“Tell me how it could be a woman.”
“The one sticking point that keeps catching for me is the killing of pregnant women. Generally a killer is going to go after what they relate to or want. So, do we have a woman killing these pregnant women for a reason like her need to eliminate others that have pregnancies where she can’t? Is it a woman destroying what is just out of her grasp? I don’t know yet, I still need more. When you add in that she’s going after my brother and me a woman just doesn’t fit. We only had one woman in common ever, Kaya Cheek.”
Elizabeth rolled down her sleeve. “If I said to you tell me right now male or female, what would your decision be? Give me your gut, Ethan.”
Blackhawk looked into his wife’s eyes, and he saw complete trust of her partner. “I would say 70 percent male, thirty percent female.”
“Okay, then I’ll be working it today as if it’s a man.”
“Want to go check out the body with me, Mrs. Blackhawk?” he asked, holding out his hand.
“Yeah, let’s take care of the body and Ethan?”
“Yeah?”
“Invite your brother to stay with us. I don’t think he should be out here. This really rattled him. I want him to move in with us, or go to your grandfather’s house until this is completely wrapped up.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I love you, Lyzee.” And he did. She was dealing with working through a serial killer, and she still had time to worry about his brother. Ethan Blackhawk was a fortunate man. “I’ll tell him now and send him over with the keys; he needs a few hours down time to sleep.”
“Good idea, Mr. Blackhawk. Go take care of your family.”
Inside, there was a whirl of activity. Blackhawk noticed that the tech team inside had complied and were wearing their vests, and he was glad they were taking it serious. Granted if the killer came back, the vests wouldn’t stop a head shot, but he could relax marginally. He went to find his brother and found him lying on his bed, staring at the ceiling.
“Callen, are you going to be okay?”
“Is the body gone yet?” he asked not wanting to go out and see her again. Death didn’t bother him, death in his own home did.
“Not yet. How fast can you pack a bag?”
His brother sat up and looked over at him as he pulled his house key off his ring and handed it to him. “Why?”
“Get enough things for a couple days. Take my key and head to the house. Crash a few hours, okay?”
“I’m fine; I’ll stay with you and Elizabeth until we work through this.”
“Bullshit you will. You look like death warmed over and you’ve been drinking.” Blackhawk sat beside him. “It’s two a.m. right now. You can crash a good five hours before work, and then you’ll be ready to go again.”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because you’re my brother, my wife insists, and you have a crime scene in your living room.” It was simply put, and said it all. “Callen, you aren’t staying here. The alarm is seven, seven, zero, seven. Set it, climb into a bed and forget for a few hours. Be back at FBI West by ten.” Blackhawk stood and started for the door.
“Ethan?”
He turned at his name, but more the emotion in his brother’s voice. “Yeah?”
“Thank you.” Callen Whitefox couldn’t believe his good fortune of getting back his brother and his really amazing wife.
Blackhawk nodded and headed out to his wife and Doctor Leonard. It was time to learn about the girl who brought death to his brother’s living room.
Elizabeth knelt fairly close to Doctor Leonard as they hovered over the deceased girl. They were discussing the circumstances of her death. The techs had photographed her and bagged her hands before laying her on the floor on top of the black zip bag. She looked up at her husband as he came into the room, and she paused, remembering the last time she had talked to the ME and anthro doctors. Elizabeth was prepared to move away from the man, until her husband smiled reassuringly and just nodded. She relaxed since it wasn’t going to be a battle between them if she was going to just be herself.
“Lyzee, I’ll know more when I get her in-house. You can ask me a million times, and I know you will, but I can’t give you definites until I open her up and do a full autopsy.”
“How about time of death, Chris?” She pushed some more, ignoring what he just said because she knew he expected it. They had done this dance before many times.
“Liver temperature puts it around eleven p.m., and the chest wound is most likely,” he paused, looking up at her and pointing, trying not to laugh at how she managed to get him to answer her yet again, “the cause of death, but again…”
“I get it. You want me off your ass, so you can do your work. When are you opening her up?”
“The team has to look for trace, swab her down, and get her undressed and prepped. Not until at least after seven a.m.” he said, zipping her up. “Anything else, Lyzee?” he grinned.
“Yeah, call me before you do the Y incision, because you know I want to be there. There’s nothing like an internal before breakfast.”
“Director Blackhawk, please come get your wife. She’s too damn bossy for two a.m.,” he laughed, motioning for the ME crew to take the victim out to his van. “See you in a few hours, Lyzee and don’t forget our deal.”
“Yeah, I haven’t forgotten. You’re one sick bastard,” she said, laughing. Elizabeth turned walking right into the chest of her husband. His arms were the only thing that kept her from falling over.
“What’s the deal, Elizabeth?” he asked softly, looking down into his wife’s eyes. As hard as he tried, jealousy still clawed viciously at his gut.
Doctor Leonard felt the awkwardness of the situation and jumped in to save his friend any problems. “If she makes me come to a scene before six a.m. she has to bring me breakfast and coffee to the lab. It was our deal before she left the FBI.”
