~ Lover's Tryst ~
by Larisa
Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah I know who they remind ya of. These women are all mine! Xepher and Brian are back in this sequel to Body Parts. GRAPHIC VIOLENCE!!!!!! Not as bad as Body Parts but some parts are gross!
Violence: Yep.
Language: Yep.
Sex? Of course there is!
The rest of the story: If you're to young to buy beer, go have a yahoo and come back in a couple years! If you live in a State that outlaws this, then you live around a bunch of pricks.
Thanks to Lesia, Ri, Maggie, Thorie and the WebWarrior. Couldn't have gotten this done without all your help.
Part 2
Edwards was walking out to his car when Xe pulled in, she cast a look his way and caught the glare in his muddy eyes. Ignoring him, she went through the back door to the autopsy room and looked around. Everything was clean and shinning in the dim light from the overhead cabinet lights over the smaller work areas. From a distance, she could hear whistling. Her wife only whistled when she was working or knew something. Silently she walked down the hall to Brian's office and stood in the doorway watching her, the small wicked grin on her face gave way to a full-fledged smile when she saw Xe.
"Hey baby you're late."
"I got pulled into the office on my way out, the commissioner wanted to talk to me about Mrs. I'm a bitch Davidson." She sat on the edge of Brian's desk right in front of her and told her everything that had happened that day once they left the crime scene. She tried to ignore the fact that Brian was running her hands up the insides of her thighs. "Sooo what happened to you, I heard you whistling?"
"Later, right now I want to go home and try something." She pulled Xe down for a deep kiss that had both of their pulses racing. "Plus we have the kids to check on; they may even let us in the house." She slapped Xe in her stomach and waited at the door for her. "Come on stud."
Xe counted on her fingers while walking towards Brian, when she finished a huge grin covered her face.
"What are you grinning at?"
"Ohh lets just say that you're no longer a danger to society." She was happy as Hell that Brian's monthly curse was over with.
"That doesn't mean that you're safe."
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"BEAR YOU ROTTEN LITTLE SHIT!" Xe picked up a pair of Brian's underwear from in front of the door and continued to pick up clothes all the way through the house. "Where ya hiding ya little rat bitches." She looked under the bed, chair and dresser before she went out into the living room and found Brian down on her hands and knees looking under the couch. An evil grin came across her face, sneaking up behind her; she dropped down to the floor, crawled on top of her back and nipped her neck. "Whatcha doin?"
"Taking our toys from the kids." She dangled a chewed vibrator in front of Xe's face. "At least it's not our favorite one."
"Wonder where they're hiding?"
"I'm afraid to even think about where they could be." Brian collapsed on the floor and rolled so that she was facing Xe.
Blue eyes grew huge when a thought came to her. "Please don't let them be in the office!" She jumped to her feet and hauled Brian up; they took off running to the small office. With one look, their worries were confirmed. Papers were everywhere, file folders that at one time were on the desk were scattered across the floor and a pile of their clothes was in the center of the desk with two little dogs cuddled together in them. "Rotten little dogs." Xe whispered and watched as two sets of eyes looked up at her.
"Guess you better take them to work with you in the morning." Brian chuckled when Bear rolled onto her back and offered her belly to Xe.
"Ain't gonna work you destroyer of homes and you Fugly, picking up her bad habits." She gave in and rubbed her dog's belly, she was whipped by both women in her life.
"IF I roll over will you do that to me?" Brian growled close to Xe's ear.
"I'll think about it."
"Ohh you'll do more than think about it." She slipped her hand up between her wives legs and ran her fingernails across the seam of her Levi's. "You'll do a lot more than think about it, I can feel how wet you are already." Xe moaned and fell forward to rest on the palms of her hands.
"You better believe it Bri." She turned around, swept Brian up into her arms and carried her to their bedroom.
After hours of reacquainting themselves with each other and taking a few more shingles off the roof, they lay wrapped in each other's arms.
Xe rolled them over so that she was looking into green eyes. "You gonna tell me about what happened at work today?"
"You mean the part where the administrator apologized and fired Edwards?" Brian had just finished telling Xe about her day, when her soft even breathing signaled that she had fallen asleep. Pulling the sheet up over their naked bodies, Xe was careful not to get it near the burns on her wives arm. Brian's leg was still covered in gauze but she refused to have her arm swathed in anything. The burns weren't as bad as they were but with wearing pants, she kept her leg covered to keep the material from irritating the tender skin. Snuggling closer to Brian, Xe closed her eyes and surrendered to sleep.
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Brian mumbled in her sleep and ran her hands across the bed searching for the warm body that was normally beside her. Not finding Xe, she opened one eye and gasped. Looking down towards the foot of the bed, she saw a lump between her legs and two sets of eyes looking up at her. "Gods I hope that wasn't one of…Gods!" Her back arched when she felt a warm tongue lick at her center. "You evil bitch Xe!" She groaned and flipped the sheet back to see her wife lying between her thighs.
"Morning baby." Was all Xe said before she went back to licking the wetness from Brian. Soft moans and groans came from her lips and vibrated against Brian's engorged shaft. Using her thumb, she pressed it against the throbbing shaft and slipped her tongue into Brian's center. Pulling her tongue out part way, she pushed it back in and felt muscles clamp down around it. Flicking Brian's clit with her thumb, she felt her arch against her and go over the edge with a deep groan. With juices dripping from her chin, Xe crawled up to lay her head on a warm breast and sighed deeply. Brian's body was still quivering with the effects of her climax, she lay taking deep breaths and rode them out to the very end. She watched as Xe yawned, took a deep calming breath and fell asleep. "I don't believe you." She grabbed an ear and wiggled it and got no response from her lover. "You wake me up like that and then fall asleep?" She used all her strength and rolled them over so that she was lying on top of a sleeping Xe. A wicked smirk came across her face as she thought of paybacks. Looking down at the dogs still sitting on the foot of the bed, she wiggled her brows at them and grinned. Moving so that she was kneeling between Xe's legs, she slipped a finger between her nether lips and felt the wetness gathered there. Doing something that her wife would never think she would ever do, she pressed a finger to her tight opening and slipped her finger part way in. Watching a blue eye pop open, she grinned and dropped down to lick at her center.
Xe's back arched as a small finger entered her, she gripped the sheets in her hands and gasped when the finger was twisted inside of her. Bracing her heels against the bed, she raised her hips and pumped against Brian's face. "Bri…an…harder." She begged and felt her muscles clench and colors float before her eyes. "Com…ing!" She screamed out as she went over the edge and collapsed limply on the bed. Brian licked the last of the juices from her wife and crawled up her body to stare down into her slack face.
"Xe? Don't tell me you fell asleep again." She watched for a few seconds and saw no signs of normal sleep. "Baby?" She caressed her cheek and then checked her pulse. Tapping her cheek gently, she saw eyelids start to flutter open. "Baby are you alright, I didn't hurt you did I?"
"It was sooo peaceful there."
"Huh, where?"
"Where ever I was…nice and warm, quiet and all the little tinkling of bells." Xe had a dreamy look on her face as she described where she was.
"You passed out on me!" A huge grin formed on Brian's face, she was damn proud of herself for what she did. "Damn I'm good!" She placed a sloppy kiss on a shocked Xe's lips and chuckled at her expression.
"I did not pass…on second thought I may have." She gave Brian a sheepish grin. "Damn you're good." She rolled them over onto their sides and then she snuggled her face against Brian's breasts. "Love you baby."
"Love you too stud." She ran her fingers through dark hair and grinned some more. "How come you bury your face in my tits?"
"Cuz their nice and soft." She mumbled and sighed.
"OK. Xe, I've been thinking about selling my apartment." She looked down as a dark head popped up and blue eyes looked at her.
"I was thinking the same thing about this place, how about if we sell both places and buy a house away from the city. There's this farm about 20 minutes from here for sale."
"You want to live on a farm?"
"We could raise fugly little dogs and maybe get a horse" The look on her face was like a little kid at Christmas.
"A horse, you want a horse?" She raised an eyebrow and for some strange reason could see her wife riding a horse across an open field with her dark hair streaming out behind her. "You gonna get a tiny little Shetland pony that pulls a cart for me and the kids?"
"Nah, I'll just stick you and the kids in the saddle bags." That got her a smack on top of her head.
"I'll remember that when it comes time to clean the stalls."
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Xe was at her desk going over all the files that the other officers had dropped in her in box during the last couple of days that she hadn't been into the precinct. What she had was a running list of people that knew Davidson but refused to say anything about the man or his bitch of a wife. Even people that had come out during the election and opposed him, had nothing to say. That gave her a feeling that someone was shutting everyone up and she didn't like it one bit. Pulling another folder open, she looked down at the lab results from all the victims and the evidence reports. What interested her, was the fact that the hair found in the first car did not match any of the victims nor anyone who was a friend or family member. The same hair was found at the other crime scene on one of the victims. The police had yet to identify the two men and were working on sending out pictures to all the area police department's missing peoples units besides having the press help them by showing composite drawings on the news. The break that Xe was waiting for was the business card that Brian had found stuck to the one victim's body. She had told Boggs about it and asked if they could bring Vance in for questioning. His answer was no that the man had an iron clad alibi. He and his partner had been at the hospital visiting his mother on their lunchtime and were together the entire time that the bodies would have been placed at the truck stop. What irritated her was that there had not been one witness to either of the crimes. She found it hard to believe that no one saw anything. It was like the murderer was invisible.
Taking a sip of her coffee, she frowned when she realized that it was empty. Closing the folder, she pointed to Bear who was in her in box.
"Guard this and don't let anyone near my desk." Bear stood up, stretched and walked over to lie down on the folder. "Fugly, you guard my donut from Bear." The pup tilted her head sideways and looked at her with blue eyes. "OK, just sit there. Can't believe I talk to them like I do." She mumbled on her way to the Juan Valdez crude container, the coffee at the station was bad enough that the EPA had issued a bulletin against pouring it down the drains and the health insurance carrier refused to pay for ulcer treatments. Filling her cup with half milk the other half crude, she dumped in sugar and prayed that the spoon didn't deteriorate in her cup. Hearing a low growl and a yipping noise, she turned and looked over to her desk to see Officer Vance standing there. Dropping the spoon on the coffee stand, she calmly walked up behind him.
"What can I help you with Vance?" She sat down in her chair and looked up at him with cold eyes.
"I wanted to talk to you about the case you're working on." He fidgeted with his hat and tried to make eye contact with her. "I know that you're looking at me as the prime suspect."
"And how do you come to that conclusion?"
