Dead Shall Speak (An FBI/Romance Thriller Book 10) Page 22

That was one hell of a tricky question. They were all stuck in the middle of this. On one side was a killer, on the other, her family.

  “We’ll work it out. I just need to think it through for a little bit. I can’t go charging into this like a bull in a china shop. This one is going to take some tap dancing.”

  Neither man envied her and they both agreed.

  On one side was justice and the other a man’s heart.

  Yeah, sucked wasn’t even close to the right word for this one.

  Elizabeth prayed she could hold it together.

  Or someone was going to get hurt.

  * * *

  Arriving back at the morgue, Merry was already there working on something. She was the first stop they made, handing out her new assignment.

  “I want you to review victim three. Is there a way that you can run her bones and teeth to find out where she grew up?”

  The woman looked surprised. “I can, Director. I may need to send for some lab equipment, if that’s okay.”

  Ethan gave her approval. “I’ll sign for it. Get it delivered overnight. We don’t believe she’s from around here and the mineral trace may give us a geographical clue.”

  Merry simply got to work. It was a testament to the quality of their staff.

  Heading into the morgue, Tony was there with Jaxon as she worked on the skull of the third fleshy victim.

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

  “Jaxon feels that according to the skull structure, and the photo ID from Jacey Durante’s driver’s license, that it is indeed her.”

  “I can still do the reconstruction if you want,” she offered. “I’m working on our third victim right now, since we don’t have a name.”

  Elizabeth was glad she’d taken the initiative to work without being prompted. Jaxon would make a good member of their team. Glancing over at Tony, she needed him away from the lab. This was the last place he should be. If what they found out was correct, he was going to stumble on to it if he stayed there.

  They didn't want that.

  So, Elizabeth laid the groundwork to deceive her friend.

  “You’re heading back to the dig. I want you to have your team there examine the photos and give us something on the original bones. We don’t have one mystery to solve, but two.”

  Bullshit!

  They had a third one too—one which would damage the man in front of her.

  “Do you want us to start scouring missing person data from years ago?” Tony asked. “We might be able to remove a few people from the list by using what we know about the bones.

  This was where it got dangerous. If he was digging into the past, Tony might just trip over the situation.

  Damn it!

  There was no way to tell him no. Elizabeth had to let fate take over on this one. All she could do was pray that Tony might get distracted.

  “Sure, but I want you to update me daily. When Jaxon is done, I’ll send her out to help you. If we need to, she can start giving them faces.”

  She knew that would take forever.

  “Is there one group you’d like her to start with?” Tony knew his team at the site was breaking them into smaller groups. He’d already gotten the email with them bitching about Elizabeth.

  That amused him.

  She paused, pretending to think it through. This just showed her how good her team was. He was already on the trail. He just didn't know it.

  “Since our third fleshy victim was carrying the very beginning stages of a pregnancy, let’s go with any women who had given birth.”

  “You think he was trying to impregnate the victims?” Tony asked.

  Here was the slippery slope.

  “I think that we need to cover all our bases. That seems like a likely scenario to me. Maybe he was some wacked out sicko who liked to collect women.”

  She left it at that. Anything else that was said might come back and hurt Tony at a later date. It was best to be aloof on this one.

  When Chris walked in with an armful of files, he smiled at them. “Hey, Lyzee. How’s it going?”

  Just the man she needed to see.

  “I was looking for you. We need to discuss some of your paperwork for the medical leave you took after being hurt. Are you available to sit down with us tonight?”

  Ethan knew where she was taking this. “We’ll buy you dinner to compensate for making you work off the clock.”

  He grinned. “I get to hang out with three of my favorite people, so hell yeah! Did I not file something right?” he asked, marginally concerned.

  “No, the screw-up was on our end, but HR is demanding we take care of it ASAP.” God! She hoped everyone bought that lame ass excuse, especially Tony.

  Her hands were actually shaking, so she shoved them in her jean pockets to hide the truth. Elizabeth was worried. Both men placed their hands on her back, a sign that they were standing with her on this.

  It gave her a little bit of reassurance that they could indeed keep this under control.

  “Okay, when and where?” Chris asked.

  Ethan gave him the name of the place.

  “Man! He gets to hang out with the bosses? That doesn’t seem fair. How about I come and torment you three too? I’ve missed hanging out with you guys.”

  They did too, but this wasn’t what Tony thought it was going to be. No one would be having a good time at dinner.

  Elizabeth jerked her head toward the other anthropologist. “Oh, I don’t know, Tony. Don’t you think that you have someone far more fun to cuddle up with and have a romantic evening with than us?”

  He got the hint. Elizabeth had a very valid point.

  Tony could take this opportunity to make the night perfect. He had a ring and a proposal waiting in the wings. This alone time with Jaxon could be the right moment.

  “Yeah, you’re right. I absolutely do.”

  Together, all three released a silent sigh of relief. Fortunately for them, Tony let it drop.

  For now.

  Elizabeth felt guilty that she’d just manipulated the man with his fiancée. She really prided herself on being honest with the people she loved, and this had her back to the wall.

