Sirens wailed in his ear as they approached. Squad car after squad car, and still the paramedics arrived first onto the scene. Ironically, the only people that needed treatment were far gone. The metallic smell of dawn rang out against the smell of antiseptic and plastic bags. Carrying away those who could no longer carry themselves.
Time seem have passed in an instant. The tang of bile had subsided in Bennet's mouth, replaced by that almost bland after taste that comes after vomiting. The familiar orange fleece blanket wrapped around Bennet as he sat on the back of an ambulance. The chatter of police and first responders rose above everything else. It had been about three hours since He and Nea had discovered the bodies. Yet they were still removing bodies from the abandoned house. Bennet tried to steady his breathing ,when a familiar glint red caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. He whipped his head around so fast, locking eyes with a tree of a man, his stepbrother, red haired, piss faced.
The sour taste returned to Bennet's mouth, "What are you doing here, Cross?"
"Cleaning up after your sorry ass what does it look like?" the man responded, a snide smirk appeared across his face.
"I thought you left the bureau to follow the path of god," Bennet hissed "Not well that is."
"Could you two please grow up?" a mousy haired woman appeared beside Cross, quickly pulling on a dusty pair of latex gloves from the ambulance. " I asked him to come with me."
"Couldn't you have come here by yourself…" Bennet whined slightly, " Lucy he's an asshole!"
"You're one to talk." Cross retorted immediately.
"Actually, on second thought, Why are both of you here?" Bennet hissed. " This is my case."
"You're right, this is your case," The woman said, trying to fit the gloves tightly to her hands. " but the bureau called me at four in the damn morning saying they need a competent coroner. Hence, why our asses are out here at six in the morning. Now I have bodies to examine. Try not to vomit again, Bennet."
"Yea well bite me!" Bennet hissed, throwing off the shock blanket before standing, only to find himself the shortest of the group. " You've got to be kidding me. Why are you wearing heels, to a crime scene!"
"It was four in the morning, you're lucky I'm wearing shoes at all." Lucy said, before walking out into the field.
"Threw up on your first big boy case, huh?" Cross snickered.
"Get bent you walking Christmas tree, shouldn't you be stored away in an attic somewhere?" Bennet hissed storming off towards Nea who stood away from the commotion, clearly being scolded by the Chief of Police.
"I've never seen something so damn reckless from rookie cops let alone FB-" The Chief stopped mid-sentence as Bennet approached. "You, You…. What kind of agent are you! "
Nea didn't have his normal cocky smile, a stern somber look had over token his face, glancing at Bennet when the Chief began to chastise Bennet, Nea glanced over to Bennet , he rolled his eye in annoyance at being scolded, but something about his face said he was at least a little proud that they had found this crime scene.
"Let me stop you there, Chief. Fieldwork is not my specialty, Sir." Bennet said blandly, causing the chief's face to twist in a sour look. Bennet could see Nea begin to crack a smile in his peripheral " I work best with data, not corpses. Speaking of Data, has there been any news from the crime scene?"
The Police Chief huffed in displeasure, "They're still pulling bodies out of the basement, but so far I've counted at least eight so far."
"I counted more than ten before we bolted out of there. " Nea added to the conversation.
Bennet glanced at him in suspicion. How could this cocky bastard remember anything from earlier that morning?
"We'll Have to get them identified before we can determine whether any of them are from our missing persons list… as well as time and cause of death."
"Your Coroner's going to have to work a long weekend, Chief." Nea joked.
"There's no need for him to do that. The Bureau sent one out." Bennet responded bluntly looking at Nea before looking over at the Chief of Police. " Is there anyway you could collect all the new information for m-"
"Seriously?" Nea responded looking a little surprised.
"Yes?" Bennet responded. "See that woman who looks like the wind could push her over?"
"You're kidding; she looks like she's fresh out of med school." Nea said chuckling.
"You'd think," Bennet responded. "To put this bluntly Mr. Rosenthal," the brown haired man looked back to the Chief of police. "I'm sorry to be so direct during this incident, but the closer we solve your cold cases the faster we can get out of your hair."
Nea smirked. " Its funny how cold you are when you think of it like numbers on a sheet of paper, yet not even two hours ago you were throwing up in the grass cause you saw a corpse."
"Shut it." Bennet hissed, " It's incredible that after two hours you can still be such an ass."
Nea shrugged playfully. Bennet felt his annoyance prickle as he saw Cross cross the park to where they stood, Bennet couldn't keep his eyes from rolling hard.