"It's happening all over again." He sighed and motioned to the chair beside him.
"Have a seat and tell me what your thoughts are." She was interested in what the young man had to say on behalf of himself.
"It started when I was in High school; a good friend of mine was murdered and hung from the one of the showers in the locker room. At first, they thought it was a suicide until they saw that his hands had been bound behind his back and had bruises around his ankles. The coroner determined that he died from manual strangulation and not from being hung." He paused to take a breath and looked into her eyes. "I was the last person to see him alive; they took me in for questioning but couldn't do anything because at the time of death, I was playing football three counties away."
"What kind of football game was it?" Xe asked because he could have been just playing with a group of friends.
"I was the quarterback in the State conference game. Two more friends were killed before the end of my senior year. Each one was worse than the last."
"When you got out of school did the murders end?"
"For a couple of months, I left home and went to California to attend USC on a football scholarship. After I was there for six months, my roommate was found lying on the hood of my car with his intestines wrapped around it." His face paled and he took a hitched breath.
"Let me ask you something." She leaned forward in her chair and connected eyes with him. "Can you think of anyone who would want you to be blamed for these murders, is there someone that has followed you from your home town to California and now to here?"
"No ma'am, I don't have any friends. Who would want to take a chance on being my friend when they could end up dead?" He shrugged his shoulders. "I'm an only child, I have no relatives except my Mom and she's in the hospital being treated for cancer."
"Hold on a minute and let me check something out." She placed Bear back in her in box and pulled Vance's file and the one with the evidence report from the first crime out. She scanned both files until she found what she was looking for. "What's your blood type?"
"B negative."
She nodded her head and then pulled the file on Davidson; she had a hunch but didn't know if it would pan out or not. "Would you be willing to give a blood and semen sample?"
"Will this help clear me of any suspicion?"
"Yeah, at least for two of the three cases." They had the semen from Davidson and a couple samples of blood not belonging to either of the first two victims. She believed that the perp had accidentally cut them selves on the spear while moving the bodies.
"I can give you a blood sample…" His face took on paleness. "But I can't give a semen sample."
She tried to make him feel comfortable. "Vance, no one will be in the room when you give that sample."
"It's not that Ma'am…I don't have any testicles, they were removed when I was eighteen. I had testicular cancer and all I have now are artificial implants." He pulled a wrinkled business card from his pocket and handed it to her. "That's the cancer specialist that treated me; you can call her if you want."
She leaned back in her chair and looked at him. "Can I ask you why you came to me?"
"I love being a cop; I don't want to loose my job because someone has a grudge against me. I want to help you, so you can clear me and get this person."
"This is what I want you to do." She handed him one of her cards. "I don't care what time of day or night it is, I want you to call me if you see anyone following you during shift or off duty. Take down descriptions of people around you; if you see the same person twice for no reason at all, we might be able to get to the bottom of this. Before I forget, I need your mother's full name and that's including maiden name.
"My mother was never married to my father, her name is Meredith Vance."
"OK, if I find out anything I'll get a hold of you. Watch your back Vance."
"Yes Ma'am and thanks."
Xe sat in her chair with thoughts running through her mind as to why he had waited so long to come to her. She was happy that she didn't have to fight Boggs about talking to Vance but she knew he would be curious as to why no one had questioned Vance when he applied to the police academy about the murders during his years in both High School and College.
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Throwing her feet up on her desk, Brian leaned back in her chair and mumbled under her breath. She had called three car dealerships and not found what she was looking for in a vehicle. She wanted a 4x4 truck with the extra cab for the kids. So far, she had found zip, then, it jumped out at her under the used vehicle heading. A 1999 fire engine red Chevy Tahoe, fully loaded for on and off road driving. Taking up her phone, she called the number and thought she had dialed wrong when the area fire chief answered. After fifteen minutes, she hung up the phone, jumped from her desk and gave out a yell that had the ceiling tiles shaking.
"YES!" She screamed and punched a hand in the air. The fire chief had bought a newer model and was selling the red Tahoe for practically nothing. He had even offered to come by the hospital to show it to her. Searching through her backpack, she pulled out her keys and checkbook, slung her backpack over her shoulder and locked up her office. She had just stepped out the back door when the Fire Chief pulled up. A huge grin split her face when she looked over the Tahoe; it was exactly what she wanted.
"I'll take it! Can you run me by the bank and I'll get you the money?" An hour later, she was pulling in the police parking lot and parking next to Xe's Crown Victoria. The biggest thrill of her life was hitting the button on the key chain and hearing the three beeps of the alarm system. "All mine!" She ran gentle fingers across the hood and jogged to the precinct doors.
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"Don't you two move or eat my M&M's." Xe pointed a finger at the dogs and narrowed an eye a Fugly. "I saw that little grin."
"Wanna see a bigger one?"
Without turning Xe remarked. "I'd rather see something else grin."
"Later, right now you'll have to settle for my pearly whites." The second Xe turned around; she found her arms full of a grinning lunatic wife. "I got my truck!" She plastered sloppy kisses all over Xe's face not caring who saw them. "I have my own lights and siren!"
"What no rifle rack?"
"On order, come on I'm buying lunch."
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They stood in the parking lot looking at Brian's Tahoe; Xe had to admit that she got a very good deal on the truck. Ten grand was theft as far as she was concerned. "You did good baby." Xe wrapped an arm around Brian and kissed her temple. "You driving?"
"Yep, we're going to Ruby Tuesdays to celebrate my new truck. The administrator said that he'd buy me a coroner wagon, but I decided to pay for this out of my own money. Once the insurance company cuts the check for my car, I'll be over what I spent on my truck." She grinned up at Xe. "When you catch the guy who blew my car up, I want to shake his hand before you shoot him."
"You know Bri, you're strange." She hugged her tightly to her and kissed her gently. "One of the reasons I love you, now come on the kids are starving. Plus, we have to go to a sign shop and see about getting the Fire Chief removed and what ever you want on the doors."
They got into the truck, put the dogs in the back seat and headed out of the parking lot; Xe knew that Brian's fingers were itching to hit the lights and siren on. She sat with one hand on the ready to keep her from doing just that. "Don't even think about it Bri."
"What? I wasn't gonna do anything?" She cast an innocent look at Xe. "OK, so I wanted to hit the siren and stuff, meany won't let me scare anyone." She stuck her tongue out, heard Xe groan, and saw her slid down further in the leather seat.
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Their waitress shook her head and stumbled with the weight of the dish-covered tray, she had never seen two women eat so much in her life and then order food to go. She would need hernia surgery before long if they kept eating. Dropping the tray onto the scullery table, she headed to the desert case and pulled out two New York cream cheese cakes and then a goblet of French vanilla ice cream. She was tempted, to just push the display case over to their table and be done with it.
Brian was armed with two spoons in her hands and she was getting ready to start banging the utensils on the table like a Viking Warrior. The look on her face was that of a crazed lunatic and her language was of a petulant child.
"Where's my food!" She chanted until Xe threw her napkin at her.
"Bri stop before they poison our food."
"Can't be any worse than my own cooking." She smirked and then shot her wife a brilliant smile. "Ya know what I'd like to do?" She leaned forward and spoke in a seductive voice. "I'd like to smear cheese cake all over you body and lick it off." A wiggle of brows and a chuckle came from her when Xe blushed.
"OK, ladies here's your desert. If you need anything just give a yell." The waitress said and then mumbled under her breath. "If you need shovels or a feeding trough I drag it on out."
"I could use a spade!" Brian yelled to her and grinned when the woman's face turned red. "See if I leave her a tip." Taking part of her ice cream, she spooned it over one of the pies and offered some to Xe. "Come on its good."
"Ahhh uuhh, it looks gross."
"Pussy." She waved the spoon in front of Xe. "Come on, try it."
Xe rolled her eyes and opened her mouth, after swallowing; she took the rest of the ice cream and covered her cake. "I'm whipped, tied up and in deep shit."
"Why do ya say that?" Brian asked around a mouthful.
"Cuz I just realized that Boggs is right, I'm pussy whipped." She winked at a narrowed eyed Brian. "And loving it."
Just finishing off the deserts, Xe's phone vibrated against her hip. She looked at the number and sighed. "It's Boggs, can't be good." She flipped it open and closed her eyes.
"Sallano."
"Get your asses out to Brian's house, one of the victims cars is parked in her driveway."
"What? You're kidding right?"
"Nope, now get you wives ass moving."
She clicked off her phone and gave Brian a look of utter confusion. "Ready to play with all those buttons in your car, there's a car in your driveway that they think belonged to one of the last victims."
"What the Hell is the wack job doing, I mean why me?"
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Xe held on to the dashboard for dear life, her face was pale and sweat ran down from her temples. She now knew how Boggs felt when she was driving Hell bent to leather. She prayed to every Goddess that she knew of that they would make it to Brian's house without an accident. When they slid sideways in front of the small house, Xe fell from the truck on shaky legs and pointed a shaky finger at a grinning Brian.
"You're giving me grey hair!"
"And you'll look good with it too." They walked to where the crime tape was blocking off her driveway and found Boggs talking to one of the neighbors that she had yet to talk to.
"Boggs what's going on?" Brian asked the older man.
"About an hour ago, someone parked this car in the drive. Your neighbor noticed it when he was leaving for work, what clued him in that it didn't belong here is all the blood on the trunk and bumper."
"Have any gloves and baggies in your car?" She asked after remembering that they didn't have Xe's car.
"Yep, I have everything you guys will need. I tried to get the evidence crew out here but you guys are better than they are." He shrugged his shoulders and handed Brian his keys.
Brian donned a pair of gloves and stuck evidence baggies in her back pocket. Looking through the window, she saw blood stains on the steering wheel, seat and window. Gripping the door handle, she was just about to open it when she felt Xe come up behind her.
"Whatcha think Bri, does it take away from the neighborhood?" She looked over her wives shoulder and shuddered at the thought of the killer parking the car in Brian's driveway.
"Hope not, I was hoping to get a Queens ransom for my tiny ass apartment." She pulled on the handle and heard a click too late, the explosion sent her back into Xe. They were tossed a good twenty feet away. A blast of heat rolled over them and pinned them where they lay, Xe could feel her clothes burning and rolled both of them across the grass and away from the inferno of heat. She got to her knees and looked down into Brian's slack face, picking her up; she stumbled to a safe distance before laying her down in the grass. Placing her fingers to her wives neck, she felt her pulse beating.
"Baby wake up!" She screamed but couldn't hear her own voice. Green eyes fluttered open and small hands pressed against Xe's cheeks.
