“Thanks, Doc,” Ethan said. “We greatly appreciate the heads-up and your wealth of knowledge.”
The man didn’t mind.
“Anything I can do to help,” he admitted. “I was the new guy here once, too.”
Yeah, well, Gene didn’t plan on being the new guy here. He planned on wooing his man, and getting their asses back onto that plane toPhillyon Sunday morning.
They had jobs back inThe City of Brotherly Love—not here. Puerto Rico was supposed to be a getaway—not a new place to call home.
“Can we get trace analysis on their clothing?” Gene asked. “I know you said they were coated in herbs, and in the one’s mouth, but what about the clothing?” he asked. “Did you run that?”
The man nodded.
“I did, and it’s pretty much the same, but there was something else I found,” Ben offered as he printed that report out too.
Gene was curious.
“What?”
He told him.
“I swabbed his body, and it was weird,” he offered. “I found sugar—but more so, sugar burns.”
Ethan lifted a brow.
Okay, Corbin mentioned that.
But the last part?
“Sugar burns?”
He nodded.
“Yeah. You know how when you boil sugar to make candy, it gets molten hot?”
No, they didn’t know that since they didn’t make candy, but instead of going there, they just listened.
“Well, it was on their bodies—both of them—like they were dragged through it. Maybe on a floor, or…but it was hot.”
That was…puzzling.
“There was also sandy debris in it.”
What the hell was this?
Ethan was confused.
“So you found sugar and sand mixed into hot sugar, and on the bodies?”
He nodded.
“And when it cooled, it left burns, but it stuck to the hair on the legs. That’s how it didn’t get washed away. Maybe some spa? They use sugar scrubs and beauty treatments for waxing.”
Gene paused.
“Hot enough to burn?” he asked. “Do women do that kind of shit? Asking as a man.”
Ben laughed.
