Deep Dark Mire (An FBI Romance Thriller ~ book four) (36 page)

Whitefox nodded. Going around to the back of the
vehicle he grabbed a few tools, following Elizabeth to the door. It wasn’t lost on him that she stood blocking the view of the tech team. At the audible click he pushed the door open. “We’re in.”

Elizabeth waved the team in,
helping to grab the bodies and kits. Everyone rushed the gear across the parking lot and into the building. Once inside she tossed a tech her keys. “Move all the vehicles out of sight. The sheriff didn’t stake the building out because he knew it would be locked up tight. If he drives by, I don’t want him up in our faces, so lose the vans and any memories of what you saw today.”

“Yes ma’am,” saluted the tech, and he took off running.

Whitefox started laughing. “Can I have my shirt back now?” he asked, noticing she had no intention to give it back. Not that he minded, it made his body warm seeing her in it and knowing what was under it.

“Uh no.”
Elizabeth dialed her husband and waited for him to answer.

“Yeah, baby?”

“We’re in the ME building, but to make you aware, it was locked down pretty tight.”

“How’d you get access?”

“Don’t ask, or you too will be going to a federal jail and wearing a bright orange jumpsuit,” she said, laughing and putting him on speaker so Whitefox could hear the freak out.

“What the hell is going on, Eli
zabeth? How did you get past a deputy and then into a locked building?” Part of him wanted to laugh, because they’d made this all very Fed and spy like. It was damn funny, and he was missing out on all the fun.

“We’ll talk when you get her
e, honey.”

There was ‘honey’ again, and it wasn’t going to be good news.
“I’m coming right after I drop Desdemona off at the bed and breakfast.”

Elizabeth snickered.
“Park out of sight and lose your tail first. We have Sheriff Jackwagon going off the deep end. Julian is headed back there; he’s probably in his room showering right now. I believe he’s in the Daffodil suite.”

“Thanks baby, see you in a bit.” There was never a dull day
in his life since Elizabeth rolled into his life.

                                *   *   *

Elizabeth sat beside a shirtless Callen on one of the unused exam tables. They watched as Doctor Leonard began the autopsy of the remains. There wasn’t a lot to work with. The wildlife had had quite the snack and it wasn’t pretty.

After unloading the victims
, they found that the second body didn’t have any scaly friends calling the woman’s hollowed out pelvic cavity home. It was a small silver lining for Elizabeth. There’d been plenty of one on one time with the first snake, and anymore, were getting shot. Elizabeth was at her max for ‘critters’.

“I have one ovary missing, and half the uterus
is gone. We’ll cut open our friendly viper and see if we can find it there. Snakes have a slow digestive process, and we may get lucky. I’m getting all the samples that are available to run tox and other reports. I’ll tell you right now, she wasn’t strangled. The hyoid is intact. It doesn’t match the first victim.”

“
Could we have two killers? Tony said that body one was twenty plus years ago.”

Callen shrugged. “I’m not the profiler, but I will say that two bodies twenty years apart by two different killers
looks odd, unless killer two stumbled on the drop spot.”

Elizabeth told the
doctors about Desdemona’s mother. “If that’s Trinity Adare, then we didn’t have random killers finding spots. We’re going to need that facial reconstruction and possibly the medical records and dental of the missing woman.”

“Christina is calling around now from the other room,” added Tony Magnus.

Elizabeth heard footsteps and braced. If she was lucky, it would be her husband and not the sheriff. When Ethan came through the door, her heart skipped a beat. In his suit and shiny shoes, he took her breath away every single time. God, she loved him.

“Hey Director
! Welcome to the party,” said Doctor Leonard. “I just started the autopsy a few minutes ago.”

Blackhawk nodded at his ME and
anthropologist. Then, he saw his wife. She was wearing his brother’s shirt, and he was topless. They were sitting side by side on the table, and both looked like they swallowed a canary.

No, make that a flock of canaries.

“Start at the top,” he said, moving towards his wife and kissing her hello. When she didn’t stop him, he knew it was big. “You just let me kiss you in autopsy in front of everyone, so I need to sit down for this,” he stated, pulling over a chair and sitting, arms crossed. “Plus you have blood on your shorts. Weren’t you were wearing a white tank top when you left? Hey, isn’t that Callen’s shirt?”

Oh, where to even begin?

“There was a snake and it was a water moccasin. It nearly killed me, until Callen saved me. I accidentally cut him with his knife that I had to fish out of his back pocket.”

“Of course you did. Why didn’t you shoot it
, Tex?” he asked, using the nickname they teased her with regularly.

“Oh I have this one,” interjected Doctor Leonard. “I love the Blackhawk story game. It was in the belly of the victim, and it would have destroyed evidence.”

“Okay, so you tangled with a water moccasin. You realize you’re a mother now and that’s a little dangerous?” For now he was calm, because they were all laughing.

“I didn’t know there was a snake. I hate snakes and dead
eyes; this was a two-fer today. So, Cal rescued me. I owe him a really big hero kiss, because he only got a little kiss in the swamp.”

Whitefox grinned at his brother, almost daring him to say anything.

“I’ve saved you before,” interjected Tony Magnus. “There was that pointy staple in the report. You could have got tetanus from it.”

Everyone laughed.

“Next?”

“He grabbed the snake and I sliced its head off
, but got his wrist too.” She lifted his arm and pointed. “He’ll live, but that’s where the blood came from.”

“Logical. How about you tell me how you evaded the deputy? We drove by
and saw his car.” Now he was trying to not smile, he really loved his wife. She found trouble, and at least this time a killer wasn’t after any of them.

