Past Will Haunt by Morgan Kelley Page B

given payment enough.
    He didn't need much.
    All he really craved were the accolades.
    As the big black Denali pulled up, he watched the two Feds hop out. He could spot cops a mile away. They had that arrogant swagger.
    What astounded him was that they were women.
    He wanted to laugh.
    This was who they sent?
    They were going to find and stop him? How dare they think that was going to happen?
    They were simpletons.
    These two were nothing more than pretty pieces of ass, meant to lure men in with promises of sex and their bodies.
    This had to be a joke.
    It filled him with anger as he watched them stride toward the scene he’d created. With loving slashes of his arm, he had painted the walls red.
    He made it a masterpiece.
    Now, they weren’t taking him seriously. They were sending in children to play with a man.
    Well, he could fix that.
    Tonight.
    Later.
    It would be done.
     
     
     
     
                  * * *   B l a c k h a w k - W h i t e f o x   * * *
     
     
     
     
     
    Tuesday Mid-Morning
     
     
     
    Elizabeth and Livy headed upstairs and into the victim’s sanctuary. They wanted to search the woman’s bedroom for anything case related while the team wrapped up the trace downstairs.
    A boudoir said a lot about the owner, and it also spoke to an investigator.
    Was the person neat?
    Messy?
    Were there copious amounts of sex toys or was it bare?
    You never knew what you were going to find, and they often equated it like a fact finding mission.
    As they pulled on latex gloves, they each began their search with a section of the room. There were books, movies, and a few magazines, but nothing that really told them anything about the woman who died.
    She looked like the average, run of the mill female who should still be walking in the world of the living. Instead, she was dead. They both knew there had to be something to tie her to the killer. Death was rarely random when it came to a serial nut job.
    There was always a tie.
    It may be small, but it had to be there.
    “Hey, I think I found something,” Livy said, holding it in her hand for her partner to see.
    “What is it?” Elizabeth asked, heading her way.
    “There’s something scribbled on a bar napkin,” she stated. “It looks like some sort of code. It says ‘The Bog’ ? Is that a bar in town?”
    Elizabeth studied it. “Yeah, I think it’s downtown just off the square. It’s pretty busy.”
    “I don’t know what any of this code is. All I see is a bunch of numbers and letters,” Livy offered, handing it over.
    The minute Elizabeth saw it, she knew what it was.
    “It’s a work schedule. In college, I worked at this wing and beer bar. I was a waitress there. On Saturday nights, the manager would always post our schedule, but the only thing I ever had in my apron was cocktail napkins and my pen. I used to scribble it down like that too. It’s waitress shorthand.”
    Together they checked it out.
    “This looks like some dates,” Livy stated.
    “What’s today?” Elizabeth asked as Livy pulled out her phone to get the answer.
    When she flipped it open, she saw the date. “Today’s the twelfth.”
    They scanned the napkin.
    Livy pointed to the eleventh scrawled on the paper. “It looks like she worked last night from six until twelve.”
    “Well, it looks like we have our confirmation. We know where the victim was before she was taken. This will help us out a little bit.”
    “Did we get a time of death from Chris?” Livy asked.
    Elizabeth shook her head before pulling out her phone. She couldn’t believe that they forgot to ask the ME. With all the comments and snarling going on, she’d let it slip her mind.
    When she finished dialing his number, Elizabeth waited until he came on the line.
    “Doctor Leonard.”
    “Hey, Doc, long time no talk, but I need to ask you about something.”
    There was a confused pause.
    “Elizabeth?”
    She laughed. “Why are you shocked that I’m calling you? Does your phone never