Fire Burns Hot ((An FBI/ Romance Thriller~ (Book 5))) (65 page)

“You’ll just have to w
ear me out,” stated Blackhawk.

Elizabeth kissed both men lightly. “I love you both. Now, let’s get back to our day jobs.”

The three headed down to autopsy, and it was as if both men knew she was uncomfortable. They stood closer and protectively around her. When they arrived there, Elizabeth was relieved that Chris had put the body in the cooler. What she didn’t want was to see or smell the dead woman.

Taking her customary spot, she hopped up on the empty morgue table. “Okay Chris, talk dead to me.”

He leaned against his desk, the file folder in his hands. “I have to go on record and say that this one was particularly brutal. I’ve seen some sick things in the years doing this, but he was sadistic.”

“What do we have?” asked Blackhawk, preparing to enter information into his tablet.

“With the other six victims, they were so badly burned that you missed the twistedness of the killing. On victim seven, you can see it due to the lack of skin charring.”

Elizabeth readied herself.

“She was sexually assaulted. No, let me rephrase that. She was repeatedly raped. There’s no nice way to put what he did. Her Cervix is ruptured from the force and trauma. If you think about it, the woman was technically having all kinds of sex out of that back room for a living, so picture in your heads the violence behind the act. ”

Callen looked over at Elizabeth, thinking back to the sex they just had. With one look she reassured him, knowing what was going on in his head. Immediately, he relaxed.

“Once again, he beat the hell out of the victim. Her face apparently was smashed against something. The blow broke her nasal bone and the aveolar process.”

Elizabeth pointed at her face to show the men the general location. “Do we suspect
a specific weapon?” she asked.

Chris shook his head. “It was a relatively flat surface. That’s all I can give you. Tony is working on the computer to find specifically what it could have been.”

Blackhawk nodded.

“This time he tied her up,” stated Chris. “She must have been quite the handful if he used rope to bind her wrists.”

“Good for her,” muttered Elizabeth. “What else?”

Chris flipped through the file. “She was definitely dead before he lit her up. Her hyoid is snapped and she had hemo
rrhaging in her lungs and eyes.”

Callen scribbled down some notes. “So h
e strangled her.”

“At least she didn’t feel the flames,” stated Elizabeth.

Blackhawk thought about it. “He’s escalating, but he didn’t leave her alive while he lit her on fire. Killers don’t always go backwards. He would have wanted to see her suffer.”

Doctor Leonard cleared his throat. “Could it be that he was too into the act of violating her? With the other women, he may have had sex with them, but none of them come close to the damage he inflicted this time.”

Ethan thought about it. “He could be escalating in the one area and diminishing in the other area. One need outgrows the other and becomes the leading trait.”

“So our serial arsonist
is now unintentionally morphing into a serial rapist and murder?” asked Whitefox. “That doesn’t really bode well for the next woman he grabs.”

Blackhawk shook his head. “I doubt that it’s
an unintentional action. I think it’s very much determined choices, found out of the pleasure he’d deriving from control of a woman.”

This just pissed Elizabeth off.

“He’s torturing them.” Chris pulled up the x-rays, continuing.

“Holy shit,” muttered Elizabeth, staring at the fractures, broken bones and other wounds on Lulu’s body. “H
e’s using a weapon of some sort. I think we’ve upgraded from steel toed boot.”

She hopped off the table and moved closer to the x-ray. “Look at the ankles,” she said pointing. “I’ve seen breaks like that before,” Elizabeth stated.

Chris nodded. “You had an assignment about eight years ago. I was the ME on call,” he said. “The killer was incapacitating the victims so they couldn’t escape.”

“He then could take his time with the way he assaulted him. He stopped breaking vital bones. Just things that would be too painful to escape.”

Pulling up the other x-rays, he pointed to her. “Lulu probably fought, and then he tied her wrists,” he grabbed Elizabeth’s hands. “Picture her sitting on the ground.”

Ethan and Callen hated when the doctors used her as show and tell props.

“He tied them here and lifted.” Chris pulled her arms above her head carefully, being cognizant of her shoulder. Then he turned her to show the men. “At some point he placed his knee in her lower back and yanked back.”

Fortunately, he didn’t actually make the motions.

“It popped her shoulders out of the sockets. Then she couldn’t fight anymore as he assaulted her. Her ankles were shattered, likely by a stone or brick. Her arms were helpless and he was able to do whatever he wanted to her.”

Blackhawk didn’t like the way any of this sounded. What he didn’t like even more was Elizabeth was hell bent on
going undercover as a stripper into the killer’s hunting ground.

“We do have one aberration. Christina was able to isolate the chemical within seconds. It’s common.”

“Okay,” stated Elizabeth. “What is it?”

Chris flipped back a page. “Stoddard solvent.”

All three directors stared at him.

“Translation please?” asked Elizabeth.

“It’s mineral spirits. Still very flammable,” added Chris. “He switched it up. “They can be used in cleaning machinery, painting, dry cleaning, and pretty much everything else.”

“I have it at home for when need to dilute paint,” said Blackhawk. “It’s super common.”

“Yay,” Elizabeth quipped sarcastically. “This killer is either a genius and screwing with us, or a complete moron with a really great lucky streak.”

“I quadruple checked for any sperm. Sometimes when sex gets a little rough, the condom can break. It didn’t.” Chris shrugged.

“How are we on tox?” asked Whitefox.

“It’s running and as soon as I get something you three get something,” Chris stated.

The intercom buzzed. “Mrs. B, your interviews just arrived, what would you like me to do with them?” asked Ginny.

Elizabeth thought about it then held the button down. “Put them in my office. I’ll be up in a few.”

