บท 45: Painesville Township
She walked ahead of him and opened the door for him. Just because they spent the night together didn't mean she would lose herself. Bruss saw them walk in together. He raised his eyebrows.
"Good morning, you two," he said.
He went up to Allie and knocked his shoulder with his.
"How good of a morning is it, Alexsandra?" he asked.
"We were having coffee together this morning, discussing the case," she said.
"Where in his kitchen?" he asked.
"You know you're not funny, right?" she said.
"I don't care about being funny. I care about being right," he said.
"What's going on?" she said.
"Well, this beautiful detective here is coming to talk to us. And by beautiful, I mean I'm ready to either break up with or cheat on Shelly," he said.
"Very classy, Bruss," she said.
Detective Lincoln walked into the lobby and greeted Allie and Dean. She shook their hands.
"Good afternoon, I'm Detective Lincoln," she said.
"Detective Kinston. This is FBI special agent Carron," she said.
"Nice to meet you both. Sorry, it's under these circumstances," she said.
She's looked Dean up and down.
"They're growing them big at the FBI these days," she said.
Dean couldn't do much more than just smile.
"And those eyes; are you single?" she laughed.
Dean threw a sideways glance at Allie.
"I'm not sure," he said.
"Well, let me know when you find out," she said. "Alright, now the thing we have all been dreading. Follow me."
The three followed her through a security door and entered the roll call room. Bruss noticed a box of donuts and started walking towards them.
"Bruss! Down, boy!" Allie said.
Every head turned when he walked into the room. The men were a little taken aback by the two female officers in the room: one with short black hair and one with strawberry blonde hair. The one nudged the other with her elbow.
"He looks like he just walked out of the redwood forest," the blonde one said.
"I always liked to climb trees," the black-haired officer said.
As he passed by, Dean tipped his head to acknowledge them.
"Ladies," he said.
They just stared at him. When they walked by, they stared at his ass. The black officer mouthed to the other.
"OH MY GOD," she said.
"How can any man look that good in jeans?" she said, whispering back.
Dean turned back, looked back, and smiled.
"Did you see those eyes?" the blonde said.
"You can see them like a green light in the dark," she said.
A sandy blonde-haired officer came over to them.
"What does that guy have that I don't have?" he asked.
"Everything," they said in unison.
Lincoln opened the door to a small conference room. They all walked inside. There was a table and six rolling chairs. They were a little worn, and the carpet was a dirty brown.
"Have a seat," she said.
She opened a folder and gave them a photocopy of statements written by the campers.
"Here is the situation. We had a tragic accident late last night. A young woman was killed. The vehicle was extremely mangled and burned. The female was halfway ejected out of the driver's side back window. She was burned up to her rib cage. Her face was damaged. She had a broken nose and a large laceration on her forehead. She had a tattoo on the back of her neck. Vini. Vedi. Vici," she said.
"What does that mean?" asked Bruss.
"It means I came. I saw. I won." Dean said.
"Did her mother mention the tattoo in her statement?" she asked.
"No, she didn't," she said.
"So, what made you think it might be our girl?" she asked.
"CSI found a Catalano's bag a few hundred feet from the crash site. You had put that was the last place she was seen. Her physical description is close. Same height, blond hair, brown eyes. But now the tattoo is throwing me off," she said.
"Where is the body now?" Dean asked.
"Downstairs in our morgue. We are a one-stop shop," she said.
"Did you print her?" Dean asked.
"We did, but we don't have access to the fingerprint database," she said. "Maybe you can take them back with you?" she asked Dean. "Or we send them to BCI."
"Send them to the Bureau of Criminal Investigation?" he asked. "It will be weeks before you get them back. I have a way to find out right now; be right back. I need to go to my car."
Dean left the room and headed outside.
"What does he have in his car?" Bruss asked.
"Besides an entire police station, I don't know," Allie said, shrugging his shoulders.
Dean went out to the Challenger and popped the trunk. He rooted around a little bit, opened a duffle bag, and found what he sought. He went back inside and walked into the conference room. He held up what looked like a large cell phone.
"Want to share with the class?" Bruss said.
"Take me the body," he said.
Lincoln rolled the chair back and stood up.
"Follow me," she said.
The 4 of them went down to the morgue. She pulled the drawer out and uncovered the body.
"Oh, that poor girl," Dean said. "Are all her fingers broken? Did that happen in the accident?"
"I am not a coroner, but I am confident they were broken before the accident. She already had bruising around the knuckles. This girl was tortured. She had to be terrified. I just don't understand why he would put her in the backseat of all places. You would think we would have found her body in the trunk," she said.
