“She must have had the organs in a solution,” she said finally. These parts,” she pointed to the hands, feet, stomach and tongue. “They were done months ago, and they are still,” she searched for a non-technical term for the three agents staring at her, “fleshy.”
“So you think she collected and placed them in jars to collect everything then put it together?” asked Elizabeth. “Ewww.”
“Yes.”
“I don’t buy she was done,” said Blackhawk. “I think she threw him together because we were getting close and she needed a safe place to put him until she was done killing.”
“Could be,” said Desdemona, as he had the team swab Derek’s organ and then she bagged it, safely inside a non-see through bag. She instructed her tech to go out to the van and place it with Derek’s remains.
“Thank you, Doctor,” said Blackhawk. He looked at his watch and then motioned over to Christina. “We should hit the road. I want to get Derek to his family before it’s too late, and then back here before sun up,” he said.
Elizabeth went to his side and wrapped her arms around him. “Please Ethan, be safe. Don’t stop for coffee, and don’t do anything to get hurt,” she pleaded softly. “We need you to come back.”
“Baby, no worries.” He saw the fear in her eyes and it touched him that his woman was so worried about him. Before her, there was no one to care if he returned home or not. “I’ll have Christina with me. I’ll be completely safe.”
She started laughing, and went up on her toes to kiss him. Elizabeth didn’t care that there were techs in the room, or that everyone was staring. If she couldn’t kiss him goodbye, it would bother her the entire time they were apart. The kiss was deep and slow, and she felt her own skin flush. When she broke away she looked up into his eyes and touched his cheeks.
“I love you, Ethan Blackhawk.”
He grinned wickedly, and kissed the tip of her nose. “I love you, Elizabeth Blackhawk. Hold down the fort, Boss,” he said, looking over at his brother as he walked away.
Elizabeth glanced over at Christina and motioned her over to her side. The look of fear was entertaining, but she had other things to worry about. “You watch his back. You make sure he doesn’t stop for coffee or any other reason. You carry your gun and you shoot any blondes, brunettes or redheads that come near him.”
“Got it,” she said, nodding.
“Please keep him safe and get Ethan back to me, and I’ll forget that you were just checked out his very fine ass while you were standing behind him.”
“Damn it, you have eyes in the back of your head!” she muttered, laughing. “Or wife radar.”
“Both.”
“Don’t worry, Elizabeth. I’ll stick like Cyanoacrylate.”
Elizabeth didn’t speak Chemical-ese, but if it was Christina, she knew she’d be all over her husband to keep an eye on him. “Ok, watch his back and for once I’m giving you complete permission to follow him everywhere he goes. You get to be his shadow,” she said, then dismissed her.
Elizabeth looked over at Desdemona for translation.
“Glue,” she said, laughing. “Cyanoacrylate is superglue.”
Whitefox moved to Elizabeth’s side and protectively wrapped his arm around her shoulders, holding her to his body. “Then why didn’t she just say that?”
Elizabeth relaxed against him, twining her fingers with him. “Who knows why?”
Whitefox could hear the tension in her voice.
“He’ll be okay,” added Whitefox, whispering into her ear. “I promise.”
Elizabeth just nodded and thought back to what her husband had said about the killer losing her mind over them having the body. All she could hope was the nutjob wouldn’t think her husband was transporting the victims and go after him.
How would she go on if anything happened to him?
Blackhawk detoured to the deputy’s desks upstairs. He found Julian Littlemoon sitting there doing paperwork for the end of shift. Ethan Blackhawk had a special favor to ask the man and it involved his wife.
“Julian, you off shift?”
“Yeah, in ten minutes.”
“I need a big favor,” he said, pausing. “I have to transport our tech back that was murdered. I need to leave Elizabeth here to run it.”
“You want a babysitter?” he asked, looking up. “I don’t think she really needs one. Not after watching her out in the snow today and with that shotgun.”
