Page 55 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

“How do you know it’s two people?” he asked, needing clarification. He’d been working on his profile, and he had pegged this as someone older who was stuck in the past.

Elizabeth shared as the techs bagged up what they could.

“I could see the shadow of the first suspect ahead of me in the woods, and they were moving FAST. I’m talking hauling ass. I’m quick, but I couldn’t catch up.”

Well, that destroyed the last part of Ethan’s profile. If she was chasing someone quick, they were younger—maybe younger than her.

Because his wife was right.

She.

Was.

Fast.

Elizabeth continued.

“As I was hauling ass, the one that took me out was from the side. Oh, and in case you’re curious, the person hit me goddamn hard, and I’m accustomed to taking a hit when I work out with Marines. I was plowed into.”

When Chris opened his mouth, she pointed at him already knowing where this was going.

“Chris, don’t lecture,” she warned. “If I hear twenty-four-hour hold, I’m losing my mind. I don’t have a concussion. I literally just saved my own ass out where there were questionable things, ALONG WITH SPIDERS. I’m not sick, dizzy, or disoriented. What I am is annoyed.”

Oh, boy.

In that moment, Chris opted to say nothing. He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t already looked at her eyes to see if she had head trauma.

Elizabeth looked scared, but not hurt. Later, he’d recheck to make sure when the adrenaline subsided.

As she finished warning Chris, her comments made security curious.

“Where were you?” Raphael asked. “We did an initial search, and couldn’t find you. You’re a hot mess, so I’m going to say you went through it.”

Oh, she had.

Since Tony was photographing the evidence she brought, she shared what she could.

She had good news and bad news.

“I woke up dumped in a pitch-black cave. It had to have two openings and one of them has to be nearby. They wouldn’t have had time to move me to where they did using the exit I found. How long was I gone?” she asked.

She held up her wrist, and her watch, the smart watch she wore that they all had, was busted. The tiny tracker was gone since it likely fell off the back at impact. That had also been a casualty in the sideswipe.

Or they broke it on her, so she was helpless to know the time and be disorientated.

“Almost an hour,” Ivan said, so glad to see her again. Oh, but Gene was right.

She was grounded.

Now, here came the bad news.

They weren’t done playing in the woods.

Not.

Yet.

“I need another team of techs,” she said.

“ASAP. Like I said, they dumped me in a cave. When I came to, and could get untied, MATE was able to use her light. We have more bones. We have a secondary site that we’re going to have to work, and that means a long trek in to find the hidden way they dropped me in there. ”

Callen was curious.

“You said a cave? I’m not aware of any of them around here. We ran these woods, Elizabeth. Are you sure it was a cave?”

She stared at him.

“Callen, don’t take this with anything but love, but do you think I’m so goddamn nuts that I can’t determine the difference between the great wide open and a cave?”

Yeah, she was testy.

“So a cave it was,” he offered.

Elizabeth shared.

“It’s also underground. I walked uphill with the spiders following me like the goddamn Pied Piper. That’s my goddamn karma for busting Tony’s balls about a single tarantula. I met her friends.”

Tony was to the point.

“I would have sacrificed Morticia for you. In a heartbeat,” he admitted. “I was worried about you, Elizabeth. You’re getting too old to play these games.”

Tell her about it.

She wasn’t twenty-five anymore, and the killers were getting younger and younger.

“I know, Anthony. I appreciate that. Oh, and I love you too, nut.”

Gene needed more.

If there was a cave, they were going to have to access it to retrieve the remains. Natives were particular about their dead, and how they should be treated.

Eaten and dumped in a cave…

Not the way they preferred.

“Anyway, I woke up at some point. MATE said it was fifteen minutes after I was hit, but it’s off. I think I was drugged, so I’m going to need to be transported and tested.”

Chris didn’t have anything to draw blood on him. His other kit, the one with the first aid kit, was back at the cabin. This had been an easy site to handle—until it wasn’t.

“So, the timeline is off,” she admitted, pulling off her body armor to pass it off to Ivan. “Download what you can and maybe we can get a more specific answer as to where I was taken into the cave. Unfortunately, MATE is beaten to hell and back.”

Yeah, he could see that.

“She’s out of power too,” Elizabeth stated. “MATE’S memory might have all of the information stored on her.”

Ivan would get her new body armor, and get the intel. Their backup gear was back at the RVs. He would need some time, but from the looks of it, so would she.

“Anyway, in the cave, we have skulls. Lots and lots of skulls. I’m going to say that you won’t have any here.”

