Sacred Burial Grounds (An FBI Romance Thriller (book 2)) (56 page)

“He’s the son, the actual son. He carries the name. I’m not a Blackhawk, I’m a Whitefox,” he paused, “Ethan may be the half-breed, but I’m the bastard child.”

Elizabeth began thinking.

“What’s wrong?”

“I
need to go see your grandfather!” She grabbed her wrappers and left the table quickly. Her mind already preoccupied.

“Hey wait up
!” Blackhawk shrugged, and chased after his wife. “See you at Granddad’s house.” He barely had time to get into the vehicle, before she was buckled in and pulling out.

“What do you have?” he knew the look on his wife’s face meant she was close, real close to putting all the pieces together.

“I need to see if your father dated anyone after you both were born. Not necessarily procreated with but dated. I hope your grandfather can remember.”

“You think he had another child?”

“I need you to call Christina, get me a report on the trace on that card. I may need to call in a favor too. I have a suspicion.”

“
Care to share?”

“I think all he wants is to be a Blackhawk and replace the only Blackhawk son. That’s why he’s aiming for you, and Callen is just a side note. You’re the Blackhawk.”

“It’s not like there’s a fortune attached to the name.” Blackhawk almost laughed.

“Sometimes it’s not about the money, Ethan. Sometimes it’s about the r
ecognition. To the killer, the name means everything, and you're the only one with the name. Look at Callen. You can see it wounds him that he wasn’t born with the name. He always feels like he’s illegitimate.”

Blackhawk never thought about it, but part of him hurt for his brother.
“If I could make him Callen Blackhawk I would, Lyzee.”

Elizabeth just nodded. If he could do it, she knew he’d find a way.

Elizabeth parked the Denali in the driveway. She walked over to the totem and ran her hands down each animal, inspecting them. Most predominantly were the raven, her husband, then the fox, Callen Whitefox, and lastly the bear, Timothy Blackhawk. As she walked around the back of the totem and stared at the fur of the bear she saw it. There was a little tiny bull, etched into the fur of the bear towards the bottom.

“What?”

“Look at the bear,” she said, pointing to the fur and the tiny bull.  It was right over the signature of Wyler Blackhawk, carved into the totem.

“Son of a bitch! I never noticed that,” he said softly
, as he moved aside for his brother to see it. “Callen, have you ever seen that?”

“Never.”

Elizabeth stood. “The killer has seen this. I think the tattoo is in reference to this totem and the family. Wyler is a bull, and he signed this totem.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples as a wave of dizziness crashed over her.

“You okay?”

“Headache, that’s all,” she lied to keep him calm. If he knew she was dizzy, he’d be carrying her back to the Denali and to the closest emergency room. “Every picture he’s drawn is attached to this totem, Ethan.”

Timothy Blackhawk heard their voices and came out to the porch and watched them together. His grandson had his hand on his wife’s shoulder
, and she was staring at the totem in deep thought.

“I wasn’t expecting you all today
. It’s a very pleasant surprise.” Timothy walked towards them. “Is something wrong?”

“Granddad,
after Wyler got my mom pregnant did he knock up anyone else?” asked Whitefox, crassly.

“I don’t know my boy. No woman came here saying he did,” he answered, watching Elizabeth. “Come, let’s go in and sit down,” he
nodded, taking her hand. She didn’t look well, and she was very pale. A silent look was passed to his grandsons.

“Let’s get out of the sun
.” Blackhawk followed his wife and grandfather into his house. Immediately he rushed to get her some water. “Drink this, Elizabeth.”

Elizabeth wasn’t listening
. Her thoughts were all focused on the totem and the pictures of the animals. “Granddad, you told me that each animal has traits or characteristics. That Wyler was definitely a bull.”

“I did
and he is.”

Elizabeth thought back to the bull carved into the bear. “Did you know Wyler had a bull on the totem?”

“Yes, he told me once he signed all his works with his name and his spirit guide, as a way to thank the bull for giving him another work of art and the stubbornness to complete it. I used to believe he put it there to be part of our family. Wyler is the invisible member of our unit.”

Elizabeth started processing the older Blackhawk’s words.
“Tell me about the raven, fox, and bear.”

“The raven signifies courage and magic. He is the harbinger and messenger. He brings news from the spirit world,” he pointed at his
eldest grandson. “The fox is cunning and likes games. He can hide in plain sight and never be caught,” he pointed at his other grandson.

“And the bear?”

“The bear is the watcher. He sees all. He is also the healer and most often taken animal for shaman. The bear is the power of the totem.”

“What are you thinking, Elizabeth?”
asked her husband.

It was right there
. The entire thing was almost put together in her mind. “I think he’s connecting all the players in the game. He has something to do with this family. At first, I thought he was talking about each person, the raven and the fox. But I think we need to look at the characteristics instead. Look at the traits: Magic, courage, cunning, hiding in plain sight, shamanism, healing and a watcher. Then the bull he drew on the woman,” Elizabeth paused and her stomach rolled with the possibility. “Oh my God, fertility.”

“Elizabeth, are you okay?” The three men watched her closely.

“I really need to make this call,” she said, pulling out her phone and dialing the lab. “Chris it’s, Lyzee. I need your help.” She put her phone on speaker.

“Hey, what do you need, sunshine?”

“The two Native American women that had flesh, what were the states of the fetuses? Enough for DNA?”

“Yeah, we ran DNA on them.”

“Did we compare them?”

Doctor Leonard sounded confused. “To each other?”

“Yeah, a side by side comparison to each other. I need to know if they match genetically.”

