Dead Shall Speak (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 10) Read online

  She laughed. “I can’t help it. This child likes spicy, salty, bacon, and peanut butter.”

  “And the pickles?” he asked, before his brother could warn him.

  “So you can be grossed out when I make you take a bite,” Elizabeth said, holding the dripping, gooey mess out.

  “Baby,” he began, eyeing it. “You wouldn’t offer up sex to Callen, and then this mess to me, would you? That could be construed as playing favorites.”

  “What’s that, Charlie? Daddy is hurting your feelings, since this is the first thing you ever made for him.”

  “Christ Almighty,” he muttered, taking one for the team.

  Praying he didn't toss his cookies, he took a bite and slowly chewed. “Okay, that’s not too bad. Callen should try it.”

  “Hey! What the hell? Why would you do that to me?”

  Elizabeth held out the sandwich for him too. After taking a bite, he glared at his brother. “You’re a lying sack of shit. That is atrocious, and you know it!”

  Blackhawk laughed, earning a fist bump from Elizabeth, who then happily devoured the sandwich.

  “We should probably talk work, or the little woman will have us eating something even more disgusting,” stated Callen, trying to wash the taste out of his mouth with soda. “I think I saw some road kill on our way here.”

  “When in Hillbilly-ville…” she chimed in.

  Neither man wanted to even think about that.

  “We received the missing person reports, and they aren’t going to help much. Only one victim matches. We have the report for Ruth Hildebrant. The other two are an older man and a child. We’re out of luck.”

  Blackhawk was in profiler mode. “That means that he’s likely not getting the women from around here. Maybe after the second victim, if that is indeed Jacey Durante, he opened up the search area to have a bigger pond to scour.”

  That gave Elizabeth an idea. “We can search the surrounding towns, calling in for any missing person reports that match our third victim.”

  Ethan interrupted her. “He’s likely has another one already. I’m willing to bet on it. If he’s discarded one, like a used tissue, he’s going to have a backup ready.”

  “Okay, so we’ll look for more than one missing person, but in the meantime, I want Merry to check her teeth.”

  They looked at her.

  “For?”

  Elizabeth broke it down. “If she wasn’t from this area, our tech team might be able to find something in her bones or teeth,” she offered.

  “Like?”

  “I’m hoping some fluoride or trace minerals that she would have consumed in her short lifetime. They could be geographical markers, which might give us a locale to start hunting.”

  They both stared at her.

  “What?” she asked.

  Ethan shook his head. “Someone was bored the last month while she was away. You’ve been reading ‘The Forensic Digest’.”

  Elizabeth stole one of his fries and dipped it in the vat of mayo. “I dare you to hang out with Oracle for a month and not want to ground yourself in something based in fact and reality.”

  “It couldn’t have been that bad,” Callen added.

  She hated to be the bearer of bad news, but she needed to make him aware. “Yeah, it really was.”

  Ethan kissed her in the middle of her forehead. “I’ll check the national runaway registry, or better yet, I’ll let Seaton and Madden do that. They’re bored out of their minds and that eventually leads to them getting into trouble.”

  She didn't like the sound of that for two reasons. The last assignment, they dropped the ball, missing the obvious. Granted, they were relatively new at the agent gig, but it nearly got Tony killed. Secondly, she didn't like when Ethan said trouble in that tone of voice.

  It usually meant the shit was going to be hitting the fan.

  “What’s going on?”

  Ethan didn't have proof. “I have a sneaking suspicion that our agents are embroiled in something more than just being partners at work.”

  “Well hell,” muttered Elizabeth.

  That was the last thing she needed to hear. “They’re sleeping together?”

  He shrugged. “It’s just a feeling I get. If they are, we have issues coming.”

  Yeah, she was well aware.

  Looking back and forth at the men she loved and worked with, Elizabeth knew how scattered things like that could make you. While she wouldn’t change a thing about her life, being a couple in and out of the field wasn’t easy.

  They were proof.

  When you mixed business with pleasure, bad things happened.

  This was the last thing they needed.

  ~ Chapter Seven ~

  Morgue

  Something wasn’t right.

  Sitting in the morgue, Meredith Peyton was confused as hell. She had run the data that they pulled from the last victim, and cross matched it with the tiny little zygote decaying in the dead woman’s body. Everything up to that point was standard procedure. When the machine chimed, signifying it had something, that’s when it got weird.

  Oh, it pulled a match in their system, but it just couldn’t be right.

  It was beyond odd.

  Sticking her head back into the work room, where the other techs were working, she needed more information.

  “Did we get back any information on those hairs we found clutched in the dead woman’s hand?” Merry inquired.

  “Yeah, we spliced them and ran them. I’ll email you the details,” the one tech offered.

  Heading back to her work station, she opened the file when it arrived to compare the alleles to the tiny sample they’d extracted from the zygote.

  They were a partial match.

  That meant that the killer and baby were related, but there was more.

  Just to be sure, she ran the hair sample against the system, trying to pull a match again from their database. When it triggered the same exact match, she was sick to her stomach.

