Hell Is Burning (10 page)

Emma knew they couldn’t call right over and ask for those files. The cat would be out of the bag before Greyson got it under control.

Sadly, if Curtis was here, they could use him to hack Brynn’s work email and files.

Well, it looked like they were doing this the hard way. “We’re going to have to work without them for now. Tomorrow, maybe we can get Captain Ford to request them after Curtis has been notified. We can’t jump the gun.”

They agreed.

Her phone chimed.

Emma read the message. “It looks like Brynn’s autopsy is done. Steele contacted Greyson, and he’s en route to the morgue for an update.”

“We should get down there,” Paris suggested.

Mace and Emma agreed. This was the first autopsy for this case, and they needed something to give them a direction to head. Quickly, they packed everything up, not willing to leave anything lying around. That’s all they needed. If someone found the files, read them and blabbed, they’d be screwed.

Heading out of his office, they were grateful that no one questioned why they were there. It wasn’t lost on Emma and Mace that working in that building was less stress filled. The agents under Greyson didn't seem to mind having cops rolling around. Then again, he probably threatened everyone when it came to his wife.

She wouldn’t put it past him.

In the elevator, Paris hit the button for the Morgue. No one spoke the entire trip down because this was going to be hard. Each one of them had a connection to the woman.

Friends.

Partners.

Co-workers.

It wasn’t going to be easy. While looking at her fresh from the crime scene was bad enough, staring at her with the garish Y-incision would be a bitch.

It made it much worse.

When they arrived, Greyson was waiting outside to let them in. He keyed in the code and the doors opened. Immediately, he relocked the doors behind him once they were inside.

In the silent room, Steele Bentley was waiting for them. “I put her away because I don’t think anyone wanted to see Brynn like that.”

“Thank you,” Emma said. It was a big relief off her shoulders. Having to stare at Brynn was crushing.

“What do you have, Doctor?” Croft asked.

“Official COD is going to be strangulation. She was, indeed, alive at the time of death. I found a lump on the back of her head, and I’m going to postulate that’s how she was jumped. Brynn may not have been big and strong, but she was a cop. She would have fought back had the attacker come at her from the front.”

They agreed.

“Any defensive wounds?” Greyson asked, hoping she fought like hell.

“None. I don’t think she knew who, or what, hit her. She had that abrasion on her face, and it was from falling forward onto the ground when she went out.”

Shit!

They had hoped Brynn got a few in.

“She was alive when she was strung up, and we found DNA under her nails. We’re running it, along with all the trace from the other two victims. I didn't get to cut them open yet, but I can tell you from petechial hemorrhaging, they, too, died of strangulation.”

“So she did get a few shots in,” Greyson said.

Steele didn't look so sure. “I don’t know. That could be DNA from anyone she touched during the day. We’ll know when it’s back from Max.”

“Okay,” Emma said, making notes.

“What else?” Mace asked.

“She had sex before she died. We found fresh, viable swimmers. With the other two women, there were none. I did quick rape kits on all of them.”

“Are we talking rape or sex?” Croft asked. He prayed Brynn hadn’t been sexually assaulted. If she was, Curtis was going to lose it even more. That was like adding insult to injury.

“I used the ‘clock’ rape method. Long story short, the vaginal bruising is at ten and two. It appears to be consensual. Had I found any injury to her at five and seven, I’d go the other way. In our victim’s case, she wasn’t forced.”

That was a relief.

“The other women had no sign of penetration at all. That combined with no seminal fluid gives us the verdict of no intercourse.”

“When will we have their names?” Emma asked. They needed to find a correlation between all three women, and fast.

“I’ll have their ID and the full autopsies by tomorrow morning.”

They all looked at the profiler in the room.

“If the other women weren’t married, there may be no sign of sex. Brynn was, and she and Curtis could have had relations before she left for work. Tessa and I do that often.”

Emma laughed. It felt good to do it too. “You’re lucky Tessa isn't here. She would have pushed you into traffic.”

Paris knew she was right. “I’m just pointing out the facts. Feel free to add your opinion.”

Emma went to speak and Greyson pointed at her. “Don’t do it.”

Instead, she opted to focus on the case. “If she did have sex with her husband, that makes our lives easier and harder. We have Curtis’s DNA on file, so we can easily compare it. If it was our killer, we’d have a link to finding him.”

They agreed.

“Steele, when you get the results, please compare them.”

He had to warn the investigators ahead of time. “I couldn’t flag this priority. It would have gone through the lab, and they would have seen it pop against Curtis, and that would have spread gossip and speculation. Sorry. It’s going to take some time.”

Croft understood. He was just glad his staff was following his orders. He wanted it kept quiet, and they had to accept that it wouldn’t be speedy.

“TOD?” Emma asked.

“I’m going to place it after eleven last night. She was dead about nine hours when I got her.”

They all made notes.

Mace hated to be the one to rain on the parade. “I gotta ask the hard questions here. I know he’s friendly with you guys, or was, but he didn’t notice his wife never came home? Wouldn’t you be freaking out, Croft, if Emma didn't?” he asked the Fed.

“Yes, I would, and that’s a very good question that we’re going to have to ask Curtis in interview. We all know that the person married to the victim, or in a relationship with them, is generally the one we look at first. Like it or not, we’re running this investigation by the books. Until we can eliminate him…”

“Curtis couldn’t have!” Emma objected, cutting him off. “He wouldn’t, Grey.”

