“You’re definitely going to get prints on it. Prints from someone we know too. When I woke up this morning, Wyler was waiting for me on my porch.” He knew immediately when his brother registered the name. Blackhawk’s cheek muscle twitched again and lines formed around his mouth.
“What did he want?” he asked. “Are you telling me Wyler touched this?”
“He wants to see you, and yeah he was the one that actually found it and picked it up. I didn’t have time to stop him.”
Blackhawk closed his eyes and took a deep breath. So much for his good mood. He didn’t want to see his father, but hadn’t he just told his wife he was ready to move on and heal? Now he was faced with the dilemma of healing all the wounds in his past, or just being selective. “Did he say why he wanted to see me?”
“He was in the bar and heard about you and your wife. She’s the talk there among the women and men.”
Blackhawk laughed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “I don’t want him anywhere near her, and I sure as hell don’t want her near any of the women on the reservation. Specifically, the ones that I’ve had had sex with. She’ll kill them all.”
Whitefox was hoping he was kidding about the last part. “I told him as much. Wyler wanted information, and I wasn’t spilling it to him,” he crossed his legs in front of him. His body language mimicked his brother’s.
“I appreciate it.”
Blackhawk picked up the baggie. “What do you think it means? I get the fox, but second son. Is that supposed to tell us something?”
“I’m really not sure. If he’s talking about our lives then I’m the second son. But in the grand plan of this all, why is he even bringing up the obvious? Everyone on this reservation knows that you and I are brothers, and I fill that role.”
“Got me. It seems redundant to state the obvious.”
Whitefox wanted to tell him about the dreams and get them off his chest.
“You look like there’s more on your mind. Is something bothering you?”
“I had some wicked dreams last night, and they have me a little on the edge.” Whitefox scrubbed his hands over his face in frustration.
“You do look like hell.”
He snorted. “Thanks, I appreciate that.”
“What kind of dreams are we talking about?” Immediately, he thought back to his own dreams he had before he found his wife. They were terrifying and emotionally draining, so he could sympathize with the man.
“I’m standing in this clearing and there are four trees and tied to the trees are these women. Each has an arrow piercing their bodies, all in different places. They’re clearly dying slowly, begging for me to set them free and to save their children. I just stand there watching, as if I’m enjoying their deaths and studying them.”
“Wow, that’s disturbing.”
He leaned forward and looked up at his brother. “I know it is.”
“About a year before I met my wife I started having vivid dreams. As they progressed they got harder to handle. She was in them begging for my help, and I didn’t know her name or how to get to her.”
“How did you find her?”
“Gabe sent me on an assignment and there she was,” he answered. That assignment changed his life, and he would forever be grateful to him. It ended up being the other way around in the end. She was the salvation.
“I feel like I’m missing something,” he admitted, pointing at the note from this porch.
Blackhawk got up from his desk and went to get his wife. “Let’s let Lyzee to look at this. She tends to see what I don’t.” Ethan Blackhawk knocked on his wife’s door and stuck his head in to talk to her. “Lyzee, have a moment to spare?”
“Is Callen here?”
“Yeah, and we have a few issues you need to be made aware of now.” He returned to his desk and sat in his chair, accustomed to how his wife always perched on the corner of his desk. He pointed at the plastic bag with the laminated card. “Callen woke up this morning, and the card was waiting for him on his porch,” he waited, as she inspected the clear plastic baggie.
“It’s a white and brown fox and the words ‘second son’.”
“Yeah that we have, but here’s the problem or problems depending on your perspective. Wyler Blackhawk touched it, so now his prints are all over it.”
“Oh, your father?”
“I prefer donor,” answered Callen, honestly.
“I’m ambivalent,” replied Blackhawk.
“Okay, so he turned up the same time as the card, and he touched it. Well, we can get your girl Christina to work on it,” she said smiling at her husband.
“Lyzee,” he replied, warning her before she started.
Callen Whitefox looked confused. “Christina?”
