“Excuse me, Doctor?”
Desdemona stood up and pulled the goggles off her head. “Yes, Sheriff?” she asked, preparing to pull the sheet over the man’s body. He was one of his employees, and she didn’t want him to have to see him before they cleaned him up.
“Can I see Bobby Lee?” he asked, softly. “I know he was a colossal asshole to you and the agents, but he was still someone I knew.”
She contemplated it.
“You can look, Sheriff, but you really can’t touch. The tech team hasn’t swept him for evidence yet,” and she saw the look on the man’s face and went around the table to him. “I’m really sorry for your loss.”
He nodded and moved closer to the body. When he’d seen him at the crime scene his adrenaline had been racing, due to being shot at, and now he was back down to normal. It all just seemed senseless to him. Completely senseless for anyone to die this way. In defense was one thing but this was a travesty.
Desdemona took his hand and patted it. “The FBI will find who killed your friend and co-worker. You can trust in that.” Desdemona smiled up at the man. “Have faith.”
“After this week, I think I need a drink or two,” he spoke to the tiny woman beside him. “Want to join me tonight for one?”
That caught her completely off guard and she didn’t know what to say.
“Unfortunately, she’s going to be very busy tonight, Sheriff. I’m afraid Doctor Adare is very unavailable.” Callen Whitefox stood in the doorway of the make shift morgue and leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
“Oh, I see,” said the man. He suspected there was something between them, but he wasn’t definitely sure until just that moment. Oh well, strike two with the feds. He’d have to find his companion out of the women in Red River.
“I hope you do,” he answered, stalking towards them. Whitefox was very aware of their hands still joined, and he lifted a brow and shifted his glare to Desdemona.
She released his hand like it was a hot coal straight from a fire.
“I’ll go get some work done,” he said, tipping his hat at the doctor. It was a shame; she looked like she’d be a fun distraction for the evening.
“Doctor, the only hands you’re going to be holding and drinking beer with are mine, am I clear?” He glared down at her.
Desdemona must have been staring with her mouth wide open. When he put his fingers under her chin and closed her mouth, she didn’t know what to say to him. “Callen!”
Whitefox didn’t care if she was outraged, and he planned on showing her. Leaning down, he pulled her face towards his and kissed her hard and fast. When he broke away, the telltale dazed look in her eyes gave him a sense of possessiveness. “Am I perfectly clear, Desi? That’s an order.”
When her mind was finally unclouded, she nodded at him. There weren’t any words left in her head at that point. The man certainly could kiss and distract a woman.
“Elizabeth and Ethan want the presence of your company in the room they’re using. Seems they want a preliminary report and any data you’ve received on the other victims. I’ll walk you up,” he said, stepping back. After today’s events, he was on an adrenaline high.
“I think I can find my way upstairs,” she muttered, grabbing her papers from the table. “Derek,” she called over to a tech prepping some instruments. “Can you please put the deputy back in the cooler, until the team is ready to wash him down and check for trace?”
“Sure thing Doc,” the young man said, smiling.
“Thank you, Derek.” Desdemona started for the door and noticed the look on Whitefox’s face. “Are you going to stare like that at every man that comes within proximity to me?” she whispered to him. “Even the techs?”
“Yep.”
“Why?” She didn’t understand what was bothering him.
Whitefox waited until they were out in the stairwell, and he took her by the arm. Desdemona stood on a stair ahead of him, and they were almost eye level. “Because I don’t share what’s mine,” he practically growled, low in her ear.
The words and how he said them gave her goose bumps.
“I’ve found I’ve grown attached to you, Desi, and I’ve also found that men sniffing around you makes me very irritated.” He loved the way she smelled, and he wanted to just grab her and take her home and do very insane things with her. Callen knew why it was happening, and again more guilt came and he bore it alone. Not even Elizabeth could help him carry this.
