Page 99 of Chaos has a Name (An FBI Romance/Thriller #66)

She snorted, and backed away so Caspian could do the deed. Who was she to stop him?

Like she’d said, she’d had fun in that closet more than a few times.

After kissing her like he meant it, Caspian let her go, regretfully, and Rayna followed her.

She was struggling to focus.

Somehow, she did.

“Can I grab a coffee?” she asked, pointing at the vending machine as they went to walk past it. “While that kiss was an adrenaline rush, I need some caffeine. I’m dragging ass because your Archangel is addictive.”

While she was happy to hear that, Elizabeth stopped her.

“Nope. I can’t let you drink that death liquid. Chris has coffee in the morgue. Trust me. It’s better, and it won’t make you regret your whole day.”

Well, that worked for her.

So far, despite the head on her deck, she was having a decent day—or she had been when she was locked in a closet with a hot Marine.

As they reached the morgue, inside, it was quiet, and she could tell that the team was NOT happy. The techs were working, but the room felt tense.

Something had happened, and she wasn’t sure if it was the usual suspects or someone else.

Before she could ask, Tony rolled her way, and ratted his boss out.

Wholeheartedly.

“We were only listening to music, and the big mean doctor took it away.”

She stared at him.

Was he kidding her?

“What are you? Ten?” she asked. “This isn’t my domain,” she stated. “I can’t magically make him change his work policy about not liking music while work is getting done. He set that rule two decades ago, Anthony. You were there. You know that.”

Chris sat on his stool and just stared at Tony, enjoying the show. He knew his wife, and she was NOT treading into his area—especially since it was literally for listening to music.

“Exactly,” Tony said. “I’ve been doing this for twenty years. I think I can do it and listen to music.”

Chris wasn’t buying that.

They had a new team, and he needed to test their parameters and see what they could do. They were supposedly the best, but that didn’t tell him if they were HIS best or the FBI’s best.

There was a distinct difference.

“I told him that people make mistakes when they aren’t concentrating. That’s it,” he said. “Someone didn’t get sleep last night, and he’s cranky.”

Yeah, she could see that.

She looked over at Tony.

“Again, Director, I’ve been doing this a long time. I can handle a bone in my sleep.”

From their work area, Jaxon actually laughed and then covered it with a cough. She couldn’t help it. She had the sense of humor of a thirteen-year-old boy. It helped since sometimes, she was married to a man who acted like a thirteen-year-old boy.

Tony was pouting, and what he needed was a break. Elizabeth understood how they’d pushed them all night.

“Anthony, I’m not your mother. I’m his boss, and you know I’m going to defer to him when it comes down to it.

You like music, he doesn’t. I can’t split the baby in half here.

You know that. His word is law here, unless I see a reason to override it.

Once in twenty-plus years have I done that.

The odds aren’t in your favor—especially since I need accurate results or I’m boned—and not in a fun way. ”

He sighed.

“If there’s ever a divorce, I hope you get custody,” he said, giving Chris the hairy-eyeball—right before he rolled them up into his head.

Truthfully, Chris didn’t get offended. He’d had this conversation many times over the last twenty years with Anthony. When he was exhausted, he got bitchy.

It didn’t upset him.

He had his methods, and once he saw if the people here could do the job, he’d amend them. They were new out the gate with working with Elizabeth, and it took time.

If they nailed it, he’d lighten up.

If they screwed up, he’d lock it down.

Until he could determine that, he wasn’t letting the crazy out of the cage.

“Joke’s on you, Anthony,” Elizabeth stated. “We have a prenup. I get the dogs, he gets you, this job, the morgue, the bills for my boots, my bad attitude, the in-laws, and the gold-baron’s haunted mansion. Oh, and Callen.”

Callen was leaning against the wall with Takoda, Ethan, and Gene.

“I mean, at least we’ll have fun,” Chris stated.

She pointed at him.

“Wait until we get home. We’re going to have a talk, ridiculously sexy man. Until then, I had better see some forensics or no one is going home but me.”

Chris got it.

It was time.

Rolling over on his stool, it was time to begin.

“We have the dentals for Thomas Adsila. His sister supplied them to us when Benjamin called and requested them. I can tell you that the head on Rayna’s porch was his. They matched, and now, you have confirmation. He’s dead.”

Well, at least that was something she could bet on. He wasn’t running around pretending to be dead and in the meantime, killing people.

“As for the remainder of the bones, it’s a crapshoot. We have so many that it’s going to take Tony a long-ass time to get through them.”

