In.
A.
Heartbeat.
Honestly, she didn’t care if it was sketchy as fuck, or could be problematic. Chrissy could run circles around Ben, and Tony was terrified of her.
When Chrissy whistled, she got the anthropologist’s attention. Tony headed her way.
“You can look, but no touching,” she warned him.
Elizabeth just stood back and smiled the whole damn time. Her nightmare was looking less scary, and she knew they would be okay.
“How did Ben take it?” she asked her husband as they watched Chrissy taking photos, and Tony checking out the skull with that look of fascination on his goofy face.
Ahhh, the forensics world was looking up again.
Elizabeth had her tech back.
“I mean, I fully expect to hear him complain about it, but he’s technically still in his position. He just has a partner in it, and he has to answer to Chrissy as manager.”
She laughed.
“Oh, he’s going to bitch and moan. You left him at the city morgue?”
He nodded.
“Yep. Chrissy made that choice, actually. She’s got free rein to run it how it’s normally run. Oh, and she locked Tony’s spider in the evidence cabinet and changed the code.”
Elizabeth laughed.
And laughed.
And laughed.
The tide was, finally, turning. It looked like she and Chris were back in control on this side of the country—well, when it came to the morgue staff.
“What do we have?” Elizabeth asked her anthropologist.
He got the okay from Chrissy to pick it up, now that pictures had been taken.
“It’s a female skull,” he admitted. “The horns are attached with some sort of epoxy. I won’t know what until we test it, but it looks like some construction-grade stuff.”
Elizabeth listened.
“The horns are also bone, and are actually from animals. I’ll know more when I do a scraping and run some pictures to find the origin.”
That worked for her.
“What can you tell me about the skin and eyes, Chris?” she asked.
He moved closer, and picked up the skin to reveal a much better look at the eyes.
“Well, it’s definitely human. I’m not sure who it’ll belong to, but we’ll play match up the DNA when I get the rest of the remains in. Same with the eyes.”
Elizabeth knew by morning, now with Chrissy there, they’d have something.
“Well, then, let’s take a look at the body in the casket,” she said.