“Don’t I get any say in this?” Desdemona was outraged that he was taking control of her life and whipping it into a frenzy. Part of her wanted to stand up to him and defend herself. This was her life after all, and she deserved the right to speak her mind.
“No, you don’t.” He took a deep breath, trying not to focus on the black glasses perched on her nose, or the way she stared at him in outrage. “We better go, before I do something that gets us both embarrassed if we get caught.”
Now she blushed bright red. “Callen!”
“Come on,” he turned her around, and tried desperately to not watch her as she walked up the stairs. His body was hard and taut as he visualized the morning they spent in bed together. Then came the memory of Elizabeth saving their lives, and risking her own again. At that moment he was a volatile brew, needing an outlet to his ever growing frustration.
Desdemona rushed up the stairs, and prayed her face wouldn’t give her away. Her skin was burning, almost like sunburn and that meant her bosses were going to know she wasn’t only thinking about the dead man downstairs, but the very living one walking behind her. Maybe she was getting her wish and capturing his heart for her own.
Elizabeth sat perched beside her husband on the table in the little conference room they were working out of in the station. Ethan Blackhawk was talking to their boss on speakerphone, and giving him an update on the situation. Although they were directors of FBI West, Gabe was still their boss. He was head of Quantico, and ran his divisions with an iron fist.
Blackhawk relayed all the information, and then told him about Desdemona Adare’s situation.
“What?” he asked angrily. “How did something like that get casually forgotten?”
Elizabeth looked up as both Doctor Adare and Callen Whitefox entered the room. “It’s my fault Gabe.” She took the heat. “I had my ME interview and hire Doctor Adare. I take full blame on this one. I didn’t vet the situation, and it’s all on me. ”
Desdemona didn’t know what to do. Here her friend was taking the blame, because she didn’t come clean and tell them what was going on in her life. No one had ever covered for her like that before.
Callen tensed, and he pulled the woman’s body back against his, protectively. He wished he did jump her in the stairwell. Then she wouldn’t be hearing this conversation. Deep down he wanted to protect Elizabeth too from her boss’s anger. This wasn’t her fault, and she was once again standing in front of them taking the heat because he asked her to do it.
Damn it!
“What are you going to do about it?” Gabe was a firm believer in making his agents and his directors, despite them being family, clean up their own messes.
“I’m handling it,” answered Blackhawk. “I have a list of everyone she’s had a relationship with, casually and intimately, and I’ll work on it until I can eliminate the suspects.”
“In your spare time?” he asked testily. “And off the FBI dime?”
“Yes.”
Gabe Rothschild thought about it. “Handle it, but if this blows up into a hot mess, the blowback is going to be messy and exclusive of the FBI. That means if anything sketchy goes down, it can mean both of your careers. I can only look away so much, Ethan.”
Desdemona felt sick to her stomach again.
“I’ll take the consequences, Gabe,” answered Blackhawk.
“As will I,” added Elizabeth. “She’s our employee and we’ll take care of any mess that comes along with it. This won’t touch the FBI.”
“Ethan had nothing to do with this. I told you this was all me. I’m owning it and taking full responsibility. Put it in my personnel file.”
Blackhawk gave her the look, and he wasn’t happy.
“I don’t want excuses. I want resolution. Fix it or fire the doctor. At this point you both need to learn to play by the damn rules.”
Whitefox stared helplessly at Elizabeth and felt horrible that she was getting dressed down by her boss in front of all of them, and it was all because of Desdemona’s actions and his request. He stared into her eyes and mouthed, ‘I’m sorry!’
Elizabeth sucked it up, and knew the route she was going to take. “You know me, Gabe. I play the game by the letter of the law and handle my own mess.” Elizabeth pulled a card she’d held close to her vest for over ten years. When she’d been a special agent beneath Gabe, the woman he was in love with, her best friend was being stalked and almost killed. Elizabeth took care of it for the people she loved. “I’ll clean up this situation, much like I’ve handled other stalkers. You won’t be pulled into it.”
