Dead Shall Speak (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 10) (8 page)

Yeah, that was damn disgusting. He was so glad that he was liaison and not someone who had to play in the dead full time.

“That’s nasty. I knew you doctors were freaks.”

“Anything for science,” Chris Leonard replied.

To him, as a Native American, death was just as sacred as life. One didn't flaunt it, hang it from a tree, or mock the Great Spirit.

It was just…
wrong.

Once you were gone from this world, you deserved to rest in peace until your spirit could cross over. Science or not, the premise of studying a corpse was revolting. Weren’t there enough bodies found every day that scientists could learn from the victims as they solved their crimes?

“I can tell that they’re not donations,” Chris stated, holding up a little black box. “I scanned them. There’s no microchip. When the body farm gets a corpse, they implant tiny chips to track it. They’re clean, but there’s also another reason I can tell that these were left by our killer and not someone’s donation.”

He had their attention.

“How, Doctor?” Ethan Blackhawk asked.

Chris gingerly picked his way across the bodies to the third and last one. When he knelt beside her bloated, decaying corpse, he pointed at what remained. “She was abused before death. If the university is going to take a specimen, it has to be perfect. It can be riddled with cancer, but for decaying purposes, they don’t want any open wounds. They like to inflict them to keep the case studies controlled.”

Callen was disgusted by that idea.

Chris continued, “Plus, had they seen this kind of abuse, it would, or should have thrown up red flags. Someone would have notified the authorities that they had a wonky body. There are lots of regulations to running a body farm.”

Standing in a pit of death, Callen was shocked that the abused body was the only ‘wonky’ thing Chris Leonard noticed. To him, it was all insane.

“She was abused?” Blackhawk asked.

Chris Leonard wasn’t one to give too much away before an autopsy, but he knew that the bosses needed something to go on at first. “Just from my initial check, she has had some facial damage. I can feel the bones shifting beneath my fingers. The skull doesn’t do that unless it’s pummeled.”

That was good enough for Ethan. “So, the university wants nothing to do with this.”

Tony Magnus shook his head. “This could be a blessing,” he stated. “Now, we don’t have to jump through academic hoops to do our job.”

Yeah, they could run it their way.

It wasn’t like Blackhawk could blame them. This was bound to be a media firestorm once it leaked. It was just one more part of his job that he knew he needed to be on top of the entire time.

Jaxon moved closer to the edge to stare down at Tony. He was kneeling beside the same victim that the ME was discussing, but his eyes were on her.

He intently watched her, and Jaxon felt better. Tony would keep her safe, even as her emotions were whipped into a frenzy.

“If I was part of the university, I wouldn’t touch this with a ten foot pole either. This could scare away donations,” she stated. “They already found a mass grave dating back three decades or more, and now a fresh set? They’re going to want to keep this as quiet as possible. It takes a lot of money to fund an anthropology department. If they lose funding, the big wigs get a pay cut.”

Blackhawk got that. He was responsible for their budget, and it was a pain in his ass
.

Chris Leonard agreed. When he gave money to the universities back home, he liked to make sure it went to the programs, not the president’s paycheck. This was exactly the publicity you didn't want when you ran a giant university.

Tony continued, “That’s why they’re not going to want to house the victims there. While they have the medical facilities, they won’t be offering them up. For now, they’ll want to bury this, so to speak.”

Blackhawk got that. It wasn’t like he was shocked or surprised in the least.

They were on their own when it came to procuring a place to work. This was yet one more part of their job that sucked. Oh, and to top it all off, his wife generally handled the shitty jobs like this.

Blackhawk had one more reminder of how vital his wife was to their team.

“I’ll have to head into town and find the local sheriff’s department. We’ll have to go from there. Hopefully, they have a facility that we can use.” Ethan knew if they didn't, they were basically screwed. He’d have to head to the university and beg for their lab.

“And if they don’t?” Chris Leonard asked.

“I’ll pull an Elizabeth. What choice do I have?”

Chris went back to work, wishing he could be a fly on the wall for that one. Ethan Blackhawk was generally cool under pressure. It would be interesting to see him lose it.

Well, as long as it wasn’t directed at him.

Standing beside the open chasm, Jaxon noticed one thing. The man she loved was excited to have his team there. She could tell that he was thrilled to be back on the job. His eyes were bright with joy, and from the tone of his voice, he was ecstatic to be using his brain once more.

She realized something.

Well, two things.

The first was that he needed to feel fulfilled in his job. The FBI gave him the satisfaction he needed to carry on with his day. It was true that he was giving back to people who had no chance at justice without their help.

It touched her.

Then, she realized something even more important. He must love her a lot. He’d followed her to a hole in the ground, did endless paperwork, and left his friends and family to stay by her side.

Every day had to be hell for him. If that wasn’t total adoration, what was?

Now her heart ached with the love that threatened to swamp her. Never had she ever felt anything like this before. Tony Magnus was a good man.

“Doctor?” Callen asked, touching her arm. “Are you okay?”

She shook her head, pulling out of the sexy daydream about the man she adored. “I’m sorry, Director. I was just thinking. When I get sucked in, I get lost.” Yeah, and lately, when it came to Tony that was more and more often.

Chris and Tony had moved from the third victim back to the first one, or what appeared to be the remains of the first one.

“Give me something, Doctor Leonard,” Ethan Blackhawk demanded. If he was going to make this work, they needed to know what they were up against.

Tony waited while his partner in death got ready to give out the basics.