"Are you alright?" Brian yelled at her.
"What the fuck happened?" Boggs dropped to his knees and wiped a trickle of blood from his cheek. "Why the Hell are you two screaming at each other?"
Xe cupped a hand to her ear and yelled. "I can't hear you!"
Boggs threw himself across both women as another explosion came from the car, when the debris stopped falling around them, he pushed himself back up and blushed.
"Did I squish you two?" He pulled Xe up from the ground and waved a hand in front of her startled face. "Come on you two are going to the hospital." After fighting with both women and feeling it in his back and shins, he dropped down in the seat of his car. "Damn why the Hell did I try and pick Xe up and put her in the ambulance or let Brian get close enough to kick me?" He rubbed his sore shin and grimaced. "Fuck! All the evidence is gone!" He looked to the charred remains of the car.
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"I don't give a flying fuck Boggs! I want the asshole who keeps trying to blow my wife up!" Xe paced the small waiting room in the hospital; she refused to be seen by the ear doctor and now was trying to cause Boggs to go deaf right along with her.
"Damn it Xepher stop your hollering, I can hear just good…well maybe not now but." He rubbed his ears and glared at her. "How are we supposed to find this person, is it the one killing all these people or some sick fuck who just wants to try and make you a widow?" He thought of what he just said to her and raised a hand to her. "Sorry Xe, you know what I mean about the bombs."
"I know Boggs." She dropped down into a chair and let her head fall into her hands. "I want complete background checks on Vance, Edwards and Mrs. Davidson." She looked up at him with a worried expression.
"Why those three?"
"Because, Edwards is a dick, Vance has prior experience with numerous murders and I can't stand rich bitches."
Boggs chuckled at her reasons, he had to hand it to her; she had a way with words. "Anything else?"
"Yeah, get a hold of that FBI Profiler. I want to know what made him think it was Vance killing all his friends."
"HEY XE!" Brian yelled as she came from the examination room. "DOC SAYS IT"S JUST TEMPORARY!"
"I'm outta here before you two make me completely deaf and insane. I'll drop your kids off at your house and tell them to hide." He covered his ears to block out their conversation. "Damn crazy women."
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Boggs left the precinct with his arms full of folders, he didn't know how she did it but Xe was scaring the Hell outta him. Worse than she did with the body parts case, he had the FBI run the backgrounds on the three people she wanted and checked on the profiler. What he had was going to make her one happy cop, now if he could survive being in the same room with them both yelling at the tops of their lungs. Taking a few shortcuts to their house, he made it in less than fifteen minutes, now he knew how she got to work so fast and without breaking any laws. It took him some fancy talking to get her out of all the disturbing the peace tickets from the last time she decided to break the law. Going up to the door, he pounded and heard the dogs barking. Remembering the other times he caught them in the middle of something, he covered his eyes and walked in.
"Hey Xe I got something for you!"
"Will it make me all hot and bothered?"
He took a chance and peeked between his fingers to find her standing in front of him with a huge grin on her face.
"Depends on if you get that way about work." He handed over the files and cringed when Brian came charging into the room in a robe.
"Just for you Boggs!" She went to whip the robe off and saw him cover his eyes. "For the love of the Goddess will you look?"
"I'm afraid to, you know I'm an old man and seeing you naked might kill me."
"Boggs I'm not naked."
Taking her word for it, he uncovered his eyes and busted out laughing. "Where the Hell did you get those boxers?" She modeled her Deputy Dawg boxers for him and did a little bow afterwards. "Hey wait a minute, you two aren't yelling."
"Walmart and it was only temporary, good thing too, the dogs hid all night long."
Xe pumped a hand in the air and let out a war cry that had Boggs dropping to the ground and the dogs running for the bedroom. "I knew there was something freaky about that little fucker Edwards!" She handed Brian the file and sat down on the couch to look at the others.
"This says that he's not really Thomas Edwards but Edward J. Chalms? How did you get this Boggs?"
"I had the FBI run his picture from the hospital employment records. Seems Mr. Chalms is not who he appears to be."
"You're telling me!" Brian chuckled then wondered what she was chuckling about. "He has a record longer than his dick…Hell that would be about one traffic ticket. Anyway, he has at least 20 arrests here for everything under the sun."
"What I want to know is why no one has ever run his background? Or figured out that he never finished high school let alone went to college." Xe handed another file to her and started on the last one. "What I want to know is Vance told me that his mother never married his father but she put his fathers name on his birth certificate."
Brian snorted and waved the copy of his birth certificate at Boggs. "I'd say this right here is enough to bring him in for questioning. William J. Davidson, man did definitely got around."
"Take a look at Chalms birth certificate." Boggs wiggled his eyebrows.
"Let's see…Ohhh this is good! Seems our number one bitch is his mother, but they have never claimed to having a son."
"I did not give birth to that freak of nature." Xe threw a pillow at her wife. "That would mean that I had to fuck a rat and I don't do rodents."
"Does that mean you do other animals? Sorry Xe but you left yourself wide open…," Boggs cringed when he received 'The Look.' "Uuhh forget I said anything."
"Son of a bitch!" Xe handed the file to Brian and pointed out one section to her.
"What the Hell? Is this like a family thing or something? Davidson is Edwards/Chalms mother and Vance's aunt. Did the councilman sleep with their mother to?"
Boggs shivered and rubbed his arms. "That I don't want to know."
"Can we get all three of them in to the precinct and play them against each other?"
"All we have to do is the paper work." Boggs waved goodbye and headed out the door, he would get the ball rolling and have all three suspects picked up and brought in. It would really get him in hot water but he had murders to solve and didn't give a shit.
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Brian and Xe were leaning against the headboard of their bed reading files. With the concentrated looks on their faces, they looked like bookends. Xe flipped through a file and came to the last page; her left eyebrow buried itself in her bangs.
"Bri, do you carry your business card in your scrub pocket?"
"Baby." She turned to face and irradiated Xe. "My patients don't need a business card to call me after I'm done to ask questions. If ya haven't noticed their all dead, so why would I give them one?"
"Because the lab sent back this." She handed her the plastic enclosed business card.
"When we catch this fucker, I want to know where they had this made up." She handed it back. "Nice style and easy to read, to bad the dumbass put the wrong middle initial on it." She leaned over and pointed to the F. "My initial is a D."
"What's the D. stand for?" Xe knew she would have to beg and plead; she had tried numerous times before to get her wives middle name out of her and had never succeeded. "Come on baby it's important."
"Xe it's just D. no other letters behind it, I had it changed years ago because I didn't like it."
Rolling onto her side, Xe buried her face in her wives breasts and sighed. It was a losing battle and she didn't have the energy to fight. "OK."
Brian rolled her eyes, she was hoping for the pleading begging thing that was so unlike her bossy lover. "OK it was De De, and if you ever repeat it I'll deny the entire thing and cut you off for a month."
"EWWW!" Was vibrated against her breasts. "Thought Alanda was bad." She raised her head to look at the shocked expression on Brian's face.
"Alanda? Why in the Hell would your parents…same reason mine named me Brianna De De. So we need to find out what the F…ohh my Gods!" She jumped from the bed and rummaged through her backpack. Finding what she was looking for, she handed a business card to Xe.
She took one look at the card, jumped from their bed and yelled over her shoulder. "I gotta call Boggs!" A half-hour later, she came charging back into the room and found Brian dressed. "You scare me sometimes, let me get dressed and we'll get out of here." She rolled her eyes when Brian held up some clothes for her. "Wack job."
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Xe went into the computer files and found where Dr. Patricia Franks was listed as the Psychiatrist for the Cleveland PD. Until she had quit, she was now consulting for the FBI in Quantico Va. "Assisting the profilers?" Xe looked around her office for Brian. "Hellooo did ya hear me? Guess not." She shrugged her shoulders and went back into the files to trace all known areas where Edwards/Chalms had lived. What she was doing was illegal but she really didn't care if she was infringing on peoples lives. Two hours later, she had an entire list of places he had lived along with his juvenile record. It was enough to have him brought in and held for suspicion of car bombing.
"Hey Xe I've got our paperwork, lets go bust some assholes!" Brian waved the papers at her and ran for the door.
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Brian sat in the passenger seat of the Crown Victoria looking over the arrest warrant for Edward Chalms. Boggs had arranged for two cruisers to pick up Mrs. Davidson and Officer Vance. She had offered to have Xe arrest Chalms because she wanted to see his face when his world fell around his ankles.
"Ya could have waited on me, I'm not as young as I used to be and chasing after you…"
"Xe after what we did all last night, do you really think that I would even believe two words of what you just said?"
Xe ran a hand across her jaw and smirked. "Noooo, but I had to try. Where we going first?"
A huge grin split Brian's face, her nose wrinkled at the sides giving her a mischievous look. "Were gonna bust Chalms!" Xe dropped down into the seat beside her and gave her the eyebrow.
"We?"
"Yep, you don't think I'd miss this do ya, after all I had to put up with that asshole."
"Under one condition, don't shoot at him until I'm out of the way."
"How do you know I'm packing?"
"Brian, you sat at my desk and spun the cylinder on your .38 until I thought you wore it out."
Brian said just one word "Ooohh." And then hit the lights and sirens on. She and Xe fought over the buttons and switches all the way to the small apartment building where Chalms lived.
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The apartment building that Chalms lived in was in the poor section of Frederick. Junky cars lined both sides of the littered cluttered streets, garbage cans sat over flowing at the curbs with rodents and stray dogs and cats fighting over scraps of food. Filthy children played in the alleyways with the occasional passed out drunk of drug addict. To make the area even more appealing for someone to consider it a place to call home, were the drug dealers standing on the sidewalk advertising what they had to sell. The area was known for its reputation of being filled to the brim with cop killers, a cop would rather loose his job than make a call to this part of town. Xe flipped a switch under her seat that disabled the ignition from working, checked her weapons and made sure that Brian was ready before she opened her door.
Brian stuck to Xe's side like glue, it wasn't that she was afraid of where they were, it was Xe's wraith she didn't want to play with. "Baby can we buy a house in this neighborhood?"
"Only if you run the serpentine wire and walk a twelve hour shift of guard duty." Xe rubbed at her burning eyes, the stench of urine in the hallway was killing her. If she had known it was this bad, she would have worn a bio suit. "How can these people live like this?"
"I have no idea but I think we should call in a missile strike when we leave, have the entire place flattened and turn it into a state park." They went up the stairs and down the hallway looking for apartment five. The sight of the door made them stop in their tracks. The framework was chewed up and the doorknob was lying on the floor.
