by Taylor Lee
Skylar had met Carol and Henry, or Hank, Parker at one of the Justice Mansion summer bashes. Glancing at their tortured bodies swaying grotesquely above her, Skylar tried to remember them as they had been at the fancy party. Mr. Parker was a man who had oozed power. Not the sexy kind of power that was second nature to the Justice brothers, but rather, the basis of Henry Parker’s authority was financial. He reeked of money. In her litany of introductions, Hailey had told Sky that the Parker family was richer and as powerful as the Justice family. Both Henry and Carol certainly looked and acted the part. Mrs. Parker could have been chosen by central casting for the role of a wealthy, sophisticated woman. While both members of the accomplished pair had been pleasant and patient while briefly chatting with her, it was clear that Skylar didn’t meet their exacting standards or share their elite stature.
Not wanting to dwell on the incongruence of her memory of the two people before they had been tortured to death, Skylar thought instead about their children. Hearing Detective Justice tell his brother and grandfather that the Parker siblings were on their way, Skylar conjured up the memory of the sophisticated people she’d met at the party. The three sisters, all in their early to mid-thirties, were as cultured and aloof as their mother. It didn’t take their designer clothes or sculptured spa bodies to make Skylar feel inferior, which she always did in the presence of stylish, well-spoken women. Their brother, Blake, clearly the adored “baby” and only son of the family, bore a striking resemblance to his handsome father. Unlike the sisters, Blake had set his sights on her, at least pretending to be interested in her unusual background.
Along with the rest of the CSI team, Skylar stood back when the shattered Parker offspring entered and saw the hideous corpses of their parents. Somehow, the Justice men managed to keep the screaming sisters and their brother from collapsing. After many too-long moments of shrieking questions, sobbing entreaties begging to hear that the horrendous scene wasn’t real, and asking again and again, “Why? Why? Who? Who could have done this?” the Justice men led the devastated group from the library.
Jared had his arm wrapped tightly around a sobbing Blake while his grandfather and Jorden were each holding, half-carrying the wailing sisters. Seeing the troubled expressions on Jake and Jude’s faces as they watched the distraught party stumble from the room, Skylar was surprised to feel moisture on her cheeks. Sky rarely acknowledged her emotions, but even she couldn’t tamp down the surprising grief she felt at the hideous family tragedy playing out in front of her. But then it would take a heartless automaton not to be affected by the catastrophic event she was peripheral to.
After the family left, the CSI team went to work. Murmured questions and Detective Justice’s clipped orders were virtually the only sounds as the industrious team worked steadily for the next several hours. At one point Commander Justice announced that there was coffee in the hallway. Skylar heard him but was too intent on her observations to consider leaving. A moment later, Jared tapped her on the shoulder and handed her a bottle of water. When she started to refuse, he shook his head, removed the cap and said curtly, “Drink it, short stuff. We’re hours away from being done.”
Skylar stepped back against the wall and sipped at the water. Preoccupied as she was, she hadn’t realized how thirsty she’d become, and acknowledged Jared with a grateful smile. When she drained the last drop, she walked out into the hallway to dispose of the bottle. Eager to get back to her work she returned to the library, determinedly shoving her glasses higher up on her nose. It was a nervous habit she had since she began wearing the thick lenses after her elementary school nurse had declared her almost sightless. Walking by Detective Justice, she saw that he was studying her. Realizing that he likely didn’t know who she was, she thought about introducing herself. But given the deep frown creasing his brow and the rigid set of his jaw, she decided introductions could wait.
Jude knew most of the CSI squad from his previous life. Almost all of them had grown up in the port city or somewhere on the Iron Range, if not one of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. He sniffed, conceding that Minnesotans were a closed bunch. Particularly those who grew up in the Northwoods. No matter how distant or how prestigious the colleges they attended, like the migrating birds that lived in the Northern clime half of the year, they managed to wend their way back to the land of ice and snow and stunning blue skies. Even those like the Justice brothers, who had traveled the world from one hellhole to the next in their military careers, sooner or later found their way back home. Which made the dark-haired pixie working the crime scene an outlier.