Elizabeth waited for her husband to say anything, unsure if he was going to be pissed because she was being ‘friendly’ with the ME again.
“Sounds like a fair deal to me. I’m in, and I’ll even buy this time.” He patted her cheek in reassurance. Once he heard how harmless the whole situation was, he knew he needed to stop stressing about it. She had an easy camaraderie, and he could stonewall it, or he could make her friends his. Option two just felt much better to him all around. He was well aware that half the staff were wary of him, and he needed to rectify that and soon. When your team liked you, they’d work harder for you.
“Works for me, Agent Blackhawk,” said Doctor Leonard, relieved he didn’t cause drama between his bosses.
Elizabeth took his hand and squeezed it, because she was very proud of her husband. “Did your brother head out?”
“Yeah he did. What’s our game plan?”
“We need to get you some anti-anxiety meds and then head to work. Chris, can you prescribe meds?” she asked, and the ME began laughing. “Or have any lying around?”
“If he needs them I think I can find him some.” Doctor Leonard knew where she was going with it. They had discussed his ‘baby’ out in the driveway.
He looked beyond confused. “Why do I need drugs, Lyzee? Especially anti-anxiety ones? I’m not feeling any stress or anxiety right now.”
Elizabeth couldn’t help but laugh at the look on his face. “You know how that bullet shattered the driver’s side window and embedded into the passenger door? Well your tech team just cut a square out of your door to get to that bullet,” she said, laughing and watching his face. The horror was comical.
“What? They cut a hole in my freaking car door?”
“They went right through the entire panel.” Elizabeth knew she was stirring him up, but when it came to the mistress in their marriage, his car, it gave her great satisfaction.
Ethan Blackhawk was a man of few words, but this time half of the ones coming out of his mouth were laced with profanity and physical threats to his team.
“Oh yeah, and I can’t wait
to hear you explain this to the insurance company, Cowboy,” she yelled after him, and then proceeded to break out in laughter as he yelled for his team. “Priceless.”
* * *
He was furious!
Just as he was preparing to take out the raven, his wife ran from the house, startling him and causing that fraction of a second for him to look away from his target. It caused him to lose the shot and miss. Damn her! She was nothing but a problem. He was going to have to take care of her, and he prescribed a long sleep in a deep pit with some other women as the remedy. Just the idea of putting her three feet down into the muck and mire with his other bodies at the other location, made his day a little bit brighter.
Although, chasing Elizabeth Blackhawk through the woods before taking her life would also be very gratifying. Until she was gone, he wasn’t going to be able to get to the raven. The woman was just too much interference.
His trap was ruined. All he wanted was to mess with the brothers, leave a body for the one and kill the other. Now he had to redo the entire plan. This just didn’t sit well with him at all.
He grinned at the formulation of his new plan. The wife was about to become the bait. He’d get the brothers once and for all.
* * *
Callen Whitefox unlocked the front door and placed the key back in his pocket. Once inside, he disabled the alarm and then reactivated it like his brother had instructed him. The house was silent, as the need to crash overwhelmed him. Whitefox was so grateful that he had his brother back in his life. As he climbed the stairs and headed to the room that he had just stayed in the other night, there was some peace. Kicking off his boots and dropping his bag, a sigh escaped his lips, as he slipped into the comfort and softness of the bedroom. All Callen needed now was a peaceful sleep, and he would be back on his game in a few hours. As he closed his eyes, he kept repeating three simple words over and over.
No more dreams.
No more dreams.
Until sleep took him.
Elizabeth Blackhawk stood in autopsy waiting patiently for Doctor Leonard to suit up and begin the procedure. Her husband had run off to keep his deal, picking up breakfast for the ME. Just the idea of eating in the autopsy lab turned her stomach, let alone eating after watching the autopsy. It was just so very wrong and completely disgusting.
“Chris, when are we starting?” she asked, trying to be patient, but the woman under the sheet needed justice. Since someone was after her husband, she needed to not waste any time.
Christopher Leonard wasn’t the least bit offended by Elizabeth Blackhawk, he was glad to be working with her and to have company during the exam. “I have a little surprise the killer left on her body,” he teased her, knowing exactly what buttons to push. Curiosity killed the cat and drove Elizabeth Blackhawk crazy. “We found it after she was washed down.”
“Where and what?” she asked, moving closer as he pulled the sheet back for her to see.
“It’s a hand drawn tattoo of a bull. The techs started cleaning her body and once the blood started washing away, they noticed it and tried to preserve it as best they could.” Doctor Leonard handed her a picture that they took and printed out for her.
“A bull?” She looked up as her husband walked in carrying take out for Leonard and coffee for the sane people in the room, who weren’t going to eat after a person was cut open. It must be true that it desensitizes you after a while; she just wasn’t at that point yet and hoped she never would be either.
“Bull what?” he asked, handing her a coffee and standing beside her, hip to hip. His wife didn’t like public displays of affection in the office, and this was as close as he was going to get at work. The entire day still had him shaken up, and all he wanted to do at that moment was wrap his body around her protectively.