“Victim number one is in the worst condition decomp wise. She’s been in the ground around one year. You can tell by the missing flesh and the slight staining of the bones which are showing. This is a clay dense area, and that red soil has taken effect on the body.”

Ethan made notes on his phone. “Continue, Doctors.”

Tony picked up, knowing how the man operated his scenes. Pointing at the pelvis, he gave the information that he could decipher from the mess of her remains. “We definitely have a female. Since her pelvis is openly visible, I can give you gender. There is a more outwardly flare to her hip bones, the sciatic notch is broad, and there is an open, circular pelvic inlet. In a male, there is more of a heart shaped opening.”

“Okay, so we have a female. What else?” Ethan asked.

“The bone structure is more delicate, where as a male would be broader and thicker.”

“Continue.”

“Victim one has never given birth.”

Chris continued, “I can give you the basics. She had black  hair, since some is still beneath the body. She was approximately five foot seven, and was on her feet a great deal.”

Ethan glanced up from his phone. “Explain.”

Tony lifted her mostly decayed leg with gentle fingers. “Our victim has an extra foot bone. The accessory navicular would have made dancing almost impossible, so we can narrow down that kind of foot stress.”

They all looked at the woman’s foot. Funny, they didn't see anything of the sort. It must be a bone thing.

Tony continued, “From the wear on the back of her foot bones, to the stress on the heel, she was in some kind of service industry, including manual labor.”

“Age?” Callen asked. It was hard not to be fascinated by what the men were doing. While they only saw a dead body, these men painted a completely different picture for them. It was like they saw the woman before she was hurt. They were reading the bones, almost like an investigator would read a case file.

Jaxon took this one. “She was young. When I found her, I could tell by her clavicle. She’d just reached maturity. I’d put her around twenty five years old.”

Ethan was impressed, not by her ability to spout the information, but that she was strong enough to step in. This was a different woman than a few weeks ago. Before, Jaxon Armstrong would be nervous as hell. Now, she was self-assured. That had everything to do with Tony Magnus.

There was no doubt. 

Both men in the hole checked the bone in question. There was agreement from Doctor Magnus on Jaxon’s assessment. “She was definitely young. I’ll venture to say that she wouldn’t be any older than twenty five. That’s your upper cap.”

With probing fingers, Chris began searching for more clues. When he moved a thatch of decaying flesh to reveal the throat and hyoid bone, he had more details to share with the team.

“She was strangled. That’s likely going to be your COD, but I’ll hold off on declaring that until I do tox on her remaining flesh.”

Ethan made notes.

Chris moved out of the way so Tony could see his find. It wasn’t lost on anyone there, including Jaxon, that they moved like a well-oiled machine.

Doctor Magnus ran his fingers over the tiny bone as if scrutinizing it. “Yes, her hyoid is broken. Someone had their hands around her neck,” Tony stated. It was sad, since from the bone structure, he could ascertain that she wasn’t a big woman. This was a petite person who was abused as she fought for her life.

It made him sick.

Without discussion, Chris Leonard moved to the next victim to continue his assessment. Everyone on the side of the grave shifted to stick with him. Sadly, it was a dance they’d done many times before.

“Our second victim,” he stated, pausing before he continued, “and the only reason I’m saying that she was likely the next to die is because she has the second most predominant showing of decay, and is naked with no signs of abuse.”

Tony ran his fingers over her ribs before leaning down. “I feel and see some remodeling. Our victim had broken some ribs at some point. The fractures healed and were damaged again.”

“Torture, Doctors?” asked Blackhawk.

Both men shook their heads.

“There’s no way to tell at this point,” Tony offered.

Ethan made notes while Callen scanned the area. He could feel eyes watching them, and he wasn’t sure if it was the dig team or something far more sinister.

“What else can you tell us?” Ethan asked.

“We have another female. From the shape of her pelvis, she didn't give birth either,” stated Tony.

From the edge, Jaxon spoke, “Tony, if you look under her body, you’ll see some metal. I didn't move her, but I was able to spot it when I stared down through her ribcage and out her back.”

Immediately, Chris motioned toward the tech team and they hurried over with a camera.

The flash went off rapid-fire, documenting everything before Chris attempted to move her.

Meredith waited until Tony moved the skeleton, and then she went back to taking photographs. “You have a necklace and ring,” she stated, using gloved fingers to drop them into an evidence bag.

Chris examined them through the plastic. “The one is a locket. Once we get to a morgue, I’ll open it. Until then, I don’t want to risk any more contamination. We might find some DNA inside or a fingerprint.”

“Good call, Doctor,” Ethan said, patting Jaxon on the back. “What else do you have?” he asked, directing the question at the men in the hole.

“She was also strangled,” Chris stated. “Her hyoid is broken too.”

“I agree,” Tony stated. “Her abuse isn't nearly as evident. What has me concerned is the outward rage shown in the bones of victim three. She took the brunt of whatever anger was present at the TOD.”

Chris shifted toward the final body, once more examining her. “I concur. Her soft tissue is in the moderate stages of decomp. I’m going to say that she was in the ground four to five weeks. It’s relatively warm here, but there was some rain. The clay hardened around her, so we may be able to get more details post autopsy.”

The directors figured as much.

“Was she strangled?” Callen asked.

“That’s something I can’t answer yet, Director. I’m going to have to open her up to find out. I don’t want to add to the tissue damage by cramming my fingers through her flesh. It’s delicate enough at this point.”

That visual made Callen cringe.

How could it not?

Blackhawk made more notes before glancing up. He was good with what they already had. This was generally more information than their ME ever gave out on a scene. He was being very forthcoming, and that was greatly appreciated.