"Shit, we would have a B&E to complicate things." Xe pulled her phone from her belt and called in to the precinct to Boggs. She wanted him to know of everything they were doing to protect themselves from getting screwed out of a conviction if they found evidence in the apartment. After hanging up, she motioned for Brian to get on the other side of the door and wait. Pulling her revolver, she held it at shoulder height and with the other hand, she reached low on the door and eased it open. Listening for sounds coming from within, she heard nothing but the purr and rattle of the refrigerator. Motioning for Brian to stay, she swept the living room/kitchen with her eyes before going down the short hallway where she thought the bedroom and bathroom would be. She was no sooner down the hallway than the over powering stench of decomposing flesh hit her like a brick wall.
"Mother fuck." She mumbled and covered her mouth and nose with her hand. Easing down the hallway, she looked into the small bath and saw nothing. The only place left was the bedroom and she knew without opening the closed door what she would find.
"Son of a bitch!" She mumbled and closed the door. "Brian I need you!"
Brian peeked into the room and cussed a blue streak. "Just fucking great! I wanted to see you bust his ass now I'm gonna have to…Oohhh boy!" A wicked grin crossed her features. "Think the family will notice if I cut his balls off?" She looked to her wife.
"Bri take a closer look, someone as sick as you are already did that."
After going back down to the car, getting their gear and calling Boggs to have him send out a couple units and the meat wagon. They went back in to the bedroom to start collecting evidence. The late Edward Chalms had a little bit more trouble than usual when he shaved his legs. That was one thing that grossed out both women and made them a little envious.
"Damn freak, look how smooth he shaved around his knee caps." Brian ran a gloved finger over the area. "Not one single nick on his legs and here we practically need to call 911 when we shave our legs." She looked further up between his legs and chuckled. "I can see why whoever didn't cut his dick off with his balls, they couldn't FIND IT!" She pointed to the tiny flaccid member. "He was a real stud!"
"Brian you are the sickest person I know, here I thought I was bad but you've got me beat by a long shot." She looked closely at where his hands were tied to the bedposts and grunted. "How in the Hell are we gonna get him moved without damaging evidence?"
Brian leaned over her shoulder and handed her the camera. "Take a couple shots and don't worry about it. The knots are the same as the other murder. Although this is a little more gruesome." The murderer had gutted Chalms and used his intestines to tie his hands and feet to the bed. Brian could tell that he had still been alive when his testicles were cut off from the spay patterns on the wall. The arcs started up high and lowered as his heart slowed. Guessing, she figured that was when his gut was opened and he was tied to the bed. She would know more once they got him back to the morgue and she was able to do a preliminary to establish the pattern of death. She was thinking that maybe he had been knocked out and then killed. It would fit with one of the other murders.
"This really sucks Xe, I was hoping that he was the one killing everyone but now."
"I know, we only have two suspects left. Let me call Boggs and…," At that moment her phone vibrated against her hip, she flipped it open and barked into it.
"Sallano!"
"Damn it Xe do you have to break my ear drums?"
"Sorry Boggs, whatcha got for me?"
"I have Mrs. Davidson in an interrogation room and Vance has been at the hospital since last night. I need a guess at the time of death on Chalms."
"Hold on and I'll put Bri on." She handed the phone to Brian and finished with bagging the hands and feet.
"I would guess at about eight hours of so, I can't take a liver or rectal temperature because he was gutted and that would cause the body to cool faster than normal." Rolling Chalms to his side, she looked for levidity and got back to Boggs. From what I see right now, it's a good guess, no rigor has set in yet and the bruising isn't deep. Why did you need this?"
"Because our other suspect just got a clean bill on an alibi, Officer Vance has been at the hospital since before shift end yesterday. His mother took a turn for the worst and he hasn't left her bedside since. I have all the nurses and doctors to back it up. That leaves…"
"The widow bitch."
"Exactly, she has no alibi for the last two days except for herself. We've got her in a room and she's cooling her nasty mouth off."
"OK, as soon as the meat wagon gets here and I get a better look at Chalms I'll know more." She hung up and handed the phone back to Xe. "This really sucks the big one, this would have been my first bust."
Xe pulled off a glove and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Baby we have a big problem." She handed over another business card that she had found under Chalms head. "We need to find your ex and soon."
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Xe paced in front of the widow Davidson, she knew the caged animal act wore on suspects nerves, especially if she stopped and then jumped at them. More than one guy had pissed himself with her doing that. The cleaners weren't too happy and neither was the officer who had to take the person down to lock up but it gave her a cheap thrill.
"Ooohh come on! You can do better than that!" She leaned over the table and glared at Mrs. Davidson. "Your baby boy was gutted, his nuts cut off and shoved in his mouth and all you can say is 'I don't know why someone would not like him?' He was a prick! He tried to blow up my wife not once but twice! When the first time didn't work, he parked the car that someone was murdered in, in her driveway and rigged it to blow!"
"Edward was only responsible for the first one, I told him to leave Dr. Meadows alone. He didn't do the second bombing."
"Am I supposed to believe that? He had a record for being arrested for making bombs, arson, aggravated assault, assault and battery with a deadly weapon, stalking and so many other things that I can't remember all of them. And you're going to sit there and say he didn't do it? Get real lady, your son was a nut case and should have been put away years ago. But because of your husbands influence, all Edward ever did was a little bit of community service and pay a fine or two." She went back to pacing behind the women and mumbled and growled under her breath. "Fucking rich assholes don't have to abide by laws!" Tossing the spare chair across the room, Xe started yelling close to Davidson's ear. "Guess who just became the number one suspect in his murder? And if I can, I'm going to pin all the murders on you, because we found a notebook in Edwards's apartment." They didn't but she would try anything to get the woman to talk. "Interesting reading it is and right now it's with the district attorney and she's writing up all kinds of papers to make sure you hang! How's that for retribution for being a bad mother?" Xe looked up when the door opened and saw Boggs motion for her to come out.
"Xe, get over to the morgue right now. Brian found skin under his fingernails and a couple strands of hair that is neither his, Vance's nor Davidson's."
"Shit! Who the Hell can it be if not one of the remaining two? Wait, I found another business card. It might be Brian's ex doing all this, we need to find a Dr. Patricia Franks. She's working for the FBI in Quantico."
"I'll call out there and see if they know where she lives, we can pull her in and question her."
Xe shook her head no. "Just find out where she's been for the last twelve hours or so. The woman is deranged but I can't see her doing something like this. Plus I don't want her anywhere near Brian. She tried to kill her once and I don't want to risk her life." Xe ran her fingers through her hair and sighed, there were so many thoughts running through her mind at that moment that she couldn't think clearly. "Boggs, I think the widow bitch knows something."
"Leave it to me." He gave her a puppy dog look. "Time for the good cop to play with the mouse."
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When Xe walked into the autopsy room, she saw that Brian had tears running down her cheeks. Going over to Brian, she pulled the face shield off and pulled her into her arms and held her tight. Caressing the nape of her neck with callused fingertips, she heard a low growl at the back of her throat.
"Why are you crying?" She asked in a low soothing voice.
"I wasn't really crying." She pulled back and looked into concerned blue eyes with tear filled green. "I've been laughing my ass off for the past hour. My stomach is killing me and I almost pissed myself."
Xe's brows drew down over her nose, she was hoping that her wife wasn't loosing her mind from all the stress she was under.
"Why?"
"Because, when I started to do the exploratory on asshole there, I found some things that are so bizarre that I thought they were hilarious." She took Xe by her hand and led her over to Chalms. "OK, now look real close at the genital area, especially the tiny little dick."
"I really don't want to look at his dick, I hate dicks, there the reason the world sucks."
"Humor me Xe and you'll see why I was laughing so hard."
"If I'm not amused, Bear sleeps on my side of the bed."
"Deal. Now look and tell me what you see." She tilted the overhead lamp down so that Xe could see better.
Pale blue eyes widened and shoot up to catch green. "Tell me that's not a vagina."
"OK, it's a weird looking snatch. Look some more."
"Eeeeww Baby this is gross!" She wrinkled her forehead and went back to looking. "What the fuck is that?" She pointed to what could pass as a penis."
"Something that the other guys would laugh at. Seems to me that Edward could also have been called Edwina."
"A hermaphrodite?"
"You got it baby, It looks like at one time the doctors tried to do a sex change but stopped and then years later it was tried again but going in the opposite direction. Edward wanted to be Edwina."
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"I'm sorry if Lt. Sallano was a little rough with you." Boggs said in his most regretful voice. "She gets real testy when someone tries to kill her wife."
Mrs. Davidson narrowed her eyes at him and snarled. "Those kind should all be killed, they are unnatural."
Boggs narrowed his own eyes, his face took on a light redness from anger. "Those two women have never hurt anyone by them loving each other."
"Would you think that way if one of your own children was like them?"
Boggs leaned forward towards her and held her eyes. "I love those two women as if they were my children, so no, it would not bother me and I would treat them no different than anyone else. Why do you have a problem with Gays and Lesbians, was that what Edward was?"
"I will not discuss my son with you or anyone else." She sat back in chair and examined her fingernails.
"Ohh I see now, Edward was gay and that's why he was never mentioned at all."
"It wasn't because of that, he was always in trouble. Right up until he was killed." She took a deep breath. "My husband always treated Edward like a freak of nature and swore up and down that he was not his. Red headed stepchild had nothing on the way William treated him. When he turned six, he was sent to boarding school after boarding school. He would last maybe three or four months and be kicked out."
"At the age of six he was thrown out of school?" Boggs rubbed his chin and shook his head; he had lived through the terrible twos with his daughters but never had a problem after that. He had a hard time believing what she was saying.
"Captain, Edward was born a hermaphrodite. When he was a baby, the doctors tried to make him a male but the surgery was botched. He did not look like a normal boy. Back then, they did not do the hormone testing that they do now. Later, he went to other doctors and tried to become a female but once again, the surgery was a failure."
"As I understand it, they have excellent doctors that do those procedures. Couldn't he have sued for malpractice?"
"Captain, Edward was cut off from his family. He went to quacks because that was all he could afford. To get money, he did all sorts of illegal things not to mention he worked at jobs that he was nowhere qualified to do."
"So you're saying that the reason he tried to kill Dr. Meadows was because he was a hermaphrodite?"
"He wanted her job."
Boggs knew that was only part of the reason and suspected that he and Mrs. Davidson had something to do with Mr. Davidson's death along with the others. "I know that he tried to discredit her job performance and failed. Now tell me about Officer Vance, what is it with him?" He watched as her face paled and her hands twitched on the tabletop.
