Shadows May Fall

by Corcoran, Mell

  Lou gave him another annoyed look. “The man let us use one of his bazillion dollar helicopters to prove a theory, on the record. I highly doubt he will mind his firm listed as a consulting agency.”

  Dillon nodded. “I bet they consult with a lot of governmental agencies.”

  “Shouldn’t you know that?” Lou wondered.

  “How would I know that?” Dillon seemed a little defensive.

  “Well, you have been Sanguinostri for a while now, and I mean full blooded, no pun intended.” Lou tried to explain her logic.

  “Lou, before I left Maryland, the extent of my Sanguinostri exposure was Abby.” Dillon informed her. “Yuri helped me relocate to Washington and set up my papers for the Sheriff’s Department up there. Connor came in every two weeks and trained me, then Yuri again, but that was it. I didn’t question Abby’s motives; I was just grateful to be alive. So if you think I have some automatic knowledge, or an in with the Aegis, I don’t. Connor and Yuri are my superiors, I am just a soldier, so to speak.”

  Lou had always intended on asking him more about his past and his transition, but there hadn’t been an opportunity to do so. “Sorry, I guess this is still all new to me, so I just assumed.”

  “I understand.” He grinned at her. “Until Abby explained things to me after I got the job, that is, I kinda had the same assumption about you.”

  “Really?” Lou was very surprised at that. “My general state of disarray and cluelessness didn’t give me away?”

  “Well..” He gave her a wry smile and they laughed.

  “Who should I call, you think?” Lou wondered.

  “Niko.” Dillon didn’t hesitate. “He’s top of the Aegis food chain. Why, who were you thinking?” Dillon stifled a grin, knowing full well it as a great excuse for Lou to talk to Max though she would never admit it.

  “I was thinking Niko too.” Lou hid her fluster well. “Either that or Frank.”

  “Right.” Dillon was amused. “We’re supposed to go to the Aegis so Frank really wouldn’t be appropriate.”

  “Okay, let me see if I can get a hold of Niko.” Lou dialed.

  Dillon knew Niko would answer her call immediately. Hell, they all would, it was Lou. For whatever reason, Lou and Max were playing some game but they all knew how they felt about each other, it was so obvious. Abby and Dillon had discussed it, and he knew that it was a bit more complicated than he knew. There were personal things with each of them, baggage as well as hurdles that made it a tricky situation. Lou had a battle-scarred past as far as men were concerned, and Max had his own ghosts. By virtue of Max being who he was, that had to be intimidating for Lou. Plus, she was very new to this world, more so than Dillon when it came down to it. Then there was pride and stubbornness, they both had an ample supply of that. It was highly unlikely for either of them to cave and bare their true feelings to the other, leaving themselves vulnerable. That was not how either Lou or Max worked. Then there was timing. It couldn’t have been worse. Lou was navigating a whole new universe and trying to figure out her place in it. It was a lot of pressure. As for Max, well, he had responsibilities that Dillon could barely fathom. The man was a machine, and Dillon was in awe of how he handled it all with such precision and calm. Knowing what he knew, Dillon was petrified of disappointing his Dominor. He could only imagine how Lou must have felt, with her innate drive for excellence completely compromised by her emotions for Max. Dillon completely understood why Abby had advised him to avoid the subject with Lou like the plague, but he was finding it harder and harder not to ask. He could see the flashes of conflict on Lou’s face, every day. He hoped that she talked it out with Caroline at least. Lou needed someone to confide in; it only seemed proper that her gal-pal was there for her. Dillon made a mental note to figure out some way to broach the subject with Caroline when the opportunity presented itself. For now he would continue to play dumb and follow Lou’s lead on the topic. If she wanted his opinion, she would surely ask.

  “How do I put this on the car speaker?” Lou asked.

  “I got it.” He told her and pressed the button on his steering wheel. The ringing filled the SUV, and they waited for Niko to answer.

  “Yessss?” Niko answered in a slow, lazy manner.

  “What are you doing?” Lou inquired.

  “Well, if you must know, I just sat down with a half-dozen redheads and was settling in for an early evening.” That explained Niko’s sultry tone of voice.

