She stopped speaking.
“What?” Ethan asked.
“Like I’m prey, and I’ve been studied. We get here, and there’s a detective assigned to a case, and that detective just so happens to be tied to you two.”
They let her talk.
“Then, everything is out of order. I’m getting eyeballs, and skulls, and a dead soldier.”
Ethan knew what she was saying.
“You advocate for soldiers.”
She nodded.
“I do. If that’s not enough, I’m on the other side of the country, and off my game. I don’t have the resources built back up yet, and that makes me wonder. Did we catch this person off guard, or was this all intentional?”
Ethan knew what she was asking.
“You think that the soldier was the catalyst, and that someone dropped him so the cops would find the eyeballs.”
She nodded.
“Yeah, but in order for that to happen, this person would have to be beyond smart. He’d have to be organized, and know how well I do my job.”
Gene got it.
“So we’re thinking maybe the attorney you were chasing? Do you think she’s back in play?”
She shook her head.
“No, just because this has been ongoing. I think we’re missing one big piece, and until we get that, this is going to get dangerous. I don’t like the idea that I’m being watched. I don’t like the idea that my team is under scrutiny.”
Gene and Ethan both got it.
“I’ll send texts out to Corbin and Alex,” Ethan said. “I’ll get them back here.”
She stopped him.
“I don’t know if Alex will even come back. That’s just one more distraction, and I hate it. Why do I feel like someone unleashed the Kraken on me, and it came from higher up?”
Ethan lifted a brow.
“Like above you and Gabe?”
She didn’t know, but this felt…all encompassing. Elizabeth wasn’t sure how to explain it. At first, she was thinking it might be two people, but now…it just seemed like someone was planning the long con.
“It’s rare someone can play me, EJ, but I really feel like I’m being yanked around on a string. Someone has their fingers in this, and I don’t like it.”
Maybe she was just being paranoid.
But this felt…twisted. Like she had been the target from the very beginning, and this wasn’t some merry asshole playing with his dick, some eyeballs, and a penchant for dead bodies.
Oh, he was sick as fuck, but it felt…stalkerish.
Gene pulled out his tablet, and he began scanning the pictures that had been collected on the crime scene. They had to have missed something.
Ethan on the other hand, pulled out his phone, and he made a phone call.
