Nothing to Lose Part 3

When Jonas's eyes opened the next morning, Susan was gone. He stared at the pillow where her head was, pulling it close to him like so many mornings before. It was not the most conventional relationship. Not that it could be. The hurdles that separated them were bigger than what either could work around. But still, Jonas knew that at a different time, she was his soulmate. And as dysfunctional as they were, finding that in another person was rare.  

He eventually rolled over and reached for his phone. She sent him a text message. A slight smile crept onto his face.  

'Last night was nice. You seemed like there was something distracting you, other than your case. If you need to talk, I am always here. Do not forget that. Luv, Susan. 

It was just like her to see through his subterfuge. Sharing the news about Danica was hard enough. The rest of his news was going to have to wait. Jonas went to his closet and grabbed his duty bag. He walked out of the room, only to return with a bottle of water. Sitting on the side of his bed, he started the first day of his new routine.  

There were six pills to take in the morning. Two of them were oral chemotherapies. They were the ones that were going to be the hardest. There were two different supplements, a multi-vitamin, and lastly, a pain killer. He would have to take the chemo pills and the pain killers again, the latter of which he would have to control.  

Here goes nothing, he thought as he took the last one out of its bottle and put all six in his mouth at the same time. Choking them down with some water, Jonas grimaced over the taste. The chemotherapy meds had a rancid taste, mostly due to how potent they were.  

An hour later, Jonas walked into the police station and sat at his desk. He was going to find the current intel on all his contacts. Danica's murder would not be a secret. People around town would have heard by now, and the seedier side of the Bay City citizenry would know the police were looking for information. Somewhere, he hoped someone would be talking and needed his ears on the streets to pay attention.  

Outside his office, half a dozen officers and detectives were trying to be nonchalant as they continued looking over their shoulders. He could see that his appointment to head of the investigation was not without detractors. Jonas knew it would be that way. There were quite a few guys that had more experience, more time in the department, and had on paper earned the corner office.  

The one person not occasionally staring at the corner office was a surprise. Danny Stevens was in the report room, sitting at a computer, and occasionally making notes. As he watched the younger officer, Jonas realized that it was Stevens who the chief was assigning to him. A veritable newcomer. The idea made him cringe.  

Jonas went to the door and yelled out, "Stevens!" over the bustle of the report room. When the young officer looked up at the office, Jonas motioned for him to see him. The rest of the room was suddenly quieter. It was, at a minimum, unusual for a senior detective to bring a newcomer out of their blues and into a case.  

Danny rushed into the office, a nervous stance visible for Jonas and the rest of the department's eyes to see. He held his notes in his clenched, nervously sweaty fist as he waited for his new superior to talk. This was his first assignment, so he wanted the rest of the men to see him as ready.  

"So," barked Jonas. "The chief called you in to work this case, right?"  

"Um..." Danny stammered. "Yes. Yes, sir."  

"And did she tell you why?"  

Danny hesitated. It wasn't something Jonas wanted to see. That hesitation could, in Jonas's mind, mean the difference between success and failure on the street. Jonas preferred a more decisive approach to an investigation. If Danny wasn't that person, he'd have to challenge Amanda's decision.  

"So, why did you assign you?" 

"Because you don't trust anyone," answered Danny.  

"Now, why didn't you spit that out sooner?" asked Jonas.  

Danny fidgeted where he stood. He wanted to tell Jonas off, but he was a superior in the department. He explained that he was being respectful of whatever it was the chief and Jonas were going through.  

"She told me the victim was a friend of yours. I didn't want to overstep," explained Danny.  

Shit, thought Jonas. It wasn't the worst answer he could have given. Jonas relented to the idea. He needed someone he could trust, and someone with a clean history. Danny Stevens was a six-year patrolman. He hadn't had even one citizen complaint. There were zero internal investigations with his name connected to them.  

"Alright, Kid," sighed Jonas. "But you're going to have to change. Investigators wear plain clothes. So, get changed and meet me in the parking lot in thirty minutes."  