  “You are such a pig.” Lou grimaced.

  Dillon and Niko both laughed. “Fireman’s Brew, Lou.” Niko clarified. “I was sitting down to watch the hockey game with a six pack of Fireman’s Brew, Redheads, it’s an amber ale.”

  “I’m partial to the brunettes” Dillon smirked.

  Lou gave Dillon such a look. “You guys are both pigs.”

  “It’s beer!” Niko’s voice squeaked. “It’s really good beer too! I have some blonds and brunettes in the fridge. Come on over and watch the game with me.”

  “I wish.” Lou sighed, wishing she could. “The puck doesn’t drop for a couple hours, though. Getting an early start?”

  “Yes and no.” Niko sighed. “I have a bunch of reports that came in from our associates overseas. Trying to get a fix on where the other supply lines might be coming from in our Black Blood problem.”

  “How’s that going?” Lou felt a bit guilty she hadn’t checked in on that in over a day. It was a huge case and, she was utterly unsure how she fit into that investigation.

  “We got DNA results on the bottles you uncovered so we have a general idea of where it’s coming from.” Niko brought her up to date. “Max has us working from another angle on who might be involved up the food chain. The guys are working on ruling out the other Dominors as opposed to looking for ties to it. We’ve been coming up blank that way.”

  “That’s the smart way then.” Lou understood Max’s thinking. “Figure out who our good guys are and bring them into the loop?”

  “Exactly.” Niko confirmed. “Then we work down the food chain from there, with the clean Dominors help. They will want to figure out who in their Aegis might be dirty more than we do.”

  “Understandably.” Dillon agreed.

  “Hey, Dilbert...” Niko had taken that as Dillon’s pet name. While Lou thought it was funny, it made Dillon extremely insecure. “I gotta fly out late tonight, can you fill in for me with Liam’s training session? I won’t be back from the Netherlands until Thursday.”

  “Not a problem.” Dillon was happy to step in and was a little touched that Niko would even think of him to do so. “Six at the dojo?”

  “Right.” Niko confirmed. “Sensei knows to expect you instead of me. I kind of assumed you would be cool with it.” He chuckled.

  “You mind coming with, Lou?” It occurred to him that he wouldn’t have enough time to get Lou home, then get back to the dojo.

  “Actually...” Niko interrupted. “She needs to go too.”

  “I do?” It was news to her.

  “Yes.” Niko informed her. “You’re ribs are healed enough that you can start your training. At the very least, meet Sensei and let him evaluate you.”

  “Okay?” Lou wasn’t sure if she should be afraid or not. She had very little knowledge of the Sensei but knew he was a serious badass. Niko had mentioned him to her weeks ago, when she was still on the mend from her chest wound. He had warned her about the training that was to come, but she had sloughed it off after training with Niko. He was brutal so how bad could the Sensei be?

  “What did you call for, anyway?” Niko was curious.

  “Oh, crap, I forgot.” Lou found her original train of thought and explained what had happened with Vinny. “Will that work? Or is that a bad idea?”

  “Sure it will work.” Niko told her. “That will save you a lot of headaches in the future. If you need to explain where you get info, we are free and clear. Aegis consults with
dozens of law enforcement agencies, as you well know.”

  “Yep!” Lou knew from the last case. “So should I have Vinny fax you the paperwork?”

  “I’ll give him a call.” Niko liked Vinny. “That way it leaves you out of the administrative crap. He’ll feel more like I’m his contact rather than yours.”

  “That works for me.” Lou was relieved. “Now who do I need to work with about tracing the source of some emails in my case?”

  “Yuri can help you with that. Have your techs forward him the data to Markovic at the Aegis email address.” Niko instructed. “You know the address, right Dilbert?” Lou tried not to laugh.

  “Yes, sir.” Dillon replied. “I’ll take care of that personally.”

  “Thank you, Niko.” Lou was grateful. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and make it to the puck drop.”

  “I’ll keep my fingers crossed.” Niko ended the call, and Dillon immediately called their techs at the Department with instructions on where to forward the data.