“Ethan has this lab tech that is crazy in lust with him. I catch her staring at his ass all the time. If we ask her do work on this she’ll give it five hundred percent for him.” She jerked her thumb at her husband. “In fact, she’ll go above that if he smiles while asking her to do it.”
“Elizabeth…”
“If he winks at her, it would have been done yesterday.”
Whitefox laughed at the look on his brother’s face. It was a mix of horror and embarrassment that his wife was even saying the words out loud.
“Don’t get her started. Once she gets like this I have one hell of a time reeling her back. Elizabeth has been on her best behavior lately, and no one’s had their ass kicked either.”
“You’ll see, Callen. Watch her once we get downstairs, you’ll understand what I mean,” Elizabeth hopped off is desk and leaned down to kiss her husband. “Kissy-face is being allowed because I feel bad for you,” she said, laughing and kissing him gently. “It’s tough being the object of lust in the workplace. Ever since they saw you shirtless and the tattoos, they’ve been going crazy. Now you're just some man to drool over.” Elizabeth walked out of her husband’s office laughing.
“I have to say, Ethan. Elizabeth isn't the kind of woman I thought you’d marry,” said his brother, standing.
“Really? What kind of woman did you think I’d marry?” Ethan Blackhawk was afraid to ask.
“That’s easy, one you could boss around.”
Down in the tech lab, the three of them stared at the table holding all the bones. Doctor Magnus had laid them out in some weird order. If they were supposed to look like a person, they didn’t. He was busy milling around as were all the techs. There was a great deal of trace to work through.
“Dr. Magnus, can you tell us what you found?” asked Blackhawk, motioning to the bones on the table.
“I certainly can, Director Blackhawk. We found that there were bones from up to five people in the circle. They ranged in varying ages from fetus to adult. All of the adult bones were of childbearing age and none being over thirty.”
“Five sets of remains?” inquired Whitefox. “Partial?”
“There were only partials. We had a total of one hundred twenty three bones and most of them were from the remains of the fetuses.”
Elizabeth laid her hand over her stomach absently. “Are we sure that they originated from inside a mother? Could we have someone digging up graves?”
“That I can’t answer, Director, but it could be a possibility. All the bones had trace on them; the tech team is running it right now to find the origin of the soil. All dirt is distinctive to a location and we may get lucky.”
“What about the blood?” Blackhawk pointed to a few of the bones with the dried red marks. “Is it blood?”
“It’s blood, but it just isn’t human blood.”
Whitefox scratched his chin. “Have we figured out what kind of blood it is?”
Just in time to answer the question, Christina popped into their group. “We did run it, and it came back that the specimen is from the caniform Ursidae,” she answered, staring up at her boss with that ‘woman in lust’ look.
Elizabeth elbowed Whitefox and jerked her head towards the woman, giving him the heads up that this w
as the woman they were discussing. It was hard, but she stifled a snicker.
“Christina, in English please,” replied Blackhawk, giving his wife a look that was somewhere between warning and him begging.
“It’s a bear, Ethan.”
Elizabeth held out the card to tech. “Can you do Ethan a huge favor, Christina? It’s very important that this get done as fast as possible.”
“Absolutely, Director Blackhawk,” she answered, her eyes never leaving her boss even though she was talking to his wife.
“I need this card checked for prints and then any other trace that may turn up,” continued Blackhawk, despite the smile they were both giving him. “I need it pulled apart, searched under the lamination and then swabbed. Find me something,” he said, patting her on the shoulder and dismissing her.
Elizabeth waited until the girl was out of ear shot, and then she started laughing.
“Lyzee,” he warned, and then pointed at his brother. “Tell her she was just being a good tech. The woman loves her work and nothing more.”
Callen Whitefox shook his head. “I’m sorry, Ethan, but that girl has it bad. She kept staring at you with big eyes like you were all she could think about. I’m with Elizabeth on this one. That girl has a bad case of boss lust.”