Through the fog of the murder investigation Jude had noticed the young woman early on. Unlike the rest of the squad who came armed with their specialized equipment and who all seemed to know one another, the small woman was clearly a loner. Not only was she sans equipment, but he never once saw her speak to any of the team. Rather, she moved from spot to spot inches at a time, as if each square inch held the answer to an unasked question if she only stared at it long enough.
Jude had intended to ask Jake or Jared who she was, but in the flurry of hideous activity he hadn’t bothered. As the night wore on and dawn was threatening, he saw Jared bring the newcomer a bottle of water. For a moment he focused on her, noting again how young she seemed. And frankly, how unappealing. Her short, spiky coal-black hair looked like it had been chopped by dull scissors, likely wielded by their owner. Her body wasn’t bad, at least what he could see of it. The shapeless black t-shirt hinted at some nice curves, but her baggy cargo pants masked her ass, making it impossible for him to judge its worthiness. He realized that her would-be stylish platform sandals were intended to make her look taller. Which was a problem. Being as big as he was, Jude avoided short women. He liked his women tall and leggy. Like Hailey Michels, his brother Jared’s latest stunning squeeze.
Seeing the intent young woman shove her glasses higher up on her nose, he huffed dismissively. Along with her short stature and misshapen clothes, Jude decreed that the thick lenses were a decided third strike against the unfamiliar woman.
Sidling up to his brother, he nodded in the direction of the pixie. “Who’s the squirt, Jared? The one with the specs?”
Jared laughed. “Her name is Skylar Hughes. I brought her with me from DC.”
Surprised, Jude stared at his smiling brother through narrowed eyes. “She a cop?”
When Jared shook his head, Jude pressed, “Agent?”
Jared shrugged. “Nope, neither.”
Worn out by the night’s hideous work, Jude’s temper flared at his brother’s flippant non-answers. “Then what the hell is she doin’ here, bro?”
Jared shrugged again. “She’s an intelligence analyst. I introduced her to Jake and he hired her on the spot.”
Not satisfied, Jude persisted. “Is she badged?”
Jared chuckled. “Nope, but relax, brother. The weapon she carries is more powerful than all of ours put together.”
“Huh?” Jude glared at his amused kin and asked in a low voice not hiding his annoyance, “And what weapon might that be, asshole?”
Jared paused, then pointed to his head and grinned. “Her brain.”
Chapter 2
Jude strode into the conference room at 7:00 a.m. sharp. He was gratified that most of the team was already in place. Grabbing a mug from the sidebar, he filled it to the brim with what was sure to be the first of many cups of the steaming hot brew. The three large coffee urns on the counter, none of them labeled decaf, confirmed that like the rest of the DPD, the kitchen staff understood that they all had a long day and night ahead of them. The sight of the ubiquitous pile of sugary doughnuts turned Jude’s stomach. Christ, whoever could choke down five hundred empty calories of artery-clogging fat and refined sugar after seeing what they had seen last night had a stronger stomach than he did. Tossing his sheaf of papers in front of him, he assumed his place at the head of the table.
Glancing up when the door opened, he chided his brothers. “
Glad you decided to join us, Commander Justice, and you too, Agent Justice. Been catchin’ up on your beauty sleep?”
Jared guffawed. “Hell, Detective, some of us don’t need shuteye to look good. It comes with the territory.”
The laughter from around the table confirmed that the group of hardened cops and CSI techs knew that none of the Justice brothers had slept. They were also aware that the brothers had just finished a press conference with the rabid press corps jamming the front of the precinct.
When the two big men cleared the doorway, Jude saw that the diminutive intelligence analyst was behind them. As they moved to the coffee bar, Jake put his hand on her shoulder and nodded to Jude. “I think all of you, except maybe you, Jude, have met Skylar Hughes.” Grinning at his brother, he added, “I know how intimidated you are by women, bro, but I can assure you, this young woman has intimidated us all. Don’t let her size fool you. What she lacks in stature, she twice makes up for in smarts.”
