Page 90 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

“Let me see it,” she said.

As she was walking in, Uriel looked around. Something was definitely off, and he’d missed something.

“Uh, where is Doc, and why is Takoda here?” he asked, seeing the boy. “I had to have missed something because we have a head, no ME, but we have another Marine, instead.”

She was to the point.

“Christopher is micromanaging the new techs, Ethan is helping, and Takoda is my new helper. He was bored this morning, and you know what happens when a kid says they’re bored during the summer.

A parent finds them work. Glove up, son.

You’re on head duty. It’s time to find out if you have the stomach for this. ”

At her words, he didn’t hesitate. Callen passed him a pair of gloves from his blazer jacket.

As for Elizabeth…

Yeah, she couldn’t believe she was letting her son help her in the field. He was just lucky that he had Gabe on his side.

And she had a soft spot in her heart for Takoda.

Oh, but when she got the hell out of here when this was done, her first stop was going to be the White House.

She was going to jail for slapping the stupid out of The President of the United States.

Bet.

On.

It.

There was going to be a throwdown in the Rose Garden.

The only thing that made her calm down was that Elizabeth knew that Koda genuinely wanted to be a Fed. At the rate CJ and EJ were going, they were not in contention for that role.

Prison, yes.

Leavenworth, possibly.

Now, though, Charlie was going to be cranky because she asked to come to work with her all of the time, and Elizabeth had just laughed.

Oh, well, Koda was going to feel the heat on that one.

Not her.

As they headed in, she was pulling on gloves too. At least now, they had one mystery solved.

They knew where Thomas’s noggin had gone—apparently it was on a field trip to the Chief of Police’s cabin.

When they reached the kitchen, Rayna was standing there.

This seemed like a good time to talk to get more information—after she bagged up the head.

Well, not her.

Takoda.

If he wanted to be a Fed, and take over for her one day, he was going to have to deal with the gruesome job of the body part lottery.

That was when you randomly found some poor victim’s parts for funsies.

“Show me,” she said.

When Rayna opened the door, Elizabeth knelt down with Takoda right next to her.

When she said shadow her, she meant with a little more space between them. Any closer, and they were conjoined at the gun.

But she wouldn’t complain.

The kid wanted to learn.

“Okay, Takoda. What do you see?” she asked, as she was snapping pictures of the head in situ. Chris was going to want those when he was given the remains since he wasn’t on this ‘scene’.

Her son was to the point.

“A head,” he said, reaching for it but then pausing since he remembered how his other Dad got worked up when people did that. “Can I touch it?” he asked.

She nodded after taking the last photo.

When he picked it up, he turned it in his hands, checking out everything to make sure he didn’t miss a thing.

Was it gross?

Yeah, it really was.

Only, his mom did this, and he wanted to be like her one day, so he’d pull this off.

“His eyes are missing.”

That they were.

“Open his mouth,” she said.

He glanced over.

“With my fingers or is there a tool for that?” he asked, genuinely curious what the procedure was.

Instead of answering, Elizabeth wiggled her phalanges as she waved at him, and Takoda got the hint.

Fingers it was.

Using his thumbs, he held the head in his two hands, but pried the man’s mouth open.

As he did, Elizabeth was doing what she’d done over all the past years. She was assessing the situation.

Thomas’ head was no longer in rigor mortis, so he’d been dead over twenty-four hours.

So she told Takoda that.

“See how he’s not locked up?” she asked. “That means he’s either just died, which we know for a fact he hasn’t, or it’s been over twenty-four hours. That stiffness is rigor, and he’s easier to move.”

The whole time, Rayna watched in horror at what was going down on her doorstep. Just last night, they had ice cream on that deck.

Now, they had a head.

Yeah, it wasn’t pretty.

“His tongue is gone,” he said. “I think. I don’t see it in there.”

Callen helped his son out. He’d been hovering, just in case, and he figured he could help his boy learn.

“Flip the head upside down and look up into his trachea in his neck. They like to tuck back after death, or so our ME tells us all the time,” he offered, since they’d suddenly become a teaching team.

Callen wondered if this was a long-term thing, or just for this case. Either way, his son was safe with them, so that made him incredibly happy.

Taking the cue from his father, he did what he said.

“No tongue.”

Since she was still holding her phone, she called Chris to have a video call.

When he answered, he was faced with the head.

“Jesus, Elizabeth. Maybe a little warning before you jump scare me like that. I wasn’t expecting that face. I was expecting yours.”