  They arrived at the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner just after five. There were some news agency vans parked out front, no doubt waiting for the release of the coroner’s reports on the recent gang shootings. It was the fifth multiple victim gang-related shootings in a month, and the media was having a field day. The headlines were reading the beginnings of some gang war as if picking each other off was something new. Statistically, gang-related homicides had been on the rise for over a year now and this year it looked as though they would exceed the previous year by a wide margin. That was based on Lou’s unscientific analysis given it was only April and the bodies were piling up. It infuriated her. Communities were screaming on the news about the police not caring and failing to protect. The reality was that no one ever admitted to seeing anything or would come forward with any information. Apparently, the only thing these citizens hated more than their kids dying was actually doing something to help law enforcement. It was a maddening situation that she would never understand.

  Dillon parked the SUV by the County vehicles and they snuck in through a back door to avoid reporters. Security had been beefed up with an additional security checkpoint before Caroline’s office. Fortunately, Caroline was coming out just as they were going in so she waved security off when they insisted on verifying Dillon and Lou’s credentials.

  “Oh for pity’s sake!” Caroline fussed as she hugged Lou and gave Dillon a kiss on the cheek. “All this gang crap is making everyone so nervous! It’s so silly! Come on down. I’ll show you what I got.”

  Doctor Caroline Devereaux was Lou’s best friend since her first crime scene. They had hit it off immediately and been fast friends ever since. Caroline was born in Savannah, Georgia to very old money. She had no clue as to just how old until recently. Lou and Caroline were an exercise in contrasts. While Lou was petite, barely hitting five feet, four inches, Caroline was five feet, eleven inches and insisted on wearing high heels at every possible opportunity. Lou avoided heels like the plague. Caroline was a classic Southern belle with the Georgia peach smile and slight drawl where it counted. A fashionista and heartbreaker, she shamelessly flirted like she inhaled air. Brilliant, polished, gorgeous and a wicked sense of humor, If Lou didn’t love her like a sister, she would have hated her.

  “I hate to bring you down here for nothing, but I figured it was the only way I was going to see you this week the way things are going!” Caroline winked at Dillon. “And I do mean, you, Detective Cole.” Dillon blushed immediately.

  “Oh come on, Caroline!” Lou protested. “Give the guy a break would you?”

  “You are no fun!” Caroline poked Lou lightly in the ribs. “Fine, I’ll behave. For now.” She led them into one of the autopsy rooms that was, fortunately, empty. “You got a problem” Caroline informed them as she looked around to make sure the place was indeed empty.

  “Who’s got a problem?” Lou asked.

  “You do.” Caroline pulled a file out of the back of her lab coat. “This is a copy of a case that came in a week ago.” She handed Lou the file and she and Dillon looked it over.

  “How did this go unchecked when we ran similar M.O.’s?” Lou shouted.

  The file contained the autopsy and forensics reports for a Marcus Medina who had been found dead in the Jacuzzi of his Beverly Hills home. The interesting part of the document was glaring at them as they scanned through the crime scene photos. Mr. Medina’s head had been smashed into a pancake, just like their Mr. Griffen.

  “How did this not make the news?!” Dillon couldn’t believe the paparazzi hadn’t gotten a hold of the story, or anyone for that matter. “Who is this guy?”

  “You’ll have to go through the file yourselves but the second I unzipped your guy, I had flashbacks.” Caroline fanned herself for added dramatic effect.

  “How could you not tell me about this? Lou glared at her. “What the hell, Lou?” Caroline appeared wounded. “Are you accusing me of something?”

  “Caroline, you tell me everything about all your weird cases, even the dude with the green toenail polish last week.” Lou reminded her. “How does a smashed head not make the cut?”

  Caroline paused and thought for a moment, almost surprised that she hadn’t told Lou already. “Oh hell, I know why!”

  “Why?” Dillon and Lou said in unison. It was becoming a regular thing.

  “Because you have been pulling double shifts for the past week you brat.” Caroline frowned at her. “I haven’t seen you in days!”