"He's my nephew and William's illegitimate son; William slept with my sister before we were married."
"Would he kill your husband?"
"I don't know, I don't really know the man. It's been over twenty years since I spoke to my sister."
"Then I think you should know that she's in the hospital dieing of cancer."
He watched tears form in her eyes, before she lost her composure; he helped her from the seat and to the door. "Mrs. Davidson, don't leave the area, we may need more information and thank you for answering my questions."
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Xe sat at Brian's desk going over the coroners reports from the other victims, she knew it had to be the same person responsible for all of them but she couldn't figure out where or if William Davidson fit into the picture. She knew from Brian, that Vance could not have been the one that had left semen behind as evidence and neither could Chalms. What she needed were all the personal effects from Chalms apartment, her gut was telling her that he was involved in the whole scheme some how.
"Brian, I need to go back to Chalms apartment and look through all his papers and shit." She leaned back in the chair when she felt Brian step behind her. Resting her head on her wives chest, she groaned when strong fingers dug into the tight muscles of her shoulders.
"He's involved in this some how huh?" She asked as she ran her thumbs against the base of Xe's neck and caused her to drop her head forward. "If we find woman's clothes in his closet, I'm taking them to his bitch of a mother."
"OK, just hope that's the weirdest thing we find. Who knows maybe he had a strap on for when he was trying to be a man." She tilted her head back so that she could look into Brian's eyes. "What did the lab results say about the semen found in Davidson?"
"Not much, the person was a non-secretor. Just like millions of males, I sent off the fingernail scrapings with an urgent on them, hopefully they'll get it back to us with a DNA typing and Blood type in the next couple of days." She gave Xe a sneaky looking grin. "I put your name down as the contact and put a note on the bottom of the forms that you'd kick ass if they didn't get them back ASAP."
"Like that's going to make them rush? Those people hate me." She pouted and yelped when her ear was twitched.
"I also put down my name hyphenated, if that doesn't get them, I will."
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Mrs. Davidson sat in her small parlor and waited for the phone to be answered on the other end. She had tried getting a hold of both her daughters earlier that day but reached their answering machines. Even though neither one of them really knew Edward, they were family and should know of his murder. In less than a month, she had lost her husband and her son. It couldn't get any worse, if it did she didn't know what she would do.
"Hello, Christine is that you?"
"Yes mother, what can I do for you?"
"It's Edward, he was found murdered in his apartment. I would like for you and your sister to come home for a week or so."
"I'll try but I have class and I don't know if my boss will give me the time off."
"Christine, he was your brother whether you liked him or not. Please do this for me."
"I'll try. Do you want me to get a hold of Cissy?"
"Yes, I've called three times today and I haven't been able to reach her. I've planned Edwards funeral to be this Wednesday, can you both make it then?"
"Yes mother, as for the rest of the week I'll let you know then. I have to run, I'll talk to you later."
Mrs. Davidson was proud of her daughters, both were in college in Boston and majoring in Medicine. She couldn't figure out where she had gone wrong where it came to Edward, maybe if she would have stood up to her husband things would have turned out differently. She knew that William was a good father to the girls and would do anything he could for his favorite Cissy. They were so much alike that it would seem that they were twins. Where Christian was dark and brooding like her, Cissy was fair with shinning green eyes and long wavy blonde hair. She was the complete opposite of her brother and sister. A bit flighty at times but she was a fun person to be around and had many friends, where Christine was a loner and preferred her studies to dating.
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Xe searched through the numerous boxes of papers and notebooks that she had found stashed in a closet in the small bedroom that was Chalms. Nothing so far had jumped out at her and was becoming boring. She had never liked this part of an investigation, she preferred to let the uniforms or one of the other detectives, do this part. She was more in to the adding up the facts from questioning suspects, friends, family and acquaintances of the victims. She was nowhere near being a people person but she was good at reading people. Right now she was reading something very erotic in the way Brian was kneeling in front of her. They had left right from the hospital and Brian had not changed from her surgical scrubs. She was glad that no one else worked with her because she would have to shot them.
"Baby where's your bra?"
Twinkling green eyes and a small wicked smile sent shivers down her spine. Xe knew she shouldn't have asked because she knew she would get a smart-ass answer.
"Same place yours is, lost in the heat of the moment." She handed over a picture and pointed to two young women in it. "They all look related some how, doesn't the bitch have daughters?"
Xe looked at the two young women standing on either side of a smiling Edward Chalms.
"I think these are his sisters, from what Boggs got from the bitch, they didn't like Edward." She handed back the picture. "I'd say that was a lie, they look awful damn happy to be with him in that picture." Brian flipped it over and noticed that it was only two months old.
"I think he probably got along better with them than his parents. Maybe you can have them checked out, see where they are." She sorted through more pictures and gave out a yell that had Xe jumping. "Look at this one!" She waved the picture in front of Xe until her wrist was grabbed to hold the picture still.
"HE was our catholic school girl? Son of a bitch! So he was involved some how with his father's death." She looked closer at the picture and grinned. "I don't think his father knew who he was, he looks completely different dressed like a women. To bad the councilman is dead, I would love to…,"
"Tell him he was fucking a man that just so happened to be his son?"
"Evil minds think a like. Come on baby lets get out of here, I feel…nasty." She wiped her hands on her thighs and stood up but not without looking down Brian's scrub shirt again. "Really nasty!" She lifted a corner of her mouth and winked.
"Soooo ya gonna dress like a catholic school girl for me?" Brian wiggled her brows and laughed at the sick expression on Xe's face. "OK, I'll settle for grape jelly and peanut butter."
"Huh? What are you…Ooohh, you're kinky Bri."
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The day of Edwards funeral brought out a different side of Lt. Sallano and Dr. Meadows. The entire way to the funeral home, Brian sat facing Xe and just stared at her. Her chanting of "Mine all MINE!" was getting on Xe's last gay nerve and at any second she would gag her until they reached their destination. "What is wrong with you today?"
"Mine alllll mine!!! Eat your hearts out boys!" She licked her lips as her eyes traveled over every inch of her wives black Armani suit covered body. "You need to dress like this more often." She ran a finger over the black suit sleeve from wrist to shoulder. "Or a black tux!" She grabbed at her heart and fell over in the seat.
"Come on BD before Boggs kicks my ass."
Brian shot her a quizzical look. "BD?"
"Yeah, stands for what you are today, Brain dead." She gave Brian the once over and smirked. "You need to dress like that more often." She took in the dark gray suit jacket, trousers and pale blue dress shirt. "Gillian Anderson has nothing on you baby."
"I know." She took Xe's hand and walked beside her into the funeral home that was lucky if it had a dozen people in the place. "He had a lot of friends didn't he?"
"Screws up our blending in thing that's for sure." They took seats as far away from the other people as possible. Xe's eyes scanned the room for the two woman in the picture and finally found them in a far corner on the opposite side of the room from their mother. "That's just too weird, talk about a dysfunctional family."
After the service, Brian and Xe made it out of the funeral home before the others, they wanted to get to the cemetery and be someplace that they could observe without being obvious. It was a chance but, sometimes the murderer showed at the funerals for kicks. Standing a distance off, they watched as the two sisters stood opposite of their mother. One would think that a mother and her daughters would be closer in a time of mourning. Not this family, they made the Adams Family look normal. Once the casket was lowered into the ground and everybody left, Brian and Xe hung around for another half hour to see if anyone showed up. Just the grave keeper came by to rake the fresh dirt over the grave.
"You know Xe, this is kinda sad." She looked out to where Edward now rested. "He really didn't have anyone in his life. Granted he was a sick bastard but even Manson had friends."
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Brian had gone in to the hospital to take care of some autopsies that needed to be done before the next day. She left with Xe working at her desk trying to figure out how all the pieces of the puzzle fit in and who their murderer could be. Xe knew that there was no way that Mrs. Davidson could have killed the other people. Her stature alone proved that, she would be lucky to be able to pick up a five-pound bag of sugar let alone a dead body weighing over 180 pounds. Edward would be able to but with some trouble, Vance would have no trouble at all, his body was of someone who worked out regularly at the gym, the only problem was that he had his partner as an alibi. She would under normal circumstances think that the partner was covering for him. But she knew his partner and had rode with the twenty plus career cop. There was no way he would cover for Vance no matter what. She had gone over the recent lab results on the evidence collected and noted that the hair found at one of the sights matched the DNA of Chalms, the only problem was how the scene was set up. It would take a very strong man to hold a body upside down and tie it to a tree. It kept bouncing back and forth to Vance.
"I need a break. Bear, Fugly wanna go for a walk?" She heard the sound of nails on the tile floor coming towards her.
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Brian felt the air move around her, she looked back over her shoulder to see one of Edwards sisters standing in the doorway of her office. Closing the file she had been working on she turned in her chair to address the young woman.
"Can I help you?"
"Are you Dr. Meadows?"
"Yeah I am." Brian replied while getting to her feet.
"I'm Christian Davidson, Edwards sister." She held out a large hand to Brian but did not move any closer to her. "You were his boss weren't you?"
"Yes I was, for a few weeks. Is there something I can do for you?"
The woman looked around the place she was and shivered. "Can we go someplace else to talk, I really don't like being down here."
"It's not the dead that can hurt you, it's the living but I understand." She motioned to the door leading out to the docks. "We can go outside, I have a couple of chairs on the dock."
"That's fine, I wanted to come and see you to…I want to know about my brother."
Brian opened the door and pointed to one of the chairs she had bought for her and Xe to sit in while they were at the hospital.
"I didn't know him at all, we saw very little of each other and then the administrator fired him."
Christine brushed her shoulder length dark hair back from her face and neck, her dark eyes looked down at the ground between her feet. Glancing back up at Brian for a minute, she cleared her throat before speaking. "Edward was always looking for the easy way, shortcuts, you name it. When I would see him he would tell me of some scheme he worked up to get a head in life. It very rarely worked, he falsified documents about his college degrees. Edward never finished high school let alone attended any college."
"Miss. Davidson, why was he doing all of this? I know about his sexual problems and the cost of surgery but why lie about so many things?"
"It was Edwards way of getting back at the rest of the family, he wanted to crash the high and mighty William Davidson's social reputation. He figured that if he got in enough trouble, our father would have to acknowledge him."
"But it did the opposite didn't it, your father just turned a blind eye and continued as if he had no son." Brian leaned back in the chair and watched the shocked expression on the young woman's face. "Can you tell me if Edward would have posed as a woman to embarrass your father…maybe have pictures taken and used as blackmail or some other angle?"