“Let me pull the reports and call you right back, and I’ll tell you,” he disconnected.

Blackhawk sat beside his wife. “You think the killer impregnated the women and then killed them all.”

“Yeah, I think he did.
The bull is fertility.”

“But why?” asked Whitefox. “Why get them pregnant and then kill them?”

Elizabeth looked over at her husband. “I don’t do the psychological part of the puzzle. That’s you Ethan.”

Ethan Blackhawk considered what she was laying out for them.
“If he’s impregnating them, then it may be about control. He may have had a childhood where he was completely controlled by someone, and now he is acting out and taking back the control. Playing God, if you will.”

“Like a female figure?”

“Exactly like that. If he’s killing the women, it may be because of his past and his mother relationship. As for why he’s killing his own progeny, if he’s the third son then it’s possible he feels the need to control the order of Blackhawks being born. He may be impregnating women in order to find the perfect wife, to give him the perfect child. Keep in mind there aren’t any children born from any of the sons yet.” Blackhawk pulled his wife against his side. This is why her pregnancy had to remain hidden. “If he knew you were having a baby, you’d be his target.”

Elizabeth just nodded
, knowing she’d be marked.

“If you even think of letting that cat out of the bag to get the target off me and onto you, Elizabeth, we will have a cataclysmic fight,” he said, knowing the look on her face.

“I wasn’t thinking that,
Ethan. I was actually thinking how sick that bastard is in the head.” Absently, she laid her hand over her belly. Elizabeth wouldn’t risk her child.

Ever
!

Timothy stood
. “You have a terrible headache, sweetheart. I’m going to make you some of my special tea. It’s good for the blood.”

“Okay,
Granddad. I would appreciate it, thank you.”

Elizabeth’s phone rang and she clicked the speakerphone button. “What do you have Chris?”

“We didn’t compare them, but I’m running it right now, and it should pop in a few seconds,” said Doctor Leonard. “I don’t think they’re going to match. Their mothers weren’t a genetic match. That we did run. We were thinking they might be sisters or relatives.”

Elizabeth had a feeling that he was going to be wrong. The pieces were beginning to fall into place, and she had that sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. This whole thing was very personal and in the center was the Blackhawk family.

There was silence on the phone and then the furious typing on a keyboard.

“
I’m sorry, Boss! We should have caught this. Son of a bitch,” muttered Doctor Leonard. “I ran them together, and they have a fifty percent autosomal DNA match.”

“English,” said
Blackhawk. Honestly, he hoped she was wrong.

“They share a parent and since it isn’t the mother, as they were in two different bodies, it has to be the father.”

Elizabeth touched her husband’s cheek when he started to recognize the path her mind was taking. The disgust in his eyes at the killing of children was there, but then the father killing his own children, it was pure perversion. “Chris, I need to know something and I need it kept just between us, as a favor and off the records.”

“Give me a second to call you back.” He disconnected the line.

Elizabeth waited and an unknown number dialed into her phone. “Chris?”

“Yeah, it’s my personal phone. What do you need me to do?” She never asked for personal favors before
, so it had to be pretty big. They’d been a team for many years; he trusted her sense of direction.

“I need you to pull the DNA for myself, Ethan, and Callen Whitefox. Mark it unknown to keep it buried and off the radar and run it against the remains of the fetus.”

“Why you?” asked Whitefox.

Doctor Leonard answered. “Lyzee wants a
red herring thrown into the mix. If it ever gets spotted I can just say I randomly picked three profiles as the baseline, and just used the three people in charge of the investigation. If there’s a relationship to the DNA I can feign accidental discovery.”

Blackhawk looked at his wife and kissed her forehead. Even in this, she was protecting both men.

“Run them as fast as you can. I need the information immediately.”

“I think our killer is at the breaking point. We found his bones, we took away his ability to make more medicine wheels, and we don’t seem to be playing his game.” Blackhawk added.

“Chris, I owe you, but please keep it really quiet. As in I never asked.”

“Asked what?”

“I owe you,” Elizabeth laughed, as she hung up the phone.

“I don’t get why we have to keep this quiet,” asked Whitefox.

She looked over at her husband, offering him the chance to field it. “You want this one, Director?”

“If we find out that the victims were related after the killer is caught, we can just pretend that we had no clue. It might skate by a judge if the defense team cries foul. We’re being targeted, so there had to be a reason that the two head investigators continued on without trading the assignment off to someone else.”

“That’s a very slippery slope legally. Someone could lose her job.” There was so much love and respect for her right then.

Elizabeth shrugged.
“I was the original Cowboy and I like to play fast and hard with the FBI rules.” Elizabeth took the tea from Timothy. “Thank you.” She inhaled the scent and it smelled wonderful.

“It is from my personal stash
of herbs.”

Blackhawk put his hand over her mouth before she could sip. “Is it baby safe,
Granddad? I don’t know if she should be drinking ‘
herbs
’ from anyone’s stash.”

Elizabeth
laughed. In the midst of all the mess, the trouble, and the chaos, he was still control freaking the pregnancy. It made her all warm and mushy inside for the man.

“Ethan, I
’m eighty-eight, not an idiot. I wouldn’t give her herbs that would harm her. Like she’s the first woman I’ve tended to in my life. I was there when they delivered you, I treated your mother when she had the same symptoms as your wife,” he looked over at Elizabeth. “Anemia correct?”

She shrugged and answered, “The ME thinks so. I have a doctor appointment tomorrow.”

“I’ll send you home with some tea, and you make sure she drinks two cups a day. She won’t be as pale or as tired. It detoxifies the blood and helps stimulate blood cell production.”