  “It’s true, Lou.” Dillon acknowledged. “We’ve been on something or other, non-stop, since Thursday. You canceled on Caroline twice that I know of.”

  “Shut up!” Lou scolded him. “I don’t need your reasoning right now.” Lou found a place to sit in the corner, rolling the stool back to where Caroline and Dillon stood. “So who is this dude? What’s the connection to Griffen? Who’s working on this case at BHPD?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t know.” Caroline was making fun of her. “Oh, and, I don’t know.”

  Lou stuck her tongue out at her. “What do you know, then?”

  “I know that this guy was very high maintenance.” Caroline singled out one of the autopsy photos of Medina to show a headless, but very well manscaped, well, scaped all the way around, man. “Such a waste, don’t you think?”

  “Yeah, that is a shame.” Lou agreed.

  “Hello?!” Dillon huffed. “Guy in the room! You two are worse than men at a strip club!”

  “Now that is just the sin of exaggeration, Detective Cole!” Caroline swatted at him. “We’re just admiring a very fine man, tragically lost before his time.”

  “Where’s the rest of his head?” Lou inquired since there was nothing but a bloody stump at his neck.

  “They brought the remnants in separate bags.” Caroline cringed. “What was left of them, at least. The totally gross part is that they found him in the morning, and some of his brains were poached, literally, in the hot water. They had to scoop out the pool filter and everything to recover what they could of his skull.”

  Dillon’s jaw slacked. “Holy shit!”

  “I know, right?” Caroline agreed. “I was so grateful I missed that call! Poor Carpesh.”

  Lou couldn’t help but laugh. “He was up?” Peter Carpesh was the newest addition to the Coroner’s office. Fortunately for Lou and Caroline, he turned out to be Sanguinostri, and the one who turned their meddling on the rogue case into Max. Carpesh was a very skittish, very paranoid but extremely thorough man. Now that they knew what side he was on, they got along just fine.

  “Wouldn’t y’all loved to have been a Blow Fly on that corpse?” Caroline giggled.

  Lou looked at her like she was psychotic. “Actually, no.” Dillon snorted. “You scare me sometimes, girlie.”

  Caroline gave her a disapproving look. “Right back at ya, times infinity!”

  “So what else beside
s a waste of a hottie?” Lou got back to the point.

  “Skull shattered, massive blunt force trauma, as you already could tell. Not one lick of forensics other than the immediate surroundings, which includes the chunk of wood that was used to tenderize the poor guy.”

  “Fencepost?” Lou asked.

  “Exactly the same type as with your Mr. Griffen.” She nodded. “No signs of struggle, no evidence of anyone else being there except...” Lou waited, but Caroline wasn’t continuing. “Except what?”

  “There was an empty bottle of wine and two spotless glasses next to the sink.” Caroline paused again.

  “Caroline!” Lou shouted. “I hate it when you pause for some dramatic effect! Tell me what you found!”

  “You are just no fun anymore!” She pouted. “So I had to run an extended tox panel because something just seemed off. There were no defensive wounds and, well, you just don’t sit there and let someone bash your brains in without raising an eyebrow. Right?!”

  “Right, unless someone is sneaking up on you and whaps you hard enough to knock you out with the first blow.” Dillon corrected her assertion.

  “Yes, but the blows came from his front left side! And the cast-off, spray, spew, trajectory, the way a good healthy scoop of his brain flew out the back-side of his pie-hole, his attacker was in his eye-line when they took the first swing.” Lou and Dillon just stared at her for a while. “What?” She asked when she noticed them staring at her oddly.

  “How can such a sweet, mild mannered lady come up with such graphic, unprofessional terminology the way you do?” Dillon was stunned.

  Lou nodded in agreement. “It’s just a genius gift. I mean it, I’m jealous.”

  Caroline blushed. “Aw, thanks y’all!” She gave them both quick hugs. “Anywhoo! Back to the weird and frightening part!”

  “You’re not the weird and frightening part?” Lou asked with a chuckle.

  “Ha ha.” Caroline looked at her sideways then fished out the expanded toxicology report. “Check this out.” She pointed, Lou and Dillon leaned in to see what she was looking at.