Fire Burns Hot ((An FBI/ Romance Thriller~ (Book 5))) (37 page)

Blackhawk was signing papers and not even looking up, and yet he jumped in seamlessly. “Well, there was that
one time, but HR wasn’t happy. Elizabeth has been gag ordered to zip it.”

Tori closed her eyes and started to flush. “This is like the nightmare everyone has where they walk in to take a test in school
, and they’re naked,” she muttered.

Now everyone began laughing.

“Today in general is my test and any moment I’m going to discover my clothes are gone.” Then she realized what she just said. “Oh my God! I am so sorry that I said that. It’s from lack of sleep.”

The hole kept getting deeper and the look on Julian’s face more smug. Now they all knew what she spent her night doing. Or in this case, who.

“Tori, relax,” cajoled Ethan. “It’s Christmas Eve and we’re just laid back today. We’re prepping for tomorrow. I hear you and Julian are joining us in the festivities.”

She nodded
afraid to open her mouth because what would slip out.

Elizabeth felt bad for the woman. “We’re playing football in the mud and then gorging on food. Just breathe deep and don’t let the Blackhawks get you all riled up. We’re normal people who do normal things. We just happen to be your boss
es.”

Tori was about to point out that they could
terminate her ass too, but there was a knock on the door and the sound drew everyone’s attention.

“Come in,” stated Ethan, standing to greet the guests. The one he recognized for the party. She was Doctor Leonard’s date.
After shaking her hand, he focused on the man he didn’t recognize. “Hello, you must be Inspector Wells. I’m Director Ethan Blackhawk.” He shook the man’s hand.

“Oh, nice to meet you, Director. I was under the impression that she was Director,” he said, pointing at Elizabeth.

Ethan smiled. He was accustomed to the name confusion. “We’re co-directors here at FBI West. Because of the sheer size of the facility, it is easier for two people to run it.”

“Nice to meet
you and thank you for letting me part of this investigation.”

Elizabeth remained perched on the corner of Ethan’s desk, observing the detective and inspector. She looked exhausted and the inspector looked over eager. It was going to be
an interesting day.

Blackhawk nodded. “Welcome aboard.” Looking over at his brother, he continued the introductions. “If you haven’t met our other director, this is Callen Whitefox.”

They shook hands.

“I didn’t meet you
personally, Mr. Whitefox, but you stirred up Detective Leto when you slammed him down on the hood of the car. He’s not a happy camper.”

Callen shrugged. “Then he shouldn’t have put his hands on Director Blackhawk. Once he touched her, he crossed the line.”

Ethan saw red. “I’ve been left out of the loop, I see.” Immediately, he looked at his wife.

Elizabeth explained the situation. “As you can see, it was typical conflict bullshit. Director Whitefox just stepped in to make sure Detective Leto was aware of the boundaries.”

Ethan nodded at his brother. “I hope I get to meet the detective. I’d love to have a discussion regarding the situation.”

Changing the subject seemed like her best avenue, so Elizabeth stood. “I say we get the autopsy part of today finished, and then we can all call it a holiday.” Leading the way out of the room, she paused to offer the inspector and detective coffee. When both declined, they headed to the elevators.

Detective Austin felt like shit. Her head was pounding, and she was still trying to figure out how last night went horribly wrong. Her and Doctor Leonard were having a good time, and then came time to go home. He seemed interested, but then it all fell apart. Cyra was writing it off as the booze and hoped they’d get another chance to get acquainted. This time she swore no drinking.

What she really wanted was to get this day over with and take a few days off with her family.

The elevator ride down was quiet, but once in the lab, the talking picked up greatly. Patrick Wells walked around looking at all the equipment.

“Wow
! The CSI team would be green with envy over this entire lab and all the fancy toys,” he stated, grinning.

“Doctor Leonard and Magnus demand the best,” Elizabeth said. “Something about the best equipment for the
best staff.”

Tony Magnus agreed whole heartedly. “
We’re gems.”

Elizabeth noticed the second doctor wasn’t participating as he normally would. Generally Chris Leonard was just as silly and antagonistic as Tony. Today he stood quietly, hands in his lab coat pockets and was purposely avoiding eye contact with just about everyone. This didn’t bode well. Something had to have happened last night between the doctor and the detective
. Elizabeth nodded at Chris and Tony shrugged.

“Shall we start?” Chris stated. “I’m sure we all have plans for the holidays, and would like to get to them.”

Ethan was surprised at his tone, and glanced over at his wife. She shook her head. “Absolutely, Doctor Leonard. By all means, let’s start the proceedings.”

Chris pulled the sheet off the victim, and pulled on his protective scrubs. After double gloving, he picked up his tools. “Inspector, if you’d like a closer look, feel free to come stand
beside the table. She won’t bite.”

It wasn’t lost on Elizabeth that the charred remains lo
oked nothing like a human shape from the hips up. They were grotesquely distorted in shape and the room held the scent of cooked flesh. Instantly, the bile rose in her throat, and she felt the need to vomit. Praying for divine intervention, she swallowed the nauseous feeling and persevered.

“We’ve done the x-rays already,” stated Chris. “This woman fought hard
against extreme violence. It wasn’t an easy death,” he added, as Tony pulled up the x-rays.

“If you look here,”
Tony pointed. “Someone pummeled her face. It looks like she was hit repeatedly, one strike broke her nose, then there is severe distress to her maxilla, mental tuberosity, Zygomatic, and mental protuberance.”

Elizabeth laughed. Everyone
that wasn’t used to the doctor had the look on their face like they lost him at broken nose. “What Tony is trying to tell us is that she was pounded here,” she pointed at the place besides her nose and under her eye socket. “Then the killer took a shot at her chin.”

