Deadly Consequences (2 page)

“Let’s make this quick.” She picked up the pace, hurrying past the zoo attractions without sparing them a glance.

“You’re not afraid are you?” he asked.

Sam sent him a withering stare. “I’m a city girl, okay? Not real crazy about the whole lions and tigers and bears thing.”

“I hope you’re good with ghosts since we’re coming up on the mausoleum.”

“Huh, I forgot that was here.” Shadows from nearby trees danced over the Couch Tomb. It was an eerie reminder that in the 1800s the park had been the city’s cemetery until worried citizens, concerned about disease and decay leaching into Lake Michigan, petitioned to have the bodies removed.

Sam shivered. Tonight the park held one more body, joining the Couch family in death.

They reached the lagoon a few minutes later taking the route past the concrete steps. The water churned dark and murky beneath a thin layer of clouds, a layer of steam rising above it. A far cry from how it looked during the day when it was filled with canoes, and happy families, enjoying an idle summer day.

Sam wiped the sweat from her forehead as they trudged past the boathouse. Since the rain passed, it was feeling downright tropical. She swatted a mosquito and sucked in a lungful of hot, humid air wishing she were at home with her fiancé, enjoying a cold glass of crisp white wine on the patio before heading up to bed.

“Up ahead,” Alec pointed, breaking into a jog.

“Really, Alec?” she shouted after him. “You expect me to jog in these heels?”

“That’s why I wear flats on all my dates,” he winked, taking off.

Sam sighed, trying to keep up with him, but it was impossible. Her heels sank into the wet grass, forcing her to yank them out with every step. She was tempted to slip her shoes off, but quickly changed her mind, not relishing the thought of mosquitoes feasting on her bare toes.

The responding officers already secured the area with yellow tape, crime scene techs snapped pictures, and were combing for hairs and fibers, looking for any clues the UNSUB may have left behind. Alec, Mark Matsuda, the Medical Examiner, and one of the first responders formed a semicircle near the end of the lagoon.

Their backs were to her. Sam joined the group, nodding to Matsuda.

“Detective Black.” He smiled. “Glad you made it.”

Her eyes flitted to the ground. A shoe protruded from a dirt patch, the high heel pointing straight up. Frowning, she turned her gaze on the officer. “What have we got?”

The uniform glanced at Matsuda, and dropped his eyes, shifting uncomfortably as if he wasn’t sure what to say.

“What we got is a problem,” Alec said.

Sam’s eyes slid between the men. “No body?”

“Too many bodies,” Matsuda quipped in a wry tone.

“Too many bodies?” She looked around. “There’s more than one?”

“Never mind, bad joke.” Matsuda shook his head, reaching into his pocket for a pair of latex gloves. Snapping them on, he turned to Sam. “Let’s get to it. With any luck, we can all get back to bed before dawn.”

“All right.” Hands on her hips, Sam scanned the area, shooting Matsuda a curious look. “I see the shoe, but where’s the victim?”

Matsuda placed his hand on the small of her back, urging her forward. “Keep looking.”

Shaking her head, she held out her hand for a pair of latex gloves. She pulled them on and settled into a crouch, examining the ground. Sam glanced up at Matsuda with a frown. “This is it? An upside shoe jammed into the dirt? Are you kidding me? Did anybody even bother to check it out before calling us?”

Matsuda hunkered down beside her. “We were waiting for you before we dug any further.” His shoulders shook as he tried to hold back a laugh. Alec chuckled in the background.

Sam gave him a look. “Dug any further? Really? That’s lame Matsuda even for you.”

He shrugged. “I thought it was kind of funny.”

“You’re warped, both of you.” Sam suppressed a grin, and got to work, reaching out to touch the elegant high heel. It was an odd choice of footwear for a day at the zoo unless someone was attending a charity benefit. Her eyes drifted to the nearby café.
Or a party,
she corrected herself, making the shoe suddenly a whole lot more interesting.
A
few too many drinks, a heated argument, a jealous rage… any number of things could add up to a dead body.

She poked it again, this time with more force. The shoe didn’t budge. “I don’t suppose either of you Sir Galahad’s want to help me out here?”

Matsuda turned his head, gazing up at the sky. Alec smothered a laugh. “Hey, the loot put you in charge of this one.”

“Remind me to send her a thank you note.” Sam took a deep breath and dug into the ground with gloved fingers, gently brushing dirt and grass away to reveal a bloated foot. Maggots spilled out onto either side of the shoe, dropping to the ground near her bare legs.

“Jesus.” She pulled her hand away and stood, covering her nose with the back of her arm. Shaken, she turned her head, but not before Alec caught the flicker of pain in her eyes.

He laid a hand on her shoulder, dark brown eyes filling with concern. “You okay?”

“Sure.” Hugging her arms across her chest, she looked at him and nodded. “I’m good. Really.”

They both knew she was lying. It happened like that sometimes. The sharp, swift stab of anxiety she felt before seeing a victim’s face. The fear that one day, she’d look down and see Melanie’s cold dead eyes, forever resolving the question of what happened to her sister.

Sam took a deep breath to quiet her nerves. She knew better. Her sister wasn’t buried in the shallow grave, but she drew no comfort from that fact. Someone had been murdered today, planted in a cold and lonely grave, like trash, as if her life hadn’t mattered.

