Choices will Destroy (An FBI Romance Thriller Book 14) by Morgan Kelley Page B

face intact,” Merry stated. “I wonder if it was on purpose.”
    They knew that ‘The Butcher’ did the same with his original victims. Donnelly looked like he was at peace.
    It was disturbing.
    “Does this match the case from years ago?” Merry asked as she snapped more pictures.
    In her mind, she pulled up the first victims. They were pretty damn close. All the flesh was removed from the bones, and he was spread out.
    Only, something wasn’t the same.
    It was there, she only had to pick it out.
    “Chris,” she began, dropping to her knees beside him for the same vantage point.
    “Yeah?”
    “We need to have a serious talk. One, you shouldn’t play fast and loose with your job. Telling off Gabe’s wife is dangerous for so many reasons. He could send you to Mongolia. Second, I love you for what you did. Thank you.”
    He smiled at his best friend. “Here I thought you were going to bug the shit out of me for details.”
    She snorted. “Who? Me? That doesn’t sound like me at all.”
    He waited for it.
    Then she began.
    “TOD?” she asked, without skipping a beat.
    He played along. Chris knew what was at risk.
    They all were.
    They’d all willingly crossed a line and created this mess. Now they had to find a resolution.
    “He died about five this morning. I can also tell you, since time is of the essence, that he didn't die here. This body was staged in this location.”
    Ethan and Callen stood over the body.
    “What do you mean, Doctor?” Ethan asked as Callen typed notes into his phone.
    “There’s no blood left in his body. If you look here,” he said, pointing toward the man’s thigh, “his femoral artery is cut. He bled out.”
    “And that’s new?” Callen asked, venturing a guess.
    “Yeah, ‘The Butcher’ never did that before,” Chris admitted.
    That was a good and bad thing, and they all knew it. The bad part was that they now had a wild card they couldn’t predict, but the good aspect was that this wasn’t likely the same man.
    Serial killers didn't switch it up all that much. When they perfected a methodology, they stuck with it.
    Someone as prolific as ‘The Butcher’ wasn’t going to stray from what he did well. That meant that they might be off the hook on this one.
    Fingers were definitely crossed.
    “What else can you tell us, Doc?” Ethan asked. Already, he was building a profile in his mind for his wife. He was going to make sure she started this case with everything he could give her.
    “The killer was sloppy. He also didn't know one thing,” he offered.
    “What?” they all said together.
    “He jacked up the placement of the medallion. I found this one lying on his ribcage. Since I autopsied the last three victims, I personally know where he placed it.”
    Elizabeth stared down at the clover on the medallion. She knew that ‘The Butcher’ liked to mark his rape with the coin.
    Chris glanced over at Elizabeth. “Someone didn't have all the pertinent details, Lyzee. That and the fact he chose a man for his victim speaks volumes.”
    Yeah, it was odd.
    Chris lowered his voice. “When Seamus O’Brien died, the medallion was found beside him in the blood. That was all over the news. To this day, only those of us who worked this case know where he originally placed them.”
    “What about the ME who did the autopsies in Boston?” Ethan asked.
    Chris stood. “He died a few years ago. I believe it was a car accident. When I first worked this case, Gabriel Rothschild clearly stated that the ME was the ONLY one who knew about this. Then I knew, and no one else. I never put it in the reports. I simply wrote ‘placed on/near the remains’ ,” he stated.
    Elizabeth let out the breath she seemed to have been holding forever.
    This was good news.
    She grinned. “Well, then, we start working this like we have a copycat. Still, we rerun anything we can on Seamus. We have some DNA in the files.”
    Ethan sent Merry away from them to take perimeter pictures. When she was