Oh, and for two reasons.
“I’m not letting my partner run wild on a case without me to babysit. I know you. You’re a magnet for all kinds of shit. Secondly, what kind of hoe-baggery is this? The day I willingly want to babysit a woman…take my temperature. Anally, because I’m gay as fuck.”
That amused Ethan.
How could it not?
“Well, then, we have to hope this killer is not already planning for more fun with another body.”
Gene hoped not.
“We have see, hear, and speak no evil already. What could possibly be next?”
That was a good question.
“I mean, I might be wrong. Maybe this person is done. Let’s just hope he or she is.”
Oh, Gene was.
“Male or female?” he asked, knowing Ethan would know what he was saying. There wasNO FREAKING WAYthat his partner, the profiler, didn’t already have an inkling as to who was doing this.
He shrugged.
“Honestly, Gene, I don’t have a clue. The weapon says either, the violence says either, and the degloving of a whole body minus the face…that tells me that this person is out oftheir damn minds. That’s gender neutral, too. As of yet, unless we get something that says otherwise…no freaking clue. All three women were relatively demure in stature. Both a man or woman could lift them, depending on their strength, so…”
Well, that wasn’t good.
If Ethan didn’t know, they were genuinely starting at zero and digging their way out of that hole.
Shit.
Getting up, Gene knew they needed to get some downtime too. Tomorrow would be brutal, and his arm was killing him. He needed some pain meds in order to regroup for tomorrow’s laundry list of fun.
“Shall we?” he asked.
Blackhawk nodded.
Heading out to the car, Ethan held out his hand to get their car-rental keys.
It surprised Gene.
“Wait. What? You want to drive?” he asked. “What the hell is this?”
When he pulled his other hand from his coat pocket, he had Gene’s pain meds.
“If you take one now, you’ll be able to function tomorrow. While I love you, when you take meds, you get loopy, and you’ll say you can drive, but you can’t.”
He snorted.
It wasn’t like he was wrong.
“That you used that in the plural, meds, should tell you that we get in way too much shit. Case in point,” he said, holding up his casted arm.
But he didn’t argue.
Instead, he gave him the keys.
Then, they both got into the car. As they did, Gene used the last of his coffee to take two pills. He was going to be out for the count for a few hours.
