She slid her gun into her holster, immediately feeling whole again, and checked the mirror to run a brush through her hair. She briefly eyed her makeup bag next to the sink. She hadn’t put on makeup in years, but for some reason she suddenly had the urge. Before she could let herself waste time with indulgences, she swung open the bathroom door, tossed her dirty clothes and wet towel to the top of the stairs and slipped into her shoes. She could deal with exploring the reason for that impulse later, for now she had a killer to catch.
“Bye Vance!” she called over her shoulder as she let herself out the door.
“Bye mom!” He called back, continuing their banter from that morning she could hear Kevin and Trevor chuckling at it. She smiled as she slid the door closed, she was grateful her brother had friends.
The drive was quick, and Naya was a bit surprised to find the precinct relatively calm when she arrived. It only occurred to her after she walked in the door that she should have called and asked if Atlas wanted coffee. She assumed he would have been there all morning, but realistically she supposed he could have gone home for a nap as well.
She pulled her badge out and swiped it in front of the time clock, she smiled as she saw the amount of overtime hours she had already accumulated in the less than two weeks since starting.
It seemed that at least money wouldn’t be a concern.
“Ah you’ve decided to grace us with your presence again. May I ask how family number two is?”
“Hi Atlas” Naya rolled her eyes as she dumped her keys on her desk and slid into her chair. “They kick you out of the conference room?”
“Nah, it was boring in there without you, so I came out here for a bit.” He twirled his pen between his fingers. It made her want to laugh, although Naya knew he was older than her, sometimes his mannerisms made her feel he was younger. Though she supposed that men were often said to mature slower than women.
“Think of anything new?” She inquired.
“No. And to be honest I was expecting a call any minute with some sort of information or a body, and that hasn’t happened. So, now I’m wondering if she’s already dead and no one has found her yet, or if last time really was a fluke and he didn’t accomplish what he wanted with Julia.”
“Well, what would you say to a drive?” She proposed.
“What are you thinking?”
“Well last time that farmer said he only found her because of the hawks circling, right? What if that is his dumping ground, but the farmer isn’t out in the fields today?”
Before she even finished Atlas was already out of his chair with his jacket pulled halfway on. “You’re right. Let’s go.” They both waived at Captain Brody as they turned and headed for the door.
“You really are a good detective.” Atlas complimented her. “I see why they didn’t have a problem transferring you here as one.”
“What do you mean?” She asked as he held open the glass door and they both waved to the receptionist as they exited. Naya had never considered the fact that when she requested the transfer and position change it could be denied, she had just presumed it would be approved since the position was open.
“Well typically, when someone wants to be detective here they have to start out as a regular officer and work their way up. Everyone was shocked when the position of detective, and my partner, which had been empty for three months which had several in house officers vying for it, was suddenly given to a random person from La Junta.”
“Oh.” She hadn’t considered that. “I guess, I assumed they gave it to me because I was a Sheriff.” She opened the door to their department car while Atlas situated himself in the driver’s seat.
“I’m sure that was part of it. That’s why I asked you that first day though, because political transfers often take priority. So, if you had been in some shit as Sheriff, they would’ve hid you up here as a detective, but when I looked at your file I noticed it was clean, but you also had a near perfect record for solving murder cases in La Junta. I think that’s why you got the position over the others.”
Yeah, perfect except for three, she thought to herself.
“So, I guess I should ask. Does everyone who was vying for the job hate me now?”
He shrugged. “I don’t think so. I mean, maybe. There are obviously a few hard feelings that you slipped in, but I also think they all understand you were clearly ahead in rank and more qualified. Also, there were three of them trying for it, so I think they were all prepared to be forced to relinquish the position to one another. The fact that the other was you doesn’t make much difference I would suppose.”
She let that sink in for a minute. She hadn’t realized her transfer would make so many waves. Things were so different than in La Junta. She had worked her way up there, but it had been, well, expected. Her father had been the sheriff before her and his father before that, the fact that Vance hadn’t gone into the force and become sheriff had been more of a shock to people than her taking his place. Her leaving afterwards had stunned and devastated everyone, unfortunately there wasn’t the same kind of extensive medical care for Vance in La Junta. And now that she was here, she saw that even if there had been, removing him from the support of his friends would’ve been worse.
“I wouldn’t worry about it if I was you.” Atlas said, clearly thinking she was still worried as to whether people hated her or not.
“Oh, it’s not that. Just thinking about how to keep my second family hidden from my first is all.” She quipped, trying to lighten the mood.
“Might I recommend saying you have to work overtime?” He shot back, making her smile at the truth in his joke.
As they turned down the rural road flanked by fields where Julia Charles’ body had been found, it suddenly occurred to Naya how little she actually knew about her partner and decided to work towards changing that.
“Wait, you don’t even have one family?”
He shook his head “I’ve always been too married to this job to even consider romance.”