Gabe Rothschild got the message, and immediately he softened. “Use the FBI resources, clean it up Elizabeth, and sweep it under the carpet.”
Blackhawk was startled by the use of his wife’s name. Usually Gabe called her by her nickname. Something big just happened.
“I owe you one look away, and here it is. I’m surprised it took you so long to claim it,” he said. “Well played on that card Elizabeth.”
“I learned from the master at how to play the game, Gabe.”
Now Blackhawk looked over at her, wondering what the hell just went on. His wife was good but no one was that good. They were discussing something he wasn’t privy to, and he was going to be privy and soon.
Callen knew Elizabeth was a miracle worker, but when ‘The Dragon Slayer’ just changed his tune that fast, it meant something. Now he was curious how she just pulled it off. If she had that kind of favor, the implications were huge.
Elizabeth changed the subject, knowing the woman was in the room and she didn’t want to have to give away too many details to a secret she and Gabe shared. Already she could feel her husband and Callen’s’ eyes on her. Family was one thing, but honestly, she didn’t trust anyone outside of their circle with something so big.
“How’s Livy doing?” Gabe’s wife was on bed rest with her last pregnancy. It was a tough one, and both Blackhawks knew how stressed Gabe was worrying about his wife and unborn child.
“We’ll take the kids if you want,” added Blackhawk. “As soon as we’re off this assignment, so you guys can get a break.” Blackhawk took his wife’s hand in solidarity. It would be chaos, with five little girls running around their house, but he didn’t mind. “We can take them to the Rez and let them play in the tree house.”
“She’s hanging in there. The doctor said she needs to hold on for another six weeks at least. I hope we get a boy, because she’s already declared that one of us is getting fixed,” he laughed, the previous conversation was forgotten. Business was business and personal was personal, and rarely did they intersect in Gabe’s world.
None of the men in the room found it funny and they were betting Gabe wasn’t either.
Ethan ran his hand over his wife’s belly. “Kiss her for us, and we’ll keep you updated.” He hung up the phone and looked over at his agent and the ME. “A little birdy told me that we have more in forensically.”
Desdemona nodded and stepped forward.
“You look nervous, Doctor,” added Blackhawk. “Is something bothering you?”
“I feel really bad that you both are risking your jobs and covering for me with Mr. Rothschild,” she said, pulling the chair out at the table and taking a seat.
“Desdemona, we cover for our friends,” Elizabeth answered and glanced at her brother-in-law. “We protect the ones we care about and love, no matter the personal cost.”
Whitefox wondered at what cost and if she just sold her soul for the favor he asked of her.
“Agreed. So, you can stop worrying about it. Besides, Elizabeth and I have a personal relationship with Gabe, and if he sounded irritated on the phone it was only because he’s worried about his wife.” Yeah, and his wife obviously had something over her boss that he was willing to mellow out that fast. It had to be huge and he was going to start digging.
“Livy is having a bad pregnancy and struggling. This is their sixth child, and apparently their last,” Elizabeth added.
Whitefox felt really horrible that he’d had a fight with his brother. He covered for Desdemona, when he really didn’t have to, and he owed him an apology. There should have been trust in his relationship with his brother, and that he’d do the right thing for the woman. Taking the seat beside the doctor, he let his leg touch hers, in the slightest act of reassurance.
“It’ll all work out,” Blackhawk added. “Let’s get refocused on this assignment. Can you tell me what we have in the way of forensics that will help me profile this killer and begin to allow Elizabeth to put the pieces together?”
Desdemona Adare nodded. “Certainly. I have yet to do the autopsy on the deputy. I can tell you my preliminary findings with just what I noticed,” she paused waiting for them to signal they were ready. She opened the file on the tablet, and pulled up the pictures that the tech team had taken once the deputy was returned back to the lab. “Please note on your copies of the photo of his face,” she clicked on her picture and it appeared on Elizabeth’s tablet.