  Really.

  Really.

  Sick.

  This was bad.

  There was no way any of this was possible. They didn't make a mistake when they processed the trace. Her team had been careful. In fact, after the last time she was out in the field with the Blackhawks, she’s made sure to double and triple check everything.

  Now, she was worried.

  This didn't only scream epic fuck-up, it looked like one hell of a mess.

  Locking down all the evidence she’d discovered, Merry knew there was only one thing that she could do.

  It was time to report this, and now.

  There could be no delay, since Elizabeth would want to handle this, and soon. If what she discovered was indeed fact, they were about to venture into one hell of a mess.

  Picking up her phone, she walked past the doctors working in the morgue. “I’m going to take a break. I’ll be back in a bit,” she offered, waving goodbye. For this, Merry needed to be far away from the lab, where no one would hear her.

  Now, she needed to do something that felt wrong.

  Betrayal really sucked.

  At least she could pass it off to the boss lady. Shit may roll downhill, but in the end, they all knew that the Blackhawks would be the ones who had to deal with this mess.

  And that’s exactly what it was.

  One.

  Big.

  Mess.

  * * *

  He loved their quiet time together. It was nice to be able to bring her out of the locked room. Since he was medicating her, she was easy to handle. Who knew that slipping some meds in a water bottle would make her this docile?

  Now, he could train her.

  This was what a family should be. Here, he was cooking dinner and getting everything ready for his new wife. Maybe they weren’t really married on paper yet, but that day would come.

  Once she was broken in.

  Then, he could trust her enough to take her to the courthouse and make it legal, but that would
only happen after their child was born. Then he would have a way to ensure that she would comply.

  When she moaned from the couch, he glanced around the corner to check on her. “Dinner is coming, my pet. I hope you like steak. Pregnant women need iron to grow a baby.”

  Magdalene tried to open her eyes, but they were heavy. When she spilled her water earlier, that one simple action had given her the opportunity to finally come out of the medicated haze.

  Already, her mind was clearing. She was able to focus, and what was becoming evident, was horrifying.

  She was trapped and a prisoner with some crazed man.

  Magdalene didn't know what to do.

  She was scared.

  The only thing she could think of was survival. For now, she needed to bide her time before he drugged her again. When that happened, there’d be no chance to escape. The last thing she wanted was another night of rape with this maniac.

  The words he muttered didn't make sense.

  Wife.

  Baby.

  Happy.

  It all seemed like a horrible dream.

  When he moved back around the corner, she tried out her arms. They weren’t as heavy as they had been. The same was true with her legs. Around her neck was some sort of leash and the end was wrapped around the wooden arm of the nearby chair.

  That gave her a chance too.

  His carelessness was to be her opportunity.

  Magdalene would escape.

  Then, she would head home and her daddy would make the man pay. He’d be in jail, or better yet, dead.

  All she had to do was escape.

  Again, his voice filled the small house. “I’m making dinner for us, and then we’ll have a date night.”

  She didn't want that. In her mind, she could see flashes of him burying himself in her body as he took her over and over again. It made the bitter bile in her gut churn.

  “Can I sleep a little while?” she asked, trying to make her voice sound slurred and heavy.

  “Oh, yes, you can!” he said, coming into the room to check on her.

  Her eyes focused on him. If he wasn’t such a creep, he could have possibly been a guy she would have dated. He was handsome and had that silky hair.

  “So tired,” she mumbled, letting her arm drop.

  “Damn it! I must have given you too much. You should be waking up by now. Oh well. Our night together will have to wait until you’re ready. I’ll put your dinner aside, my love,” he said, dropping a kiss to her still lips.

  The taste of her called to him, making his body react. Yet, he’d opted to give her some down time. After all, he wasn’t an animal.

  This was his wife.

  Placing his hand on her chest, he could feel the beat. She wasn’t dying, so that was a good thing. He made a mental note to ease off the drugs.

  What if they were dangerous to a baby?

  He didn't want his child damaged in any way.

  Heading back into the kitchen, he whistled a cheery little tune.

  As soon as he was gone, her eyes popped back open. Now, she would have to plan her escape. The time was coming.

  If she had anything to say about it, this man was going to jail, or better yet, hell.

  Magdalene was a fighter, and she was willing to do anything to survive.

  Even if it meant risking her life.

  * * *

  When her phone rang, she was just expecting an update. What Elizabeth received was an upset sounding head tech. Just by the tone in her voice, she could tell that the woman was out of sorts.

  “What’s wrong?” she asked, putting the phone on speaker. Ethan was driving, and they were heading back to the morgue to check up on the team.

  “I need to see you.”

  “We’re on our way there now.”

  Alarm filled her voice. “No, I need to talk to you away from here. I think I found something, and I don’t know what to do with it.”

  “What did you find?”

  “I can’t talk about it over the phone. Is there any way you can meet me at the coffee shop? You know, the one near the exit to the road that leads here?” Merry asked.