“Really? Not even something noteworthy when you were fresh out of the academy?” She had a hard time believing someone as kind and thoughtful as Atlas had never had a romance which impacted his life.
He shrugged. “They say men are like a fine wine, we get better as we age. And I think there is some truth to that. I wasn’t a great person when I first graduated the academy. I was cocky and full of myself, and I wasn’t interested in having a woman for longer than one night. And women came easy then because I was a young cop, fit, with tons of energy and fresh out of the academy.”
“What changed?” She asked as Atlas slowed the car and they both began looking for any signs of a body or disturbance in the area.
“This job. It changed me.” He was solemn now. The conversation taking a serious turn with the admittance.
“It was great while I was a beat rookie, just pulling over speeders and giving tickets to kids who were drinking underage. But then, probably three or four years in I was called to my first murder. A man had killed his wife...” Naya’s eyebrows shot up. “But here’s the thing. I had been called to that address multiple times, and every time by the time we got there, the fighting had died down and the wife would refuse to file a report. There was nothing we could do. The kids would report they had seen their father hit their mother but—” He took a deep breath. “She would never corroborate or come with us. She didn’t want to leave the kids and didn’t think she had any other options. And when I was called there for the murder scene—” He paused for a second, “This job became real for me. I had failed that woman. I had failed those kids. It wasn’t just tickets anymore, there were lives involved. So, from that point on I swore I was going to take this job seriously. No more fucking around and using it to get laid.”
Naya thought about saying something but it seemed like it was better to just stay quiet, she understood all too well and there was nothing to say.
“I’ve dated a few girls since, but they all couldn’t stand th
e job coming first so nothing ever made it past a few dates.”
She didn’t say anything, this wasn’t the time for advice or agreement, it was the reality of their career. She continued to look outside as they passed field after empty field.
“I think we should get out of the car.”
“There are miles of farmland out here. Are you crazy?” He was wide eyed, but she had a hunch.
“Humor me. You don’t have to join me.”
He slowed to a stop and Naya and Atlas stepped out, she looked to the west where the sun was slowly beginning to sink below the mountains in a haze of yellows and pinks. She wasn’t sure where they were exactly but they were near the spot where they had found Julia’s body just over a week ago.
She started walking in the grass along the side of the road. She shaded her eyes and looked into the distance, she could just see what might be a farmhouse or a barn rising into view. She was walking in the direction of it and assumed she would eventually encounter the road to turn onto the property it was on. She heard Atlas jump back in the car from where he had been watching her with curiosity and he began to follow her slowly as she continued. She surveyed the horizon, looking for anything out of place, like hawks circling like the farmer had seen before. But nothing was standing out.
She finally encountered the dirt path turn that led to the building she had seen from afar. She motioned to Atlas and he cut the engine and got out to join her. “And may I ask just what we are doing here?” He was radiating skepticism and was openly unaccustomed to her methods.
“Investigating. Well at least I am, I can’t speak for you.” He rolled his eyes and followed her up the path to the building. It was a run-down and dilapidated wooden structure in a state of disrepair, but now that she was up close, she was fairly certain it was once a home. There were no animals or vehicles around to suggest it was still occupied, not that she assumed it would be by its state. But, she lifter her hand to knock to be polite just in case.
“Hello!” She called out. There was no answer. With her hand on her weapon, she tried the knob. It turned easily. She looked over her shoulder at Atlas who already had his gun drawn and by his side for cover. He motioned for her to go for it.
“Anyone home?” She tried again as she stepped through the door.
The interior was musty and dark. It looked as if the building had previously been divided into two rooms, but what remained of the wooden interior wall was now on the floor in pieces. She scoped to her left and right, as Atlas stepped in behind her and did his own visual check.
“Abandoned.”
She nodded in agreement.
“Long time ago too. Can’t imagine this wall fell recently.” There was a bed frame on one side of the wall and a gas stove on the other. At one point they had clearly been a kitchen and a bedroom, but nothing else remained now. “No personal effects, probably left of their own free will.” She noted.
“Agreed.” Atlas used his boot to scrape at the floor, “Concrete foundation. That would’ve taken some time and money. Someone probably used to actually live here.”
“I’ll check the public records when we get back and see.”
“Why the sudden interest in an abandoned farmhouse?” He questioned as they exited the small forgotten home back out into the open field which was now strikingly beautiful in the deep orange evening glow.
“I don’t know. Sometimes I have hunches and feel like and I should look into particular things. Most of the time it’s nothing, but every now and then it’s something, and that small percentage of the time that it is something is worth it.”
He smiled. “Interesting. I’m not judging you, this is just definitely not how city cops work. We spend too much time on paperwork to go poking around on intuition like this.”
“And you have too big of an area to know everything that is going on, so I get that. But I’m not ready to let go of the suspicion that our guy does everything with a purpose. I think he dumped her here for something more than convenience. Because, let’s admit it, unless he lived in this building, this wasn’t exactly a convenient location.”
