“You check out down here and I’m going to go up and check out the body and see what forensics have to say.” I turned and walked away from her without giving her the opportunity to answer. While it might have been a dick move, I didn’t particularly care. I was feeling dickish.
“Casey,” I greeted the one tech who was leaning against the wall in the upstairs hall. “That bad?”
She nodded, her eyes looking haunted. “Yeah, Aiden. It’s that bad. I’m going to have nightmares about his face for a long fucking time.”
I grimaced. She was a tough cookie who didn’t toss her cookies easily. If she was spooked and feeling squeamish over the state of the body, it was definitely not pretty.
“Why don’t you go get some air?”
She nodded, though I didn’t think she really heard me. I pulled on a fresh pair of gloves and entered the bedroom where the victim was, but stayed back, since forensics was doing their thing and one of the guys was getting pictures.
I fist-bumped Oliver, their lead tech, who was standing back as a guy I didn’t know worked on getting the pictures they needed.
“What are we working with?”
“Hard to tell.” He shrugged and had the same look in his eyes as Casey. “I’d say they’re mid-thirties, maybe a little younger. Good shape. From what we could see, there were atleast a dozen stab wounds, not counting the mess that was made of the guy’s face—or hands and…dick.”
A shudder wracked Oliver’s body and my curiosity had me trying to catch a peek, but there were still too many people in the room for me to get much of a glimpse of anything.
“I’m sorry, what the fuck, what?” I stared at Oliver, mouth wide open. “What the hell did he do to the guy’s dick?”
Oliver glanced away and grimaced. I could practically see him brace himself before he answered. “He cut it off.”
“Fuuuck. Is it possible this isn’t our guy?” I asked, then grimaced. “Never mind. I don’t think I want to know if we are looking at more than one person who is capable ofthat.” A full-body shudder went through me. “But I think you’re right. Either that or this was personal.”
The thought stopped me dead in my tracks.
Personal.
I stared at the body on the bed, my thoughts taking a dark turn.
“Thanks, man.” I left the room, not paying attention to where I was going. But I needed to get out of there.
Downstairs, I did a cursory walkthrough to see if anything caught my eye.
“Aiden?” Victoria called my name, but I couldn’t find it in myself to answer until she was right in front of me, snapping her fingers.
“What?” I snapped.
Her eyes narrowed as she gave me a once-over. I wasn’t sure what she’d find when she studied my face, but I didn’t think I’d like it.
I shook my head. “Sorry? What did you say?” I tried to act nonchalant, but I knew I wasn’t fooling the partner I’d known for almost a decade.
“What the hell, Aiden?” she hissed, keeping her voice lowso she wouldn’t attract the attention of any of the other dozen cops or crime scene technicians who were milling around.
She grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away, but I was able to easily get out of her grasp.
“Are you okay? You are white as a sheet. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” She grimaced. “Was it that bad upstairs?”
I looked away, unable to make eye contact.
“It wasn’t great. But we have a job to do, so let’s do it.” My voice was firm and held a tone that was non-negotiable. At least, I hoped it did. But she let out a sigh and followed me through the house.
There was nothing unusual in the house, unless you counted all the garbage and the piles of dirty dishes. I was pretty sure there was something alive scurrying around—and I didn’t mean a cat.
“This is gross,” Victoria muttered as she dug through the guy’s belongings, trying her best not to touch anything more than she had to.
Even with the gloves on, it still made me squeamish.