She laughed.

How could she not?

“Sorry, Doc. Here’s the head, and I need you to send a few techs to pick it up.”

He was curious.

“Did you just get the inkling to pick it up and play with it? Or is there a reason it’s being held?” he asked, knowing she knew better.

She turned the phone.

It was in Takoda’s hands, and once again, Chris was caught off guard.

Well, hell.

Now he couldn’t be cranky to his son. It appeared his wife had found a way to keep Koda happy, and SAFE. There was no doubt she was going to be protecting him despite what went down at the cabin.

She was getting bold.

“Hey, Dad! I noticed there wasn’t a tongue,” he said. “And I looked up his trachea. I think it’s gone.”

How was he going to bust balls when the kid was so excited to be manhandling a severed head?

Their family was weird, but they aways knew one or two of their offspring would play in body parts one way or another.

Still, he warned him.

“For the love of everything holy, Koda, please don’t tell your sister, Catherine, that your mother let you play with a head. She’ll want that for her birthday, and I’m not taking my daughter to ‘bring your kid to work day’. That’s bad parenting when they’re not even old enough to drive.”

As he said it, Takoda was beaming. It was clear that he was in his happy place.

Again, the whole family was insane.

“Why is his tongue gone?” Takoda asked, curiously. His father always told him to ask questions if he needed an answer, and he knew Chris would answer him.

Chris knew the timeline since the man was killed, and it wouldn’t be predation, unless something ate through a part of his head.

So, he asked questions.

“Any wild animal marks? Like something snacked on him?” he asked.

Takoda shook his head as he kept rotating the skull to make sure he didn’t miss anything.

Chris was staring at the head, but didn’t get to ask anything else.

Why?

His wife got in on the act.

“His teeth are chipped,” Elizabeth admitted.

“I can tell you that the cut to his neck is one long line. It looks like some anger here. I’d say that his head was taken off with one long smooth slice or the job was finished after he was transported.

There’s no way he hiked ten miles with that neck smile. ”

He stared at her.

“Really, Elizabeth? Now, you’re going to do my job, and play ‘let’s determine how he died’?” he asked. “You do realize after over twenty-two years, there is an actual process with how I do this, right?” he asked, rhetorically.

She shrugged.

“Okay, then, scientific method man, give me COD and TOD.”

He sputtered.

Once more, he fallen for it.

Damn his wife, but she tended to always get him going when it came to this. This time, she distracted him with Takoda holding the head.

Oh, she was getting better as she got older.

“Put the head in the bag, Takoda. I’ll have it picked up. Also bag the mat, and anything else that touched it.”

Uriel picked up the dog.

“Um…is now a good time to tell you that Beau, the dog, licked it. We tried to stop him, but when the door was opened, Beau took a taste. Do we need to bag the dog too?”

Chris shook his head.

Oh, it was going to be one of those days. He could already tell. He’d say he was getting too old for this, but that would be a lie.

Chris was all about the chaos. Never let it be said it didn’t have a name.

BLACKHAWK.

“One would question if I’m actually the top forensic ME in the country, or I’m trapped in some loop of comedic nonsense? I came in, and Tony was running the place, Elizabeth. Do you know how ironic and insane that is all at once?”

Elizabeth winked at him.

Oh, she did.

Unfortunately for Chris, Tony was his cross to bear. He worked in the lab, not on the investigative team, and they each had their role.

She had a shit ton of investigators that needed babysitting, and he needed to watch his scientists. It just worked better that way.

“I mean, when you put me in my place by using lots of words, it gets me all giddy, Doc. I’m kinky like that.”

Chris just shook his head.

“Transport is coming. I do NOT need the dog with it. I’ll just tell the techs that there will be dog saliva. I hope they can handle that. We’re still seeing if this is going to be a disaster too.”

She knew what he meant.

New people meant retraining.

Only, for now, that worked for her. She was going to be in the field most of the day trying to interview people.

As Takoda bagged up the head, she pulled off her gloves and handed him her pen. Then, she showed him how to fill in chain of evidence on the bag.

“I’m going to have a bone whistle to transport. Alert our bone nut,” she said, clueing Chris in.

As soon as it was out of her mouth, Tony wheeled into the frame, bumping into Chris.

“You rang, my liege?” he asked. “Did someone say whistle and bone?”

She rolled her eyes.

“That would be me, Anthony, the one who keeps you employed for some insane reason. Yes, we have another bone whistle. It appears that The Hollow likes them,” she said, showing him.