Discarded by Fate Read online

  He was surprised.

  As of late, she’d been distant.

  “Uh, always.”

  She gave him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Are you okay?” he whispered in her ear as she hugged him.

  “Yeah, I’ll tell you later.”

  That was good enough for him.

  “Doctor, meet Detective Chase. He’s going to be playing intermediary between us and the police.”

  That was…surprising.

  “Uh, really?”

  “Yeah, this is on Gabe. He’s the one who tossed this monkey wrench into the works.”

  Chris shook his hand.

  “It’s my pleasure,” he said.

  “Thank you, Doctor.”

  Elizabeth pointed at her other three people to catch the man up on introductions.

  “Chrissy is the short one, and she’s our head tech. She’s the queen of the lab, so don’t make her angry.”

  “Uh, okay,” he offered.

  “The tall, leggy one is Johanna Seaton, and she’ll bust your teeth in if you bother her.”

  He shook her hand. “I’d rather she didn’t. I just got my braces off.”

  They all stared at him.

  How old was he?

  “Uh, are you serious?”

  “No. I figured if you were going to throw down sarcasm that was acceptable. Was I wrong?”

  She laughed.

  Okay, maybe he could hang with them. He’d mastered one of her favorite things.

  “No, you weren’t. Good one, and thanks for not manhandling me in there.”

  “No problem. I don’t push women around. My mother would kick my ass.”

  As would she.

  “Doc, get yourself ready. I can’t wait to ask you a million questions about this one. If you hated me bugging you before, then you are really going to be irritated.”

  “Yay.”

  She smiled.

  “Ah, more sarcastic replies. It makes me love my job so damn much. Oh, look…three in a row. Let’s knock it off now before it gets me irritated.”

  They got it.

  Chris began getting ready to work on the body.

  Elizabeth went back to introductions.

  “That’s Agent Blue Garrick. She’s my forensic artist, and she’s going to go with you to your precinct. I want a meeting with your boss, the captain, not your commissioner. You get to go tell him to make some time for me.”

  “Uh, he’s really busy…”

  She stared at him.

  “Yeah, and I’m just playing Parcheesi in my spare time.”

  He stared at her in confusion.

  “It’s a board game. You know…one of those things you open, roll the dice and move?”

  Still nothing.

  She just told him to knock the sarcasm off, so she was willing to bet he was being dead serious.

  Well, he was barely a child.

  “Anyway, take her to the precinct. Blue,” she said, getting the woman’s attention.

  “Yes, boss?”

  “First, tell me what you see,” she said, pointing at the body.

  The woman moved closer, but didn’t touch her. Everyone knew that until Chris was done, it was hands off.

  “She’s not going to have rigor,” she stated. “Since the killer cut her at her joints, there won’t be any tightening of her body. All of her ligaments are going to be severed.”

  She listened.

  “She was also mix and matched, but of course you already can tell that,” Blue said, pointing at her hands and head. “Doctor, can you turn her hand to be palms up?” she asked.

  He did that.

  He knew what Elizabeth was doing, so he would humor her. Blue was a newbie, and Elizabeth wanted to make sure she was up to par to work on the team.

  She was also measuring her ability to think on the fly. In the field, they had to think on their feet, or they’d get buried in the shit.

  No one wanted that.

  The ability to cope was the most important thing Elizabeth looked for in her people.

  “She struggled.”

  Then she rephrased that.

  “The head and hands part of her struggled. I don’t know for sure about the paler part of her. Look at her nails. They are broken.”

  They did notice that.

  “What’s under them?” she asked.

  “I can’t give you that until I do the scrapings,” Christina offered. “It could be skin, it could be her own DNA. One never knows until the trace comes back.”

  There were more clicks to Christina’s camera.

  Blue adjusted and tried to find something that would impress her boss. She knew how damn hard that was going to be. She could feel Elizabeth staring at her from her spot beside her—as if measuring her up.