"What do you say we stop calling her the body?" Dean asked.
He gently took one of her fingers and pressed it to the screen. After a couple of seconds, they all heard a little beep.
"White female, Tracie Casper, 23 years of age, 5'5, 123 lbs. last known address 8396 Fowler Avenue, Cleveland Ohio 44100," Dean looked up at Allie.
"Yeah. It's my missing female. Damn. DAMN! What kind of sadistic bastard would do this?" she said. Her face was so red it looked like she just ran a marathon.
They all stood there silently. Dean was muttering a prayer. Bruss made the sign of the cross. Lincoln put her hand on the young girl's head and said, "May God's face bring you peace. May his light shine on the path to heaven. Seek out your loved ones and forever be loved."
Allie stood still and silent. There were no prayers, blessings, or reverence, just silence. She put the sheet back over her face and closed the drawer.
That's it. We have to move on. I have a notification to make to a worried mother who I am sure prayed for her, too, to be alive and come home. "Guess God wasn't listening," she said, leaving the room and letting the door slam shut behind her.
The three stood in the same place before the drawer was closed, looking at each other. Lincoln looked slightly put off by Allie's attitude towards the situation. Bruss spoke.
"You must understand, Allie has seen more than we can imagine. She watched her brother and sister Marines die, sometimes horrible deaths, like Tracie. She had to teach herself how to look past the pain."
He started towards the door, and the other two followed.
"So, where did you get that wonderful toy?" Bruss asked. "I don't think the feds just handed those out to everybody."
"God, no. This is mine," he said.
They met Allie in the lobby and thanked Lincoln for all her assistance. Then, they all met in the parking lot.
"Hey, how much did that thing set you back?" Bruss asked. Two, three hundred dollars?
"It wasn't too bad," he said.
"Yeah, we'll go with that," said Allie, rolling her eyes. "No, go ahead and tell him. He asked so that's not flaunting,"
"Really, Allie," he said.
"Go ahead, I'm curious too," she said.
"Keep in mind that I got it for being better in the field," he said. "Plus, I do like instant gratification... sometimes."
He shot Allie a look. He thought he was being discrete, but around Bruss, there was no such thing as discrete body language, including facial expressions.
"OH MY GOD. YOU TWO SLEPT TOGETHER!" he exclaimed. "Then again, it's about freaking time."
They both looked like deer in headlights. They were frozen, and Allie forgot how to breathe for a moment.
"HOLY SHIT! I'M RIGHT, ARN'T I!" he exclaimed, putting his hands on his hips and moving a step back, rocking on one foot.
"I thought you wanted to know how much this was," Dean said.
It was his desperate effort to change the subject. It did not work.
"You're going to try to deny it to ME. I can read you two like children's book because it's so easy," he said.
"You are so wrong this time. You can be wrong sometimes," she said.
"When was the last time I was wrong?" he asked. "Maybe in 2007, so it's been a little while... a long, little while."
"How can you tell something like that if anything did happen?" Dean asked.
"NO! DON'T ASK HIM THAT!" she exclaimed.
"Why?" Dean asked.
"Because he's going to answer you, that's why," she said.
"Damn right I am," he said. "First, I am the greatest detective in the department's history..."
"See, you're wrong already," she said with a laugh.
"Continuing. You two showed up together, in a bitchin' car, by the way," he paused.'
"Thank you," Dean said.
"I already told you we're having coffee," she said.
"And like I said, in his kitchen," he said. "Allie, you are wearing a very wrinkled dress shirt. You have not worn wrinkled anything, ever. It's against your code of conduct. Your hair was still wet when you arrived unless you had coffee in the shower with him, and I was wrong about the kitchen. You," he pointed at Dean, "Looks like you just won the billion-dollar Powerball. That sly smile only left your face when the situation called for it. And you shot her that glance when you used the word gratification in a sentence. Finally, and I am not trying to be disrespectful, but you," he pointed at her, "Are not wearing a bra. Not that I was looking, but it's cold outside, and your body is perfectly aware of that. You lied to me; you can never lie to me. You should know that by now."
"Are you done now?" she asked.
"Oh, no, I can continue if you would like," he said. "How about when he squeezed your thigh under the table?"
"DEANS FAMILY SELLS HORSE SPERM," she said, blurting it out.
"Really!" Dean said. "Of everything on this planet to change, try to change the subject with your choice. Is my family business?."
"Okay. We will revisit that sometime in the future," he said.
"Well, not that this has not been a riveting conversation, but I do have a notification to make," she said.
As they walked away, Bruss gave Dean a wink and two thumbs-ups. Dean just flashed that Billion-dollar Powerball smile and got into the car.
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