“How tall?”
He guestimated. “Five eight at the max?”
“Put me down, Cal,” she asked. When he did, Elizabeth walked toward the cop. “Can you carry me around like Callen did?” she asked.
The men didn’t look happy when he tossed her over his one shoulder and she hung over his back. They were giving her the look as she started laughing.
“Relax. I’m a two Native kind of girl.”
“One ass grab, and you’re grounded,” Blackhawk stated. “Keep the hands where we can see them.”
That made the detective laugh.
Elizabeth ignored him. “Walk around the room, Boone.”
When he did it for a couple minutes, he finally lowered her to her feet. He wasn’t worn down, but he was feeling it. “It’s harder for me at my size.”
That was her point. “Pull up the footage.”
Callen did.
“Look at his posture when he was done. He looked like he was paying for it. So, he’s either out of shape, or not healthy. I’m not that heavy. I could carry my body weight if I was trying.”
They thought about it.
“He’s going to be more Boone’s size and less yours, Callen. He’s also going to be somewhere between your ages of thirty-five and forty-three. Dad, while healthy as a horse, wouldn’t be able to tote me around for a while. He’d be out of breath. So we know our killer isn’t in his late fifties and sixties.”
They sat.
“As for ritual, I agree with the altar thing. What do you use in your rituals and worshipping, Detective?”
“Chicken hearts and blood. Mostly, I try not to kill anything if I can help it.”
“So why the liver if he is practicing Voodoo? Why would he take it?”
Boone could only think of two reasons. “When we use an animal, like a chicken, we don’t waste it. I would kill it, and then eat it at a later date.”
“Maybe that’s the Native in you,” Callen offered. “We tend to use everything.”
“The priestess does too. You can tell. She had feathers, feet, beaks, and bones. She’s not going to toss it. Hell! She’d wear it as a damn necklace if she could.”
They thought about it, and she had a very valid point.
“So, if he’s taking livers, and we never found the others, when he pulled Victoria Paul’s out, he must have noticed it wasn’t healthy.”
“Okay, and?”
“If he was going to use it in a ritual, he might eat it.”
They didn’t want to go there, but it was the only logical thing that came to mind.
“Great,” Elizabeth offered. “We had a crazy eating people, and he was making chili. I still can’t go there.”
“The liver is the purifier. It cleans the blood. Maybe it’s symbolic to him,” Boone offered.
It could be.
Ethan began thinking about it. “Let me mull this over tonight. I’ll run it through the profile.”
“We don’t have long.”
He was aware. “Give me until lunch time tomorrow, okay, baby?”
She leaned against him. “Okay, Cowboy.”
“I want you to be very careful,” he warned. “He couldn’t use that liver, and it would feel like a waste of time for him. He’s going to escalate. He’s going to be angry.”
She wasn’t shocked.
As long as he was focused on her, she was good with that. It would mean her team was safe, and they could watch her back.
“I just don’t know how Meeks and the priestess fit into this,” Elizabeth offered. She stared at the detective. “You’re more familiar with the city, the situation, and the religion. Give me your impressions.”
“As a cop?”
“Yes. Drop the religion.”
“Why? It seems to be the center of it.”
She didn’t agree. “I don’t buy it’s her. It doesn’t feel right in my gut. While she’s powerful, and she might be able to convince a believer to do her bidding, she has a sterling reputation in the city. Marie Babineaux has been helpful in the past.”
She got that feeling too.
“Meeks?”
“I find it odd that he’s nowhere to be found. I’d love to get into his house.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Callen had sent the warrant. It was up to a judge at this point, and they’d know by morning.
“My biggest issue,” Boone offered, sipping his beer, “is that the priestess pointed us right at Meeks. She wanted us to head that way.”
“And you think that’s suspicious?”
He nodded. “Even as someone who practiced the same religion, she was a little too happy to have us deal with him.”
She was aware.
“Here’s my theory,” Elizabeth offered. “When someone is trying that damn hard to play nice with me, I get that feeling as if I’m being jerked around.”
“And?”
“I feel like she’s kissing ass, thinking I’m some backwoods hick who’s clueless.”
She knew because she got it a lot.
The men in her life knew that was one of her biggest strategies against people. They took her for face value as a beautiful woman. They thought she was clueless.
“How big is Kaleb Meeks?” Ethan asked.
Callen pulled the license.
“He’s about the detective’s size. It could be him.”
They were back at square one.
The whole thing left a bad taste in their mouths. Everyone there knew that the only hope they had was that the killer screwed up with the next victim.
“Was there any trace found in the morgue?” Boone asked.
Ethan shook his head. “Callen saw leather gloves, and he kept them on. There’s not as much as a print.”
Shit!
“Merry is good. She can find the near impossible,” Elizabeth offered.
Yeah, like the one Voodoo practicing cop to fall in love with in all of New Orleans.
That was crazy, mad skills—emphasis on the crazy.
At the knock on the door, Ethan headed there. When he returned, the other detective was in tow. He was carrying a coffee and looked like he’d just rolled out of bed.
