Getting way too close to the dead dude, Gene sniffed the man, and he looked confused. It wasn’t as disgusting as he thought it was going to be.
In fact, it was familiar.
“Why does he smell like cotton candy?” he asked. “Or kettle corn?”
Ethan looked at him.
“Really?” he asked.
Oh, he knew they had sugar residue on the victims, but that had to be a lot of sugar to be that sweet-smelling. Cotton candy was literally spun sugar.
He pointed.
“Am I crazy? Or does he smell like it?” Gene asked, and now, they had three more men sniffing a body like it was a competition.
And of course, people were staring—mostly the techs.
“Yeah, it smells like it,” Greyson said. “Now, I’ll add this to the list of shit I’ll never eat again.”
Yeah, Gene too.
Ben was to the point.
“He’s sticky. I’m going to roll him, and you can feel his skin.”
Immediately, Lucas touched his arm, and he wasn’t gloved up.
Ben gasped.
“WITH GLOVES ON!”
He blushed.
“I’m sorry. I don’t do murders. I don’t have to wear gloves often when handling drugs and guns.”
What?
All three Feds stared at him, but opted not to go there. Sometimes, you had to choose your battles.
Instead, Gene shook his head, and handed the man a spare pair of gloves from his pocket.
“The Doc here is going to have to make sure he marks the area so the techs know your DNA might be on him,” he said.
And as he said it, the man did just that with a Sharpie. It was circling one of the symbols on him.
“Well, the good news,” Ben said, as he rolled him over, and his body was more like a blob full of broken bones, “is that now I can get an accurate trace. He’s not been washed off by the ocean.”
Gene grinned.
“We might get something that will help me solve this,” he admitted.
Well, that was a break for them. The killer changing patterns might actually help them.
“Give me a few hours, and I’ll have him autopsied and his tox done. You should go talk to his wife. She’s making a spectacle as she calls her husband a piece of shit. Her words, not mine,” he said, laughing.
Well, it looked like they were on interview duty.
Only, before they could head over, Gene glanced over at Greyson, and they could tell he wanted to talk. He was quiet, and he was staring at them.