  “We’ll be there,” Elizabeth stated.

  “Give me ten minutes.”

  With that, the phone went dead.

  “I don’t like this at all,” stated Blackhawk. “Meredith is incredibly calm under pressure. She seemed uncharacteristically rattled over something.”

  Callen was with him on that. “I can only imagine what she found that has to be shared in private. In our line of work, that doesn’t bode really well.”

  Neither could argue with that.

  Blackhawk turned the vehicle around. “Let’s think positive,” he offered. “I just hope she’s not going to quit. She’s running that team really well.”

  Great.

  More issues to worry about.

  All of this made Elizabeth as nervous as hell. She really hated when things jumped up and bit them in the ass. “Let’s not assume it’s that bad. Who knows, maybe it’s nothing at all.” She tried to offer them some sort of reassurance.

  Too bad no one was buying it.

  Including her…

  When they arrived, Merry wasn’t there yet. Grabbing a seat, Callen grabbed four coffees and took his place beside Elizabeth. As they saw the big, black Denali pull in, there was this wave of foreboding.

  When they saw her it got worse.

  From the look on Merry’s face, it was clear to see that something was indeed wrong. While she wasn’t ever giddily happy like Christina, she shared the woman’s unflappable set of nerves.

  You had to be tough in order to work in a morgue twenty-four-seven.

  When she found them inside, she took a seat. “I’m sorry to make you run around, but I really think this is better done here than elsewhere.”

  “What do you have?” Elizabeth asked.

  Merry pulled a hard copy from her purse and slid it across the table. “This is the only copy. I ran the DNA results, and no one else has access. After the last screw up with the twins, I wasn’t taking a chance that our team would miss something.”

  Elizabeth appreciated that. Picking up the paper, she read the data.

  When she glanced up, the men saw the look. Elizabeth looked horrified.

  Yeah, it was worse than they thought.

  “Are you sure?” she asked. “I need to know that you are more than sure—that you’re willing to bet your life on this. Once I open this can of worms, the blowback is going to be ugly.”

  Merry nodded, and then explained. “When I ran the zygote’s DNA, I found that it matched our recorded DNA by twenty five percent.”

  “So he’s an uncle.”

  She nodded.

  Both men were still lost.

  “We found a few hairs, which were clutched in her hand, so we ran them. They match the DNA of the offspring by fifty percent.”

  “So we have a link to the father.”

  “Yes, ma’am. After I got that result, I ran the hairs against our database, and it popped again with a partial match. The owner of the hairs is directly related to him.”

  Ethan needed to know who, but before he could ask, Elizabeth spoke, “I need you to keep this silent. I will handle it.”

  She nodded, fully understanding the implications behind what she found.

  “I need some time to figure out a way to tell him. This is something that’s going to turn his world upside down.”

  Merry agreed. “I mean, is this possible? Is there a way that the killer could be related to him? Won’t that make it easier to catch him now?”

  She shook her head. “No. Trust me when I say that it’s now a million times harder. Head back to the lab and keep this under wraps. When I get into the system, I’m going to bump up the security clearance to keep it quiet. No one will have access but Ethan and I.”

  Merry grabbed her coffee and headed out. “Elizabeth, I’m so sorry.”

  She nodded, dismissing their tec
h. No one was sorrier than her. This was going to suck.

  “What the hell is going on?” Ethan asked. “Who does it match?”

  “Tony,” she stated.

  “How?” Callen asked. “He’s an only child.”

  Elizabeth sat back in her chair and knew she needed to share the story with Callen. Ethan already knew, and from the look on his face, he was already working this into his growing profile.

  “Callen, this is something you need to keep quiet. I told Ethan when we became Tony’s boss, but only because it flagged on his psych profile.”

  “You know you can trust me. I’m part of this team, and I’ll do anything to protect it.”

  Neither of them doubted that.

  Not in the least.

  “This goes back to Tony’s youth. Growing up, his mom was a single parent. She had him young, while she was still in high school. When his father bailed, she took on sole responsibility of raising him. It wasn’t easy, but when he turned twelve, she was working the night shift to make more money.”

  He was with her so far.

  “One night, she never came home.”

  “Oh, shit! Did she bail on him?” he asked, sympathetically.

  Ethan shook his head. “Tony has always suspected she was abducted. Authorities investigated, but no one could ever come to a conclusive answer for him. All these years, he’s been searching for her.”

  Callen began piecing it together. “So you think she had more kids?”

  Elizabeth leaned back and closed her eyes. “I think that it’s suspicious that we have this mess, and Tony’s here.”

  Blackhawk knew what she was thinking. “We have to work around him on this. If his mother was in that hole, he’s going to come apart. How would you feel if one day it was a job, and the next it was the task of finding your mother’s killer. No one is that strong.”

  Her heart ached for her friend.

  This situation blew more for him than the investigation. While their case mattered to them, so did their friend’s heart. Elizabeth knew she’d do anything to help him.

  Tony mattered.

  “What do we do?” Callen asked.