long enough to get to that point. I felt better when Gabriel came through my motel room door. He looked awful.
“Come on,” he handed me something that wasn’t a Mountain Dew. I stared at it blankly.
“It’s a Coke, Xavier said to cut your caffeine intake today,” Gabriel explained.
“You always bring me a Mountain Dew,” I whined as I crawled from the bed.
“Yes, but the doctor said no Mountain Dew today and I have to listen to him or stick you in this room all day today again,” Gabriel said.
The sun was up. I saw it as Gabriel exited the room. The clock told me I had slept about two and a half hours. It had been good sleep though. I felt refreshed and ready to face the horrors of the day. And since Gabriel looked terrible, I was guessing it was going to be horrific.
We pulled into a parking area of another state park. It had snowed sometime during the night. The tracks leading into the forest were partially obscured by the new snow. I counted, too many footprints.
Gabriel locked the doors and whipped around in his seat to face me. His lips were curled up, eyebrows pinched forward. I knew the look, I wasn’t going to like something.
“You are not allowed to kill anyone you see here, do you understand?” He asked.
“Yes,” I answered.
“I want your word, Aislinn, that you will not kill, shoot or stab anyone at the crime scene,” Gabriel continued
“I promise not to shoot, stab or kill anyone at the crime scene,” I told him, raising an eyebrow.
“You have to let her out,” Xavier said.
“She’s no good to us locked in the car,” Lucas added.
“And she did promise,” Michael was trying not to smile.
“Fuck,” Gabriel unlocked the doors.
The scene in the car put my guard up. I cautiously got out of the SUV and walked behind Gabriel into the forest. The first thing I saw was the clearing. Why did so many forests have clearings perfect for killing? I wondered.
My eyes found the reporter. She was smiling as she talked to the police. Her cameraman was not smiling. He looked green. He was trying very hard not to look at the body in the tree.
I reached for my gun and then remembered the conversation in the car. This is why he had grilled me into the promise. Gabriel had known I’d like nothing better than to bash her skull in with the butt of my gun. I couldn’t do that.
I walked up to her. Gabriel and Lucas were at my side. She smiled at me and motioned her cameraman to start paying attention.
“You’re Aislinn Cain,” she practically squealed at me. “I feel so honored to be working with you on this case.”
I punched her in the face. Blood smeared her cheek and oozed from her nose and upper lip. Tears filled her eyes and she gave me a stupid look.
“Did you broadcast this?” I asked.
She muttered something unintelligible.
“Did you broadcast this scene?” I asked again.
“No, just filmed it,” the cameraman finally answered.
“Give me the goddamn tape, right now,” I told him.
He began to fiddle with his camera. The reporter now had a tissue and was holding it on her face. She stopped him.
“So help me god, if you don’t give me that fucking tape right this second, not only will I have you arrested for hindering a Serial Crimes investigation and watch you rot in jail; but I will break your face open so badly that a plastic surgeon will not be able to put it back together again,” I said. The calm washed over me. I was outraged that she would dare to film such a thing without calling in the police. This was twice she had done it. Her respect for human life was so low, I put her in the same category as our serial killer.
The cameraman must have noticed the change in me. He swatted her hand away and magically produced the tape. He handed it to Gabriel. Gabriel tucked it into an evidence bag.
“I want to press charges,” the reporter suddenly began screaming.
“Funny, me too,” I said and walked away from her. No one touched me. No one tried to put handcuffs on me. Most of the police stared at me in a mix of horror and admiration.
“What the hell was that?” Gabriel reached me, grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. He instantly dropped my arm.
“That was me delivering on my word. I didn’t stab, shoot or kill her.”
“Next time I’m going to ban all grievous bodily harm,” Gabriel growled.
“That’s fine, I’m sure I can find something else. Maybe I’ll glare at them and clack my teeth together,” I answered.
“She wants to press charges. You’ll be arrested, Ace.”
“Then I’ll be arrested, Gabriel. At least you got the tape before the victim’s family could see it,” I told him.
