The man shook his head.
“No, I can feel her tongue,” he said. “It’s the advanced rigor due to the cold that’s making her lock up.”
They waited.
When he finally got her mouth open, he used his penlight and shined it into her mouth.
That’s when they saw it.
On her tongue, something had been burned.
‘Liar.’
It was one word, and it made them all pause. Immediately, Ethan was working on how this connected.
Because it would.
He just needed to figure out the context of this particular message.
“Well, that’s new,” Gene admitted. “Here, I was hoping that it would be three and done. I guess we’re back to the cuckoo party and being held hostage by this killer.”
Yeah, that was what it was looking like.
Now, they’d have no idea how many more victims there would be.
When someone shouted something from outside the police tape, Gene looked over. The media presence had tripled, and they were all over the crime scene. The local police were working damn hard to keep them back.
“Doc, you should get her bagged and tagged. We’re about to have a melee. The reporters have been chomping at the bit to get information. We don’t need a picture of this on the news.”
Oh, and if this got out, he was personally killing the ME since only so many of them had heard her name, and the two cops were right there with them.
Luis understood.
“Screens,” he said, and his techs began moving to block him and the body until he could ensure it was safe to move. They still had to check a few more things before he could do that.
He was to the point.
“I’ll get her into the morgue. I have a contact number from Greyson, so I’ll text you when I’m done with her autopsy.”
That worked for them.
Well, him.
His partner was lost in thought, and Gene knew he was working on the profile.
“Put a rush on it, Doc. If this person is dropping bodies this fast, it won’t be long before he does it again. I’d like to beat him to that,” he admitted.
The man was curious.
“How much time do you think you have?” Luis asked.
Ethan glanced over, proving he had been listening.
“Today,” he said. “Expect the next body today. His timeline will be the same as the others.”
Well, that was not something they wanted to hear, and for good reason.
Gene knew this was problematic since they still didn’t know what connected them. They were going to have to research the woman and hope they found that thread.