“How about we call it, ‘keeping her company’?” he said, thoughtfully. “She can handle herself, but she tends to get into trouble. How about you just find a way to keep her from getting herself abducted, shot, stabbed or killed while I’m gone?”
“Is she going to skin you alive if she finds out about this conversation?”
Blackhawk thought about it. “Yeah, and scalp me while I sleep to add insult to injury.”
The man laughed. “Okay, I think I can do it for you, and forget the favor. She kept that mountain lion from chewing on me today, even though I was riding her pretty hard over her being a pregnant woman.”
“Just don’t piss her off, or you’ll be the hairless one.”
“Got it,” he said, grinning. He certainly liked a feisty woman, and this was going to be entertaining.
Desdemona placed her scalpel down and shook her head. This was completely wrong and she didn’t understand it at all. This new piece of information made her head spin, and she felt off balance. Everything they were assuming just got tossed to the wind. “Uh oh,” she said, looking over at Elizabeth.
“Oh shit, I really hate when the ME has her hands in a body and says ‘uh oh’. It always means something horrible is about to go down,” she said, moving closer to the body, Whitefox following her.
“You’re not going to like this at all,” she said, pointing. “The corpse isn't a male. It’s a female.”
“What?” Now she was shocked and surprised. “You mean our killer is a woman killing a man, and then placing the parts on a woman’s body? Are you sure?”
Desdemona pulled the skin back on the mummified woman. “See these small organs and this sac like object?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s a uterus and ovaries.”
“Well crap. I hate late in the game changeups.” Elizabeth pulled out her phone and dialed FBI West. When the tech room answered on the third ring, she barked orders to light the fire under their asses and fast. “I need all the trace evidence transmitted ASAP, and if I don’t get it, someone will be getting my boot where the sun don’t shine,” she drawled.
The tech didn’t sound impressed, he must have been new. “We’re working as fast as we can,” he simply stated.
“Oh, well you can tell that to Director Blackhawk, he’s in route to the lab now. So, when I call him and tell him you weren’t enthusiastic about getting me the data, you can explain it to him. You like being unemployed?” she asked.
There was dead silence, as if he was weighing his options.
“I want it by the time I get upstairs to my whiteboard, and I don’t care if it’s partial at this point, I need that damn information two days ago!” she shouted, and hung up on him.
“And this is why they call you Attila the Hun,” laughed Desdemona, “and have little Lyzee voodoo dolls in their lockers on standby.”
“Really?” she asked, completely amused by that.
Whitefox shook his head. “I don’t know if you should be amused by the voodoo doll part, Elizabeth.” Whitefox dropped his arm protectively around her shoulders.
“Little do they know, granddad did his Native mojo thing over me and the baby so I’m covered. It should cancel it out.” Now her focus was back on the body on the slab. “I’m going up to the whiteboard, and need to call Ethan. This little twist has to change the profile and I need him to update it.”
Whitefox debated on whether or not to follow her upstairs.
“Cal,” she turned to him and wrapped her arm around his waist. “I’m sure Ethan told you
to watch over me like a hawk, but I’m indoors and I’m armed. Who gets abducted from the middle of a sheriff’s department?” she asked, laughing. “You have to be a special kind of unlucky to have that happen.”
“Okay, but you shoot anyone you suspect that moves towards you.”
Elizabeth hugged him, glancing over at Desdemona. “You two stick together. I mean everywhere,” she said. “Until I get a handle on who the killer is, no one goes anywhere alone.”
“Uh,” she went to point out the obvious, that Elizabeth was breaking her own rule.
Immediately, she pointed to her baby belly. “I’m technically two right now,” she said grinning. “But nice try. See if we can get a rush on the corpse’s DNA, if you can find anything viable.”
Desdemona shook her head. “Will do,” she said, looking through her micro-goggles, for any hair or flesh that she could use.