“Pizza?” Elizabeth offered.
“Thank you, ma’am. It’s the bachelor’s breakfast buddy,” he teased. “Normally, Boone makes me breakfast before we go on shift, but he’s abandoned me for some Feds. It’s breaking my heart.”
Boone laughed. “Learn to cook.”
Elizabeth got them to focus. She knew what it was like working with two men. They could go off the rails at any moment with the joviality.
It was the story of her life.
“Do you have anything, Detective?” she asked.
“Well, my feet hurt from walking all night long, does that count?”
“Nope.”
“Then there’s nothing.”
She slid two pictures over. “This girl showed up in our morgue today,” Elizabeth offered. “Does she look familiar?”
He pulled on his glasses and studied her.
“No, but I’ve seen that necklace before,” he offered.
The four others stared at it. In her driver’s license, she was indeed wearing one.
“Wait, I’ve seen it too,” Elizabeth offered.
“Well, Director, I can tell you where I’ve seen it, and once I do, my partner is going to get it.”
She waited.
“Otis Short.”
Boone started laughing. “Could it be that easy?” he asked. “There’s a very familiar name in this city.”
The Feds didn’t get it.
Callen started researching the name for any clue as to who he was.
“He’s a pimp in New Orleans. Well, he likes to call himself a male madam.”
“Isn’t that a Mister?” Callen asked.
Elizabeth stared at him. “I love you. Sexy men who know grammar are hot.”
He winked.
Ethan rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m really turned o
n.”
That made Elizabeth laugh.
Boone filled them in. “Otis thinks he’s the coolest cat. He hands them out to his ‘girls’. It’s how other pimps know that they’re off limits on the street.”
“Is he violent?”
They both laughed.
“We’ve found a few bodies with the necklaces removed. I worked a case where a ‘john’ supposedly beat the hell out of the trick. We think it was Otis, but we couldn’t prove it. She went into a hotel and no one saw the guy come out, or him go in.”
Great.
They had a priestess, someone using Juju, and now pimps who beat down their hoes. New Orleans was a cultural melting pot of crazy. So much for bringing the family there for a vacation.
Ethan began pulling up all their dead women to see if there was a correlation. “Two of the girls had those necklaces.”
“Which two?” Elizabeth asked.
Ethan sent the pictures to her tablet.
“Fay Gagnon had one, and so did Victoria Paul.”
“So we had two out of four prostitutes wearing his tag? That’s fifty percent.”
He was aware.
“Well, at least we have another suspect. We were running thin on them.”
“He’s a snake,” Boone offered. “We’ve tried breaking him, but he’s slippery.”
She laughed. “I’ll handle it.”
Ethan closed his eyes. “Here comes the paperwork. Please try to keep it legal.”
“You were so much more fun before you became the Deputy Director. You used to be my accomplice. That’s why I need Callen and Livy.”
He was well aware.
God help Washington DC when they hit the street.
Rolly looked at his watch. “Crap. I have to head out. I have a newbie joining me. The mayor isn’t happy. One more victim, and he’s going to show up on his own carrying a badge.”
Great.
Just what they needed.
“Thanks for breakfast, Directors. See you tomorrow,” he offered, winking at his partner before he headed out.
When he was gone, they still had some unresolved issues that had to be handled.
“Could a pimp be arrogant enough to do this?” she asked.
Ethan nodded. “If his girls got out of hand he would. You know how men like to control their women.”
Callen rubbed his hands together.
“I will kick your ass,” she warned. “If you open your damn mouth, and anything sexist comes out, you’re riding the couch.”
Ethan laughed.
Elizabeth turned on him. “That goes double for you, Frick. You better keep Frack in line.”
He feigned insult.
“On that note,” the detective said, standing up. “I’m heading home.”
“Home or the morgue?” Elizabeth teased.
“Both. First, I’m going to pick up a pretty head tech and make her dinner. I’ll see you tomorrow morning. What time do you want to meet?”
“How about eight at the morgue?”
“That works for me.”
He waved and headed out.
“We’re losing our head tech, aren’t we?” Ethan asked. “She’s not coming back with us, is she?”
“Yep. I would say that’s a damn good bet.”
That sucked for all of them. Good techs were hard to find. They knew. They’d had to find Merry in a sea of ineptitude.
She stretched. “I need a shower.”
When she stood, neither man moved.
“We’ll clean up.”
That was odd. Normally, they’d pounce, but they were simply gathering dishes.
“We’ll see you in bed. You should take a bath and soak that shoulder,” Ethan said. “You’re favoring it. Don’t think I didn’t notice.”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Bath it is.”
When she walked out, Callen waited until the door closed in the other room.
“You grab candles from the shop across the street. I saw a flower stall down the block. I have to call Doctor Gaines and see if she and her husband are staying or leaving.”
“Are they joining us?” Callen teased.
He slapped him.
“No. I still have to work and this is multitasking. Then I’m all about our wife.”
“Romance?”
“Yeah, we’re going to give our girl a little of something we’ve neglected.”