“You’re right.” He agreed as he looked towards the horizon. Suddenly, he froze. “Do you see what I see?”
Naya immediately turned to where he was looking. There was a hawk, and it was circling. In the direction they had just come from.
They both looked at each other before running to the car. Atlas already had the key in the ignition and the car in drive before she got her seatbelt on.
The hawk was a little ways back up the road, just past the place where she had asked to walk. Atlas put the car in park and they both got out and ran towards the middle of the field where the hawk was. They didn’t have to run far before they both stopped dead in their tracks.
“It’s her.” Naya whispered.
Atlas pulled out his phone and pushed a button on his speed dial, “Yeah, we need crime scene techs. We found her.”
CHAPTER 9
NAYA
She and Atlas watched as they loaded the body into a bag and onto the stretcher. They were almost certain it was Shanice Woods, but her husband would meet them at the morgue to make the final ID.
Processing the scene had taken a while, so there were white area lights set up so the techs could see as they checked the surrounding area. Naya and Atlas had already gotten almost all the answers they could from the scene, they would need the coroner and property reports to garner anything else. Now they were just waiting for the right time to slip out so they could head back to the station.
Naya looked towards the road where they had parked the car and wondered if Shanice had been here earlier and they had missed her because the hawk hadn’t found her yet or, if he had dumped the body while they were inside the house. She was sure Atlas was going over the same thoughts in his head. According to the coroner, Shanice had been dead for hours before she was found, so either way it wouldn’t have changed her fate.
Finally, after a few more minutes of watching the crime scene techs take pictures of the flattened grass splattered with blood for what felt like the hundredth time, Atlas made eye contact and did a slight head nod towards the car. She gave him her own slight nod back and they both turned and began to leave the scene.
When they got into the car they were both quiet, deep in their own thoughts, after a few somber moments Naya broke the silence.
“What are you thinking?” She asked as she watched the darkened scenery go by. It was now almost nine in the evening, it had been a long and draining day.
“I can’t decide.” Atlas rubbed his chin. “Either she was already there, and we were looking for a single blade of grass in a field, or he dumped her while we were looking into that abandoned house, both options are repulsive.”
She nodded. “And we need to decide if this is the type of killer who wants to have his victims found, or if he’s dumping them here as part of a ritual.”
“We did learn something though...”
“The blood wasn’t part of the ritual.” Naya was glad this woman had not been drained of blood like the last, but it did ruin the only lead she had originally had and leave more questions than answers.
“Exactly. And we need to find out who owns this land—” Atlas yawned loudly. “I do think we need to get some rest though. Why don’t we just start early tomorrow? Sleep on everything that we’ve learned and come back with a fresh perspective.”
“Sure, as long as you let me put in for the land records for that property tonight. I want them on my desk first thing in the morning.”
“Fair enough” Atlas yawned again and Naya was now almost certain he hadn’t slept at all since one in the morning when they had been called in after Shanice had gone missing.
“Do you need me to drive?” She offered, they were still about 20 minutes from the station.
“Nah, I got it, just keep me talking.”
She thought of the personal conversation they had gotten into earlier, but quickly decided she
didn’t think it was good timing to bring it back up and went with something basic as they continued to get to know each other a little.
“So, where do you live?”
“How familiar are you with the area?” He asked as he turned back onto the road that took them back to civilization.
“I mean I studied the area a bit before I moved up here since I knew I would be going into detective work and all. But I’m no local yet if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Okay, well I’m actually in the neighborhood Denver locals call LoDo, for ‘Lower Downtown.”
“Oh wow!” She gasped. “I looked at some places down there and they were very expensive.” She had originally looked at possibly getting a bigger place in a better neighborhood for Vance and herself as he lived in a rougher neighborhood, but the high costs had been a major factor that kept her from making the move. Besides, Vance was attached to his little home.
“Yes.” He grinned. “Guess you could say that’s a benefit of not having a wife or kids. There’s not a lot of bills or extra expenses, and I can live happily in a one-bedroom apartment. And if you haven’t noticed yet, there’s an unending supply of overtime to be had here.”
“Yeah.” She was glad he had brought it up. “I meant to ask you if Brody cared about the amount of overtime we take.”
He shook his head. “Not at all. In general, people tend to try to not be at the precinct whenever they can. I’m probably there more than anyone else and I think you and I are some of a select few who clocked overtime this week. Times have changed.”
Now she was confused. “What do you mean about that?”
He looked at her, an incredulous look on his face. “I’m surprised you don’t know, because it’s taking place in your generation.”
“You forget, I grew up in a small town, you might as well just think of me as an alien from another planet.”
“Fair enough. Anyway,” He continued, “The millennial generation, born between the early 1980’s and 1995, generally don’t want to work around the clock like me, generation X. They tend to place more value on experiencing life and making just enough money that they can be comfortable.”
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