Elizabeth walked away, and fell deep into thought. The killer was using male parts, on a female corpse. That had to be significant. Before entering the room they were occupying as an office, she decided to swing into the sheriff’s office and dig up some information. The man was completely aloof as of late, and she didn’t know if he was just worried about the FBI running him down, or if he was just so busy trying to keep his people as far away from theirs.
At the knock at his door, Sheriff Duffy glanced up.
“Hey, you have a few minutes?” Elizabeth inquired.
“Sure do, Agent Blackhawk,” he answered, putting down his pencil and relaxing back in his chair. “Has someone done something? I can handle it if there’s a problem.”
Elizabeth stood by a chair. “May I?” At his nod she took the seat, crossing her legs. Soon that wouldn’t be a possibility. “Actually, your Deputy Littlemoon was super helpful today in finding our van. We appreciate his help.” The man actually looked calmer now that she wasn’t there to give him grief. “Sheriff, I’m sorry if we came off difficult to work with, and I can completely understand. I was once a sheriff and had the FBI roll into my town.”
The man sighed. “Agent Blackhawk,” he began until she interrupted him.
“Please, Elizabeth is fine.”
“Elizabeth, it’s not that I have a problem with the FBI or you. It’s that I’m trying to keep my people from making your lives hell. They don’t like you or didn’t. Julian Littlemoon is an entity all his own, and then my secretary, well she’s just not a people person.”
“We can handle ourselves.”
“So I’ve heard, Elizabeth. I also hear you found a corpse added to the van.”
Elizabeth should probably update the man, since it was his town, even though he said he wanted to let the FBI run it and just keep him in the loop.
“We did. Our ME has determined that it’s female and the killer is using male parts that she’s harvesting.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Really? What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.
“I haven’t spoken to Ethan for a new profile yet, so I honestly can’t answer that, but it’s a big twist in the game,” she said.
“Can I interest you in some coffee?” he asked, pointing to his coffee pot. “I just put it on,” he offered.
“Thanks, cream only,” she answered, and then took the cup from him, sipping it. “I have a few questions, and was hoping maybe you can help me.”
“Sure thing.” James Duffy sat back at the desk with his own coffee.
“Have you had any women disappear in the last year or two, just up and poof?” Elizabeth Blackhawk was thinking about how to figure out who the mummy corpse was downstairs, in case they couldn’t pull DNA.
Sheriff Duffy turned to his computer and began typing. “Nothing official Elizabeth, but you know how small towns are since you're from one. People come and go all the time. Unless someone reported a person missing, we have no record of it.”
“Hey, it was just a shot,” she said, finishing her coffee. “I appreciate it. Thanks for getting the tow truck to us so fast.”
“I’m just glad dispatch found Randy for you,” he replied, sipping his coffee. “For the record, Elizabeth, thank you for all the work you all have been doing. I do appreciate it. I can only imagine how hard my people have been making it.”
“No problem,” she answered. “I’ll be in the conference room if you need me.” Now it was off to find a nutjob.
Sheriff Duffy watched Elizabeth walking away and he thoroughly checked her out. Yeah, she was pregnant and married, and the FBI could arrest him for thinking about it.
After all, he was still a male.
Elizabeth sat at the table and dialed her husband’s phone. Looking at her watch, she mentally calculated how far away he was from Red River. He should just be an hour away from FBI West.
“Hey baby, what’s going on?” he asked, answering on the third ring.
“Are we on speaker phone?”
“No, why?”
“Because I was going to sexually harass my co-worker and didn’t want anyone to be able to testify at my HR hearing,” she purred.
Blackhawk sharply inhaled. “Well, if that’s the case feel free. I won’t press charges.”
“How about a rousing session of really explicit phone sex?” she asked, seductively.
Now he was laughing, because he couldn’t say what he was really thinking. “Always, but it’ll have to be one sided for now.” The laughter became nervous, because Elizabeth wouldn’t think twice about it, and he knew it.