Christine's face paled, her words came slowly as if to keep from stuttering. "Edward didn't know what sex he wanted to be, he dressed as a woman when he went out to bars. As far as setting up my father, I never thought of it until I was told how he was found dead in a motel room under unusual circumstances. I know that Edward could not have killed anyone, he was strange but he had problems with death it's self."
"Why did he want to be the chief medical examiner or even work around dead people if that's how he felt?" Brian was confused, there had to be some other reason he had tried so hard to ruin her career.
"It wasn't the job, it was being in a hospital where he could make contacts with doctors."
"I see, he wanted free consultation and maybe a surgery or two. Getting off topic here for a second, Edward and your father were customers of a nightclub that specializes in kinky sex and other things. We were told by an employee that Edward was always seen with an older woman." She leaned forward in her chair and held the dark brown eyes without blinking. "Did he have any female friends that you knew of or do you know who could have gone with him?"
Christine sighed and rubbed at her temples, she nodded her head yes. "He went with our mother, she was trying to teach him how to be a female." She looked unflinchingly at Brian. "I think my mothers crazy, I think she had something to do with our fathers death."
"Why do you say that?" Brian was on a roll, Xe would jump for joy if she got some information on the rich bitch.
"My mother and father had one of those marriages that was for public only. They slept in separate bedrooms in different parts of the house. It was almost like they were housemates, they were civil with each other but that was all. I often wondered why they had any of us kids to begin with."
"Is there only you and your sister left?" She watched a spark cut across the dark eyes.
"Yes, Cissy lives a couple of minutes away from me in Boston. Cissy is a…slut to put it bluntly. The typical loose female college student that is the center of every Frat party or has been known to have slept with the entire sports team roster. She pushed up the sleeves of her sweatshirt and watched as Brian's green eyes grew intense. She lifted her left arm and indicated the scratches. "I teach a class on self defense at the college, one of my students refuses to trim her nails so I suffer frequently from scratches and bruises." Brian noticed the inflamed redness around them and became a little worried for the woman.
"Have you had that looked at, it looks like it's infected." Her green eyes continued to examine the area. "Would you mind if I take a look?"
"No go a head, I'd forgotten about them actually." She held out her arm for Brian and winced when she felt tender fingers probe around the area.
"Does this woman have a filthy job or is around a lot of bacterial agents?" She was worried because it looked like a staff infection and could cause other problems if not treated properly.
"Ohh shit! She works at a pet store near campus. Should I go in to the ER and get a prescription or something?"
"I can take care of that for you, just give me a minute and I'll be right back." Brian went back into her office and pulled one of her prescription pads from her desk drawer, she would tell Xe what she had seen and have her do a back ground on Christine Davidson. It was funny that the woman would come to see her and then to have defensive scratches on her arm. She just placed the woman on her list as most likely to have killed Edward. Returning to Christine, she handed her a prescription for a strong antibiotic cream and Tetracycline pills. If that didn't kill what ever she had only amputation would.
Christine looked at the script and arched an eyebrow. "How many medical degrees do you have?"
"Just five." She grinned. "I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I knew it was a field in medicine."
"Excuse me for saying this but you don't look old enough to have even passed your internship."
"I guess taking college courses when I was still in grade school paid off in the end." Brian handed her one of Xe's business cards. "If you think of anything or just want to talk, call that number on the bottom. It's my wife's cell phone but she can get a hold of me." She noticed the funny look on Christine's face. "Does it bother you that I'm married to a woman?"
"Ohh no not at all its just that not many people would address their partner like you did. I have no problem with same sex relationships and no one else should either." She held out her hand to Brian. "Thank you Dr. Meadows, if I think of anything I'll give you a call. I have to run, I'm meeting my mother for an early dinner." She searched through her pockets until she found a small leather carrying case. "Here's one of my cards in case you need to ask any more questions, thanks again." She gave Brian a small smile and jumped down from the dock to jog around the side of the building.
"Ohh boy Xe are we ever in some deep shit." She mumbled and then looked at the business card before sticking it into her pocket.
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The dogs ran around the open field back behind Xe and Brian's house, it wasn't often that they were outside of the fenced in yard and now they thought they were in heaven. Xe sat in the grass under a small tree watching them chase butterflies and grasshoppers, poor Fugly, being so small, she kept tripping over the grass or Bear would run her over as she chased after something. Their little barks and growls were carried on the breeze back to the house where Brian was just getting out of her truck. A smirk covered her mouth when she realized that Xe was playing with their kids out back. She looked into the back yard and saw nothing, confused, she looked around until she saw a cinnamon colored fuzz ball jump up and charge towards her. Brian heard Xe yelling at her to get her little hairy ass back where she's supposed to be. Of course Bear was just like her other mother and never listened. Clapping her hands, Brian urged the little dog on until Bear jumped into her arms.
"Let's go terrorize your Ma, she deserves it for skipping out of work today."
Placing Bear back down, she jogged towards where she had come from and found Xe chasing Fugly around the field.
"Come back here you ugly dog!" Xe yelled and made a tackling dive at Fugly. "Rotten little shit!" She lay on her stomach in the grass, and watched as Fugly stopped dead two feet away and laid down to look at her on the same level. "Bad ass!" Brian couldn't pass up the chance to get one over on Xe, she quietly stepped behind her and fell forward to land on top of her wife.
"Yes I am and there ain't a damn thing you can do about it."
"I know that Baby, but can you do something about our rotten kids?" She pointed a finger at Fugly and growled. "Especially that one!"
"I'd rather do something with you but first I have this." She pulled the business card from her pocket and held it in front of Xe's eyes. "I had a nice talk with Christine Davidson at work today." She told Xe everything that she had heard from the younger woman, and told her about the infected scratches on her forearm. "She says she teaches a self defense class and that's where she got them."
"Let me see that card." Xe looked it over and swore under her breath. "It's the same type of card that we found on the bodies." She pointed to a small symbol in the lower left hand corner.
"Ooohh shit! She could be the murderer."
"If she does teach self defense then she knows how to render someone unconscious quickly. I'll get on the computer and see what I can find out about her and her sister. If I wait for the other detectives to run it, it might be too late."
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"Son of a bitch, she's mother Teresa! She doesn't even have bad credit!" Xe was getting frustrated with every passing second. She had pulled up everything she could find On Christine Davidson and came up with nothing. The young woman was on a full scholarship to Harvard, on the Deans list for the past three years and seemed not to have a life at all except for school.
Brain was leaning on Xe's shoulder and looking at the screen with her. "Baby how about her sister, see if she's at the same school. She said her name was Cissy." Xe went into the search area and typed in the name, after a few moments it came up with nothing. She typed in every way possible that it could be spelled and still found nothing. Even just putting in the last name only came up with half a dozen people and none of them was Cissy.
"Only one thing to do and that's to go to the bitches house and talk to her." Xe tilted her head back and rubbed her cheek against Brian's. "We don't really have enough evidence to bring her in but she might give away something if I trip her up."
"OK, let's go then before she skips out on us." Just before they were to go out the door, the phone rang. Brian looked to see Xe plugging her ears with her fingers. Rolling her eyes at her, she grabbed the phone and barked into it.
"I play with dead things!" A male voice hesitated on the other end for a second.
"I…uhhmm…I thought this was…Lt. Sallano's number."
"It is this is Dr. Meadows can I help you?" She swayed her head to the side for Xe to come over to her.
"This is Officer Vance; I really need to speak with her, its urgent!" He sounded very worried to Brian so she held out the phone to Xe.
"It's Vance."
Xe's brow shot up to her hairline, he was the last person she thought she would hear from that day. "Vance this is Sallano what do you need?"
"Ma'am, I really need to speak to you in person. I'm at the hospital down in the part that they don't use anymore. I think the boiler room is near by."
"We'll be there in twenty minutes or so."
"Please hurry!" Were his last words before the sound of a loud click and then the dial tone.
"Bri do you know where the old part of the building is that they don't use anymore?"
"Yeah it's down at the end of my hallway, the doors always locked so I've never been in that section. Why?"
"Because that's where Vance is." A pensive expression came over her face. "He didn't sound right to me, like he was scared or something."
"Wouldn't you be if you were in an abandoned part of the hospital? What I want to know is why he's there?"
"Me too, time to vest up and hope he just wants to confess to murder and not commit two more."
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Vance had sweat pouring off his face to drip down the sides and land on the old gurney that he had been strapped down on. His shirt was torn open and a gleaming surgical bread knife hovered over his abdomen.
"Very good pretty boy but I lied when I said I wouldn't gut you." The voice was wispy as it traveled through the dark mask covered face. Vance had no idea who it was besides the person who had been trying to send him to prison for most of his life. "You have some kind of guardian angel on your shoulder; I've tried getting rid of you for years now." The blade lowered and just gently touched the skin beneath his nipple. He let out a forced breath when he felt the burning of his skin parting beneath its razor edge. He felt his blood flow down his side and soak into the dirty sheet beneath him. "If you had only paid attention to me all those years ago, none of this would have happened. I wouldn't have had to kill all those people." An insane hysterical laugh burst forth then nothing. "Now the councilman, was a gift to everyone, he was a royal ass and should have been killed years ago."
"Who are you?" Vance forced out between clenched teeth.
"You'll never know, it's my secret and not even in death will you find out!" With a quick flick of a wrist, the knife came down and sliced open Vance's abdomen. His screams rang out in the abandoned room and died out as he passed out from pain. The sound of a heavy door slamming had the masked person running from the room to hide in an old supply room. Leaving the door opened part way, eyes pierced the darkness and waited for the next victims.
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"Xe I feel like I'm enclosed in a suit of armor here." She tapped the front of her body. "Why do I have to wear a Kevlar vest and you don't?"
"Because I'm wonder woman and bullets ricochet off my wrist watch."
"Bullshit! You carry a pocket watch." She pointed a finger at her and jabbed her in the chest. "If you get shot I am not calling 911."
Xe wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close. "Yes you will." She kissed her temple and grinned down at her. "Because you hate me."
"Damn." Brian mumbled and opened the door that had always been locked before. The sound of it slamming behind them made her jump. "You know I hate places like this, it's almost as bad as that creepy ass house we went in." The hallway was dimly lit with just the emergency lights and the red exit sign over the door they had just come from. Dust covered the floor and cobwebs hung from the ceiling panels. And the skittering of rodents could be heard if the breath was held.
"Nothing can be that bad…what's that up ahead?" She saw a low gleam of light coming from underneath a door. "Stay behind me."
"Ohh so you can get shot first? NOT!" Xe turned and went nose to nose with her.
