A Chip and a Chair (Seven of Spades, #5)(30)
Oh, well. They were an old pair anyway. He tucked his cock into his boxers and zipped himself up. “I’ll get a towel.”
The kitchen was a bigger mess than he remembered making, but he’d been pretty distracted at the time. He grabbed a couple of clean dishtowels and turned around.
Levi was sitting up on the dining table, glaring at Dominic-although with his curls all tousled and his face pink, the expression was more adorable than anything else.
“What?” Dominic asked.
Levi raised his eyebrows. “Do you have any idea how long it’s going to take to get this olive oil out of me?”
“By comparing J. Doe #7’s dental X-rays to records on file with Dr. Fowler’s former dentist here in Las Vegas, I have positively confirmed the body as that of Seth Fowler,” Dr. Paquin announced to the task force during their next meeting. “Much easier to do when there’s a likely victim in mind, so thank you for that, Detectives.”
Catcalls rang out in the conference room. Levi snorted, but heat built in his cheeks. Next to him, Martine was grinning broadly.
Denise was also full of excited energy, but that was nothing unusual for her. “Fowler had never been reported missing. We located his next of kin, an aunt in Seattle, and she hadn’t spoken to him in over a decade.” Denise’s smile dimmed a bit. “She didn’t seem too upset to find out he was dead, either.”
Across the table from Levi, Leila was staring at him. He could feel the searing weight of her gaze, although he couldn’t quite bring himself to meet her eyes.
He cleared his throat, returning his focus to the matter at hand. “Our theory is that the Seven of Spades targeted Fowler for both his suspected history of negligence and his legitimate access to ketamine, then tortured him to obtain the information they needed to make it appear that he was still alive.”
“I have a slightly different theory, if I may,” said Paquin.
Intrigued, he gestured for her to continue.
“The tests are still coming in, but from what I can tell, the Seven of Spades didn’t start using ketamine until they killed Dr. Fowler.” She tapped the photos spread out in the center of the table-photos that made Levi glad he’d had a light lunch. “None of J. Does 1 through 6 exhibit any traces of ketamine, while almost every J. Doe after Fowler does. The only ones who don’t are those without enough tissue or organs left to test for it.”
Levi leaned forward, his forehead creasing. This was the first he’d heard of this.
“You think choosing Fowler as a victim is what gave the Seven of Spades the idea to use ketamine?” Martine asked.
Paquin nodded. “I think the timing would be far too coincidental otherwise.”
Musing aloud, Levi said, “So the Seven of Spades initially targeted Fowler for his professional negligence, and while they were planning the kill, it occurred to them how much easier it would be to murder someone zoned out on ketamine-a clear, tasteless liquid that could be easily slipped into a victim’s drink.”
“Isn’t this around the same point in the timeline that the cause of death changed from stabbing wounds to incised wounds?” Wen asked Paquin.
“I can’t be one hundred percent certain, because I haven’t been able to determine exact cause of death for all fourteen bodies. But the general pattern does trend that way.”
“A lot easier to slit someone’s throat from behind when they’re high as balls,” Gibbs said.
A pained expression crossed Wen’s face. “Yes, Officer, thank you.”
Levi had been watching both Wen and Gibbs since he’d entered the room, and neither of them showed the slightest hint of anxiety. He’d also seen Kelly Marin and Valeria Montoya in the bullpen earlier, going about their days like it was business as usual. If any of those four remaining suspects were the Seven of Spades, they were either playing it cool or massively overestimating their own cleverness.
Martine was still studying the photographs. “So the earlier stabbings were more likely a matter of necessity than preference.” Turning to Levi, she added, “This is growth, just like Rohan hypothesized-the Seven of Spades learned a better way to kill people through practice and experience.”
He nodded slowly; everything seemed to fit together. “We know why the killer tortured Fowler. What was the purpose behind torturing J. Doe #2?”
“We won’t know until we identify him, but there’s good news on that front.” Paquin swiped her fingers across her tablet, then turned it around to show another photo to the room at large. “The traumatic fixation plates on his radius and ulna are clearly stamped with serial numbers and the manufacturer’s logo. We hit a snag when it turned out that the manufacturer has since been acquired by another company, but my assistant is working on tracking down the information.”
They spent the rest of the meeting discussing other incremental progress: DNA analysis was underway, dental records and other biological data on the victims were being submitted to the NCIC one by one, and partial prints had been obtained from rehydrating the fingers of two of the most recent corpses. Paquin also had a specialist working on 3D facial reconstructions of the victims that could be run through facial recognition databases.
Still, all of those methods would take a long time, if they panned out at all. For now, their best leads were Dr. Fowler and the other tortured victim. The meeting broke up with Levi and Martine set to thoroughly investigate Fowler’s life in Las Vegas and any possible connection that could lead them to the Seven of Spades.