Jackson 05 - The Immortals Read Online Free Page B

his lips the last to touch hers, his words to fill her ears? To die with the one you loved at hand, that was grace.
    Taylor forced the romanticism away, became clinical and cool. Rigor was setting in. Their lips were tinged with blue, the bodies carved with the same pentacles as the others. Xander was partially wearing a condom, the wrapper was on the floor next to the night table. Were they in the act,getting ready to have sex or finishing when the killer struck? She supposed it didn’t matter, there were no defensive wounds, no real disturbance in the room. It was like they’d simply gone to sleep in permanently awkward positions, with a large, glowing star cut into their flesh.
    Baldwin circled the bodies, then stepped to the girl’s messy desk.
    â€œHave you photographed all of this?” he asked. The ’gator nodded. Baldwin poked through the girl’s gym bag, then moved to her purse. He withdrew a plastic bag from the inside pocket of the Coach hobo, four small pills riding in the bottom.
    â€œTaylor,” he said.
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œLook at this.”
    The pills were blue, tiny as baby aspirin, with a heart stamped on one side.
    â€œX,” Taylor said.
    â€œYep.” He handed them to the death investigator who was attending the body.
    â€œDon’t lose these,” Baldwin admonished.
    â€œLike that would happen,” the kid replied. He was new—Taylor didn’t recognize him. She felt like she’d seen him somewhere before, but couldn’t place him. Not surprising—with Metro’s influx of new people, there were plenty of faces she couldn’t put to names. His ID card was strung on a yellow-and-black lanyard around his neck, she saw his picture and the name B. Iles. He took the Baggie from Baldwin reverently, photographed it and labeled it into evidence.
    â€œThey were found like this?” Taylor asked the young man.
    â€œYes, ma’am. Nothing’s been moved. We’re waiting for the medical examiner to declare.”
    â€œCan’t you do it?” She was surprised. Death investigators, fondly referred to as ’gators, had the power to run a scene without the presence of a medical examiner.
    â€œI can, but word came down that each scene had to be cleared by one of the ME’s.”
    â€œWho gave that word?”
    â€œCommander Huston.”
    Ah. Her new boss was by the book, too. Taylor had no problem with that, though she knew Sam would be frustrated as hell. They’d have to roust the entire staff of Forensic Medical, all six of the medical examiners, to handle this mess.
    â€œThat’s good enough for me. Anything else you saw that I should know about?”
    â€œNo, ma’am. I’ve documented everything, stills and video. Crime Scene’s been looking for the weapon, the knife that was used, but as far as I know, none have been found at any of the scenes. We’ve lifted fibers galore, trace, fingerprints. If the killer left anything of himself behind, we’ll find it.”
    â€œWhy do you say ‘himself’?” Taylor asked.
    Iles blushed. “Well, I shouldn’t jump to conclusions, but we found a couple of black hairs that obviously didn’t belong to either of these two. One was lying right on top of the male decedent’s chest. It was short, I just assumed it was male.”
    â€œThat’s interesting. Does it have a tag?” They’d be able to get DNA off the hair if a follicle was attached.
    â€œNo. It was broken off.”
    â€œToo bad. Keep looking, there might be more. If you see something that matches what he used to carve them up, let me know immediately. We need to make sure that every kid’s effects are accounted for, that their gym bags, backpacks and purses are all searched. Find their cell phones and planners, too. Okay? Pass that down the line to your other investigators for me, tell the crime-scene techs, too. And ask them to keep an