  “What do you see that’s obvious?” Elizabeth asked.

  Chris hoped she didn’t fall for that. Elizabeth never wanted the obvious.

  Ever.

  It was her way of figuring out how hard a person was going to work on her team, or if they were going to take the easy way out.

  “That someone had to be pretty damn strong to carry her disarticulated body in here without you knowing about it.”

  Elizabeth smiled.

  “In my defense, Callen snores.”

  He laughed from his spot where he was taking notes.

  “I feel the love.”

  She winked at him.

  It felt good to be back at work, doing her thing. This was what she needed to do to forget everything else. For now, it couldn’t be about Bonnie.

  It had to be about this killer.

  If she didn’t focus, she’d be useless.

  “Now tell me more about the body.”

  “The killer cut her apart and creepily reconnected her. He’s going to be shy of a full deck, ma’am.”

  “I hate being called ma’am,” she said.

  “Sir?”

  That made her laugh. “I like you, Blue. How about Director or boss?”

  She could do that.

  “Also, how do you know it’s going to be a he?”

  “Again, he used piano wire to string her body back together again, so that’s not an easy body to carry. She’d be all limbs and flailing out of control. She’s about as tall as you are taken apart, so someone big had to move her. Maybe Director Whitefox’s size, but that’s postulation—and it’s not good to do that in an investigation. I read that.”

  “You did?”

  “Yeah, in Sherlock Holmes.”

  She stared at her.

  “I’m kidding. It was actually Nancy Drew.”

  Elizabeth knew they were all waiting for her to lose it. Only, she wasn’t going to. Blue had solved the last case and she trusted her team—even if they were newbies.

  “Duly noted. You like to read.”

  “Doctor, can you move her leg?”

  He did what she asked, and the victim moved like a marionette.

  It was creepy.

  As he tipped the femur, they all moved to look at where the wire entered her body.

  “Whoever did this drilled through the bone and threaded her like a needle.”

  “Yeah, that’s wrong on so many levels,” Callen offered.

  She agreed.

  “I smell something,” Blue said, leaning closer. She almost fell onto the body, only Elizabeth grabbed her by her belt.

  “Perfume.”

  “I smell it too,” Chris offered. “It smells so familiar.”

  Blue looked at her boss.

  “Wait,” she said, moving closer to Elizabeth and sniffing her neck.

  “Uh, personal space? You could at least buy me dinner first.”

  Apparently, she was focused and didn’t get it, but everyone else did.

  “It’s the same as yours. She’s wearing it. What is it?” she asked.

  “I’d rather not say,” she said.

  “Why?” Chris asked.

  Callen was snickering. He knew why.
/>   “Fine. It’s called ‘Good Girl’, for the bad girl in your life.”

  He laughed even more.

  “Callen James, go ahead and see what happens if anything comes out of your mouth.”

  She pointed at Chris.

  “OR YOURS. You’ll both be reminiscing about the good old days when I used to be your girl.”

  Chris knew she’d never do that to them, and he grinned. “You always were a ‘good girl’ when we dated.” he added.

  She snorted.

  Blue was staring at her curiously. She still wanted to ask more questions about their long-term relationship. It was making her crazy not to say a word.

  The detective looked confused.

  Chris had seen it before.

  “Yes, we dated.”

  “I thought you were her brother?” he asked. “I saw an interview she did, and I swear she said that.”

  “I did,” Elizabeth admitted.

  “We like to keep it in the family,” Chris teased.

  She stared.

  “Too much?” he asked.

  “Uh, yeah, even for you.”

  Chris still found it amusing.

  “Anyway, that’s not a cheap perfume,” Chris said, changing the subject.

  The detective was staring back and forth between them, and she knew what he was thinking.

  They lived together, they dated, and they were related.

  That was the hillbilliest relationship of them all.

  “It’s not cheap—I’m sure. Callen got it for me on my birthday. How much was it, Callen?” she asked.