“She was waiting for his clothes to accidentally fall off,” snickered his wife.
“Elizabeth!” Blackhawk was appalled. He’d worked with Christina for over five years and he’d never noticed it before, and now it just made him uneasy.
Elizabeth was going to say something funny, but his work phone started ringing.
“It’s Gabe,” he said, answering it and heading for the elevator. His wife and brother right behind him. “Yeah, what’s up Gabe?”
“Are either of you familiar with the town of Black Falls?”
“Yeah, it’s the next town over from us, why?” he asked, cautiously. If his boss was calling from Quantico regarding a town by them it had to be trouble.
“The sheriff there just contacted Quantico. I had any area around you flagged to be patched through to me, and they have a problem.”
“Gabe, we’re neck deep in this assignment, we can’t balance two.”
“Ethan, the sheriff just called, saying that not far from the outside of the forest that Black Falls shares with the reservation, they just found bones. His exact words were, ‘a whole shitload of bones’,” he stated. “Sound familiar?”
“Hell, tell him we are on our way and to not touch anything!” Blackhawk hung up the phone.
“What now?” inquired Elizabeth. Something bad was brewing, and his face said it all.
“Sheriff of the town right beside the reservation just found bones,” he said, grabbing his keys from his office, tossing them to his wife, so he could alert the tech team to mobilize to the incoming location.
“How many?”
“A whole shitload,” he said, relaying his boss’s exact words. He looked up at his brother, “You coming?”
“Yeah, I don’t believe in coincidences,” he answered.
“It must be genetic, neither do I.”
When they arrived at the site, Blackhawk could feel his blood pressure rising, and he was pretty sure he was going to lose his cool. There were deputies handling the bones bare handed, and without any concern for any trace evidence. He felt the anger taking over, but fortunately for him, his wife was just as pissed and more vocal, beating him to the flaying. He could always count on her to play bad cop and let him remain the voice of reason. Just one of the reasons they worked so damn well together.
“Who the bloody hell is in charge of this cluster fuck!” she yelled across the scene, whipping out her badge and heading to the man that raised his hand. “You realize you have men standing on the bones, handling the bones, and screwing with our scene contaminating evidence?”
“I’m Sheriff Pavette, and I happen to be running this scene young thing, so calm your pretty self-down and maybe get yourself a drink and relax.”
“Oh shit,” muttered Blackhawk to his brother. “She’s going to skin him alive for that alone. I hope the sheriff has medical insurance.” He couldn’t help but grin at his brother. “This is why I fell in love with her, watch and enjoy the Lyzee show.”
“Oh good. I love a skinning at nine a.m.” Whitefox was trying to not be enamored, but he felt himself lose his heart more.
“Notice the southern drawl comes out when she’s angry. Sexy as hell,” Blackhawk added. “Wait for it and in four…three…two…”
“Did you just call me ‘young thing’ and ‘pretty’?” she asked, astounded at the balls this man thought he had. It was a good thing she had bigger brass ones and she didn’t mind tossing them around like a deadly weapon. “For your information, Sheriff Old Man, I’m FBI. Once you called this in as a multiple body find, attached to the reservation land, it became my scene and no longer yours.”
He looked surprised she called him old man, and his skin flushed in anger.
“This land buttes the reservation and is part of an ongoing investigation, so pack your shit and get your team off MY crime scene, pronto!”
The tech trucks began pulling up just like the cavalry and just on time. She couldn’t have planned it any better had she tried.
“I don’t know where you learned basic forensics, Sheriff Pavette, but where I come from we glove up, and we don’t step on the evidence. Maybe you should take your old self back to the station and try to play ‘where’s the hole in my ass’, until you figure it out.”
“I’m calling your boss,” he sputtered in anger; he wasn’t letting this girl talk to him like this in front of his men.