“Sure you don’t want to be my lab assistant?” grinned Tony. He used the big words intentionally to keep the bosses learning and on their toes.

“Uh no. You can’t afford me with the lab’s budget.”

Tony offered her a fist bump. “To put it into laymen’s terms, he went crazy on her face.”

Chris had finished peeling back the layer of burnt epidermis. “I would even venture to say that while she was on the ground, he kicked her in the face, aiming at the chin and wearing steel toed boots. Next to the femur, the jaw is one of the strongest bones in the human body, and as you can see from the x-rays, it’s shattered.”

“That had to hurt like a bitch,” stated Tori.

Doctor Leonard simply nodded in agreement.

“
Okay, what else?” inquired Elizabeth, moving further away from the corpse to get out of the view and smelling range. She hopped up on a lab table not far away and waited.

“Next please, Tony?” Chris
stated, looking over his shoulder. “I’m opening up her chest now, and as you can see from the x-rays, she had massive damage there. Her ribs appear to be shattered and a few are imbedded in her lungs.” As if to punctuate it, Chris lifted them from her body.

“Are they cooked?” inquired Patrick Wells
.

Chris didn’t even look up. “Semi.”

Elizabeth believed she’d never eat meat again after this entire assignment. Good bye were her days of loving food that came from a cow and pig. When Chris dropped them in the scale with a sickening plop, she was certain of it. “So again, our victim was beat pretty bad.”

“She would have died regardless with the internal bleeding after having her ribs impale her lungs.
It may have taken longer, but regardless her death certificate was signed.”

“Are you going to check the esophagus for smoke inhalation?”
asked the fire inspector, leaning over the corpse.

“That’s my next step, but first I have to finish with the lungs
. If you skip around haphazardly you fuck up the exam.”

Elizabeth lifted a brow, sharing a look with Ethan and Callen. In all her years working alongside Chris, she never heard him drop profanity. Oh yeah, they’d be having a little sit down when it was all over. Something was definitely wrong. Oddly, if it offended the inspector, he gave no indication.

Tony pulled up x-rays of the hands and arms. He could see the tension and was going to pull the focus from his friend and onto himself. “If I can direct your attention to her hands, you’ll notice that she had extensive wounds to them.”

“So she fought back, Doc?” questioned Whitefox. The tension was getting thicker in the room.

“All metacarpals on the right hand are fractured.”

Ethan thought about it. “Possibly from fighting back? Maybe she didn’t want to go into death as easily as the killer intended.”

Elizabeth offered another scenario. “I’m guessing he stepped on her hand. While she was lying on the ground, he stepped down on the hand and that’s how all the bones were broken straight across.”

“I tend to lean towards Elizabeth’s theory
more,” stated Chris, slicing off some lung tissue. “But I’d say stomped. The hand is pretty durable. I’d say he forcefully placed as much pressure on those bones as possible, with the intent to break them.”

Elizabeth watched as he sliced paper thin pieces from the dead woman’s lungs,
placing them on clear slides. Right then, Elizabeth was pretty sure that she’d never eat anything that had to be carved again. How had she watched this for so many years and never been grossed out?

Elizabeth swallowed another wave of nausea.

“So he was just hurting her to damage her?” asked Detective Austin, appalled that she meant that little to the killer that he’d destroy her body.

Chris didn’t answer; he’d leave the profiling to the agents. Next he began checking the esophagus for trace of smoke.

“He’s escalating,” Tori stated. “At first, he was killing, now he’s maiming and then killing.”

Elizabeth glanced over at her husband. “I’ll have the files ready for you to look over. I’m going to need a profile of the killer and by Monday morning.”

He nodded. “I can do that. This one is pretty straight forward and by the books. I can have it written up for you later today and we can add it to your whiteboard.” Ethan knew his wife needed that part of the process in order to begin pulling the threads together. It was her methodology in solving a crime.

“Thanks, Cowboy.”

He winked at her.

“She was alive when he lit her on fire,” stated Chris from the exam table. “I have heavy traces of soot in the esophagus. She was breathing as she was burning.”

“So all the wounds were torture and foreplay before the crime?” Tori asked, looking at her boss. “This is definitely more than a serial arsonist on a free for all.”

“Yes.” He left it at that, only so he could have time to pull it all together for his wife. Plus
he was uncomfortable with the fire inspector there. He looked a little too damn happy for his comfort. Maybe he just liked his job, or maybe he was going to take the information back to the captain and spread it around.

“This is one sick bastard,” stated Whitefox. Suddenly he was very glad Elizabeth was safe. At least on this one they didn’t have to worry about it.

“Do we have positive ID on this woman yet?” inquired Elizabeth. “I know we suspect that it’s the stripper that went missing, but I want air tight.”

Tony shook his head. “Christina is still working on it right now. Want me to
call over and get her for you?” he asked.

“Yeah,
please do,” Elizabeth replied.

Tony hit the intercom and paged Christina, then returned to the x-rays. “Sadly, we have more war wounds on this poor girl.”

While Elizabeth waited for Christina, they might as well continue with the gruesome details. “What’s next? As if all this wasn’t enough.”

Chris looked up from her body. “The back of the skull was a mess too.” He waited until Tony pulled it up. “The majority of the fracturing takes place along the squamosal suture line. It wasn’t a kick to the head,” he stated. “The fracturing was more along the lines
of him slamming her head into something solid.”

“Tony, the squamosal suture line connects the occipital and parietal bones, right?”

“Yes, right here.” He moved to her and touched the back of her head.

Chris began moving the skull cap to the brain, and Callen went to sit by Elizabeth. This part generally creeped him out
, but the whole thing looked even worse now that he knew what the poor woman had suffered, as she’d been burned alive. “I think I’ll join you over here,” he said, voice low and barely audible over the hum of the saw. “I don’t have the stomach for this today.”