The Body Hunters (10 page)

 
   The beating was merciless, the gloved fists of the man who was supposed to have been her soul mate driving into her body like pistons. Thankfully, after the first blow, she had lost consciousness. Once he was done with his fists, leaving her face an unrecognizable blob, he used his feet to express his rage stomping and kicking her sides until every rib was broken and vital organs ruptured. Exhausted, he turned her on her back with his foot. Her very existence hung by a strand of spider silk. Two short minutes later her short life on this earth was over.

 
           "I'm sorry this happened to you." Danny gave her condolences to the victim who was standing right beside her. Even though the victim's earthly body had been battered, her manifestation in the spirit realm appeared normal. The woman shook her head, mournfully watching her own demise
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The man had since thrown her plastic wrapped body in a shallow pit, doused it with gasoline and ignited it
.

 
"I'll make sure he pays for this Vicky." Danny promised. Her nose wrinkled in disgust
.

 
           They were eyewitnesses to the woman's murder. Through the crime scene photos a doorway into the spirit realm had been opened giving Danny a 360-degree view of the crime while it was being committed. Everything that happened in the last few hours of Vicky's life was skillfully being combed over by Danny, the expert in this type of forensics. Vicky was her guide, pointing out clues that would bring her murderer to justice
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           Diligent about not being prosecuted for his ex-wife's murder, the man threw his clothing and gloves into the makeshift funeral pyre. He returned to the trunk and ripped out the carpeted liner and also threw it on the flames. Danny walked over to the open trunk of the vehicle, hoping he had left something the prosecutors could use to build their case. Smiling slyly, Vicky walked over and pointed to the small compartment on the interior of the trunk where the jack and tire iron would be found. The case was still intact, and she had the presence of mind to put her diamond stud in the compartment when she was being held captive. He had told her that he would kill her multiple times, and she wanted to be sure to leave evidence of what he had done
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             "Good thinking, but we still need more. We need to go back to where he abducted you.
"

 
           Vicky nodded and the world around them shimmered, everything shifting into another scene associated with the crime. Danny recognized the environment from the crime scene photos. It was Vicky's house moments before she was taken. She had just returned from her job as a nurses' aide and was unwinding from a rather tiring day. Her scrubs had been discarded in the bathroom hamper, and she wore a blue knee-length night shirt, moving silently across the carpeted floor in her bare feet. At peace after several months of turmoil with her abusive now ex-husband, Vicky relaxed on her sofa sipping a diet soda. Flipping through the channels, she tucked her feet under her body. She was jarred from her serene respite when her door was kicked in with a sound as harrowing as a thunderclap.

 
          "We need to slow things down." Danny instructed. The reenactment before them obliged her request. Time nearly halted, every detail magnified as Danny walked around the scene her highly trained eyes not wanting to miss anything
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           As if in slow motion, the ex-husband kicked open the door sending sparkling particles of glass and the shattered door chain flying. Shocked into action, Vicky threw everything she could grab at him; the remote, a bowl of popcorn, and a drinking glass her only ammunition. He swept the flying popcorn bowl away in one swipe but not before cutting his palm slightly on the heavy ceramic. Three drops of his blood fell onto the beige Berber carpeted floor unnoticed.

 
           "That's exactly what we need." Stepping around and through him as he continued to move, Danny started at the front door and counted her paces until she came to the spot where the blood splattered. Dropping to the floor, she noted its location.

 
          The scene continued to replay with the man savagely manhandling his ex-wife. The victim pointed out a pair of small crafting scissors she had tried to stab him with. He had knocked them aside, but not before leaving a trace of DNA. They slid right under the sofa where they had remained hidden
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           "I think we've got him by the balls." Danny surmised, picking up on the final details and noting where every drop of blood that belonged to him was located. He and Vicky had never occupied this living space together so there was no reason why any of his DNA should be present. As long as he could be tied to the scene of the crime with fresh DNA evidence, the prosecutor had a good case
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          "Thank you." Danny rested a hand on the woman's shoulder. "He will pay for this.
"

 
           She mouthed her own thanks, before she faded from her sight like a mirage. In her own reality Danny opened her eyes from the spirit realm trance, immediately aware of everything that was going on around her. Non-psychics mistook her trance for being some sort of sleep cycle since her eyes were nearly closed and she was oblivious to everything that happened around her. It was the main reason she wanted to have her working space out of Gerard's home. How freaked out would he be if he discovered his fiancée with her eyes closed and unresponsive? It wouldn't go over very well at all, and like Lucy, she'd have a lot of 'splainin' to do
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          Gerard showed no interest in her job at the magazine. He thought her working was a novelty, something she would eventually come to her senses about. He was so wrapped up in his practice and the reality show that she hadn't been seeing him much over the last couple of weeks
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          All the information Danny had gathered from the crime scene was at the forefront of her mind, just like grand mere had trained her. Taking a pen and pad she placed beside her floor pillow, she jotted down every detail she had learned during her investigation. Logging into her computer, Danny made contact with the police contact in Jacksonville, Florida and sent him the specifics on the case and where to locate the evidence
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          Her cell phone vibrated, vying for her attention
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          "Crap." She muttered. Of course Gerard had left several messages on her phone. She had missed five messages to be exact. Even though time in the spirit realm went faster than it did in the real world, it was possible to lose track of time, especially when working such a difficult case. She had been gone for probably forty minutes and Gerard was probably throwing a hissy fit
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          Despite her putting it off for weeks, tonight they were meeting for dinner with his partners at the practice and their spouses, exactly the kind of evening she was not wanting. Gerard had continued to nag her about hanging out with the other doctors' wives, but she had refused. First impressions were everything, and from Danny's initial meeting with them she could tell they weren't worth two dead flies, as grand mere would say. She had met a couple of them in passing and all they did was gossip about the women that were not in attendance and bicker over petty things. Danny was the oddity because she was the only one of the wives who actually worked for a living. Oh well, she thought, wasn't love about sacrifices
?