“Want me to show you the correct way to dial?” she offered, sarcastically. “His name is Gabe Rothschild; tell him I send my regards. When he hears how you handled this crime scene, he’s going to say the same damn thing I just did, but probably not nearly as nicely. Make sure I’m standing there, and you have it on speakerphone when you tell him how your deputies handled bones without gloves. Now back yourselves off my scene, and you stay out of my team’s way. Because you just played fast and loose with all the evidence,” she paused. “Now all your men have to give a DNA samples and fingerprints. Not to mention, we need to see all their shoes for footprint casting, because they all just tap danced over the bones.”
The groans from the deputies were loud and showed their disdain for her.
“Control your agent!” he yelled over at Blackhawk and Whitefox, pointing at the woman.
“This is controlled. You should see her when she’s mad, and besides she’s the boss, Sheriff. See the belt buckle?” Blackhawk laughed, when the sheriff looked down and saw ‘BOSS’ on her buckle. The man went even redder and looked like he was going to lose it. It took everything he had in him to not walk over to her and kiss her right there.
“I see what you mean,” added Whitefox. “That was pretty entertaining to watch.” And sexy as hell. God, this was hard.
Blackhawk nodded, switching his focus to his team, “Half of you start retrieval and the rest over to the deputies. Get their names and their samples.”
“Is she always like this?” asked Whitefox, grinning at her walking around, ignoring the sheriff that was following her in protest and yapping at her.
“Yes, all the time. It’s why I fell in love with her. The day she chewed the mayor of her town apart and didn’t bat an eyelash I knew it.” Both men walked away from the river bed and into the forest that was touching reservation land. “Now that she claimed it was part of the reservation assignment, let’s see if we can cover our asses and find her something. We need a bone on Indian land and we’re golden.”
They walked the perimeter of the river bed, trying to not disturb any evidence. “Ethan, I think I found something and it may work better than a bone,” Whitefox said in horror at his discovery.
Blackhawk came over to the spot his brother was pointing when he heard the tone of his voice.
“It’s not
a bone it’s a full hand,” he said, crouching down. There in front of them was a hand, coming up out of the soft soil, as if reaching for help to escape the horrors that lay beneath.
“We have our jurisdiction.” He whistled loudly, catching his wife’s attention. He wanted her to see this.
Elizabeth ran up the embankment. “What do you have,” she pulled on gloves and saw the hand. “Well shit,” she pulled out her phone and dialed the office. They needed their on-site ME and fast. She gave Ginny the details and hung up.
“Looks like we found more than a boneyard,” commented Whitefox as he watched his sister-in-law not even flinch, as she touched the dead hand. You could tell this wasn’t her first body and probably not even her twentieth. Elizabeth was obviously accustomed to the dead.
Elizabeth touched the woman’s pulse on her wrist, and she didn’t feel anything. “I’m going to guess that she’s been dead a while. The bad rains happened last night, and I don’t see any dig marks, so she was probably underneath. If she was recent, we’d see evidence of a dig and rigor mortis.”
“Think it’s related?”
“Are there any Natives buried close to here?” Elizabeth asked, looking from man to man.
“I believe they use the other side of the reservation, Lyzee.” Blackhawk stood and watched his team starting to remove bones. “We’re going to have to dig,” he said. “After the ME gets here we have to see what’s buried underneath our feet.”
“Heads up,” she said, watching the sheriff stomping towards them and looking like he could kill.
Blackhawk nodded, “I have this, you stirred him up, and I’ll calm him down.”
“I don’t appreciate the FBI coming in here like this and criticizing me and my men for the way we handled the bones. We were collecting them so they didn’t wash down the river in the water. She was way out of line,” he pointed at her. “It’s not an active crime scene, and her behavior was uncalled for!”
Ethan Blackhawk waited until the man was finished. “Are you done, Sheriff?”
“Hell yes, I am! That young thing needs some manners!”
Whitefox thought he was going to have to restrain his sister-in-law and possibly his brother too. Blackhawk’s cheek ticked, a sure sign he wasn’t happy at the disrespect towards his wife.
Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) Page 13