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”Not as far as I can tell,” Grayson replied, sticking his hands into the pockets of his jeans. It was getting hot now as the sun shone high up in the sky and I could see beads of sweat forming on his forehead. ”No signs of sexual assault.”
”How do you know?” I asked.
”Well, she’s wearing all her clothes,” he said. ”I’m not going to look at her, obviously, more than just a glance, but yeah. It felt brutal but not sexual.”
”Based on what? Vibes?”
”An educated guess,” Grayson said.
I raised my eyebrows. He was smart, and he knew what he was doing, but my patience with the situation was wearing thin. We’d installed cameras in the alley–which had promptly,mysteriouslybroken–and then we’d posted a couple of people to patrol the area. They were good, capable men, and neither one of them ever saw shit. It wasn’t just infuriating, it was worrying. I didn’t like the idea that someone who liked murder was targeting us.
I grimaced at the thought. ”Any witnesses?”
”Not yet,” he replied. ”But I spoke to Kev and Phil. Neither one of them saw anything last night.”
”And they were both here?”
”Yeah. They didn’t leave.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. ”Alright,” I said. ”Okay. Any other information?”
”Her wallet was on her. Her name’s Ana. Was Ana, I guess.”
”Ana what?”
”Welton,” he said.
We turned the corner and I saw the body for the first time. It was lying on the ground, wrapped in a black plastic bag. My stomach churned as I moved closer to it, feeling the heat radiating off the pavement. I saw the outline of a body and the shape of a woman’s features under the bag. ”They put her in a bag?”
”Yes,” Grayson said. He crouched down next to me and swallowed hard enough that I could hear. He put his hand over his mouth as he tried to stop himself from gagging, his skin turning a light pale of yellow. ”I don’t know how long I can keep doing this, Teo.”
I sighed. ”I wish you didn’t have to. We need to catch this guy. Did she have anything on her?”
I crouched down and pulled the bag away from the face. The woman had long, wavy brown hair, and her skin was still warm to the touch. Her eyes were open and staring, and I could see the fear in them. I swallowed back bile and stood up on shaky legs.
Mercifully, I couldn’t see any blood. That would’ve pushed me over the edge.
Grayson was watching me, his expression unreadable. I knew what he was thinking, though. We’d been at this for a long time, and we knew each other better than anyone else. He could tell I was concerned and I really didn’t like it when my men knew I was worried.
”Boss,” he said, his voice low. ”What are we going to do?”
I rubbed my chin, thinking. We needed to find out who was responsible for this, and fast. Three bodies in a month was too much. Too many people were paying attention to us.
”We need to step up security,” I said, my mind racing. ”We’ll have Jace get on top of getting the cameras fixed. And I want more patrols in the area. Can you handle it?”
Grayson nodded, his face serious. ”I’ll take care of it,” he said. ”Do you want me to loop Victor in?”
”No,” I said. ”I can do that myself.”
Grayson nodded. I could tell he was holding back a sigh of relief. No one liked when I had to call in Victor; least of all me. He wasn’t subtle. He could be brutal. Sometimes, cleaning up after him was worse than the original clean up.
But he was my last recourse when my patience was wearing thin, and my patience was fraying.
”Alright. What about the body?” Grayson asked.
”She can’t stay here. Take her back to wherever she lives…lived. Make it look like a suicide.”
”Fuck,” Grayson said, standing up and wiping his sweaty hands on his pants. I could tell he didn’t like this. This had never been part of his job before. ”Alright. Whatever you need, boss. Oh, hm…”