No one
spoke, since they all promised.

Elizabeth
sighed. Apparently, her husband was willing to wait her out. She jumped off the table and pulled off her brother-in-law’s shirt.

Now
, he started laughing, but it was that crazed laughter.

“I swore them all to secrecy and if the photos get out, we know who
did it.”

There was m
ore laughter as he ran his hands though his hair and shook his head in exasperation.

Whitefox leaned forward. “Put the shirt back on
! Ethan looks like he’s on the edge,” Callen whispered.

“So, you gave her your shirt to be a gentleman?” his brother asked.

When they started laughing, both doctors couldn’t help but join them. This was going to be fun to watch unfold.

“Your vicious wife tricked me
, and now Christina is staring at me the way she stares at you.”

Ethan
laughed even harder. He offered his wife a fist bump. “For that, I will forgive you for trying to seduce the deputy.”

“
Yeah, I also knocked him out again.”

“I don’t want to know, Lyzee. The less I know the better off I am.” He watched as his brother dropped his arm over her shoulder and kiss the side of her head.

The bond between them touched his heart, and his brother actually looked like he was healing from the inside out. There was life back in his eyes that had been missing for the last seven months.

“How did you get into a locked building?”

Elizabeth looked over at Callen and gave him a fist bump. “Cowboy, you and your brother have some pretty handy skills, and it’s very sexy Mr. Blackhawk and Mr. Whitefox.”

Both men laughed
at the reference to their bad boy days being appreciated.

The tech ran in and looked alarm
ed. “Sheriff Jackwagon is rolling up, and he doesn’t look happy.”

Blackhawk stood protectively in front of his team and took off his jacket, tossing it to his brother.

“I was in the swamp, Ethan, your jacket will get ruined,” Whitefox said, looking at it.

“I have twenty black jackets
and only one brother. Put it on, Cal.” He turned in time to face an angry man with a gun. The sheriff looked furious, and he started yelling and carrying on like a madman.

“You all are under arrest for breaking and entering!” He pointed at
Elizabeth Blackhawk. “She assaulted my deputy, and I want her in handcuffs immediately!”

“Well
, I want her in handcuffs all the time, and I’ve yet to get my wish, so you aren’t getting yours. Let me see the security tapes proving my people broke into this facility.”

“We don’t have security tapes!”

“Well damn! You should lock the doors then!” Blackhawk smiled his director smile and crossed his arms.

“I still want her arrested!”

“Elizabeth, did you physically assault his deputy?” he asked, turning around in time to see Callen move closer to her side.

“
Ethan he was staring at my chest and walked right into a tree. I was nice enough to help him to his vehicle. Should I have left him lying in the grass where an alligator could get him?” she inquired, sweetly.

The sheriff fumed.

Blackhawk turned around and faced the man. “Anything else you wish to discuss? I seem to recall telling you that we were using your facility, and we get here and the door is open. I just assumed you were going to play nice with the Feds.”

“Where were the remains found?”

“Callen, please reintroduce yourself and tell the nice sheriff where the remains were being hidden, and whose jurisdiction it is now?”

“
Remember me? That Indian guy? Once again, I’m Director Callen Whitefox, and I’m liaison to the Native American Community, and the tribe gave us permission for a small excavation crew. Not including white man.”

The sheriff sputtered
, “She’s not Indian, nor is he or he,” Denton pointed at the two doctors.

“Native American,” said everyone in the room at that same time
, and then they all laughed.

The man obviously didn’t find it funny at all, and stared at them like they were crazy and the common enemy.

“I told you what was going to happen if you tried to stonewall me,” added Elizabeth Blackhawk. “We have come upon your community like a great pestilence from the west. We shall wreak havoc upon your small town to find the truth of who killed these women.”

“You're funny for a chest with a smart mouth.”

Everyone in the room got exceptionally quiet, and Ethan stepped menacingly towards the man, ready to kill him.

“I tell you what, Sheriff. You pull
out yours and I’ll pull out mine. We’ll see whose are more impressive,” drawled Elizabeth.

Sheriff Denton scowled at her.

“Shy? Well hell, then I’ll go first just to give you an idea of what you’re up against. I graduated Dean’s honor list with a double major in Linguistics and Psychology from an Ivy League school. Cornell- maybe you heard of it. Big school up north, second to a little school called Harvard. I then went into the FBI academy and graduated first in my class of over one hundred people. Eighty of which were men that were a lot faster, smarter and better looking than you could ever hope to be. I spent ten years in the FBI working serial killer cases,” and then she hopped down and walked towards him to stand toe to toe. “In the last year I’ve killed people and not even batted an eyelash. I don’t give a flying fuck anymore. So while I may look like a chest with a smart mouth, I’ve done the time in hell to earn my stripes and become Director of FBI West. So you can back yourself off my God damn team, because while my husband, the ‘Indian’, is civilized, I sure as hell am not. Director Blackhawk will think twice before kicking your balls up into your ileocecal sphincter. I will not.” She stepped back and went back to her spot on the table. “By the way, that’s part of your intestines and colon, in case your human anatomy is a tad bit rusty from sitting on your ass all day playing desk Tzar.”

Doctor Leonard covered a laugh with a cough.

“Now, it’s your turn, Sheriff Denton. Impress me with your greatness and make the chest with a smart mouth quiver in awe.” Elizabeth leaned against Callen, as he watched the man with deadly intent.

“I want full reports,” he said, grinding his teeth.

Ethan Blackhawk nodded. “We’ll keep you in the loop. Good day, Sheriff, and thank you for use of your fine facility. We’ll lock up when we leave.”

He turned and stormed away.