Ignoring the laughter from his cohorts at the suggestion that Jude might be intimidated by anyone—especially a woman—he pinned the young woman with a hard glare. Not sure why, Jude was annoyed that his brothers had invited the pixie to the briefing without clearing it with him.
He threw her a curt nod. “So I’ve been told. Welcome, Specs. We ignorant cops can always use an IQ boost to help us analyze a crime instead of stumbling around with our thumbs up our asses like we usually do.” Seeing the flush on her cheeks at his antagonistic reference to her black-rimmed lenses, Jude softened his tone but didn’t let her off the hook. “Help yourself to the java then come and join us. I look forward to you elucidating us with your erudite analysis.”
Ignoring Jake’s surprised glance and Jared’s warning frown at his rudeness, he nodded to the coffee bar, then turned to the rest of the team. “Okay, men, and woman. Let’s get started. I don’t have to tell you that these next several weeks are going to be the most challenging most of us have faced. The gruesomeness of the murders combined with the fact that the Parker family is in the top one percent of wealth in the whole fucking country means that we are likely to be national, if not international, news for weeks to come. Christ, by six o’clock this morning, we were labeled as breaking news on every national television channel. All I can say is that if any of those media whores get wind of the state of the bodies, we’re in for the biggest shitstorm of publicity this state has ever endured.”
Jude let his hard glare rest on each of the solemn men circling the table, ensuring that they understood. Hammering the point home, he added, “That said, if and when the gory details get out, and I find out who decided to squeal, his or her days in this department are over.”
Waiting until Jake, Jared, and Specs, as he’d decided to call Skylar, had settled in their chairs, Jude turned to the coroner. “Dr. Evans has given me a preliminary autopsy report and I’ve asked him to lay out his findings for you. Understand that I’m pushing our fine coroner for details that he can’t possibly have at this point. But accepting that the findings are preliminary, tell us what you can, Doc.”
The bespectacled, gray-haired man booted up the computer in front of him and nodded at the monitors ringing the front of the room. With the help of the highlighting mechanism he began to describe his findings. For the next thirty minutes, the solemn man walked through an analysis of stomach contents, liver temperature, rigor mortis, and other statistics, as though he were giving an anatomy lesson. The number and intensity of the wounds that the victims had suffered were mind-blowing. Even though Jude had combed through the preliminary autopsy report until he was bleary-eyed, the doctor’s emotionless, monotone, and scientific vernacular was unnerving. When the coroner finished describing the hideous injuries that were all-too-fresh in their minds, Jude asked the stony-faced team if there were any questions.
After a long moment, Skylar broke the heavy silence. “Were you able to tell when Mrs. Parker’s tongue was removed?”
When the doctor startled and frowned, Skylar added, “I’m not asking what time it happened, rather, I’m interested if you know the sequence of the injuries that the victims endured, and when the perpetrators cut out her tongue?”
The coroner put up his hands in a defeated gesture and shook his head. “Uh…no, Ms. Hughes. The best I can tell you at this time is that the victims were tortured over a period of several hours, perhaps as long as three, maybe even four hours. We know that the rapes of both bodies were committed relatively early on. We know this because of the state of rigor in the genital regions of both the male and female.”
Stifling his surprise, Jude pinned a narrow gaze on the young woman who had asked the only question. And an unexpected one at that. “Mind telling the rest of us why that is an important factor, Ms. Hughes?”
Skylar met his gaze and shrugged. “I’m not sure that it is, Detective Justice. It’s just that among all the injuries the victims suffered, for me, that one was the most unexpected.”
Jude studied her for a long moment and then conceded, “For what it’s worth, Specs, I agree. The removal of the tongue and both of her eyes was unusual, or as you indicated, unexpected.”
He saw the flush on Skylar’s cheeks and knew that his insulting nickname had hit the mark. Not trying to figure out why he felt the need to diminish her, he piled on. During the whole gory recitation from the solemn doctor, he’d watched in amazement when the young woman, who couldn’t weigh more than 110 pounds soaking wet, had eaten not one, but two baseball-sized, maple-frosted doughnuts. Nodding at her empty plate, he grunted.