  Oh, well.

  When life handed you lemons, you had to pick them up and lob them at your biggest issue.

  Right now, Tony’s mother was that pressing problem.

  “When the team is done, send them back to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow is a new day, and we’re going to start fresh.”

  The techs cheered.

  Well, at least part of the team was happy.

  This was going to be one hell of a mess if Tony found out. Sadly, if they ended up finding his mother was buried there, the wound would be ripped open and life would change for him.

  Damn it!

  She hated hurting the people she loved, even if it wasn’t her fault.

  Tony Magnus was likely going to get his heart handed to him by a woman.

  Just not by the one everyone thought might do it.

  * * *

  Elizabeth had been right.

  Tonight was the perfect night to romance the woman who was marrying him. Tony Magnus wanted to pop the question again, but this time with the ring he had made for Jaxon.

  It wasn’t easy being sneaky and getting it done. He’d had to wait until Jaxon took her ring off to wash some dirt from her hands. The second it was off her finger, he’d slipped it onto his pinkie, gauging the size.

  Now that he had the one she’d wear for the rest of her life, he was ready to deliver it.

  There was only one thing standing in his way.

  Okay, maybe two things.

  Tony Magnus had never done this before, and he was scared stupid. Plus, he wasn’t exactly Mr. Romance.

  The pressure was on as he needed to find the right location to pop the most important question he was ever going to ask her. It needed to be memorable. Thinking back, he recalled a place where she would be excited to visit. With some candles, a
picnic, and wine, they could have a very relaxing date.

  Pulling a tech aside, he took a chance. “I need your help.” Giving out the instructions, he detailed it to the most finite of details.

  She grinned at him, more than willing to help him out.

  Now, all Tony had to do was get the ring back in their room, get the girl, and do it the right way.

  There was no doubt that she was the one. If Jaxon didn't know it the day he told her she was going to marry him, she would now. Tonight, it was going to be her choice.

  He was going to put his heart out there, and Jaxon was going to be the one who made the call.

  Keep him.

  Or toss him.

  It was all up to her.

  He was nervous, but couldn’t wait. Tonight, he would really get the girl.

  Officially!

  * * *

  Thursday Evening

  To say that they were nervous would be an understatement. The Blackhawks and Callen Whitefox knew how precarious a line they were about to walk.

  Yet, they had no choice.

  When they arrived at the restaurant, Elizabeth was agitated. She hated lying to her friends, especially one who brought out the mothering instinct in her.

  Now, she was going to gamble with someone’s heart.

  This sucked all around, and the men knew it.

  When Christopher Leonard wandered in, using his skull cane—the one Elizabeth had given him—he looked worn down.

  “Are you okay, Christopher?” she asked, waiting for him to take a seat.

  “Yeah, that month off took away some of my long term stamina. By the end of the night, I’m a little tired. I forgot what it’s like to be on my feet all day.”

  “Are you saying you were on your back the entire vacation?” Elizabeth teased, because they were family, and that’s what they did.

  “Hell yeah, I was. Are you kidding me? I laid around like a giant satiated lump,” he stated, hinting at lots of sex. “How’s Charlie really doing?”

  “She’s kicking up a storm to let me know that it’s feeding time in the uterus.”

  The waitress looked grossed out by her bluntness.

  If she wasn’t so stressed out, Elizabeth would have laughed. It wouldn’t be the first time that she freaked out an innocent bystander.

  When the waitress put their soup down, they began eating.

  “Okay, what’s really going on? You three don’t screw up paperwork, and you don’t isolate someone from the pack to talk about work over dinner. I’m guessing that something is going down that you want hush-hush.”

  She offered him a fist bump for figuring it out. “Do you want to know why I love my ME, and the team that have been with me for years? This is exactly it. They’ve learned to anticipate all my moves.”

  That worried her.

  Tony knew her too.

  Elizabeth knew that her only shot at pulling this charade off was that Tony’s babe could keep him occupied.

  “Spill it, Lyzee. You have my full attention,” Chris stated.

  Taking a deep breath, she began, “We have an issue. Merry was running the DNA for our pregnant victim, and something unthinkable popped up.”

  “What?”

  Elizabeth told him about the partial match to the hair and killer, catching him up to speed. What was nice was that because he was an ME, he caught on right away.

  “It matched Tony’s DNA?”

  He sounded horrified.

  “Yeah, it did. We know that it wasn’t a mistake, and no one screwed up, so the lab is off the hook on this one. The zygote was at twenty five percent, and the baby daddy, was at fifty percent of Tony’s alleles.”

  Chris thought about it. “Is that why Merry took off today? She rushed out of the lab pretty damn fast.”

  “Yes.” Now, Elizabeth had to hope and pray that Tony never noticed.

  She sipped her soup, waiting for the man to continue.

  “Did Merry run the mother’s DNA?”

  “Yep. She was able to eliminate her. She isn't a match for Tony, so that only leaves one possibility.”

  Chris wanted to be sick.

  This really sucked.

