Dead are Forgotten Read online

  Chris laughed when Callen cleared his throat.

  “In a loving, family way.”

  She found that amusing.

  “Do it, bug nut.”

  He held the pretend knife and explained without using it on anyone, which was fine with her.

  “He was tall. I’d say taller than me,” Tony stated. “With my height, the angle is wrong.”

  She knew he was dying to do it.

  “Go ahead. Why break from tradition?” she asked.

  Tony got giddy because this was how he had fun and that it wasn’t his wife playing the victims.

  That just freaked him out.

  As she turned, Tony wrapped his arm around Elizabeth’s throat to restrain her.

  “As you can see, with my height, I go in at an upward angle.”

  She pointed at Chris and Callen.

  “Which kind of tall are we talking? Chris is around six feet, and Callen has about five inches on him.”

  “I need to see,” Tony admitted.

  Chris headed her way and wrapped his arm around her neck like Tony had. Being a few inches taller than Tony, he was able to go in straight.

  “Okay, Callen’s turn.”

  He took his place behind her, with his body against hers. She wiggled her ass against his groin area and woke him right up.

  “Bad girl,” he whispered. “Wait until I get you alone. Then we’ll see who is amused.”

  Oh, she would be.

  His reaction made her laugh.

  “I don’t want to know,” Tony stated.

  Callen grinned and made the motion of stabbing with the pen in his hand.

  It was at a downward because he was taller than her.

  “Well?” she asked.

  Jaxon did the math.

  As did Tony.

  “With the height of all of the victims, most of them being no taller than you, Elizabeth,” she said, pausing.

  “Chris’s height,” Jaxon and Tony said at the same time once they figured it out.

  He then kissed his wife.

  “Are they all the same angle?” she asked.

  “I’m still checking them,” Tony admitted. “We’ve only begun cataloging the wounds. We do one at a time, and we have to check two hundred and six bones for each body. It’s only day one.”

  She got it.

  This was a shit ton of work.

  “If you need another anthropologist, let me know. I can call one up for you,” she offered.

  “Thanks, but I want to work with my wife.”

  She understood that.

  “Anyway, the rest of the bodies will be examined and we’ll get to them as soon as possible. One through four matches that angle of entry. Five, six, seven, and eight are the two men and two more women. I’ll have that for you at a later time.”

  She could deal with that.

  “How tall is Carl Fitzpatrick?” she asked, glancing over at Max. It would be in his prison details.

  Max pulled it up.

  “He’s six foot one.”

  And that fit. It was right around the height of Christopher Leonard. The angle would be just like his.

  That worked for her.

  “We know he did the killing. His buddy, Joey, was the mad hacker. Had the bodies been strung together like marionettes…”

  Yeah, they got that picture.

  “Trace on them?” she asked, directing that to her head tech.

  Chrissy stood.

  “I found old pieces of material that were likely clothing. They are badly degraded. Right now, we’ll be lucky to find DNA. These bodies or the ones I’ve begun on are old. Twenty years.”

  She got it.

  O’Banion had been ordering hits for a while.

  “They’re going to start after Jaxon’s mother was killed,” she said, going with her gut.

  That had Jaxon’s attention.

  “How do you know?”

  She hated to be the bearer of bad news, but this wasn’t anything but his dumping ground for people he didn’t want talking. That would include women he slept with too.

  “He collected women to own. When they didn’t work out, he’d off them.”

  “How do you know that?” she asked.

  “I was on his list. I was the most recent one before he went into witness protection.”

  Chris agreed.

  “He was into Lyzee big time. The man had made comments that freaked me the hell out. He was sick. Sorry, Jax. I know he was your father, but he had a penchant for collecting women.”

  That horrified her.

  “Well, this is making him worse and worse, and I didn’t think that could possibly happen.”

  They felt for her.

  “When did she die?” Tony asked softly.

  Jaxon gave them a year.

  Elizabeth focused on the two agents and the detective. “Well, there’s where you can begin. Start searching for potential victims around that time frame. It will be after her mother’s death and before the case where I dealt with him in Boston all those years ago.”

  Alex was appalled.

  She had to be kidding.

  “Let me get this straight. You want me to start finding missing men and women based on a date? Do you have any idea…?”

  She pointed at Max.

  “If you were going to be doing it, Detective, how would you start?” she asked.

  “I would start looking at any news articles based on those times in Boston archives. He likely hunted around his base for pretty girls.”

  She smiled.

  “And that’s why you work cybercrimes,” she teased her old partner. “You sucked working murder.”

  “Not feeling the love,” he said.

  “Well, you did ditch me as a partner,” she said. “We were so good together too,” she stated.

  Callen cleared his throat.

  “I’ll add him to my list of who to kill,” he stated. “It’s a growing list.”

  Alex found that amusing.

  “Hey! I asked her out. She turned me down. In fact, she tossed me aside for him.”

  They all looked at the doctor, and he grinned triumphantly. He couldn’t help it.

  “Once you go ME…”

  Tony gave him a fist bump.