Tony nodded.

“Nope. None.”

Oh, and she knew why.

“They dumped the other parts here. I’m thinking that’s where they take them to kill. It smelled…iron-y. Like there was blood spilled. If we can get the skulls, we can identify them. Someone has some really crazy rituals,” she admitted.

Chris was curious.

“Sweetness, what’s on your arm?”

She shared.

“See that bloody binding?” she asked, pointing at the torn material that was in an evidence bag, and being signed off by Benjamin.

They all nodded.

“I had blood all down my arm. I thought I cut myself. I didn’t. It has to be from one of them. I need DNA by morning, Benjamin. If you don’t have it, I’m going to be really angsty—just like the rumors say.”

He reassured her.

“I’ll have it. There’s blood on the antlers that the rain didn’t wash away too. I’ll check it, and cross-check it.”

That worked for her.

“Anyway, I wiped it off, and saw this,” she said, touching her arm. It had to be permanent marker. It hadn’t run in the rain.

She stared at it.

“Oh, and if anyone is curious, MATE, identified the markings on the bones. ‘The Hollow keeps the calm’,” she offered.

Tony was curious.

“It was a relatively older bone. The marrow was gone, and the DNA too. Maybe it’s cultural. For the time, maybe it was used in a ritual, or some sort of Native ceremony.”

She didn’t know what the cuckoo was going on, but it was some crazy shit, none-the-less.

“How many bodies are here?” she asked.

Tony was up.

“There are at least ten sets of remains. I’ve aged them as about that amount of time. This is relatively a new pit. There’s nothing older than ten years here.”

Yeah, she suspected.

“I think there will be more burial spots. There had to be at least one hundred skulls. With two hundred and six bones in the body, that’s a shit ton of bones.”

That was likely true.

“That cave was where they went. If two Natives didn’t know it was there, that gave them a place to go to do their nefarious things.”

Ethan knew she was right.

That would mean information definitely passed down. His wife saw fast, young killers.

One hundred skulls meant this was definitely what they thought.

Craziness passed down or recruited.

“What if this isn’t so much about blood, and relatives passing it down. What if it’s about someone being trained to do it?”

She listened.

“Like an apprentice?”

He nodded.

Maybe.

That seemed feasible. Only, unless she got some interviews in, she wouldn’t have the leads to point her in any direction.

They’d only talked to the Chief of Police and the council.

The three men who were running the reservation weren’t hitting her that hard or outracing her.

“All I know is we have to get back there today. That’s another crime scene that we need to investigate.”

And they all knew they’d be out at dark in the woods playing games.

There was the bad news.

The last thing they wanted was to put themselves, or anyone else in danger.

“So please, get another tech team here,” she said to Chris.

“I need at least twenty more techs, and get me ten agents,” she said, looking at Callen.

“Five more for each location. ASAP. I don’t care if we empty out the entire FBI building at this point.

I take it personally when I’m dumped into a cave of spiders! ”

Chris sent a text, and Vivian would help them out. She was going to earn her position today. One day here, and they were already diving into the chaos.

Never let it be said that Chaos didn’t have a name. It was absolutely BLACKHAWK.

“I need to check you out,” Chris said.

Oh, she wasn’t surprised.

Not.

At.

All.

Only there was unfinished business that needed to be handled first.

“Can one of you scan my arm with the marking on it, and have MATE analyze it?” she asked.

Gene was the closest.

“MATE, scan her arm,” he said, moving into position beside her.

The light came out of the vest, and it moved up and down her arm once or twice.

“Give me a few, Gene. I will give you my analysis.”

As they were waiting, Chris was moving closer, and she knew he was worried about her.

“I’m good, my love,” she said, lying her ass off. She was freezing and freaked out. There was nothing okay about her now.

“That knife was by the deer head. I’m going to take a wild stab at this, but whoever is behind this leaves his fun toys there every year after the killing, and now we have it. If that’s the hidey-hole, we just cut them off.”

Ethan was still not over being stirred up.

“If that’s their things, this is going to piss them off. When you take a collection from a killer, it goes sideways—fast.”

She was aware.

“That’s the nature of the beast, EJ.”

Yeah, but he didn’t want her in the bullseye.

“We can worry about that later. I need to know that you’re okay. You are, right?” he asked. “Because we were all terrified.”

She nodded.

Was she alright?

No.

Did she want to upset the men in her life?

Also no.

“I’m pissed. That’s about all.”