“The dead girl had some art on her body. Our killer drew a bull.”
Ethan Blackhawk took the picture from his wife and studied it. “A bull?”
“We have a bull, a fox and a raven- three different animals that the killer has left for us.” Elizabeth took a sip of her coffee. “They have to be connected in some way.”
“American Indians are very connected to nature; we usually have our spirit guide from when we’re children, maybe he’s telling us she’s a bull, or he’s one.”
“This woman is definitely not Native. In fact, I look more Native than she does. I don’t think that bull is in reference to her. My guess would be it has to do with the killer or have some significance to why he’s doing it.”
Blackhawk stared down at the victim with a sense of sorrow. She’d been washed and stripped, her hair unbraided and pulled under her head in a blonde ponytail to stay out of the ME’s way. At one point she’d been alive and full of life, until the killer deemed her life over. It angered him and scared him shitless, since he was almost on the slab today too.
“Are you both ready?” Leonard asked, as he gloved up and grabbed his scalpel.
“Yeah Doc, let’s see what story our victim has to tell.”
Elizabeth sat in her office on the couch, staring up at the white board. She was perplexed before, but now she completely befuddled. Rarely was she surprised, but when Doctor Leonard opened up the women’s abdomen and checked her uterus, there was no fetus. The killer had now switched up his victims twice in one day. First, he switched to men by trying for her husband, and then the woman wasn’t with child. Throw in the killer playing dress up, making the victim a Native princess, and now hand drawing tattoos.
It made her glad that she wasn’t the one having to weed through that and piece together a profile. Instead of the killer becoming more evident, they had just been bogged down in new inconsistencies. It was maddening for her, and that meant it had to be driving her husband completely insane. One of the things that made him such an amazing profiler was the ability to stick within the consistencies of a case, and to draw his co-workers a clear picture of the unsub. Now it was just a free for all.
When her husband walked in and sat beside her on the couch, his face was etched with tension around his mouth. Elizabeth knew what was going on in his mind. At that moment he was questioning his profile.
“What if I’m wrong?” he asked, softly. In all his years as an FBI profiler, this was the first time he ever doubted himself professionally. Ethan Blackhawk was the job and his assessments were spot on all the time.
Elizabeth just stared at the board. “I’m not sure, Ethan.” Elizabeth wanted to reassure him, but how could she? Right now she was completely lost herself, and this wasn’t her area of expertise.
“Killers don’t usually deviate, unless they’re coming unhinged. But he’s killing women, and if he was going to lose it, then he’d likely still follow that path. Shooting at you makes more sense than shooting at me.”
“Maybe we have a copycat,” she added, staring at the board. On it were the three women, and not much more. Elizabeth pulled out her phone.
“Calling someone?” he asked leaning back, pulling his wife closer to his body.
“Oh yeah I am,” she called down to the lab and got Christina. “I know you’re busy getting ready for your interviews,” she looked at her watch, “but the bodies seem to be adding up. I have no names and no more info to start working my end. I want a name from that driver’s license within the hour, or I’m coming down there. Do you really want me down there stomping around your lab playing with your machines?”
Blackhawk laughed. The poor tech staff were going to be scrambling, or hurricane Elizabeth would be flattening them all.
“Good, get it done!” She hung up her phone.
“Feel better?” he asked, kissing her on the forehead as they lay on the couch curled together.
“Hell yeah! I absolutely do,” she yawned, as she was being lulled by the scent of her husband’s cologne. “Just need a nap,” she whispered, but he didn’t answer her. For the first time in their marriage, he’d fallen asleep first. Elizabeth stared up at the board one last time. Maybe the killer
was screwing with them. If that were the case this definitely was personal. Elizabeth hadn’t been honest with the tech lab; she did have a direction, and it lead right towards her husband’s family and past.
She just had a gut feeling.
Saturday morning
Christina rushed the printout up the stairs and to Elizabeth Blackhawk’s office. The interviews she had put her in charge of began in a matter of minutes, but she didn’t believe for one second that her boss didn’t mean everything she said about heading to the lab to raise some hell. Knowing the safest route, she went directly to Ethan Blackhawk’s office. When she couldn’t find him there, she had no choice but to face the tigress in her den.
Lightly knocking, she entered only to find them both on the couch sound asleep. Elizabeth was housed protectively under his arm, her hand on his chest and her arm around his waist. They looked peaceful together, and she didn’t think they’d want to be disturbed. Hoping that dumping and running wouldn’t cause her boss to lose it, she placed the printout on Elizabeth’s lap carefully and backed away, making sure to not wake them. No one had been getting much sleep lately, and she didn’t think the bosses were getting any at all. The last thing she wanted to do was be the one that woke both of them from their silent slumber.
Now, one of her fundamental questions was answered. Ethan Blackhawk was just as sexy asleep as he was awake. Now she just had to pretend to not think about it in front of his wife. Closing the door halfway, afraid the lock would make too much noise, Christina escaped back down to the lab to hire some new lab techs. The staff was on burnout and they needed reinforcements soon, and all she could pray was she did a good enough job finding them.
Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) Page 26