Callen raced for the door, Ethan not far behind him as he dialed the phone.
They only had so much time, but it would be worth it. When in New Orleans, make it memorable.
Chapter FIfteen
Morgue
Chris was planning to work late. What he really wanted to do was call his daughter, curl up with his best friend, and try to work through the storm in his heart.
It wasn’t easy to think about the emotional shit that the doctor had pulled from him. In fact, he didn’t want to think about it. What he really wanted was to focus on work.
Only Tony was staring at him.
Now that Merry had been picked up by the detective, he was stuck in the lab with his partner in forensics.
It was only a matter of time before he began asking questions, or wanted to talk about his feelings. That was just how Tony rolled, so it was coming.
“You look frustrated. Are you okay? Do you need me to call Elizabeth?” Tony asked.
He glanced over. “I’m frustrated, but it’s not personal. This case is bugging the hell out of me. I feel like I’ve read something about it before, but I can’t place it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, I feel off my game. Today was tough.”
After Chris said it, he realized he’d just opened the door to his other best friend.
And here it came.
“Did the doctor run you through the ringer?” Tony asked, taking a seat on the table next to his best friend.
“A little.”
“Was it about Cyra?”
He nodded.
“Is it because you’re all tied up over Lyzee?”
He stared up at him. “What? Not you too, Tony!” he finally said, and here lay the frustration.
“Wait! Let me clarify that.”
“Yes, please do.”
“It’s clear. You’re stuck between two points in your life. You want to continue to mourn your wife, but you also want to move on toward Elizabeth.”
“Newsflash. She’s taken, and I’m not moving toward anyone. I’m raising Bethe, and I’m going to live my life.”
He patted him on the back. “See? You’re thinking in the gutter. I wasn’t. You think everyone assumed you want to bone the babe. I know you don’t.”
Chris stared at him. “You don’t, huh?”
“You see her as your way to heal, but you’re afraid that if you trust her, letting everything else go, you’ll feel like a horrible person. We all know you love Elizabeth, but the angst isn’t in that. It’s in the fact that you feel like you’re betraying the memory of Cyra by wanting to forget what happened to her. Sometimes, in order to heal, you have to let what hurt you go. Isn’t that what you told me about my mother and her abduction?”
He was right.
“Jesus.”
“I was so focused on my mother all those years, that it let hate grow in me. I was so sure she left me, and I wanted to be angry, so I was. When I found Jaxon, and I let the past go, I found her and it was put to bed. You need to put this to bed, my friend. It’s the only way you’re moving on.”
“Cyra was…”
“She was a good wife, but she wasn’t perfect. I know you had moments of pain with her, and it’s okay to move on, Chris. It’s okay to reach out for the woman who’s been your safety line for all these years and lean on her.”
“Everyone thinks it’s a sex thing.”
He laughed. “You’d have to be neutered not to notice Elizabeth in jeans. We’re men. I know it has nothing to do with getting her naked and everything to do with letting Cyra go. You’re afraid.”
He was.
Terrified in fact.
“It’s okay. Cyra wouldn’t want you angry or hurt.”
He wished he believed that. “She didn’t like Elizabeth. She thought she was collecting men.”
He laughed. “As a man who spent years with her, you should know that isn’t true. Your wife was jealous, and you need to take it at face value.”
“Do you think I gave her a reason to be? Was I too friendly with Elizabeth? Did I cross a line?”
“That’s for you to answer. How do you feel your behavior was with her?”
“I feel safe when she’s around. I can trust her. It’s sad when I don’t trust any other woman but her.”
“Ahhhh, the money.”
“Yeah.”
“Give it away.”
“If Cyra was alive, I would. Trust me. That was our last fight.”
“Okay, so Elizabeth is one side of the spectrum, and all other women are the other. Do you want to have sex with her?”
He stared at him. “No, not particularly. I just like feeling safe. Lyzee is…Lyzee. You don’t have to guess what she’s thinking or what she means. If she tells you to run, you better because she’s going to hurt you.”
He snorted. “Yeah, I know. That is one of her finest qualities.”
“I want to be safe. I had Callen start to teach me how to fight.”
Tony whistled. “Dude, get off the self-hate wagon. There’s nothing wrong with you. Lily Sanderson killed your wife, and you’re not betraying her memory by wanting to heal.”
“Do you think I should move out of their home?”
“I wouldn’t, but that’s your call. If you can’t keep your hands off her…”
“Shut up.”
He grinned.
“No one believes I want to just love my sister. Why can’t that only be it?”
“Jealousy, Chris. You have something with Elizabeth that no one else has. You’re her brother. She says it about me, but you’re the true one. You’re lucky. Focus on that, and you’ll survive.”
Tony went back to his beetles.
Chris hoped he was right.
As he sat there, staring at the dead woman’s neck in the photographs, something was still bugging him, and it had nothing to do with his life.
It was this case.
He’d read something about it before. He was sure of it. Now, Chris only had to figure out what it was, and apply it to this case.
Blood Shall Run (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 15) Page 40