“Okay, Boss.”

Elizabeth looked over at the men. “Can you go track me down Tori and Cyra?” she asked, hoping they’d be a little more cooperative. They knew what was coming.

“Okay Lyzee,” said Callen, turning and walking away. If he thought about it, he was going to get mad again.

“Elizabeth, I wish you’d think of another way to do this,” added her husband. “Especially since you saw what he did to this woman.”

She stood her ground. “It’s our best option.”

Blackhawk nodded at the doctor and followed his brother from the room.

“What’s going on?” he asked. The tension was incredibly thick all the sudden.

“Can you get Tony? I have an assignment I need to offer you both.”
Elizabeth was pretty sure he’d take it, because friends always backed each other up. They’d been through a lot in the ten years she worked with them.

Chris re-entered the room with Tony Magnus, her
anthropologist, right behind him. “What’s going on, Lyzee?” The man questioned.

“We have to catch this killer and soon. I have seven bodies and very little to work with. I have an idea, but I need backup.”

Both men stared at her. “You want the geek squad as back up?” inquired Chris. “Have you lost your mind?”

Elizabeth laughed. “Here’s my plan,” she said, breaking it all down.

Both men stared at her. “You want us to go to a strip club and sit there?”

Chris immediately walked over to her and touched her forehead. “No fever. How many fingers am I holding up?” he inquired.

“I’m going to fill the place with as many agents as possible. If I do, then we up the odds that the killer can’t grab Special Agent Christensen, Cyra Austin or myself. Plus it’s more eyes on the club.”

Tony Magnus began laughing. “We’re going to get to watch you play stripper? In front of your husband and boyfriend?”

Elizabeth let them get their chuckles out of the way. “Are we ready to be serious?”

“Sorry,” they both said, composing themselves.

“I need you both there to back up Julian, Callen and Ethan. I don’t trust many people to be focused on what needs to be done. If I throw a bunch of agents that don’t know me personally in there, they may not be focused on the job.”

Chris understood
what they’d be focusing on.

“You guys have been my friends for years. You saw me dressed like Miss Kitty, and while you’ll bust my ass, you’ll also keep me safe.”

Both men nodded.

“Tony, I’m three months pregnant. The men are stirred up
, and I need my friends to go in there and look around. Chris, you stare at dead naked bodies all day. You’ve always been there for me when I needed you medically, I trust you.”

Chris smiled at her. “I’ll do it, Lyzee.”

She turned her focus to Tony. “If you help me out, you can think of it like studying me.”

Now she was talking his language. “You’ll let me observe?”

All Tony really wanted was to do a paper on her relationship with Ethan and Callen. Apparently, fraternal polyandry was fascinating to her anthropologist.

“You’ve already been observing
, and I’d bet my badge you already started writing a paper about us of some sort.”

He looked embarrassed.

“Will you help me, Tony?” she inquired.

“Elizabeth, we’ve been friends a long time. I would have done it without the offer to study your family unit.”

“Thank you both,” she said, hugging the men. Now she needed to talk two women into it too. “I’ll email you the details. You need to wear your guns, but make them inconspicuous.”

“Sure thing,” said Chris watching her leave.

“Which man is the father?” asked Tony, completely fascinated with the entire situation.

“I can’t tell you.”

“You know!” demanded Tony. “You did the pregnancy test didn’t you?”

Chris nodded. “I also did the DNA to give her the identity of the father, but I’m not telling you that either.”

“Man, you’re lucky.”

He had an idea. “Why don’t you make that part of the focus of your paper about
them? When one man is the father of the offspring, is it evident or will both men take over the role as alpha paternal male simultaneously.”

Tony stared at him with awe. “That’s genius.”

Chris Leonard grinned. “Yes, it is. You can write the paper without knowing and being unbiased in your observations.” It also got Doctor Magnus off his back, and it kept him from breaking his promise to Elizabeth. Sometimes you had to think outside the box when it came to friendship.

Waiting for her in her office was ‘
The Pussy Cat Club’s’
bartender and the stripper Trixie, she’d interviewed earlier. Both looked tired and not entertained about being summoned to FBI West in the early day.

Oh well, she wasn’t exactly all shiny and happy herself.
I guess they all had to make sacrifices.

“Welcome to my place of business,” stated Elizabeth
, taking a seat behind her big mahogany desk. “I apologize for calling you in here this early. I’m sure you both barely have been to sleep.”

“I hope it’s important,” muttered Chase. “I have to be back at work in five hours,” he stated.

Elizabeth stood and leaned over her desk. “Want to go to jail for pimping, Chase?” she asked, menacingly. “I can and will take you in right now.”

He looked worried. “No, I’ll shut up,” he mumbled.

“I need a little help with something, and you both have been elected to assist me in any way possible.”

Trixie looked confused, but then again Elizabeth didn’t really think that was a phenomenon.

“When is Fred off from work?”

Chase thought about it. “
It’s different weekly, but the schedule has him off tomorrow night and Thursday night. Why?”

Elizabeth sat back down and crossed her legs. “I need to borrow
the club. The killer is exclusively hunting for women there and I want to place three female agents in undercover both nights.” Elizabeth wasn’t going to tell them she suspected their manager. After all, he was videotaping strippers and using it to get off. A few of the dead women were on that tape. That put him right up there with Patrick Wells in the back of her mind.

Trixie laughed. “You think that any three women can do what we do nightly? I’m sorry lady, but you’re out of your
freaking mind.”

“Listen, my idea of fun is not playing dress up. I like my gun
, and I like arresting assholes. This isn't a party for me either. My question for you, Trixie is how good are you at your job? Can you take three women and make them fit in seamlessly?”