"Here comes trouble. Campbell, This is my younger brother, Cross Marian."
"Step Brother."Cross corrected. " How long has it been, Campbell? Still trouble?" The red haired man high five Nea.
"Too long, since graduation!" Nea responded.
"Oh for fucks- You two know each other?" Bennet asked in disbelief.
"We were in the same program at university." Nea smirked. "God, I didn't know He was your brother, Specs."
"Oh god." Bennet said putting one hand over his eyes underneath is glasses.
"Specs?" Is that what they're calling you now?" Lucy said, surprising Bennet enough to give him a little jump.
"No," Bennet harshly responded. "Don't you have some dearly departed to look after?"
"There isn't a lot for me to do here; they have to be transferred to the county morgue in Boston for me to even get started. With how many have been found it'll take a while to pack them all up and ship them down." The woman respond nonchalantly. "So in the meantime can we get breakfast?"
"You're a monster." Bennet responded without missing a beat, a horrified look on his face.
"Breakfast, yes or am I going alone?" She asked pulling Bennet's arm as he pretended to brush her off. He glanced around the group for a quick second at saw Campbell staring at them. He couldn't read the other man's expression but realized something.
"I forgot, This is-" But the woman was faster, walking forward and holding out her hand to Nea.
"Lucy Martin, You must be the infamous Nea Campbell." She smiled sounding completely pleasant. " You agree with me right? That we need to get breakfast?"
Plates clattered in the distance from the small early morning breakfast rush.
"Why do you always jump to serial killers, Specs?" Nea prompted.
"You of all people should understand that the United States has the highest percentage of serial killers per capita. That means 70 percent of all serial killers live in the United States. Also stop pointing your fork at me!"
"Where's this data from, Specs?" Nea continued putting his fork down back into his waffles.
"A peer reviewed article published in a psychology journal." Bennet responded before chugging his coffee.
"Reviewed at the end of 1989, maybe." Lucy teased as Bennet gave her a strong side eye.
"God '89, We were just kids then, huh?"Nea paused for a second, "Alright, but what if it isn't a serial killer?"
"Then it's a series of large coincidences and everyone figured an abandonded house was the perfect dumping ground for their victims." Bennet said before backtracking on an earlier part of that sentence. "What do you mean Kids; we were all in our twenties by then."
"What, no we were all in high school still, I swear." Nea said, confusion over his face. But He could see Bennet coming to the same realization that he was. Nea smirked much to the dismay that was painting the other man's face. " Oh I see, you're wondering If I'm an Old Maid just like you are."
"Shut it!" Bennet yelled.
"Okay, coming back to the subject at hand, what about the Mafia, or gang violence?" Cross asked, smirking at Nea who shot him a dirty glance.
"Could be, but that's a statistic specific to this area, we'd have to look into it." Bennet responed, his face still trying to recover from his frustration at Nea.
"Okay, but consider the area where the bodies were located, it's had to have crossed you mind that it could be w-"
" Don't say it. I swear to God Campbell, if I wasn't being paid to babysit your ass I'd leave you here right n-"
"Witches?"
The table fell silent. However, Nea hadn't been the one to say it. It had been Lucy who sat minding her nails as Bennet sent her a judgmental look.
"Not you, Why did you betray me like this?"
"Someone had to bring up the elephant in the room, we're in Salem, Massachusetts. And you found bodies in someone's basement. All you need is a goat and you have the makings of any satanic-wiccan pagan-cult ritual." The woman responded flatly.
"Oh, I like her." Nea smirked. Lucy glanced at him, but he couldn't read her expression before her eye contact moved onto Cross. "I'm not sure if Witches could be behind all of that. We're missing the goat after all." He smirked as he saw Bennet weakly put his head into his hands.
"You were just saying not to rule out a possibilities right?" Lucy asked.
"Okay, but one more important question." Bennet said, stealing a piece of toast off Lucy's plate as she pretended not to notice. " Why did you, of all the people you know, ask my snot nosed Brother, who doesn't even live in D.C. anymore-" Bennet pause then looked to Cross. " Why the fuck are you in D.C., Cross, Run out of Nuns to Deflower?"
"The diocese transferred me back to Washington a few days ago," Cross-said smugly. "and You'll be pleased to know that while I'm here, I can't deflower willing nuns who want a little god somewhere else."
Nea began to laugh as Bennent made a prominent gagging sound.
"What? Can't keep your food down, Brother?"
"Can't you keep your sacrilegious cock out of cunts?"
"We're in public, you two." Lucy said flatly, taking a sip of her coffee.