Page 27 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

When she looked over at Gene, the other Catholic in the group, he just laughed.

“Honey, when in Rome, let the crazy win. I’d wear your rosary though,” he joked. “The Pope warned us about that.”

She sighed.

Then, Elizabeth shook her head because generally, she did wear it. The crazy was off the charts today.

Wendigos?

Lucifer?

There was only so much a girl could take.

“It’s nice meeting all of you,” she said, moving on from the name debacle. If Benjamin thought she was calling him Lucifer—not on her watch.

If he wanted to earn that leeway, he’d have to prove he deserved it.

Boy, did she miss Chrissy.

That was for damn sure.

“Anyway,” she said, “some of you may or may not have heard about how I run my shop. I’m difficult to work with on a good day because I expect perfection. My life depends on your skill. If you screw up, I can go down following the wrong trail.”

Her Goth head tech raised his hand.

“Yes, Benjamin?”

He corrected her.

“Lucifer?”

She was to the point.

“Yeah, if you want me to entertain that, you’re going to have to knock my socks off first. Until you show me what you’ve got, it’s Benjamin.

Since your badge says Benjamin, you get that, Ben, hell!

I’ll call you Benji if that’s your thing.

I’m not calling you Lucifer, Son of Satan, Beelzebub, or anything else not on that badge. Got it?”

He shrugged.

“Okay, Director. I’d just like to tell you that we were warned about you. A Christina Redwolf called us on our system about an hour ago. She told us that if we didn’t do our jobs, she was coming here to, and I quote, ‘to cut a bitch or ten before you ate our livers.”

She actually laughed.

Ah, there was her happy place—in the hands of someone who knew how to do her job when she had a Wendigo chase coming up.

“I mean, Christina is the world’s best tech. She set the bar high. If you can give me half of what she did, I’ll be happy.”

He wasn’t backing down.

“I can give you exactly what she gave you. I speak multiple languages, I have four degrees, one of them is a Doctorate in Forensic Science, and my second Masters is in Entomology.”

Tony pointed the second he heard that.

“Back off of my bugs. I’m the bug man here. You’re not doing my job.”

Benjamin shrugged.

“You’re not in Kansas anymore, Grandpa. I can do it faster, and with more accuracy.”

Elizabeth rubbed the tension from her temples, and it was then that Ethan stepped in.

Thankfully.

He could tell that this group was going to make his wife nuts.

“Hey! Doctor Blackhawk here. Stop annoying the boss. She gets punchy, and she has been to HR so many times, they named an office after her. Take them out to measure who is bigger when the lady isn’t in the…garage.”

That shut them up.

“Just do your job, do it fast, and do it right,” Ethan said. “If you do that, we’ll feed you snacks, ice cream, and bribe you with baked goods. We are pretty simple when it comes to making us happy.”

That seemed to make them all grin a little. Apparently, hungry techs who could be bribed with food was a universal truth.

Go figure.

Yeah, that worked for her.

Elizabeth was to the point.

“We’re heading to the reservation—the one not far from here. We are GUESTS there. We are going to do our job of digging up the bodies under the fire pit, allowing Tony and Jaxon to start their job. We have a pile of clothing at the scene that was what the latest victim was wearing.”

Benjamin raised his hand.

“Yes?” she asked.

“How many bodies are we to expect? Three? Five?” he asked. “So I can make sure we have the sufficient amount of body bags.”

She had no freaking clue.

“I’d bring thirty and we can double up or, more likely, triple up.”

Tony stared at her.

That caught him off guard.

“Wait. What?” he asked. “Did you just say triple up? Triple times thirty is ninety sets of remains, Elizabeth. That’s a really high amount of bones.”

Oh, she was aware.

Yeah, even Jaxon looked perplexed.

“Yes, Anthony. Good job on your multiplication. You pass,” she said as he was moving closer to where Morticia had been dumped.

Not happening.

Elizabeth was hoping that the spider in the box disappeared while they were out. She’d give Ivan a big, fat bonus if it did—specifically that egg sack that looked like it was going to hatch and be about ninety-nine more problems for her.

Disgusting ones.

It was time to clue them in. Since Tony and Jaxon hadn’t been here when she found out, she wanted them on the same page.

“Apparently, there is a legend on this particular reservation of a human sacrifice that is done once a year on the Summer Solstice.”

The head tech looked at his watch.

“Which was yesterday,” Benjamin and Tony said at the same time, and then fist bumped each other.

Oh.

Jesus.

Christ.

Tony made a friend.

The last thing she needed was Tony to have a willing audience who wanted to get in on the act. That would open whatever level of Hell she was currently standing on next to ‘Lucifer’.

“I’m aware. Since Doctor Blackhawk, and Director Whitefox grew up here, they confirmed that this is something that they heard when they were growing up. Is it true? Likely not.”

Listen to her.

Likely?

What the hell happened in her life where she now had to chase Wendigo killers when all she wanted to do was chase the ones who ate livers and put eyeballs in martinis for shits and giggles?

What?

From where he stood, Benjamin was curious.

“Why do you think it’s not true?” he asked. “Asking as a scientist.”

She went there.

“Apparently, the human sacrifice was for the Wendigo. It keeps the reservation protected when it gets the victim. This has been going on for years, and thus the triple the bodies, Tony and Jaxon.”