  Elizabeth let them have their jackassery and tomfoolery. It was just damn good to see that Chris was feeling better. This was exactly why she couldn’t let him lose his job.

  “Anyway, you three, find me some names, and we’ll see if Jaxon and Blue can put faces to them.”

  “On it,” Blue said.

  She’d been quiet.

  “Can I see you?” she said, pointing at the office. “I have a special project for you and I’d like to discuss it, Agent Garrick.”

  “Okay.”

  She followed her into the morgue office and Elizabeth locked the door.

  “Did I do something?” she asked. Blue knew that Elizabeth didn’t do private meetings unless something bad was coming. She hoped the woman didn’t transfer her. Blue loved her job.

  “Uh, no, unless that’s your confession.”

  “I didn’t.”

  “Well, then, to the point. I want you to draw something for me.”

  That caught her off guard.

  “What?” she asked. Blue had been sure this was going to be about her and Ivan. The man was standing in the corner watching her, and she couldn’t look at him.

  She’d cry.

  “This.”

  She pulled out a few pictures from her back pocket. “I want a hand-drawn family portrait.”

  Now the woman was talking her jam. Sketching was part of something she did to relax, and God knew she could use some calm right about now.

  “Are you up for it? I’d like to give it to the husbands as a gift.”

  “I’d love to do it, Elizabeth.”

  “I’ve seen your work, Blue, and it’s amazing. You should be proud of your gift.”

  “Thank you.”

  “BUT…” />
  She waited for it.

  “I need it to be set up a certain way. I want you to draw me in the middle, Ethan behind me, Callen to my left, and Christopher to my right.”

  She thought about it.

  “I actually know someone who does amazing painting. How about I sketch it and have him do the paint? It will have much more impact and you can put it on your mantle.”

  Perfect.

  Elizabeth was pleased.

  “That would be amazing.”

  “I’ll work on it in my downtime. I can get it sketched out and over to him later. I’ll need the pictures.”

  And here came her segue.

  “Speaking of being free and no dinner with your parents,” she began, even though Blue hadn’t brought it up, “why are you making my bodyguard a hot mess?”

  She closed her mouth.

  Shit!

  She’d let her guard down.

  “Blue, he loves you.”

  She was aware.

  “I know you mean well, boss, but Ivan has to fix his mistakes. You may have helped me see how to reach him, but Ivan has to own what he’s done. I can’t help but be hurt. He doesn’t want to meet my family, but it was fine to drop me into his for two weeks.”

  She got it.

  “Give him the benefit of the doubt.”

  “I have. I don’t hate him. I’m just hurt. We’ll get past this as soon as I figure out how not to feel so shitty inside. I need time.”

  She backed off.

  This was NOT a place for Cupid.

  Elizabeth knew that if she pushed, it would only make it worse. Blue was really hurt, and she was right. Ivan had to man up and do what was right.

  “I appreciate the painting,” she said.

  “It’s no problem.”

  With that, Blue headed back out, Elizabeth following behind. She’d tried, and if it was meant to work out, it would.

  Or so she hoped.

  Out in the morgue, she knew what she needed to do next, and it had nothing to do with Ivan and Blue fighting.

  “Chris, you head home,” she said. “You had a shitty night’s sleep.”

  He wouldn’t argue.

  He was still hungover.

  Besides, he couldn’t give her anything more regarding the victim until he received the body.

  “Tony, Jax, and Blue get some downtime tonight. You worked all day yesterday, and Tony, you won’t ever sleep again once you have a child. Get it while you can.”

  He was well aware.

  “Max, where are you staying?”

  “At this hotel…”

  She cut him off.

  “Checkout. You can bunk with us. I want you to escort Chris home since we’re a guy short on security. We’ll have dinner later. I hope you’re not allergic to dogs or mayhem.”

  “I’m not. I’m staying at your home?”

  Alex opened his mouth.

  “Noah, hit him.”

  He did.

  “Jesus! He’s HR! How did you…?”

  They didn’t get to say anything else. The morgue door opened, and Ethan Blackhawk stormed in in all his black wearing glory. He didn’t head for her.

  No.

  He headed for his brother, who he pulled against him and planted a big wet kiss right on his mouth.

  It caught them all off guard.

  Elizabeth pointed at their techs.

  “The first one who takes a picture dies.”

  No one moved.

  But DAMN!

  It was one hell of a sight to see.

  Chapter seven

  Hoover Building

  A fter that kiss, the whole building would be talking in a matter of hours, and Ethan didn’t care. When they headed out of the morgue, he was holding his brother’s hand, and his face said it all.

  Something was up.

  And not the normal ‘something’. This had to be epic for Ethan Blackhawk to act this way.

  As they had some privacy, Ethan handed his brother the letter he’d written him.

  “Just read it now, huh?” Callen asked.

  “I am so sorry. Please forgive me for how horribly I treated you. I was looking for a way out, and you gave it to me. I see now that being angry at you was an excuse. By hating you, it gave me a way to make my break from that shithole rez. You bore my brunt, and it wasn’t fair.”

  Callen listened.

  While his brother had explained before, he figured the man needed to get it off his chest.