“We were going to get the tape regardless.”
“No you weren’t. She was going to invoke her rights as a journalist. You would have arrested her. She still wouldn’t have given you any information. We’d dance around for weeks to see what she filmed without seeing it on the national news at six.”
“Damn, I hate when you are cold and logical at the same time,” Gabriel’s face went slack. He turned his eyes towards the victim. “That’s Agent Gentry.”
“She would have put up a fight,” I told him. There was a part of me that didn’t believe the vivacious FBI Agent with sensible shoes and impeccable dress could be the body hanging from the tree. The other part said that it was and that she had put up a hell of a fight. There was no way she would have just let him lead her into the woods and kill her. She had squared off with me and won when I had been weakened. Not for the first time, I thanked the calm that occasionally swallowed me. Without it, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do my job.
“Marshal Aislinn Cain?” The sheriff’s voice came from behind me. I turned to him.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m going to have to arrest you,” the sheriff told me, warily.
“That’s fine,” I turned back to Gabriel. “There may not be anything useful on the tape, but I’m guessing she didn’t get here by accident nor did she arrive very long after his exit.”
“Marshal Cain?” The sheriff said my name again.
“Do you want to use your handcuffs or mine?” I asked.
“Handcuffs won’t be necessary,” he said. I was betting it was more because he didn’t want to touch me at that moment. He motioned me forward, away from the body and the clearing in the woods. Gabriel would use the information I had gotten him to his advantage.
“Figure out why there isn’t a bow and arrow,” I shouted to Gabriel as the sheriff led me down the path.
Interrupted
He watched with unease as Marshal Cain was escorted off the crime scene. He couldn’t believe she was being arrested. She had done the world a favor hitting that bitch reporter in the face.
The reporter had caught him in the act, so to speak. She wouldn’t have evidence of his face on her tape, but she would have his build. She’d have his movements. He didn’t know how much of the ritual she had caught on film.
Her cameraman had thrown up. That had been the first sign they were there. He’d just finished. He had dashed down the path the other direction. They may have found his clearing this time, but they hadn’t found the parking lot he had used.
Henry had been driving home when the call came over the radio that another body and the nosy reporter had been found. He had turned around and returned to the scene via the directions given to him by the dispatch. He had also been told that the Marshals were on the way.
He had gotten lucky. After driving away from the scene, he had taken a moment to stop in an alleyway. He’d removed his murder garb and replaced it with street clothes as the first crackle of static hit the radio.
Now, they had the tape because Marshal Cain had scared the pants off of the cameraman. Six other officers had tried to convince him to turn it over. Only Marsha
l Cain had managed to get it.
“What do you think?” Dr. Reece asked him, breaking his thoughts.
“Looks like the others,” Henry answered.
“Since my second set of eyes has officially been arrested, would you like to join me in the autopsy?” Dr. Reece asked.
“Of course,” Henry looked at him. “Arrested for hitting the reporter?”
“Cain internalizes some situations pretty personally. Filming a crime scene for personal gain is one of them.”
“She doesn’t like reporters,” Henry said.
“Pretty much. She’s been hounded by them in the past.”
“She get much TV time?”
“A few times, never good encounters. Cain’s brother is a prisoner in The Fortress.”
“Her brother is a serial killer?” This shocked Henry, maybe that’s why she seemed so determined. Even after encouraging her to take the DHE she had seemed determined to carry on like nothing had happened.
“No, mass murderer,” Dr. Reece said. “By the way, I don’t mind you giving her migraine medication, but please make sure you ask her for a list of her meds when you do. She won’t lie to you about it, but she’ll omit when she has a migraine. She went straight back to the motel and self-injected the DHE.”
“Is she heavily medicated?” Henry raised an eyebrow at Xavier.
“Not in the least, quite the opposite, she takes fewer drugs than she should. However, Gentry said she self-injected sumatriptan at the diner, a mere two hours before filling her blood stream with DHE. My guess, she didn’t mention the sumatriptan or the time frame to you.”
“No, she didn’t. She said she had taken migraine