Bloodthirsty

Chapter One






Timber Byrne shook her head in dismay. You guys are the stupidest motherfuckers in the gene pool, she thought.

Taking in the sight before her, she wondered how these guys ever solved a crime. There had to be twenty uniformed officers traipsing around screwing up the scene. A few plainclothes detectives stood talking at the corner of the dark alley. Several crime techs were kneeling beside the body taking pictures, slipping evidence into baggies, spraying chemicals on fluids to ascertain their type; blood, semen, water, and whatever else might be there. She knew these guys could find that proverbial needle in a haystack even if it was made of human hair.  What she didn’t understand and never would was the need for so many damn cops standing around chatting about what could have happened.  As she moved closer she groaned as she recognized the detective standing and casually sipping his coffee. Robin Blake, that’s all she needed. Why am I even here? She thought.
Her division wasn’t needed for a simple dead body. Even if it was murder, there was no reason she should be pulled out of bed and called to a  scene. As she approached and Blake looked up she saw no surprise in his eyes. She knew immediately who was to blame.

She stomped up to him and said, “You’re an asshole, Blake”

“Good morning to you too, agent Byrne” He was grinning and she wanted to punch him in his stupid perfect mouth.

“It’s not even close to morning!” she snapped “Why am I here? It’s obvious you had me called in. Are you sleeping with someone at the agency now? Is that how you pulled this off?” She knew she was out of line and yet she didn’t care.

Blake grabbed Timber by the upper arm and yanked her a few steps away from the other detective. “ Hey!” he said in a low growl, “That’s bull shit! You’re about to make a fool of yourself over some ancient crap between us?”

Timber looked at his hand on her arm. She was so shocked by his actions she almost couldn’t bring herself to speak. When she did, her voice was calm and controlled.

“You better remove your hand from my person right now or I swear to God, Detective, I will bust your ass for sexual harassment and before I do I’ll shoot you in your dick for assaulting me. Are we clear?”

Blake’s eyes hardened and he took a step back, dropped his hand and said. “I won’t touch you again.”

He turned his back on her and began walking toward the body “Take a look at this. Tell me you don’t want to be involved and I’ll let you go back to bed.”

As Timber followed she realized she was shaking. This was the only man that could elicit those explosive emotions from her. She was wired a little tight. She knew that, yet she had always attributed that to the fact that she was a woman in a field where men reigned. There was the matter concerning her stature.

Timber was a small woman. Not just compared to a man but compared to anyone. She was a five foot-one, one-hundred and ten pound “firecracker”. According to her four brothers she’d never failed to live up to the nickname. The part of Timber that gave her the most trouble was the fact that she was ethereally beautiful. She had done things to tone it down, like cutting her naturally golden hair so short that she could jump from the shower, rub it with a towel and be done. He blue eyes were almost too large for her face and whenever possible she kept them covered with sunglasses. She wore clothing that deliberately made her look anything but sexual. Jeans and baggy sweaters were her casual wear. For work she kept to black slacks and white button-down blouses. No frills, no heels.

What she didn’t realize, and what none of her co-workers had cared to share for obvious reasons, was that, all of the things she did to make herself less sexy only made her more adorable. The guys at work had started calling her “pixie girl”. If she knew that, her cute little pixie head would have shot from her body in a fabulous, exploding fireworks extravaganza.

Living in her delusion that she was a tough non-sexual being that could rival any man on or off the job, she angrily strutted after Blake, mumbling under her breath.

A tech looked up as they approached. Blake nodded his head. The tech pulled down a small white cloth that had been covering the dead man’s face.

This was the job, dead bodies, blood, it’s all part of the deal; but there are still times that you want to turn and empty the contents of your stomach on the dirty pavement. Timber swallowed the bile rising in her throat and knelt down for a closer look.

One eye was swollen shut and yellow with a black ring around it as if he had been hit with something perfectly cylindrical. His other eye was missing. The hole was hollowed out like it had been cleaned. His lips were pulled back from his mouth and something was shoved inside. Timber took a pen from her shirt pocket, grabbed a baggie and wrapped it over the end of the pen. She slipped it inside the mouth and moved the object just enough to see its origin. “Oh” she said and looked at Blake

He nodded and knelt beside her. “There’s more” he said and took her pen from her hand and used it to slide the shirt open. The breast tissue had been completely excised from the body.

“Did you find it?” she asked referring to the missing tissue.

“Not yet, but I’m guessing by what’s in his mouth, we’re going to find it.”

“In autopsy?” she asked

“That would be my guess”

“Yeah, unfortunately mine too” She looked closer and noticed that the slices on the chest were clean and sharp, no hesitation marks. She shivered and said, “I need to make a call”

“So you in?” he asked, a smirk starting at the corner of his mouth

“Oh shut up” she said and pressed a button on her phone. The line began to ring and she turned away from Blake as he laughed and said, “I’m just asking,”



Until tomorrow. Fortune favors the brave! Samantha Shu