  “I was given the excuse, and I used you as the scapegoat. I wanted to be free from all the pain there, and the only way I could rationalize it was to be hurt. It gave me the window to fly. I am so sorry, Callen. I will never be able to make amends with you for what I did to your heart.”

  Elizabeth took the note and read it.

  Tears filled her eyes.

  It was heartbreaking. Callen had been reaching out to Ethan to save him, and he never did. That had to be one hell of a scar to Callen’s heart—even all these years later.

  “You needed me, and I ignored the plea out of anger. I don’t deserve you as my brother.”

  He hugged him again, and Callen held onto Ethan. This was what he’d hoped his brother would do after getting the letter. All those years ago, he wanted this reconnection.

  “Were you really going to do it?” he whispered.

  “Yes.”

  Ethan began crying.

  They both stared at him like he was losing it. Ethan Blackhawk only cried when Timothy died, when his kids were born, or when he and Elizabeth hit that bump in the road.

  This was…

  Scary.

  Ivan backed up and disappeared into the shadows of the empty hallway to give them some privacy.

  “Hey! Shhhhh! It’s okay,” Callen reassured, rubbing his hands over his brother’s back.

  Only, it wasn’t.

  It was far from okay, and it never would be.

  “I can’t imagine how you felt when I never came, Cal. I never came.”

  “Ethan, you didn’t read the letter. Had you, would you have come?”

  “GOD! Yes! I was mad, but I didn’t want you to die. There was a part of me that wished someone could get through. I wanted to get back to you.”

  He rested his forehead against his brother’s.

  “We worked it out. We’re good.”

  He stared into Callen’s brown eyes. “I love you more than myself. I’d take all of that. I’d take that pain, that abuse, and I’d carry it for you for the rest of my life to save you. I’ve always loved you.”

  Ethan leaned on him.

  He needed to after this. This whole thing rattled him to the core. He could have lost his brother all those years ago. Blackhawk couldn’t imagine their union without him.

  Callen was his husband.

  It was more than a brother thing.

  It was a happily married thing.

  “I love you too. Fate was in charge, Ethan. That’s why it dangled the sexy Southern lady here in front of me.”

  She laughed.

  “Bait, Callen James? I’m bait?”

  She made them both laugh.

  “I was an asshole, and I promise from this day forward, that I will never be that man,” he said, taking the note back from her. He placed it inside his inner jacket pocket. “I will never have that ambivalence, that hate, or that anger again. I swear to you on my life.”

  “I know, Ethan,” Callen stated. “We’re good. That’s why I told you to toss it. I didn’t want you to hurt. I’d never want you to feel anything but happiness.”

  “Because I have you, I’m happy,” he offered.

  They took a few minutes.

  “Are you going to be okay?” Callen asked.

  “Yes, I am. I just needed this moment with you both. I needed to reconnect with my blood, my family, and my spouses.”

  They all embraced. It was a mingling of her perfume and their cologne.

  It was calming.

  Ethan, when he was
calm, finally released them.

  “What’s the plan?” he asked, knowing that by now his wife already had something in mind.

  “Well, after I take a cold shower,” Elizabeth teased, breaking the ice, “I’m going to start my interviews.”

  While it was normally Callen who broke the ice, she felt the need to soothe her husbands.

  Callen slapped her on the ass for her boldness.

  “Do you want to ride shotgun, Director, as we interview an angry ex and a cabbie?” she asked, offering it up to him.

  He glanced at his watch and sighed.

  “I can’t. I have a meeting with the presidential pain in my ass. He’s got some ideas about how to run the FBI.”

  She laughed.

  Elizabeth would rather dine with million rats over a body in the sewer than spend ten minutes with that man.

  “Maybe he should be running his part of the government?” she suggested.

  “I agree. I have to head over there. Tommy, my other security guy, is waiting for me in the garage now that you ‘borrowed’ Heath.”

  Well, she had bad news for him.

  “Uh, can we have him on a permanent basis?” she asked. “You know, now that Rory bailed on us?”

  Ethan considered it.

  “Sure.”

  She stared at her husband. That was way too easy.

  “Uh, okay.”

  He laughed.

  “I want you both safe. If that means giving up ‘Bruiser’, I’ll do it. I have more security than you do anyway.”

  She was glad.

  Callen’s security had gone MIA, and she’d fucked with Carl in the past. He had a bullet wound from her. She didn’t trust him not to come after someone she loved.

  “Thank you.”

  He gave her a kiss.

  “I wish I could ride shotgun with you, but I can meet you at home later,” he offered. “Maybe you can show us later how hot we were…”

  He didn’t get to finish.

  She jumped up, wrapping her legs around his hips. Ethan stumbled backward, and Elizabeth devoured him whole.

  When she finally pulled away, his lower lip was between her teeth and his body was rock-hard beneath his suit.

  “God! I want to go visit some woman-hating asshole,” Ethan muttered.

  “You are,” she teased. “The president is as misogynistic as they come.”

  He gave her a fist bump.

  His wife was right about that. He viewed them as nothing more than an accessory, and the man disliked his wife.