Heads Will Roll – Chapter Twenty-One

NOT EDITED

Saturday: February 1, 2014

Bo had managed to sleep straight through the night, something he usually didn’t even accomplish back home. Sure, five in the morning was certainly considered early for most people, but it was still a lot later than he normally managed in one go.

In the clinic’s little break room, he was both surprised and pleased to see that Rick and Heidi had clearly slept through the night too. He knew Rick had needed the sleep, and if Heidi knew absolutely anything about this case, he was certain she had as well. There was nothing easy about your knowing the school your children attended wasn’t safe. There was nothing easy about knowing your husband was being hunted down by some crazed psychopath on a rampage of vengeance.

Unwilling to risk disturbing the pair by turning on the coffee maker, Bo made his way downstairs to the morgue. There wasn’t much more he could do until Jordan Sherman’s body was defrosted, but it still didn’t hurt to confirm the temperature had remained consistent throughout the night. Before walking into the room, he squatted down to unplug his phone charger from the outlet near the door. He had several texts from Bridget, but not enough of them piled up to be concerning. Simply enough to show she had likely wondered where he was and why he hadn’t shown up at the hotel. For that, he couldn’t blame her. Had he planned on coming into some actual sleep, he would have let her know beforehand.

After a quick check of the temperature gauge on the refrigeration unit Jordan’s body was in, Bo headed back into the hallway to send a text to Bridget. He wasn’t sure how much longer it would be before she woke up, but at least she’d wake up to his message and know he was safe and sound.

Bo: Good morning, Bridge. Sorry for not sending a text last night to let you know I was okay. I ended up sleeping at the hospital last night, and it appears Rick did the same. I hope you and Deputy Biggs were able to get some sleep too. I don’t have much else I can do here at the morgue, so I’ll be at the station with you today, unless our ‘friend’ leaves us another present on the lake

Bridget’s reply came before he could even get his phone back into his pocket.

Bridget: God I hope not

Bridget: I’m glad you got some sleep. You needed it

Bridget: I made him go home last night after he dropped me at the hotel. Can’t have him thinking I like him or anything

Bo snorted.

Bo: Of course, I should’ve known

Bridget: Can I call you?

Bo: Yes

Bo accepted the call a moment later and pressed his phone to his ear. “Bridge.”

“Hey.” A pause. “So you slept okay?”

“Yeah, better than I usually do, if you can believe it.”

“Well, it’s not a high bar to cross or anything.”

“That’s fair. Rude, but fair.”

Bridget laughed softly. “I know.” Another pause. “Are you okay, Bo?”

“Of course. Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well, I can think of at least a couple reasons. Like… knowing this guy wants to kill you and Rick.”

“Well… technically, it’s my assumption that he wants to kill Rick. He came to Ellepath because Rick is next on his list, not me.”

“That’s not as comforting as you seem to think it is.”

“It’s enough for me, for right now.”

Bridget let out a quiet sigh. “I guess I can handle that. I don’t like it, but I can handle it.”

Bo pressed his back to the wall, crossing his free arm over his chest. “You said you had a ‘couple’ reasons. What’s the second?”

“What Kathy said to you at the lake?”

“About Dallas?”

“Sure. That’s one. And her calling you queer in front of two guys you barely know.”

“Oh.” Bo cleared his throat. “Yeah, I, uh… I didn’t know she knew that.”

“I don’t think she does. I think she’s just a bitch trying to get under your skin.”

“You… you don’t think Dallas told her?”

“No, and there’s no way she’d talk to him anyway. He’s beneath her, you know? Not even worthy of being gum on her shoe, as far as she’s concerned. She pulled some shit out of her ass to try and get into your head, and everybody in every department knows that you and Dallas are basically partners.”

“I suppose so. I just don’t know that she could poke and prod at me quite so accurately if she didn’t speak to him.”

“Well, when we get back to Los Angeles, if we find out that he did say any of that to the bitch? I’m kicking his ass into next week.”

Bo closed his eyes, a soft smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. He could always count on Bridget to stand tall at his side, despite both of their short statures. “Thank you, Bridget. I knew I could count on you.”

