Page 33 of Devil Bound
“Oh, yeah.Totally.”I did my best to remain nonchalant.
Mitch’s smile brightened.“Great.I’ll text you.Are you going to catch us at the station?”
I nodded.“Yes, right after I walk the dog.”
Homicide investigations like this were no fun, but he’d be there while Christine got all the evidence and stuck it to the whiteboards she liked for that kind of thing.
“I’ll see you there, Lionel,” Mitch said, and his deep voice rippled over me like a warming summer breeze.
“Sure” was my much lamer response.
Mitch walked off and out of the tent, giving me a view of his broad back, almost as sexy as the front of him.
“That one’s sooo into you,” Simon said from behind me, making me jump.“And while he’s not my cup of tea, I’d say his gluteus maximus are well developed.”
“If you want to talk about anatomy not belonging to the victims,” the tech with the glove fetish said from her workplace, “can you please take it outside?I’m trying to work here.”
Simon rolled his eyes.“Nina is such a perfectionist.”
He went back to documenting and taking photos of the parts, which was clearly my cue to leave.
Christine and Mitch were already gone by the time I got to my car.Soul had spent her time growling and barking at passersby, and as a result, her breath had fogged up the driver’s side window, and her drool was splattered over the glass in a wild abstract artwork.
“You need to go back to the Devil,” I told her when I got into the car.I’d stop to walk her where there were fewer media cameras that might mistake the cursed poodle for part of the canine unit, and then I’d take her back home.
Back to her home.Back to Lucifer, which was where she belonged.
17
Lionel
BythetimeI’dtaken care of Soul’s needs and found a spot in the Brunswick PD parking lot, homicide was bustling with activity.Not a surprise with multiple bodies found in the same location, meaning there was a serial killer operating right under our noses.The news about that had already broken, I’d heard it on the radio on my way over, and the speculation would spark fear and demands for the killer to be found soon.All that pressure would come down on Christine.
“Hawkes,” she said, beckoning me from a desk that wasn’t hers.
She had an office all to herself, but right now, everyone was concerned with bringing together everything they knew and getting everyone up to speed, so she was in the middle of it all, directing the team like a captain with her crew.
I walked past the other desks and detectives who ignored me while they worked.Some had been at the scene, others had been stationed here.A few of the desks had abandoned coffee mugs on them.Homicide did not come with the kindest work hours.
“What do you need?”I asked when I got to the desk Christine had commandeered.
Now, with her windbreaker off, I noticed she was wearing the same navy blouse as last night at the morgue.It was wrinkled, so she had either slept in it or hadn’t slept at all.I looked around for Mitch, but he was nowhere to be seen.
“Nothing right now,” she said.“There are several Joanne Frazers in the city, none of whom have been reported missing, meaning I don’t yet know who our victim is, and I don’t have their home or possessions for you to get a read on.”
That should have been good news.“Okay.”
“That means you can take a break right now, but leave your phone on.”
I nodded.“Right.”
“If I figure out who she is, I’d rather notify next of kin in the morning.Give them one more night, you know?”
Typical Christine right there.I nodded.I should have been glad to be going home, but I had sort of hoped that maybe Mitch wanted to pick my brains later today.
“Are you sure I can’t do anything?”I asked her.
She looked me up and down.“What’s gotten into you all of a sudden?You don’t volunteer for the paperwork and running down leads from a desk kind of work normally, and the crime scene report isn’t ready yet for you to double-check and countersign.”