“I love technology!” Elizabeth actually giggled and Ethan glanced over. “What? Come on, that was fun,” she added.
“Yeah, if you enjoy fun photo sharing of bloodied corpses.”
Desdemona relaxed. “Look at the orbital sockets.” She looked over to make sure they both understood the technology.
“We got it, where the eyes usually sit.”
“Notice the bone around the eyes. Its scraped,” she magnified the picture, and Elizabeth’s did the same. “There was a tool used to get down beneath the eye and remove it. If it had been one of those big nasty birds, then there would be peck marks in the bone, and there weren’t.”
“It looks like they ate around the eyes,” Elizabeth said, looking at the snacked on flesh.
“Ewww,” Whitefox muttered. “Sorry, but that’s really disturbing and gross.”
Desdemona patted his thigh absently and then realized what she did. “Uh, yeah. I guess it could be construed as gross.” She went back to the picture. “Elizabeth is right; there are peck marks from the beaks of the carrion birds. They began consuming the flesh that surrounded the open wounds.”
“Do we have COD?” asked Blackhawk, needing cause of death to help profile.
“Not until I open him. I will tell you there is no sign of sexual assault. It all appears to be the same MO as the other deaths. Restraint marks around the wrists, and then the mouth was the interesting find.”
“Whatcha got, Doctor,” asked Elizabeth, leaning forward. Interesting to the ME was probably going to be a good thing.
“Remember the victim with the square mark around his mouth that I suspected was duct tape?”
“Yeah, was it?”
“Yes. We swabbed and it was the adhesive used in common duct tape. The silver stuff.”
Blackhawk considered what she was saying. “But that’s going to be a big swath of people. Everyone has duct tape. We have duct tape.”
“On our deputy, there were the same adhesive marks, but it’s what was on the inside of the tape. He ingested a liquid before tape was placed over his mouth.”
“How do we know it was before the tape was placed over his mouth?” asked Whitefox. This was all new to him, and he was trying to learn on the fly. Everyone else in the room had a decade on him with forensics and the FBI.
“No
stomach bile mixed in,” answered Desdemona.
“Okay, you can stop right there, I don’t need it explained,” he said, shuddering.
She pointed to the mouth and the picture opened up and gave them a close up of his face. “Furthermore, the tape residue around his mouth gave us the same shape and wound pattern of duct tape being ripped off the flesh. Duct tape is particularly nasty when it’s ripped off flesh. I actually saw lips come off once…” She noticed all three agents were staring at her. “Uh sorry, that was not apropos to the assignment, and way too much detail for non-ME staff.”
Elizabeth stood and went to the whiteboard. This was her area of expertise. In her hands were the pictures of all the victims. Some were yet unidentified. So they didn’t have before pictures. As she started to place them on the whiteboard she began filling in the information beneath them. “Callen, you get any more victims identified?”
“We did get two more in this morning. I just picked up the report from Christina,” he said, pulling out the report and opening it up. “Sorry, I’m not as tech savvy. My report is still on good old fashioned paper.”
Elizabeth didn’t even look at them when she spoke, “That Native American Indian on those public service announcements, to save trees, wearing the headdress just rolled in his burial ground,” she quipped, absently.
Both men laughed at her comment.
“Anyway, victim number one, we have a name and a before picture from his driver’s license. His name is Ryan Larkson, and he was on a business trip, according to his girlfriend. Which wasn’t uncommon for him at all. When one of the techs notified her and questioned her, she stated she filed a missing person report six months ago. He left his apartment and drove north to his meeting. His boss called to find him when he never showed up at the meeting on schedule.”
“So he was driving right through town?” she asked.
Desdemona pulled up a map on her tablet and shot it over to Elizabeth.
“Here was his final destination, and here is where he originated,” Callen said, touching the screen. “Most logical route if he stayed on the highway would be this route,” Whitefox highlighted the path with his finger.
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