“We have to ask it, Emma,” Greyson stated. He knew she was protective of the boy, but this was a mess. He’d already once lied to keep him safe. This case had to be run by the letter of the law. If not, they’d all swing--not only from their bosses, but in the court of public opinion.

“I found a few things that were odd,” Steele stated. “I wouldn’t say odd, more like they deviated from the first two murders.”

That had Paris’s attention. This was something he needed in order to profile. “What?”

“I’m not talking autopsy results, but initial findings.”

“Spill it, Doc,” Emma stated.

“Well, the rope was different. On victims one and two, it was a standard braided rope. On Brynn, it was industrial nylon cord. It’s more durable and dug deeper into her flesh. That’s why she bled more. It ripped into her carotid, and she bled out as she asphyxiated.”

Emma would never be able to get that picture out of her mind for as long as she lived. So, she tried to focus on anything else. “What other anomalies are there?”

“She was the only one struck in the back of the head. I haven’t opened the other two up yet, and tox isn't done, but they don’t appear to have been subdued the same way.”

They all made notes.

“That’s all I really have for you. I’m going to get started on victim number one as soon as you leave.”

Croft glanced up. “I need for you to hold off for a bit, Doc. I’m going to text Tessa to get Curtis back in-house. The minute I tell him what’s happened to his wife, he’s going to want to see her.”

There was no doubt in his mind that was going to happen. If someone told him Emma was dead, he’d need the proof. Then, and only then, would he fall apart. Greyson was ready for what was destined to land in his lap.

Anger.

Hate.

Bitterness.

Curtis was going to have a rough time coming to grips with the truth, and there was no doubt that he was going to need to focus it somewhere.

“No problem, Director. I can do that for him,” Steele offered. “I’ll make sure she’s cleaned up and ready for a viewing.”

“I want all the autopsies forwarded only to me. Passcode them, so I’m the
ONLY
person, beside you, who sees them. I’ll give them to the team tomorrow when we start working, but until then, we don’t need these getting out. Our luck, the media will obtain a copy, and we’ll be screwed.”

“I got it.”

Croft headed out. Outside the morgue, he waited for the rest of his wife’s team. “I want you to head to my office. I’ll take care of this.”

“I should go with you, Grey,” Emma stated. “He’s going to need someone to lean on.”

Oh, he was well aware, but he knew the man. Curtis was going to erupt first, and there was no way that he was going to let his wife be privy to that.

It wasn’t happening.

He kissed her on the forehead before pulling Emma into the protective frame of his body. “No, you can’t be there, Em. This is going to be bad. He’s going to need you to be the good guy when this is all over. Right now, I’m up to bat.”

Emma hated that Greyson had relegated himself to role of bad guy. He was anything but. She loathed that he was going to take the brunt of Curtis’s anger once again.

It was a shitty predicament all around.

When he did it the last time, even when the plan was hers, she could see how hurt he was. No one liked to be verbally slashed at by someone you loved.

That included her husband.

Greyson Croft wasn’t as icy as they all thought. He had a soft heart when it came to his family.

“If you need me…”

He lovingly patted her cheek in reassurance. He’d already been hurt by the man coming to get his bad news. There was nothing he could say that would make it worse.

Now it was about being there for Curtis.

“Just get to work on whatever you can, honey. I’ll handle Special Agent Briggs. Tessa will be on her way up to the office as soon as they arrive. You three will have to brief her. She’ll jump in and help.”

Reluctantly, Emma pulled away. “Okay, babe. See you in a bit.”

He watched the team head into the elevator. Instead of joining them, he pulled out his phone and sent the text.

It was time to do the job.

There was nothing good about it, but he couldn’t pass this off. Greyson Croft was a good boss. That was his gold standard. If his people needed him, he was there.

Now, it was time to stand up and take on the oncoming storm. It was time to have the anger dumped all over him--like a good friend would.

Well, a good friend or a masochist.

       
                         
* * *
  Croft & Croft  * * *

Tuesday Afternoon

Tessa was glad when they got the text. It was getting hard to keep Curtis out of the office. The man was wallowing in some sort of pity, and honestly, he was being a downer. When he asked when they were getting married, she went to answer--only to be told don’t do it.

He then rattled off a list of reasons why it was a bad idea. Yeah, that wasn’t like him. Her partner was normally pretty upbeat, despite the war going on between him and the boss man.

Granted, he and Brynn eloped on a bender, and that was a dumb thing to do, but Curtis rarely disparaged it. Today, he was all over it. This was a bad sign. Obviously, there was trouble in paradise.

“You know, Curtis, everything is fixable,” she stated, “even whatever is bothering you.”

He laughed more. “Yeah, right.”

“What’s going on, Curtis? You can tell me. We’re partners, and that’s what we do. If you need me to carry some of the baggage, I’ll do it in a heartbeat.”

Curtis was well aware. “I’m just having wife troubles.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah, oh. Trust me. I’m not a proponent to marriage anymore. While it works for Greyson and Emma, it didn't work for me. Some people shouldn’t get married, and I’m beginning to think I was one of them.”

Well, that set the tone.

At least now she understood what was eating away at him. It looked like there was a major hurricane brewing in paradise.

“Are you two fighting?”

“Yes, and no. We don’t talk enough to fight, but we’re totally out of sync. Have you ever looked at Paris and thought,
‘what the hell am I doing
’?”