Thirty minutes later, Jonas was standing in the parking lot and waiting for Danny Stevens. He held his phone in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Jonas was anxiously combing through information, so as Danny appeared a distance away from him, he pushed his phone into his pocket. He got in his car and drove it to Danny.  

"Get in," he instructed.  

Danny had traded his uniform in for a department monogrammed polo shirt, a vest, a pair of khaki tactical pants, his boots, and gun. He had a pair of cuffs on his belt. To Jonas, it looked uncomfortable, and it was going to stick out like a sore thumb. But the kid would have to learn the lesson. For now, they had work to do.  

"So, where are we off to?"  

Jonas looked over at Danny, thinking to himself already that he wasn't going to enjoy having a partner. He'd been a solo act for long enough that he was accustomed to going without having to share details. Having a ride-along with him, that was going to hamper his independence.  

He kept his foot on the pedal as he sped through town. The local coroner's office was out of a funeral home. The owner doubled as the county's coroner, and that was the person they were going to go see. Danica's autopsy was going to happen soon, and Jonas wanted to hear the results before they hit the paper.  

"Have you ever been to an autopsy," he asked.  

Danny had gotten the reports, fingerprinted a few deceased, but he'd never been to a live autopsy.  

"No, is there anything I need to know before we get there?"  

Jonas laughed as he told him, "Yes, if you vomit and embarrass me, you will walk back to the station."  

The police department was twenty minutes from the coroner's office. Jonas was in a hurry, so it took less than fifteen. By the time they arrived, Danny Stevens was ready to get out of the car.  

"Jesus," sighed Danny. "Do you always drive that way?" 

Jonas threw a snide look at Danny. He wasn't in the mood to hear complaints from a uniformed officer on loan. He left Danny to catch his breath, and as he put it, find his manhood. Jonas stormed into the funeral home, rushing to get inside before the skies above opened and dumped on the world. He turned and watched as the rains began to suddenly pour over the area and laughed as the young officer was left to scramble for cover.  

"If you're going to be one of us, you're going to have to start paying attention to things like incoming weather," demanded Jonas.  

In the coroner's office, Jonas looked for Zenya McCall. Zenya was the owner of McCall Funerals. She was the only one interested in being the coroner, and the only person who qualified in the entire county. That was how she'd won her first two elections as a coroner.  

Zenya was in a surgical preparation room, used for preparing bodies and returning them to a viewable state. Zenya had Danica on the table. It caused Jonas to slow down, taking a moment before he could walk into the room. He covered his face with his hand and walked in, addressing the examiner.  

"Detectives, you're late," she told them as they entered.  

Danny introduced himself, admitting to the examiner that he wasn't a detective. Zenya held up her blood-covered hand as Danny offered to shake hers. Danny nodded, stepping back. He watched Jonas and the examiner look at each other.  

"New blood?" she asked.  

"New blood," he answered. "So, what have you got?"  

Zenya admitted that she had more questions than answers. She'd examined the body, performed the autopsy, and done her best to make it presentable. She uncovered the body to go over her findings, and Zenya asked him, "What the hell got her, a mountain lion?"  

"What's that mean?" Danny asked.  

She pointed to the wounds, the gashes that lined up with one another. The patterning was all wrong for it to be repetitive. Zenya argued that instead of it being multiple slashes or stabbings, the points of attack were done simultaneously. She explained that it appeared the cuts going from her right side to left were all done at the same time, by something with multiple edges, multiple, very sharp edges.  

"Like claws?" Jonas asked.  

"Yes, exactly. And when you look at the wounds to her throat, the attacker came in from her left side, and... I don't know, bit into her neckline just above her clavicle." 

"What could do that?"  

"I wish I knew," she admitted. "Her official cause of death is going to be blood loss and exsanguination. She lost a lot of blood, but there wasn't enough left to make sense based on the crime scene photos you sent over. The wounds to her torso and arms didn't kill her. They would have, slowly. But I checked, and there was enough blood loss that your crime scene should have been..."  

"Messier," sighed Jonas.  

"Exactly."