Loves Redemption

afternoon, Detectives. We called as soon as I
confirmed it was the slayer . ”
“This is a little soon, isn’t it? It hasn’t been quite a month from the last one. Is she
escalating?” Jordan asked. Soon after he’d voiced the question, the smell of the dead corpse hit him. The tech stopped walking and handed them both masks before they continued.
“Okay, obviously this one has been around for a while,” Mark interjected. As they
walked closer to the corpse, they could see parts of the nude man’s body had begun to
decompose.
“If I had to put a time frame on it, I’d say this one has been around for a few weeks. The
coroner can give a more approximate time, but it’ll be damn close,” Davis told the men as they drew close to the decomposing corpse.
The tech went over the scene with them pointing out the similar patterns. After the team
dug the victim out of his shallow grave, they’d been able to see the gun shot point of entry at the back of the skull.
“You can see the victim had been stripped, divested of all clothing and any means of
identification. She left the body with the dowel thrown across his face.” The tech pointed out the wooden down, bloodied, and splattered with the man’s own feces.
Mark hunched down to get a closer look, and with gloved hands, turned the body over.
Although the body was beginning to break down, he could see where the assault had taken place.
“Same shit?”
“Same shit, different day,” the tech answered in the macabre humor of one who dealt
with the more gruesome aspects of humanity, daily.
“How was it uncovered? Any witnesses?”
“No witnesses. Old man out in the park feeding the birds came across this one. Called it
in, and our guys uncovered the body.”
Jordan and Mark made notes as they catalogued the scene. “Looks like that’s it. Let us
know if you discover anything else.”
“Sure will, Detective,” the tech promised.
* * * *
As soon as they returned to the squad room, Lieutenant Hernandez shoved his head out of
his office and called out in a strident voice, “Phillips, Halstan, I need you in my office. Now.”
“Man, what is wrong with him?” Jordan asked, as he unfurled his body from behind his desk.
“This case man, this case. Between it, more murders, and the acting chief breathing down
his neck every other damn minute, he’s going fuckin’ nuts,” Mark answered as he followed
Jordan into the lieutenant’s office.
“Have a seat, men. Before I go into my news, what’d you uncover at the scene?”
Lieutenant Hernandez started without preamble, encompassing both men in his query, and Mark gave him a succinct retelling of their discovery.
“All right good enough, good job. The reason I called you in here was to let you know the
acting chief has decided, over my objections, to bring in the FBI,” he told them at the close of their brief.
“Shit! What the hell for? They’re not going to uncover anything we haven’t already,”
Jordan exclaimed, running an angry hand across the back of his neck.
“Hell, we’ve been working our balls off on this case. What the hell else does the guy
want from us?” Mark demanded, just as pissed off as Jordan over the new development.
Holding up his hand for silence, the lieutenant continued. “Look, men, I know how you
feel, I feel the same way, but it’s a fact and we’re going to deal with it, and deal with it like professionals. The agent’s name is Nicolai Montgomery. His actual title is Special Agent
Montgomery. Special Agent Montgomery heads up a subunit of other specialized agents who
assist in cases such as this one.”
“He arrived from FBI headquarters this morning. In fact, he should be here any minute.”
No sooner had he finished speaking, than a knock sounded on his door. “That might be
him now. I didn’t think he’d make it in so fast.”
“Damn, that was quick.” Jordan told Mark in a low voice.
As the lieutenant opened his office door, he looked up into the silver eyes of the man who
stood there. His gaze took in the FBI identification badge hanging from his neck, and standing aside, he invited the agent in. Hernandez felt the tension rise as the agent entered the room.
“Special Agent Montgomery?” he verified.
“Yes, sir,” the agent said, as he shook his hand and abruptly released it.
“I’m glad your flight made it in safely, and I’d like to welcome you on board.” The
lieutenant’s glance then stole to his two detectives, as they each stood to extend their hand to the newcomer. As each man shook the other’s in a hard grip, he had a moment to do a quick visual of the FBI agent.
Having already taken note of his strange eyes, his gaze took in the inky blackness of his
hair. The agent’s nose was prominent in his face, hawked and crooked. His chin was squared
with a deep cleft, and a discernible shadow covered it.
Although he looked to be under 6 feet in height, he was thick, and the muscles in his
chest and legs bulged through his dark, fitted, standard-issue suit and tie. The agent’s legs were braced apart, and he’d maneuvered his body to allow his back to face the wall.
“Please Special Agent Montgomery, have a seat,” he offered, indicating the available
chair.
“I’ll stand for now, thank you, Lieutenant Hernandez. If you don’t mind, I’d very much
appreciate it if we could start. And Agent Montgomery is fine,” he said in a deep scratchy voice.
“Start what? What’s your role going to be in this case?” Jordan asked.
Turning his head toward Jordan, the agent gave Jordan his direct gaze, his head tilted to
the side as though considering his words carefully before answering.
“My role is to assist this department and give aide to this investigation. I emphasize the
word assist. I don’t know what your experience in the past has been with the FBI, Detective, whether