She faced her partner and stuck her hands deep in her pockets. “The first look doesn’t always mean everything. The dead don’t lie. We just have to see what they’re trying to show us.”
“You’re right. They don’t. So whatever ghosts keep surfacing, push back. Lock them down.” He took two steps to stand beside her and studied the house. “We’ve got a job to do. That family needs us. They need you.”
She nodded. She wouldn’t allow the horrors of her past to hijack her present. She was stronger than that. She had endured more than most people had in a lifetime and made it out the other side. Ryan was right: whatever dark shadows clawed at her needed to be caged. Permanently.
Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the grand foyer. “Okay, gentlemen. Show’s over.”
The officers chuckled.
Evelyn moved back into the family room and knelt beside the sisters, once more swallowing the rage and grief that gripped her throat as she stared into the faces of two innocent lives taken far too soon. “Ry—come over here. This is what I wanted to show you earlier.”
Ryan hurried over and squatted next to her. “Talk to me.”
“Notice anything different between these bloodstains?” She pointed to one area, then the next.
Ryan studied the blood splattered from the gunshot wound and that from the knife. He turned, horror in his eyes.
“Holy shit.” He sat back on his heels and motioned to the oldest. “Her sister bled out in her arms, and then she was shot.”
Evelyn nodded. Her heart twisted. What type of monster are we dealing with?
“I’m going to grab the coroner to get the time of death for both girls.” Ryan rose and walked out of the room.
The older girl’s face was frozen in panic and anguish. Evelyn knew that helpless feeling. Her sadness morphed into a fierce rage that simmered beneath her skin. No one should have to die like that.
She stood, pulled out a thin notebook and pen and scribbled a few notes. Snapping the book closed, she shoved it into her pocket and went over to the woman, their mother. Broken and riddled with a dozen or more knife wounds, she lay at her husband’s feet. Defensive bruising covered both arms and blood congealed above her split lip. She’d put up one hell of a fight. Evelyn knelt beside the body. “Good for you, ma’am.”
From her crouched position, she checked the man sitting in the recliner. From this angle, he looked to be asleep. She moved an inch to the left and saw the back of his head splattered against the artwork just behind him. She straightened. This wasn’t a family annihilator case. She knew it. But still...she needed to conduct a thorough examination of every inch of this family’s life.
“Fin?”
The officer to her right jumped. His young face lit up as his eyebrows scrunched together.
“I need you to verify if either parent had a lover on the side. Pull their phone records and check for large cash deposits or withdrawals. If either one of them had a secret life that would provoke all this—” she gestured around her “—I want to know about it.”
The officer nodded as he scribbled down notes.
If they were going to see this case for what it truly was, Evelyn needed to investigate all possible triggers. It was a long shot, but she knew finding out that a spouse had a lover was such a spark, and she wanted to rule it out. Hopefully, once they were done, they’d clear the man staring up at her with lifeless eyes.
Then they could focus on catching the sick, twisted bastard who had done this.
Sanderson rejoined them, face flushed. Evelyn could only imagine the tongue-lashing the chief had given him. Would he ever learn it wasn’t a pissing match?
“We need as many eyes on this as possible,” she said. “This makes two similar cases, and no one wants a third. If it’s not a family annihilator case and, in fact, the same guy, we want to catch him. And fast. So what do you see?”
He studied the room.
“It’s like he just sat, sucked the gun and blew his head off.” Sanderson walked over to her as he shoved his hands in his pockets. “It feels too easy, almost staged.”
“I agree.”
Sanderson eyebrows arched in disbelief.
“What else?”
He circled the husband, stepping around the wife.
“It’s strange that it doesn’t look like he put up a fight. At least...” He faltered, glanced at the two young girls and cleared his throat. “At least at first glance, but I don’t know.”
“The autopsy will confirm that tomorrow.” Ryan joined them again. He tipped his head toward Evelyn once, the muscle in his jaw jumping.
Her mind flashed back to the DVD of her own family’s brutal murder as she viewed the tragedy in front of her. In vibrant color, she saw her father begging the murderer for mercy, Olivia’s neck slashed, the defensive wounds on her mother. She had been a tigress until the end....
“Ev—” Ryan whispered.
Her eyes focused again on the vicious scene in front of her. Sanderson was right in his assessment. There didn’t appear to have been a struggle. But the autopsy would reveal what lay hidden beneath.
“Are you finished here?” she asked the CSI officer, motioning to the girls.
He nodded.
She crouched beside the girls and studied their bodies more closely. Gently, she reached out, put a gloved finger to the first girl’s eyelids and closed them over lifeless, terrified blue eyes. She shifted her weight and repeated the gesture to her sister’s eyes.
“I’ll find the bastard who did this. I promise.” She stood.
Ryan spoke quietly behind her. “We’ll get this guy, Ev. But I need you all here. We need you all here to nail him.”
“I know. I’m sorry about earlier.” Evelyn’s shoulders slumped. “It hit a nerve. It won’t happen again.”
“Yes, it will.”
Who was she kidding? Clearly not Ryan. She hated that he was right. It would happen again. And continue to happen until she found the one thing that continued to elude her: closure. The same darkness that drove her at work, always fluttering in the back of her mind, haunted every second of every day. She had to stay one step ahead of it, or it would consume her.
He sighed. “It’s what makes you so good at the job. That drive for justice. You just won’t stop. You’re a bulldog—a gorgeous bulldog—but a bulldog nonetheless when it comes to finding justice. You don’t take that lightly. It’s what makes you...well, you.”
She shook her head, not sure how to respond. “You’re right. I let my guard down, and all my emotions came flooding out. I’ll get it under control. I promise.”
Their phones buzzed simultaneously. A message from Captain Kessler illuminated the small screen.
Need you in my office. ASAP.
Evelyn set her jaw stubbornly. Had that bastard Sanderson really had the balls to submit a complaint against her? She looked up at Ryan. “I need to be on this case.”
“I get it, kiddo, I do.”
Evelyn zipped up her jacket, hunched her shoulders against the cold rain and followed Ryan out to the car.
Did he really?
SPECIAL