"Brian humor me will ya? Vance is not going to shot me."
"Well if he does, I'm still not calling 911." Xe rolled her eyes and stepped in front of Brian as she quietly moved towards the door. Placing her ear to its surface, she listened for any sound coming from inside. When she heard nothing, she turned the door handle and eased it open.
"Xepher."
Not turning around Xe waved a hand behind her.
"Allanda!"
Xe turned and froze before the word 'what' could come from her mouth.
"After all these years someone has come close to catching me. But it seems that you won't get the chance." Brian was held at knifepoint, one thick arm was wrapped around her neck and the knife was pointed at her stomach. Xe's eyes went icy cold as they locked on the mask-covered face of who she knew was the person behind so many murders. "I expected you to come alone but I must say, this will be more interesting and a huge thrill to me. You see…," The knife moved up and down across Brian's windbreaker, making a whisking noise as it scratched the surface. "This will be the first time that I gut someone with a witness."
Xe's voice dropped to a dangerous purr. "Let her go and take me, she's not a cop."
"Her profession has nothing to do with this. You see, she knows Vance and all the others." A crazed laughing sent shivers up Brian and Xe's spine. "Vance spilled his guts…twice!" More laughter and then it calmed to a low throaty voice. "But nothing like that weak Edward, sure he fought at first but once I cut him he cried like a baby and begged me! I did the world a service, they were all weak!"
Xe took a small step forward and stopped when the knife was pressed tighter against Brian. "You sick mother fucker!" She raised a hand and stopped.
"Ahhh aaahhh! Hand away from your piece of I'll…well I'm going to do that anyway!" Xe connected eyes with Brian and tried to send her a silent message, all she saw was a stoniness she had never seen before in her wives eyes. "Are you ready Dr. Meadows?"
Two voices rang out, Brian yelling 'Do it!' and Xe yelling 'NO!' as she lunged forward towards them. Brian bent at her knees as the knife was raised, tilting her head back, she jumped upward and connected the top of her head with the taller persons chin. A loud click of teeth hitting together and a loud yelp came from behind her. She reached up with one hand and grabbed the wrist with the knife in it just as Xe collided with them and took them to the floor. Bodies fought for purchase of the knife skittering across the floor until Xe got to her knees and pulled her pistol. In the dim light, she couldn't distinguish between Brian and the other person.
"Brian get out of the way!"
"I can't!" She yelled back and then a yelp of pain came from her. "FUCKER!" Then a loud cracking noise filled the hallway and more cries of pain. Xe holstered her gun and tried to pull the two bodies apart, a searing pain shot through her side as the knife flashed past her. She howled in pain and fell backwards gripping her side.
"You're dead!" More sounds of a fist hitting flesh and then Brian yelping in pain. "MOTHER FUCKER!" A loud banging sound erupted in the hallway followed by another. Then all was quiet except for the heavy breathing of two women. "Xe will I go to jail for this?" Brian asked as she rolled off the lifeless body beneath her and holstered her .38.
"Only if I do." Xe holstered her .9mm and covered her side. "Uuuhhmm Bri I think I have a slight problem here." She pulled away her hand to see it covered with blood.
"I told you that I'm not calling 911."
"But I didn't get shot."
"Sometimes I wonder what you would do without me, lets go in that room so I can see if I can fix it with duct tape."
"You are so generous, just make sure that thing is dead, I don't want it walking out of here."
"Oohh it's not going anywhere without part of its head. My aim was off a bit." She rolled to her feet and helped Xe up. "From now on, you will wear a vest and I won't argue with you about it."
"But…" Was all Xe could say since a hand covered her mouth.
"You will wear one, now get in there." Brian pushed the door open and ran into the back of her wife. "Why'd you stop?"
"Brian call for help, it's Vance."
Both women walked over to the blood soaked gurney, Brian checked for a pulse at Vance's neck and looked up to Xe. "He's still alive; help me get the gurney out of here!" They pushed the gurney down the hall and towards the elevator near Brian's office, she took Xe's phone and called the ER desk and told them to have the ER Doctor on call waiting for them. "He's a lucky bastard; I don't think his intestines were damaged except for a little bit of drying out."
"I have to call Boggs and get a unit over here." Xe took the phone from Brian and made her call, the entire time she was trying to staunch the blood flow from her side. The second the elevator doors opened, the ER team pulled the gurney out and rushed it down the hallway towards the surgery wing. "Brian are you hurt anywhere?" Xe asked as she spun Brian around to face her, she saw rips and tears in the front of the windbreaker and blood smears and splatters on the tops of Brian's small hands.
"I'm OK, but my…I mean your jacket is trashed. I think I may have fractured my hand when I smashed the psychos face in."
"Come on lets have one of the doctors take a look at it." Xe turned and walked a few steps and stopped when she realized that Brian was not beside her. Looking over her shoulder, she saw that Brian was standing behind her with her arms crossed over her chest and a foot tapping the floor.
"I don't even think so wonder dummy, I'm not the one dripping blood all over the floor." She pointed to an examination room. "Now get your ass in that room!"
"Briiiiian." Xe whined and found out it didn't work. "Oohh all right I'll go, but you better not use duct tape on me, I'm allergic."
"Big baby." Brian mumbled. She made Xe get up on the examination table, helping her remove her windbreaker and shirt; she then helped her pull her sports bra over her head.
Blue eyes narrowed and gazed into dark green. "Why couldn't I have left my bra on?"
"Because I'm a perverted doctor and I wanna drool all over your tits. Now let me see where all this blood is coming from." She had Xe sit sideways on the table, with gentle fingers she examined the knife wound. "A couple thousand staples ought to close it."
"Haaa! Funny baby. Just put some butterflies on it and I'll be good as new." She looked up when the door opened and an older nurse stepped into the room and glared at both of them.
"Excuse me but what are you doing in here, this room is off limits with the exception of hospital personal."
"Xe I want my credentials tattooed on my forehead!" Brian spun around and gave the nurse a leveling glare. "Which credential would you like, the one that says I'm a surgical specialist in the reattachment of severed limbs, forensic pathology, abnormal psychology, general surgery or that I just so happen to be the Chief Medical examiner for this hospital!" Brian was on a roll, her temper was flaring by the second and the only thing that saved the nurse from a sudden death was Boggs stepping into the room.
He ignored the fact that Xe was sitting there with an amused smirk on her face and topless. "Jesus Christ you two! I can't leave you two alone with anyone before you start picking fights or shooting them!" Nurse if you will excuse the Doctor and her stubborn patient, I heard a commotion in the waiting room and they need your help." The older woman left with out a word but a backward glance at Brian. "You two have some explaining to do!" He pointed a finger at Xe and then turned a beat red from embarrassment.
Xe told Boggs the entire story starting with the conversation Brian had with Christine Davidson earlier that day, the similar business cards and then the call from Vance saying that he needed to speak with her.
"We left the body downstairs in the hallway." She shrugged her shoulders and then flinched with pain. "Baby will sew that up before I bleed to death?"
"After I scrub the shit out of it, that knife was probably taken from my autopsy room and used on Vance." She watched Xe's face match the paler of her own with worry. "Just for precaution, I want to start the Meds to prevent AIDS on both of us and take blood."
"Gods Xe, I never thought of that." Boggs ran a hand through his thinning hair; his eyes showed enough worry for all three of them. "I'll send down the team to get the body and take it into the autopsy room and them I'm going over to Mrs. Davidson's to have a chat."
"Hold on Boggs, we're going with you."
"Ohh no we're not Xe! We're staying right her and take our meds." She turned to Boggs. "You'll bring Davidson here for identification right?"
"Yeah, I'll see you two in your office in a little while. Brian take care of that stubborn ass wife of yours." He squeezed her shoulder and winked at a pouting Xe.
"I can't believe I'm gonna let a dead peoples doctor sew me up and what's this with all the credentials?"
"I wasn't always the party animal I am today." She grinned up at Xe. "At one time not so long ago I worked my ass off studying all kinds of medicine before I picked this one as my career."
"OK Dr. Frankenstein sew me up but I like my parts just the way they are." She rolled her eyes when Brian gave her a rakish grin and latched her eyes onto the bare breasts in front of her.
"So do I. Now hold still." Brian scrubbed up and donned a pair of surgical gloves before cleaning the injured area with a strong astringent. An hour later, Xe had 45 small sutures from above her right hip angling upwards towards her ribcage. It was time for their shots to help prevent any unwanted virus from invading their bodies. Xe couldn't figure out why Brian was doing that since the knife hadn't cut her. Her eyes widened when Brian pulled the windbreaker off and showed her the deep gash in her forearm.
"Ohh Gods Brian, I didn't know you got cut." She took Brian's arm and looked closer at the nasty wound. "Let me go get a doctor to suture that for you."
"Come on Xe, I can do this myself. Just hold the suture tray for me and help me tie the knots." Xe had to hand it to her wife; she was talented when it came to neat sutures. Neither one of them would scar too badly from this altercation with evil. Now with Xe wearing a scrub shirt and Brian a long white lab coat, they went down to her office to examine the murderer and wait for Boggs to get there with the head bitch Davidson.
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Police officers stood guard outside of the autopsy room, they each nodded their heads at the women as they went through the doors and over to the blood soaked sheet of the murderer. Brian took a corner of the sheet and pulled it back to reveal the tattered black hood that covered the face. "Well we have one bullet hole under the chin that's from me and one in the throat that's from you." She looked up at a still pale Xe and smiled. "I'd say they were both kill shots."
"Just tell me that you're not good with axes or other things that can hack a body up."
"Xe if I was a nut case and wanted to kill you, I'd do it in bed. Now help me here, I want this bitch ready for Boggs and her mother." She eased the hood off and stared down at an unfamiliar face. "Who in the Hell is this?" Her confused green eyes locked with equally confused blue.
"I have no idea." She ran her fingers down her face and swore. "Shit, I guess we'll have to run finger prints." She turned when one of the officers called her name and handed her his radio. "What's going on?" She asked him.
"It's Chief Boggs; he's been relayed through the switchboard."
"Go ahead Boggs what have ya got?"
"Bad news Xe, Mrs. Davidson is on her way to the morgue in a body bag and I'm bringing in Christine Davidson as soon as the paramedics give me the go ahead."
"We're going to need the fingerprint guy here; we have no idea who this woman is that attacked us."
"Don't worry about it."
"OK, later." She handed the radio back to the officer and sighed when Brian looked at her. "Can this get any more complicated?"