“Always. You’re stuck with me, Austen.”

“I’m pretty sure we long ago deduced you were stuck with me.”

“Nah, I don’t remember that.” Bo rolled his eyes rather than responding. “Were you able to find out anything about Sherman?”

“I have to wait for his body to thaw out before I can do an internal autopsy. I did a basic look for trace evidence. I didn’t find any DNA under his fingernails. The few fingerprints on his clothes appear to match his in the LAPD’s system. There’s a palm print on his neck, but it doesn’t match anything in any of the databases I’ve run it against. I found no external wounds to indicate that he was shot, stabbed, or injected with anything. The placement of the palm print indicates he may have been strangled, and there’s some slight bruising on the body that points to that as well, but I won’t be able to confirm until I can look inside his neck to see what the internal damage looks like.”

“Let’s assume you’re right,” Bridget said. “Why strangle Sherman but stab Carol?”

“I don’t know. If she was trying to grab a knife, the killer may have simply taken it from her and used it against her. If she managed to stab him first and drew blood that way, it may have simply been a fit of rage. Or a different preference on how he kills women versus how he kills men. Or the one who killed Sherman is the one who kidnapped Bonnie instead of the one who killed Carol.”

“Hmm.”

“What?”

“I dunno. It’s just… if they’re both cold-blooded killers, why hold back on Bonnie? Why kidnap her instead of killing her and displaying her?”

“My assumption is that it’s to pay homage to the original case, to leave little hints to Rick of who he is and why he’s here, but that’s all it is—an assumption.”

“Yeah.” A pause. “I still don’t get where Carol fits into it all. I get that Rick’s the target here in Ellepath. I get that Sherman worked the case in a way. I get that the list of missing cops and whatnot were, in one way or another, technically involved in it. But I can’t wrap my head around Carol.”

“Me neither, quite frankly. If she still worked at the school, my theory would be that she saw Bonnie being taken, but she doesn’t, and we have no reason to assume she was at the school that day, saw it, and then… chose not to tell anyone but was still murdered anyway. The other prominent theory would be that one of the neighbors is the kidnapper and she saw Bonnie there, on that street, and he chased her back inside but…”

“But he didn’t break down the door because the lock and frame were all intact.”

“Exactly, which muddies things a bit for me. If she knew he was chasing her, why not close and lock the door to give herself a chance? Why go for a knife instead of her phone?”

“Why not get in your car and run him down?” Bridget suggested.

“Exactly. None of it really clicks for me,” Bo said. He let out a harsh breath, gaze shifting to his feet. “There’s usually a point in the case where all the pieces click together for me, like one complete puzzle. All the pieces are there, they were all cut perfectly in the factory, the border edges are all even and aligned… But this case feels like all the pieces were cut wrong, some of the pieces in the box belong to a different puzzle, some of the cutouts didn’t get completely cut off, and when you try to tear them off, it rips the rest of the piece instead. Every piece I’m given feels like it’s getting me further and further away from the final and complete image, not closer, and I don’t… really know what to do with that.”

“I bet Dallas would know,” Bridget said after a while.

“I don’t know.”

“You know he’s eerily good at getting inside the heads of these fuckers.”

“He is. I just… don’t know that I want to involve him.”

“Because of Baker?”

“I-I think you’re right. I know you’re right. The likelihood she actually spoke to him, that he actually said those things, is so incredibly low, but there’s still a chance she did. That he did. And I just… I don’t know that I can face that right now.”

“I know it’s hard for you to trust people, B. I get it. I know why. But Dallas is one of the ones you can trust. Don’t let Kathy get into your head and change your mind on that. That’s her only goal, Bo. To get in your head and screw everything for you. Don’t give her that power.”

“I… I’ll talk to Rick when he wakes up and see how he would feel about another LA cop. I’ll go from there.”

“That’s all I can ask,” Bridget said. “I’m proud of you, B.”

“For?”

“Everything, always.”

Bo closed his eyes for a moment, unable to help the small smile that tugged at either corner of his lips. “Thank you, Bridget.”

“Always.”

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