placed Amanda Callister Wells’ file beside them and wrote ‘mother killed’.
Callen looked at her. “Mother?”
Ethan stood. “You were right, Elizabeth.”
She started smiling, and placed out the victims one through seven besides the files. “The killer started playing with fire, and then something happened in his mind. He began killing animals- cats to be exact. Then he killed his mother. What if Amanda Callister was the catalyst that set off the killing in him?”
“The son?”
“Yes. Something had to trigger it. Ethan told us when he did the profile that something happens to cause the killer to escalate. Maybe it’s abuse, or the loss of the parent.” She looked over at Ethan. “What happened?”
“Amanda Callister Wells was investigated for child abuse. The case was dismissed because Trent Wells recanted his statement that she had been abusing him for a few years. The Callister family buried it.”
“Physical abuse?” asked Callen, feeling sick to his stomach. He’d been abused as a child; he knew how hard it was to get over it.
“Emotional abuse at first and then it went to physical.”
“He’d been burning things down out of anger, and then when the abuse began happening he started killing animals.” Elizabeth stated. “Once he’d perfected that, he moved onto the woman that hurt him.”
“It was probably accidental,” added Blackhawk, “and when he got away with it…” He let it go from there.
Elizabeth continued. “Trent Wells shoved her down the stairs and lit the house on fire. She was his first.” She started pacing. “Where was he that day?”
Fire Burns Hot ((An FBI/ Romance Thriller~ (Book 5))) Page 55