"Yeah if you don't sit down you'll pass out on top of nameless here." Brian stepped up to Xe, wrapped her arms gently around her waist, and leaned into her body. Tucking her head under her wives chin, she mumbled against her. "Don't you ever scare me like you did tonight."
"Me? You're the one who was wrestling on the floor with a knife-totting nutcase. You scared the Hell outta me when you did that head butting thing." She kissed the crown of a blonde head and then rested her cheek against the soft hair. "I couldn't let you get stabbed or hurt; if I lost you it would kill me."
"Don't you think I feel the same way? You were unprotected; I had on a SWAT vest. All I could think of when you lunged at us was you getting stabbed in the stomach or chest."
"From now on, neither one of us does anything this stupid again, deal?"
"Deal. Now let's go sit down and wait for Boggs. My adrenaline rush is long gone and I'm exhausted."
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After the paramedic on the scene cleared Christine, Boggs drove the distraught young woman over to the hospital. He had gone over to the house to question Mrs. Davidson and found Christine lying in the front yard unconscious. The side of her face was covered in blood and a deep purple bruise was forming from her temple to her jaw line. He had immediately called for back up and went into the house. After searching the entire downstairs, he was just about to head to the upstairs area when one of the officers came through the front door. The two of them searched the rooms until they had come to the master bedroom and found Mrs. Davidson lying on the bed with a plastic bag over her head, wrists tied to the headboard and her ankles tapped with duct tape. From the blue color of her face, he knew that they were too late. His only witness was the young Davidson who was outside; he hoped that she could recall what happened. "I'm taking you downstairs to Dr. Meadows office; Lt. Sallano is there right now. I know she'll have some questions for you."
"Where's my mother?" She asked in a low shaky voice.
"I'm sorry, we found her upstairs. Some one suffocated her with a plastic bag."
"Who's killing all of my family?" She broke down into tears and soft sobs. "I want this person found Chief! I may be next when they find out I'm not dead."
"Do you remember anything of what happened to you?"
She shook her head and groaned as a sharp pain shot through her temple. "I just got home from seeing a friend of mine, I remember walking towards the front door and that's all." She searched her pockets for her phone. "Did someone pick up my cell phone I need to call my sister."
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Brian and Xe had fallen asleep on the futon in the office mere minutes after lying down. The long day and the adrenaline rush had taken a lot out of them. The only way that they could escape from the horrors of the jobs they led was in the land of sleep wrapped in each other's arms. Xe's eyes flickered open when she heard her name being called in a deep whisper. She squinted her eyes at the dark figure and groaned.
"Five more minutes Boggs."
"Sorry kid no can do, I have Christine with me. The girl is ready to go off the deep end. She can't get a hold of her sister and she thinks the killer may have gotten her."
"OK, let me wake up Bri and we'll be there in a minute." She watched her long time friend leave the room and console the grieving young woman in the hall.
"Christine, Lt. Sallano and Dr. Meadows will be out in a minute." He placed a hand on her shoulder not knowing what else to do, with his own daughters; he would have held them until they stopped crying. With this young woman, he didn't know how she would take it. Xe and a sleepy Brian coming from the office saved him. He gave them a small smile and stepped off to the side. He had to admit, seeing Brian still half asleep brought out fatherly feelings in him. He could still see as plain as day even though it had been many years ago, his own daughters looking very much the same.
"Miss Davidson I'm LT. Xepher Sallano, I believe you already know my wife Dr. Meadows." Xe wrapped a supporting arm around Brian and pulled her close to her side. "I'm sorry to hear about your mother, I believe we have the person who killed your brother and your mother. Maybe you can identify the person for us."
Tear filled brown eyes looked between the three people; she nodded her head and wiped the tears from her cheeks. "I'll try but I don't know if I'll be much good."
"That's all we can ask. Boggs would you take her to the viewing room and Brian and I will get everything set up?"
"Sure no problem."
On the way to the viewing room, Christine asked Boggs a question he often wondered himself.
"Do they always cross over into each others professions?"
"Come to think of it, yeah they do, strange since Xe and Brian hated each other at first. Guess it's true about opposites attracting."
Boggs tapped on the window to the viewing room and saw Brian pull back the curtain a little and mouth the words 'monitor or real time?' "Would you prefer to see the person on the monitor?"
"No Chief, I can handle this. I'm a Medical student; I see dead bodies all the time."
Brian nodded from the other side; obviously, she had read Christine's lips. She stepped back and nodded to Xe who removed the sheet. Christine's first reaction was to cover her mouth, the next was to grab onto Boggs' arm and sink to the floor. Boggs bent down, picked the young woman up, and placed her in a chair near the back wall.
"Are you OK, can I get you some water or something?"
"That's…my sister Cissy!" She pointed to the window and let out a wail. Boggs pulled the sobbing woman into his arms and held her as she cried out her pain. He didn't care if she later brought charges against him for his conduct, he was a father and seeing young women like this hurt him. He looked up at Xe and Brian and mouthed the words 'Her sister Cissy.' to them. They nodded and closed the door leaving them alone.
"Oooh boy Xe, this is a real fucking mess ain't it?"
"You're right about that, I have to check on Vance and see how he's doing."
"I'll stay here with Boggs and Christine."
Xe pulled her into her arms and gave her a hug, pulling back a bit; she captured her lips for a lingering kiss. "Love you Bri, I'll be back in a few minutes."
"OK, love you to."
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Xe talked to the doctor who had operated on Vance, from what she could understand, the surgery was successful and Vance had a very good chance of having a long and healthy life. It would not be until the next day that she could speak with him, so she arranged for a police guard to be at his door until he was moved and safe from further danger. With everything that had happened that day, all she wanted to do was go home and sleep for a week. She knew that it was an impossibility and that she had plenty of paperwork to do. Taking a deep breath and stopping at the cafeteria for coffee on her way back, she found Brian and Boggs sitting with a much calmer Christine.
"I brought us coffee, I knew we would all need the caffeine by now."
"Since you've been gone Xe, we've solved some things concerning the time and place of the past murders." Boggs took the coffee and moaned with delight at the heat penetrating his chilled hands. He hated the basement area because it was always so cold and dreary. "Christine has told us that they lived close to Vance when they were growing up and had gone to the same school as he did. Francisca or Cissy as she wanted to be called; had a crush on young Vance."
Christine cut in and relayed the rest of the story to them. When they had been younger, Cissy would follow Vance around and scare other girls away from him. She claimed that they were dating and if she caught them, she would do horrible things to their families and them. Shortly before their sophomore year in High School, they moved to California for a year before coming back. By then Vance was in his senior year and would leave for college in the fall. Cissy never forgot him. When she turned 18, she took off and was missing for months before she came back home. Her excuse was that she wanted to have some fun before she was locked away in school for another four years.
"So during those times that she was having fun, she was killing the people close to Vance?" Xe was beginning to see a pattern, she looked at the calendar Brian had on the nearby wall and saw that at the times of the murders, they had been on long weekends or during a holiday where the colleges would have had no classes. "Your sister went all the way to California so she could kill Vance's friends." She rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed. "What about all the others? She told us that she killed them because they were weak. Any idea what she meant by that?"
"She was my sister but I didn't really know her, she changed from day to day some times sooner than that."
Brian whispered into Xe's ear 'MPS' "Did she ever see a Psychiatrist or any other kind of mental health type help. That brought a chuckle from Christine.
"Every day, she was studying abnormal Psychology; she wanted to apply for either the FBI or Law Enforcement once we graduated.
"Interesting? That's strike two for me." Brian grumbled and got a pinch on her thigh from Xe.
"What's your major in college?"
A brow raised across Christine's smooth forehead. "Pediatrics, I like kids." She shrugged her shoulders. "Are we done here, I have a lot to do." She glanced to where the curtained window was and tears filled her eyes. "I don't even know where to start, I'm all alone now."
Xe and Brian saw the emotions run across Boggs face and knew what he was going to do.
"Christine, if you'll come with me I'll help you get things sorted out." She took his offered hand and said goodbye to Brian and Xe. "I'll give you guys a call later if I find out anything about Vance." He waved to them and escorted Christine from the room.
"He's gonna play the daddy to her isn't he?"
"Yeah, but he does a good job and it'll be the first time in that women's life that she's had a real one." Xe kissed Brian's temple and pulled her close. "Speaking of kids, we have two at home that are probably having a Hell of a time with your underwear."
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With the water in the tub cold enough to cause chattering teeth, blue eyes flickered open at that sound. After getting home, Brian had run a hot bath for them and they had fallen asleep quickly after submerging their aching bodies. Neither one of them gave a damn about their wounds getting wet they ached and this was the best medicine.
"Bri come on wake up before you get hypothermia." She eased Brian away from her body and swore when the cold water hit her chest. "You sleep like your patients, dead to the world." With difficulty, she got them both out of the tub and carried Brian to bed. The sound of the telephone ringing next to the bed had Xe growling and cursing Bell for inventing the damn thing, she couldn't get her eyes to open and fumbled for the receiver. "Sallano you're dead meat!"
"Funny that's what my wife says about our sex life."
"Boggs what time is it?" She rolled over and buried her face against Brian's back.
"It's going on ten o'clock, you two are still in bed huh?"
"I feel like a steamroller hit me. Why are you calling me anyway?"
"I talked to Vance this morning; he remembers Cissy stalking him but never thought she would kill people because he didn't pay any attention to her. He wanted to know if you two were all right and wanted me to thank you guys for saving his life."
"Glad to hear he's going to be all right. Is his record going to be cleaned?"
"Yep, and he's asked for a transfer to Homicide and it's been approved. I think he'll make a good detective, he has that edge to him now."
"If you see him before we do, tell him we were glad to help and not to eat the meatloaf, it's hazardous."
"Got it, now get some sleep you have lots of paperwork to do tomorrow."
"Yeah right, more sleep no paperwork." She clicked off the phone, dropped it between them and went back to sleep.
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Two weeks later with all the loose ends tied up on the Lover's Tryst case and Vance in the clear and a new detective in homicide. Brian and Xe were able to take a breather from chasing maniacs. They sat on the back deck of their farmhouse and watched Fugly and Bear chase each other around the field behind the house. What brought a smile to Xe's face was the 2-year-old strawberry roan filly running in circles around the playing dogs. She now had everything she ever wanted or needed, a loving wife, their own home, two dogs and a horse. "Baby can I have some of that ice cream?"
"Nope all mine!" Brian said around a mouthful of butter pecan ice cream.
Well almost everything.
Lover's Tryst
By Larisa
Hecate3366@frontiernet.net
The Athenaeum's Scroll Archive