 
          Danny wheeled her classic Camaro into the driveway fifteen minutes later. Scorching Arizona heat slapped her in the face as she opened the door and entered the house
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          "It's about damned time." Like a dad waiting for his daughter who had broken curfew, Gerard was waiting impatiently in the living room, his foot tapping against the tiled floor. He was already dressed in one of his finest suits. "I've been calling you for the last hour. If you don't hurry we're going to be late.
"

 
          "I don't want to hear it." Danny warned on her way upstairs. "I told you I didn't want to go to this damned stupid dinner in the first place.
"

 
           She stripped off her clothes as she walked to their bedroom, finally arriving at the shower. She lathered with body wash and scrubbed before rinsing off. Wrapped in a towel she went back to the bedroom and selected undergarments from her drawer.

 
          Gerard watched her dress from the doorway. "Forgive me if I want my fiancée to meet the people I work with.
"

 
          "Forgive me if I don't want to spend my evening sitting next to a bunch of backstabbing Housewives of Arizona wannabes who are constantly competing with each other." She retorted, consulting her walk-in closet and slipping into a breathtaking black Alexander McQueen dress. Leaving the closet she stepped into a pair of Christian Dior heels, she'd bought at a boutique just before leaving New York
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           "They're not that bad." Gerard zipped the back of her dress while she held her hair away from her neck. "You might like them if you got to know them."

 
          "I spent a half hour with two of them and was ready to blow my own brains out afterward, thank you very much.
"

 
          "Danielle, you're being a little overdramatic, don't you think?" He admonished, gently squeezing her shoulders. "A few of them sit on the boards of local charities. Maybe you could quit the magazine and-
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          Danny gave him a look like she wanted to rip his tongue out. "I told you, I'm not quitting my job. I'm not going over this again.
"

 
           He put his palms up in surrender. "Fine, sweetheart. Whatever you say.
"

 
          "Let's get this fiasco over with." She muttered grabbing her designer handbag and heading downstairs
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          Gerard opened the car door for his fiancée as she slid into the leather interior of his pricey Bentley coupe. In his field it was important to look successful, and this vehicle was exactly the image he wanted to project. Like a feral beast the coupe roared as he reversed, shifted gears and peeled out of the neighborhood
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           Danielle might as well have been light years away from him. She stared out the passenger side of the car, passing headlights playing across her face. By the furrow in her brow and the clenching of her jaw he could tell she was in a most foul mood. She was still the greatest mystery he had ever stumbled upon. At 10 years his junior, she had the makings of the perfect trophy wife. Her body was exquisite, petite and thin, with curves in all the places that mattered. Her caramel skin and honey-gold brown eyes made her an exotic beauty. She was also highly intelligent. He could take her to dinner parties, and he didn't have to worry about her embarrassing him with ignorant conversation. The only drawback was that she was too independent.

 
           When they had first met, he had envisioned her as a dutiful housewife, ready at his beck and call when he wanted to entertain, the perfect hostess. For some reason, she insisted on doing her investigations, or whatever she did for the magazine. Other women would have been ecstatic if they had the option to stay home and spend their husband's money, but not his fiancée.

 
          Gerard loved her, of that there was no doubt. However, sometimes he felt that Danielle was concealing part of herself from him. She rarely went into details about her family, other than stating that her parents and her beloved grandmother were deceased. Even her professional history was an enigma. He knew she had a Bachelor's degree in criminal justice and had done a brief stint as a cop in New Orleans and New York before being selected to work on the magazine. Then there were at least two years with the FBI where her activities were unaccounted for, and she offered no explanation. She gave thin excuses when he probed into those years. She had erected a wall around herself, and he wanted a sledgehammer to tear it down. Sure, they had an entire lifetime to sort it out, but by nature Gerard was not a patient man
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          He had to put a rush on the wedding. Planning the event would keep her busy for a while. Hopefully he would have her pregnant by the time their honeymoon was over. Caring for their child would squash her little rebellious streak. It would be a little difficult for her to work with a baby at her breasts. He smiled inwardly. If keeping the future Mrs. Wolfe with child was what it would take to tame her wild ways, then that's exactly what he planned to do
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           Their destination was the new French restaurant, Bon Sojourn, one of the most popular upscale restaurants in the Phoenix area. A red jacketed valet assisted Danielle out of the Bentley while Gerard handed off the keys to another. The restaurant space was elegant yet intimate. Jewel toned lights illuminated the restaurant, while a soft steam of French jazz added to the ambiance. Arm in arm, Danielle was led by Gerard to the oblong table where his partners and their wives were waiting.