  “Almost two hundred dollars.”

  The whole team whistled. Well, the ones not married to a bestselling author and best friends with some rich guy.

  Money didn’t faze her.

  Chris always bought her shit when they were dating, even if they’d made it a rule not to do things like that, and Callen?

  Yeah, he did whatever he wanted with his money.

  “Is that a coincidence, or is this person trying to tell us something?” Callen asked.

  He prayed it was the latter.

  Whitefox didn’t think he could handle one more stalker turned killer. It was getting old.

  “Once we have their ID, we can go from there. I don’t plan on sniffing her wrists and neck to see which one of our victims is wearing it.”

  She had a point. It could be on a victim’s head, hands, or the rest of the body.

  “What else do you notice, Blue—other than the perfume thing?” Elizabeth asked.

  She hoped she could pull this off.

  “Can you lift her eyelids for me, Doctor?” she asked Chris.

  He did.

  “Her eyes are clouded over. She hasn’t been dead all that long,” Blue stated. “When the eyes are open, that hazing begins happening within that first hour. It’s when the potassium and red blood cells…”

  Elizabeth stopped her.

  “I’ve hung out with him a long time,” she said, pointing at Chris.

  He waved.

  “I know how it happens. Give me more about what you know regarding it and not the science behind it.”

  “Sorry. With them closed, the TOD is going to likely be anyone’s guess. I will say that she hasn’t been dead more than twenty-four hours.”

  Elizabeth glanced over at her ME.

  “I concur. Any other means of determining TOD is going to be sketchy at best. She’s been cut apart. Limbs are going to cool, and her internal organs…that could be true for them too. I’ll still check, but don’t get your hopes up.”

  Elizabeth had heard enough.

  It was time to play divide and conquer. Since Gabe had done his thing, and they had a morgue, this was about handling the small details.

  “Blue and Detective Chase, you are dismissed. Why don’t you head to the police precinct and collect my security guy? Then we’re going to start working this case. I’m going to assume, Detective, that you’re going to be up my ass.”

  “Yes, ma’am, I’m going to have to be or it’ll be my ass that’s going to have issues.”

  Elizabeth got it.

  He had a boss and had to do what he had to do.

  It was the story of her life.

  “Don’t provoke my ME, don’t go crying to your boss when I yell at you, and stay out of my way.”

  “I respect ME’s, my dad was a cop, I rarely cry—well, when I watch romantic comedies, and I can dodge and weave with the best of them, ma’am.”

  “You’re funny.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “That wasn’t a compliment. That was a warning before I take your head off your shoulders. Move!”

  Blue grabbed her bag, and the cop followed her out of the room.

  “Well, that was enlightening,” Elizabeth stated. “It looks like our Nancy Drew reading newbie can hold her own on a crime scene.”

  Chris laughed.

  “Yeah, it’s like she has medical training,” he hinted. If Elizabeth didn’t know, he wasn’t sure if it was his place or not to tell her. Clearly, Blue didn’t want the world to know.

  “Why is Christina smiling like that?” she asked, pointing at her.

  “We know a secret,” she sang.

  Chris wouldn’t look at her.

  “What kind of secret?” she asked. “Like the kind that if you don’t tell me can get me killed?”

  Elizabeth tried guilt.

  Nada.

  “Or are we talking the kind where I kick your asses off my team and make you work for someone else in the FBI with far less prestige and cushy cases?”

  Chris snorted.

  He knew her game.

  “Christina?” she asked when the woman still didn’t answer.

  “What?”

  “I call ‘Girlfriend Code’. Spill it.”

  Crap.

  She had no choice.

  Christina glanced over from snapping pictures. “She’s a doctor too. She’s smart. I have bad news, boss lady.”

  “What?”

  “What’s your IQ?”

  “I don’t know. One thirty-eight or so. Why? How is that pertinent to this secret?”