At the mention of the ‘W’ word, the sane people looked befuddled.

And, of course, the crazy people looked excited.

The two happiest people were none other than Tony and Benjamin.

Why was she not surprised?

In.

The.

Least.

Before she could say anything, Benjamin spoke.

“I’m going to love having you here, Director. We only got the boring cases before you. Can we do a Mothman and Bigfoot case next?”

Immediately, she stared at Chris.

“You picked him for our team?” she asked. “You listened to him, and thought ‘I bet my wife would love to have him as her head tech. He seems like a perfect match’.”

Her husband nodded.

If his wife saw the other candidates, she’d be hugging the lunatic right about now.

Elizabeth wanted close to Chrissy.

This guy was as close as they were going to get. Yeah, his people really needed to get MATE back. If not, Elizabeth was having a breakdown.

“Yeah, and I hope he doesn’t make me regret it. Apparently, he is the best tech here. Chrissy looked at his qualifications, and she said he’d do. If he doesn’t, kill the other person involved in this.”

She might.

All Elizabeth knew was that he had big shoes to fill, now didn’t he? Chrissy had the award for that title.

She continued.

“Again, I don’t think I need to tell any of you how we need to be respectful of the remains.

If these are Natives, their culture dictates to their handling.

Tony, you’re the cultural expert on these things, so you will take lead of the techs as to who will be helping you.

I’m planning on taking Vlad with us to the man’s home after we see the scene—as long as nothing jumps up and bites us in the ass.

Witnesses say that he was likely killed there. ”

No one argued.

For.

A.

Change.

“Ethan and Callen are going to be running interference with the Native Council. So, use your best behaviors,” she admitted. “Or you will be off this team, and busted down to mop cleaner. See if I’m kidding. I chase big-time killers, so I need big-time techs.”

Benjamin reassured her.

“Everyone in here graduated with well over a four-point-oh. We’re the smartest people on the team.”

Uh-oh.

Chris knew what was coming.

What was it about this side of the country that always got his wife spicy? Every time someone inferred that she was ‘dumb’ or ‘was given her job’, she busted balls.

HARD.

Even Tony gasped and stepped back to give the man space to bleed.

Metaphorically.

Benjamin was going to need some ice when this conversation was over. Implying that he and the techs were smarter than her…

Someone needed a ‘come to Jesus talk’.

Moving toward him, she stood toe-to-toe with the man, and laid down the law.

“Son, you’re not the only one with multiple degrees.

You’re also not the smartest one here, or you would have read the room.

See how no one else is making themselves a target in the pack?

That’s intelligence. Don’t make problems by assuming that I can’t and won’t chew you up, spit you out, and put you in the unemployment line faster than you can spell Lucifer.

I get real mean, and when I do, blood won’t only be on the crime scene. Do I make myself clear?”

He stepped back so she took that as an answer.

Elizabeth pointed at the men there she rode with, and called husbands.

“Doctor Blackhawk is highly intelligent, and plays in the minds of crazies, and Doctor Leonard has about seventy-five letters after his name, along with being the gold standard in Forensic Science. Don’t go there.”

The man swallowed.

It was clear no one ever dressed him down before because he looked scared.

“You’re forgetting who I am. I run the Violent Crimes Unit because I’m batshit insane.

I’m the Deputy Director because I’ve seen some shit.

When you reach thirty, come talk to me about intelligence.

Because it’s far from smart to wear a bullseye on your back from your boss on the first day.

I will bust you down to autopsy table cleaner and you won’t ever forget my name.

We’re a team here. There is no freaking ‘I’ in team, Benjamin. Got it?”

She turned, and left him speechless.

Now, she was done.

Elizabeth had more work today than should be legal.

“Everyone into the vans. We’re meeting the Chief of Police out front to follow her to the scene. Callen and Ethan, let me know how it goes. Let’s go,” she said, walking toward her blacked-out ride with Uriel and Ivan flanking her.

Gryphen stayed with the two men.

When she was out of earshot, that was when Chris sighed.

“Benjamin, you need to learn to read a room. She’s not the one to poke,” he admitted. “She’s going to be your biggest cheerleader, or your biggest obstacle. Choose better, or she will have me drop you from this team.”

He could see that.

“I didn’t mean anything by it. I guess that came across kind of rude. I meant more that all of the techs here were the smartest of the FBI techs.”

Chris patted him on the back.

Yeah, that wasn’t accurate either.

The man had a lot to prove if he wanted title of King of the Lab. Currently, a woman held it, and at this rate, she wouldn’t be giving up the title.

Chrissy was big shoes to fill.

“You’ll adjust to her.”

He hoped so.

“Will she really bust me down to table cleaner?” he asked, curiously.

Chris laughed.

“Call Christina Redwolf and ask her how she rolls. Chrissy will give you hints on how to soothe the savage boss,” he admitted, as his wife drove by in her vehicle.

It was clear that Benjamin was confused.

“Why can’t you just tell me?”

There was one good reason.

“And get on her bad side? Are you kidding?” he asked, as the tech hopped into the van on the passenger side. “I like my face on my skull, and intact. Don’t assume I’m safe because I’m married to her. At work, Elizabeth is going to push hard. Her life depends on it.”

Well, shit.

That was alarming.

And Benjamin hoped he was kidding, at that.