“I miss you, handsome. Can’t wait until you get back so I can crawl all over you,” she began. Yeah, she was buttering him up for the cold blow of the information they discovered.
“I think you know how I feel about that,” he answered back. Damn, to just be alone with his wife, or even alone on the phone. They’d never been apart since getting married and this was a new avenue to pursue on his sexual bucket list.
“I love you,” she said, baiting him with kisses over the phone. “I dare you, Ethan.” She didn’t think he’d do it and let his staff see him be a big puddle of mush for his wife.
“I love you too, Elizabeth,” he said, and then laughed as there was silence, and he knew she was waiting. “Come on,” he laughed and then gave in, giving her a kiss over the phone. He was sure he was blushing and could feel the heat rising up his neck to his face. When Christina looked over at him grinning, he was even more mortified, more so than if she were staring at his ass.
“Now that’s my sexy FBI husband,” she laughed. “I didn’t think you’d do it. Wow, someone has shocked the hell out of me today,” she added.
“I do try to surprise you now and again.”
“Well, speaking of surprises, I happen to have one for you and I’m not sure what to do with it, and I’m dropping it in your lap.”
Blackhawk didn’t like the sound of that. “Elizabeth, I really hate surprises that are work related, please be gentle.”
“The corpse we found in the van?”
“Yeah?” Now he was sure it wasn’t going to be a good surprise.
“Well, Desdemona identified the gender,” she said, cautiously.
Blackhawk didn’t understand. “We have a woman killing men to rebuild a man. What’s there to identify other than the man’s name?”
Elizabeth twirled a piece of hair around her finger as she tried to plot out how to tell him. “Are you driving?” she inquired.
“No, why?” It had to be pretty bad if she didn’t want to tell him while he was driving. “Is it that bad, baby?”
“The corpse is a woman.”
“Huh?” That surprised the hell out of him. “The mummified body is a woman not a man?”
“Yes, and that means I need a new profile from you,” she added. “Surprise!”
“I don’t think I can even explain or rationalize it. We have a woman killing men to rebuild a man on a woman’s body? I don’t’ think the text books teach you that at Quantico. I think we’re in uncharted territory.”
Elizabeth didn’t exac
tly like that idea. “Far be it for me to put the pressure on here, Ethan, but I need your insight. Give me anything you can at this point. I have a bunch of puzzle pieces and I don’t know where to begin putting them together. Anything darlin’?”
Blackhawk stared out the window at the dark landscape and thought about everything they knew about the killer. Okay, they had a woman with blonde hair, taking strangers, and removing one part off each one, and then trying to reanimate him now or later. Ethan Blackhawk the profiler knew how off the wall this was, and as the husband to the woman that had to put it all together, he was frustrated that he couldn’t give his wife more.
“Please Ethan, give me something.”
“Okay, let’s start with the corpse; she obviously kept it for a reason. It’s going to either be a family member, a sister, a lover. It had to mean something significant. The fact that she’s trying to rebuild the dead person using male parts is puzzling. People keep a body for three reasons; to hide the evidence, they loved the victim, or they felt guilty and it’s punishment to see it daily. Sin atonement, so to speak,” he paused. “Can I have a little while to dwell on it and call you back once we hit FBI West?” he asked. “I need to be focused on talking to Derek’s family, and then I’ll have a clear head.”
Elizabeth could tell he needed the time to play it out in his head, and she’d give it to him and start working on what she could until he called her back. Something had to give sooner or later.
“Okay, be safe, and call me back.” She hung up the phone and heard the telltale beeps. The tech reports were incoming and soon she’d have the answer to a few more questions. She hoped and not more answerless questions. There were days Elizabeth wished she did the profiling, and this part of the job was her husband’s. The stress of knowing a killer was out there and you had to put it all together could be crushing at times. Her only consolation in all this was they were safe. Ethan was almost back to FBI West, and Callen Whitefox was safely watching over his fiancée. For now they could just work it and try and figure out what was going on in Red River.
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