  Chris loved busting her ass. “Well, smarty pants. You and I were both out IQ’d. Blue is at one forty-five. Compared to her, we’re dumb.”

  She laughed. “I can shoot a tick off a dog at five hundred feet away. Brains aren’t the deciding factor on how valuable you are as a Fed. They help, but they aren’t the only thing the FBI looks for in a person. As for your big ‘secret’, if that’s it, I know everything about Agent Blue Garrick.”

  They all looked at her.

  “What?”

  “You researched the newbie?” Chris asked as he pulled back both eyelids.

  That was a no brainer.

  Hell, yes!

  Elizabeth had been burned before.

  “Yeah, I did. I don’t like people, remember?” she said,

  No one bought it.

  “After Bonnie, I toyed around with giving Blue a full-time position on our team. In order to do that, I had to know everything about her. I also wanted to make sure there was nothing scary in her past that the FBI may, or may not, have missed.”

  That made sense.

  “And?” Chris asked.

  “Her parents are divorced. Her mother is a pediatrician, and her father is a neurosurgeon. So that’s why we have a smart Blue. She comes from a smart pair of people. Of course their kids would pick that up.”

  Chris whistled. “I feel grossly outsmarted. I only have a business man and a witch.”

  Elizabeth grinned. “I’ll see your rich business man and witch, and raise you a cop and a mom. I think that trumps your genetic hand.”

  He laughed. “Yep, you win and are smarter. Go figure.”

  “It’s the witchcraft.”

  It made him laugh.

  “Anyway, I gave her a shot on our team, even as a newbie, because I happen to like her. She cracked the Bonnie case wide open.�
�

  Christina cleared her voice, reminding them that she was standing right there.

  They both looked over, trying to keep a straight face. It wasn’t easy when the pint-sized lab dynamo was staring at them.

  “Really? Am I nothing to you both? All I can say is that breaks my heart.”

  She was amused. “I’m pissed at you,” she stated.

  “What? Why?”

  Christina looked alarmed.

  “Well, you got married without me,” she teased. “And here I was going to let you kiss the Natives as your wedding gift.”

  Callen laughed. “And now she’s giving us away like we’re boxes of candy. Thanks. I feel cheap.”

  “Next time pick a perfume that’s called ‘Really Mean Wife’.”

  He snorted. “Oh, or ‘Over My Knee’.”

  Elizabeth didn’t even go there.

  Christina laughed. “Damn. Now I regret not inviting you when we eloped,” she teased.

  “Anyway, Blue passed my paper test, and that was her trial run. She is smart, she didn’t irritate the shit out of me…so she’s on the team.”

  “She’s a good person,” Christina said. “She’s helped me out when it came to Milo.”

  “Me, too, with Bethe.”

  “How?”

  Chris told her about her mother and the house call. He also mentioned that the doctor would love to have her kids in the practice.

  She laughed. “You can always tell how hard-up a person is by wanting our tribe running loose in their office. Clearly, she’s insane.”

  That made him laugh. “If you loved me, you’d do it so I can get Bethe in there.”

  She stared at him. “Really? It’s a doctor. In DC, they are a dime a dozen. Look at my team. I have two.”

  Christina snickered.

  “Pretty please? Will you take your maniacs to the nice doctor lady, and then I can take my child there too? If you loved her, you’d do it,” he tried.

  Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “Fine.”

  Chris grinned triumphantly.

  Then he patted her on the arm.

  “I hope that wasn’t your eyeball goo hand, or I may puke on you, Newton.”

  Chris shrugged. “My bad?”

  Callen grabbed their bags. “Why don’t we get changed?” he asked. “Are our guns and badges in here?” he asked, trying to avoid seeing anyone puke.

  He didn’t think his wife was kidding.

  “Yeah, and in the van, there are two of your Kevlar vests. Ethan said…”

  She stopped him.

  “I’ve got this one. ‘Wear your damn Kevlar so I don’t get more gray hair’,” she mimicked.