“Speaking of unexpected, in fact downright amazing, I’m glad that the sight of dismembered bodies and what are gruesome details to some of us, that the doc’s autopsy report didn’t spoil your appetite.”
Skylar looked down at her plate and shrugged. The rosy splotches on her cheeks were the only giveaway that his barb had struck home. Looking at him, she responded quietly, “I have a fast metabolism.”
Jude muttered, “Sure as hell hope so, or you’ll weigh two hundred pounds by the time you’re twenty.”
Not willing to explain to his two frowning brothers or frankly, to himself, why the brainy young woman had gotten under his skin, Jude rose to his feet and marched to the whiteboard.
“Okay, men, let’s hear it. I want to know from each and every one of you why you think the Parkers were killed, and specifically why they were murdered in such an egregious way.” Skipping his two brothers, Jude started with Mac McGee, the youngest cop on the homicide squad.
“How about it, Mac? What drove the perpetrators to do what they did?”
Flushing to the roots of his fiery red hair, the young Irishman stammered, “Well, for sure they got off on sex. Hell, they were even willing to do it with old people.”
Jude put up his hand to stop the titters at the young man’s obvious horror at the idea of having sex with fifty-five year olds.
“That’s a good observation, Mac.”
Turning to Sgt. Sullivan Solberg, who was as Swedish as McGee was Irish, he asked, “Anything you’d add, Solly?”
The big man frowned and said thoughtfully, “The sexual assaults are the most telling to me. But Jesus fucking Christ, why the hell were they both raped? And why in such a hideous fashion?”
Peter Jensen chimed in. “I gotta say it’s pure and simple to me, Jude. The perps were on a joy ride. We all saw the coke and booze lying around. My guess is that what likely started out as a wannabe robbery became mayhem when they found the cocaine. Hell, man, we all know that crystal begets sex. And once they got started, looks like they wouldn’t, or couldn’t stop.”
Jude gave Pete a thumbs-up. “Good point, Pete. The lab guys said there was enough crystal scattered around the room that it’s a certainty that whoever did this were flyin’ high. We need to wait for the results from the lab to know if the vics ingested any of the dust.”
When the others agreed and one by one gave their opinions, Jared spoke for the first time.
“If
I had to hazard a guess, I’d say that the perps were likely high before they arrived. The state of the room says a hell of a lot. Shit, I don’t think there was one piece of furniture that wasn’t destroyed. And fuck it all, there had to be a million plus dollars of artwork that the animals took out in their temper tantrum. Christ, either these guys were as big and strong as we are, or they were out of their minds on drugs.”
“Or rage.”
Everyone stopped talking and stared at Skylar. Jude couldn’t ignore the fire ants crawling up the back of his neck at her on-target assessment.
He held her gaze for a long moment then drawled, “You want to elaborate on that, Squirt?”
Jude had the decency to be embarrassed when the pale young woman bit down on her bottom lip and didn’t answer.
Jared ratcheted Jude’s embarrassment up the scale to where it might even reach shame when he gently prodded, “Yeah, Sky, that’s an interesting observation. What’s your initial take on the scene?”
The young woman took an audible breath and then spoke firmly. Jude was impressed with her quiet dignity.
“They were angry. They were angry when they arrived; the cocaine and the heroin that I smelled drove their anger higher. The sexual assaults and the mutilation are telling. They wanted to humiliate the victims, punish them. In specific, intentional ways. Ultimately, they wanted to destroy everything the Parkers stood for. Which is why they tore apart the beautiful, expensive things that the Parkers valued. And then they tore apart the Parkers.”
Jude let the silence stand for a few moments, then waited until the young woman looked up at him. Holding her gaze, he pressed, “Given that, where would you start to look for the perpetrators?”
Skylar sucked in an audible breath and shrugged. “I’d begin with a financial analysis. Clearly, the Parkers valued wealth above all else. The people who did this wanted to punish them. In my mind, it’s clear that the Parkers damaged them in fearsome, personal ways. Given their enormous wealth and the people they climbed over to accumulate it, I would start by identifying people who the Parkers raped financially on their way to the top.”