Takoda stood by his fathers, and he was watching his mother work. Mentally, he was making notes so he could be just like her.

While he loved being a Marine, he wanted to make a difference in the world, and his mother did that. He was a Blackhawk, and the dynasty had to continue.

Right?

Chris kept going.

“We don’t have DNA on the skull back yet, and I can hazard a guess to say that the bones we found that were partially meaty are his. I’m not saying they are,” he said, when she opened her mouth. “Don’t hold me to it until Mass Spec does his thing.”

Benjamin raised his hand.

“It’s running it now. That’s going to take a few hours.”

Honestly, she didn’t care if she got the DNA connection or not. The man wasn’t running around like the headless Horseman without his noggin.

He.

Was.

Dead.

“And if we look at the fleshy bits we have, is there a way you can tell me how he died?”

Chris nodded.

“MATE, put the results on the screen,” he said.

When the system hummed, all of the techs there looked up and around. It was when MATE appeared, standing in the middle of the room that they all gasped.

MATE looked at them.

“What’s with the newbies?” she asked. “Do we have to break them in again?”

Elizabeth laughed, not so much at MATE, but at the look on Benjamin’s face.

He was staring at the hologram.

“MATE, meet the West team. Team, this is MATE, or Zen. She’s my AI assistant, and follows me around. Chris also has access to her,” she said.

Benjamin moved closer and waved his hand through her, as if it was some trick.

“Uh, that was my head, Goth dude. Why the eyeballs looking so big?”

Ben looked over at Chris.

“What’s she do?” he asked.

MATE snapped her fingers.

“Hey! I’m standing right here. I can hear you. Just because I’m translucent doesn’t mean I’m not able to think. In fact, I’m running about fifty different things. I’ve scanned all of your faces and learned your names, and found some of your online secrets. A roller derby?” she asked Ben.

He blushed.

Someone nailed that.

“Anyway,” MATE said, waving her arm and dressing more like Benjamin.

There were two Goths in the house, and one of them was checking the other out.

MATE hopped up on the counter, somehow managing to make it look like she was sitting there as Chris’ information flashed onto the screen.

Someone was learning.

Clearly.

“Thank you, MATE,” Chris said. “Enlarge quadrant three.”

When he did, Elizabeth saw it. There was very little meat on that bone, but the gash to it told the tale.

“You were right,” Chris admitted. “His throat was cut and likely from ear to ear. He didn’t walk into the woods. He was carried.”

Again, she had confirmation that there was more than one person behind this. Elizabeth was feeling pretty secure with that fact.

“Did your people get back from the cabin crime scene?”

Chris shook his head.

“No, they’re still there. I can tell you from the uploaded pictures they have taken, the two footprints are a matching set outside of Thomas Adsila’s. MATE?” he asked.

She tag-teamed her father.

“They were a men’s size ten,” she said, finishing for him. “That’s one of the things I’m computing as I sit here,” MATE stated, looking over at Benjamin.

The man said nothing, but he was still watching her.

MATE continued.

“The pictures of the spray pattern inside the cabin indicate arterial spray, and the arrow that was removed from the cabin and the ones shot at you are all a match. DNA is running on them too.”

That worked for her.

So far, she wasn’t unhappy about the way this was being handled, but most of it was Chris, Tony, and MATE. She needed to see what the others could do.

They’d had all night to impress her.

“How about what was on me after the abduction, on the knife, and on the deer head?” she asked.

She pointed at Ben.

“Here’s where you dazzle me, or I tell my ME to ride your ass until you learn to like it.”

Ben got it.

“We pulled two samples of DNA from your clothing. Upon cross comparison, there were definitely two people who had contact with you.”

Well, she was aware of that.

“What can you tell me about the DNA?”

He was to the point.

“We are running it through CODIS, but if it’s Native American, we might not have anything to connect to—unless the person is a criminal and served time. We’ve found that Natives tend not to get DNA done. They don’t need to. They are well aware of their ethnicity and tend to not mate out.”

Well, no shock there.

They said that earlier.

Timothy had been all about keeping it on the rez, but then again, he’d had a master plan.

“What about the victim’s clothing?” she asked.

He was ready for her.

“They were washed. The blood was processed. So after he bled out, and his clothing was removed, the things he’d been wearing were washed and folded.”

Chris agreed with him.

“They likely wanted to make sure all trace was eradicated,” he stated.

Well, no shock there.

That was a norm in her world.

Before she could ask anything else, her Goth head tech was curious.

“Does she follow you around?” he asked.

Elizabeth blinked.