Exhaling, she squared her shoulders, and stared down at the grizzly sight. “We need to start digging.”

Sam wasn’t taking chances. They were going to do everything by the book on this one.

She stepped forward as the first shovel hit dirt, wishing she’d brought something to dull the stench of decomposing flesh. A second shovel speared the ground. Alec fumbled in his pocket, pulling out a travel size jar of Vick’s. He smeared some under his nose, passing the jar to her. She dipped her hand inside, dabbing a healthy glob on her upper lip.

They stood in silence. The only sound, the slap of shovels breaking ground as the men worked to unearth the victim. Sam watched the mound of freshly-turned dirt grow higher. She gnawed on a thumbnail with a sense of unease.

“Something’s wrong,” she said. “This is taking too long.”

Matsuda’s brow furrowed as he glanced at her. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

Treading carefully she approached the diggers, leaning over to speak to them. The knot she’d twisted her hair into came undone; a mass of golden blonde curls skimmed her shoulders, obscuring her face as she directed the men to begin digging around the leg. She moved to push her hair back, stopping as she felt Matsuda’s gaze on her.

“What?” she asked, suddenly self-conscious.

“I never knew you had curly hair.” He smiled. “You look nice.”

She flushed at the unexpected compliment. “Thanks,” she said simply, unsure how to react. She liked Matsuda, he was good people, but it was unlike him to comment on her appearance.

Alec shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and grinned, wiggling his eyebrows. She tapped his arm, jerking her head towards Matsuda. “Stop that! He’ll see you.”

“I think…” Alec didn’t get the chance to finish his thought.

One of the men called out from the edge of the grave. “We’ve got something.”

“Careful,” Matsuda called. Dirt splattered in all directions as they worked furiously to unearth the body. Beneath the force of the shovels, the leg wobbled, falling to the ground with a solid thump.

“What the hell?” Alec swore, rushing towards the grave. He closed the gap in two quick strides, peering down into the hole.

Matsuda froze for an instant before bending to examine the limb. Sam took a cautious step forward, wanting to get a closer look. Blood crusted at the stump and streaked down the severed limb, painting it with sickening rows of rust color stripes. . Covering her mouth, Sam gaped at the torn flesh, knowing the ragged edges and splintered bone would eventually tell a gruesome story.

“We can keep on digging,” Matsuda said in a somber voice, “but, I’m guessing we won’t find the rest of the body. The victim’s leg was amputated. By the looks of it, she was alive when it happened.”

Detective Jay Lombardo knew he’d just won the lottery. He dragged the kid along, keeping a firm hold on his collar. The wiry little bastard had tattoo’s running across his neck and arms and a mouth fouler than sour milk, but the kid was no match for him.

The shitheads thought they could frickin’ break into Lincoln Park Zoo, whack some broad, plant her feet first in the ground, and get away with it.

Not with Jay Lombardo around
.

But the best part,
the very best part,
was that he heard the call come over the radio and beat Sam Black to the scene. This should have been his case in the first place. He was the senior detective at the 18
^th
Precinct. He’d put in his twenty and paid his dues. If anybody deserved to catch a high profile case, it was him, not some dame who’d been on the force for what? Five minutes.

Just thinking about Sam made his blood boil. It was all on account of her being partnered with Alec Winters. Lombardo had no grudge against Alec. Winters got the best cases because he was a damn fine cop, but Sam? She was just hanging onto Alec for the ride.

Screw Sam.
Lombardo slammed the last of the punks against the police van, and wiped his brow with the back of his hand.
This case was high profile, and it was gonna be his.

“Looks like we picked up all the trash,” he said to the uniformed officers standing next to the vehicle. “Any of them try to run, you know what to do.”

“This is bullshit, man,” one of the kids yelled at his back. “We ain’t done nothin’.”

Lombardo grabbed the kid by the collar. “If you
ain’t done nothin’
then you’ve got nothing to worry about. But if I were you, I’d start praying we don’t find a body in that grave, because if we do,” he let out a low whistle, “you’re in deep shit.”

He jerked his head towards his partner, Rafe Gonzalez. “Come on, Matsuda’s waiting for us. Besides, with this infernal heat that body is ripe for pickin’ you know what I’m saying.”

Rafe hesitated, looking back at the kids.

Lombardo sighed, jamming his hands in his pockets. “Jesus Rafe, what the hell you waiting for? An engraved invitation?”

The younger detective caught up to Lombardo in a few long strides. “I’m trying to figure out what bug crawled up your ass.”

“Whaddya talkin’ about? It’s frickin’ two in the god damn morning. I just want to wrap things up. That some kind of crime?”

Rafe’s face creased into a frown. He grabbed hold of Lombardo’s arm, stopping him in his tracks. “Hold on there, Spaghetti Man, you don’t think those kids are actually guilty do you?”

“Hell yeah, I think they’re guilty.” He looked at Rafe, a puzzled expression on his face. “Don’t you?”

“No.” Rafe hooked his thumbs on his belt loop, and glanced back at the teens. “No, I don’t. I believed their story. Makes a hell of a lot more sense than what you’re suggesting.”