  They’d had this happen before with someone on their team. When Elizabeth and Ethan were chasing a serial killer who was focused on pregnant women, the offspring turned out to be related to the Blackhawk and Whitefox family.

  “Shit. Do you think that his mother was part of this? Or are you focused on his father?” Chris hoped it was the latter. Tony would have no love lost for the man who abandoned him as a child. In the end, it might hurt a hell of a lot less to know that his sperm donor father had created a monster.

  “As of this moment, it’s anyone’s guess.”

  “This is going to kill him.”

  Elizabeth laid down the warning. “We can’t tell him about any of this. Not yet.”

  That was the worst part.

  They were going to deceive a friend.

  “Lyzee, he’s like a brother to us. He’s just getting over being shot and nearly dying. This is going to break him for a very long time.”

  She knew it. “Chris, what choice do I have? If I’m wrong, we opened a wound unnecessarily, and the whole team then finds out about his past. You know Tony didn't tell anyone but us.”

  He was well aware.

  “If I don’t tell him, and he finds out, it hurts him. Either way, I’m screwed on this one. He’s going to hate me one way or the other.”

  “Us,” Ethan corrected. There was no way in hell he was going to let the man be angry with his wife. She wasn’t going to be the messenger who was killed over this.

  They were a unit.

  All three of them would carry this one.

  Chris sighed, knowing she had a very valid point. If there was a time he wished that he was on the outside looking in, this was it. “What can I do to help you?”

  Elizabeth outlined her plan. “Tomorrow, he’s going there to extract any data on potential pregnant women from the original grave. We know that if his mother was a victim, she had at least one live birth. We might luck out and the dig team could have been wrong about having a victim who was pregnant at one time. If that’s the case, we’re in the clear. We can then assume that we’re looking at his father.”

  That sat better with all of them.

  It was wrong, but very true.

  “If the team finds a victim who gave birth, we’ll isolate her, keep Tony at the site, and get Jaxon to get moving on a reconstruction. As far as I know, Tony doesn’t have any pictures of his mother. I’ve never seen any of them.”

  Chris thought about the man’s place. “Neither have I. He likes to keep that part of his life shut down.”

  “Then we use Jaxon. She’s not going to recognize her face, and that might cut us a big enough break until we get a handle on this mess.”

  This was a potential minefield.

  They all knew it.

  “Lyzee, that’s risky as hell.”

  “Do you have a better idea? We can try to get medical records, but do you know how hard that will be? Tony’s mother went missing thirty years ago. She was barely thirty when she disappeared.”

  He was well aware.

  “You know that you’re going to have to let Doctor Armstrong in on this at some point.”

  She sat back. “I’m going to keep her in the dark as long as I can.” This was a giant clusterfuck. Tony’s genetic match might be a killer, his mother could be one of their victims, and Jaxon’s father was alive and under protective custody.

  Well, holy shit!

  Those two had some skeletons in their closets.

  “Why do we need to keep her out?” Callen asked. “She could be helpful.”

  Chris got it.

  He’d known Elizabeth long enough to see right through this ruse of hers.

  “When this all blows up in our faces, and it will because it’s only a matter of time, you want him to hate you and run to her if he finds out. You’re g
iving him a safety net to catch him.”

  She didn't have to say a word.

  If it meant throwing herself on the sword for someone she loved, so be it. Tony would need someone to hold him up, and his fiancée would fit the bill. Elizabeth knew that it would likely end her friendship, fracture their makeshift family, and open up the opportunity to lose a damn good anthropologist.

  They were screwed seven ways to Sunday.

  “I need time to dig, Chris. All I’m asking is that you keep him off the trail in the lab. We talked to Merry. The DNA is password protected. We can say that it’s our new policy since the last case where the team screwed up.”

  “I don’t know, Lyzee.”

  “Okay, let’s try it this way. If we took Tony out of the equation, and you had these remains, what would you tell me about them?”

  “That you likely have two different killers. One was a lefty, one was a righty.”

  “Okay, so we can postulate that the current killer knew about the killings then. Who better to do that?”

  “It would be someone who watched it happen, possibly a child raised in that setting,” Ethan added. “This is part of my profile. The original killer started thirty some years ago, and this could be his progeny.”

  “Okay. Now, we factor in the rest of the details. We have a person whose mother went missing not far from here. Tony is originally from Indiana. That’s a couple hundred miles away. We already suspect that the killer is now looking for women outside his normal hunting grounds. Where did he learn that?”

  “I hate that you have a very valid point,” stated Chris. “I feel like I’m betraying my brother.”

  “If it’s any consolation, so do I,” she stated. “Unfortunately, what are the chances that we have a killer with fifty percent of Tony’s DNA and not have it be a person related to Tony?”

  “You know that’s impossible, Lyzee. You don’t need a lesson in genetics one-oh-one.”

  “You’re right. I’m aware. We’re screwed here, my friend. Now we have to try and navigate it with the least amount of damage to Tony. If he finds out, I’ll take the fall. He’s going to need you to be there for him. You and Jaxon will patch him back up and get him to heal.”