Dead Shot (A Cal Murphy Thriller Book 1)

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Kelly continued to keep Kevin occupied with other unimportant matters, making a few more worthless pleas to let her see the bodies. Meanwhile, Cal wasted no time picking the lock to the exam room door. Cal was no thief, but his penchant for losing track of his dorm room keys while he was in college forced him to acquire this skill by studying YouTube videos. The door clicked open. As Cal slipped into the room, the biting smell of formaldehyde and other chemical cleaners overwhelmed him. Cal cringed and fought the urge to cough.

Cal looked at the tag on the body's toe. It read "Cody Murray." Not that Cal needed to read it. He had spent plenty of time in one-on-one interviews with Cody during football season - and baseball season, too. His face seemed immune to the disfigurement but his chiseled body was barely recognizable.

As Cal edged closer to the examination table, he gasped at Cody's body in its mutilated shape. The mountain lion rumor seemed unlikely when compared to the cuts and gashes etched deep into the quarterback's skin. If anyone who originated such a rumor had actually seen Cody's body in this state, Cal figured the rumor would have been more sensational, like the Statenville Sasquatch.

Long grooves one to two inches deep crisscrossed Cody's upper body. A simple swipe wasn't enough. The perpetrator's nails had to gouge a new rut in his skin.

On Cody's legs, the cuts were vertical.

"I can't imagine a drug overdose doing this to you," Cal said to Cody's dead body.

Cal spent a few more seconds inspecting the body, struggling to come up with any plausible theory. He pulled out his iPhone and began taking photos. Then he took some video. No one would believe it if the told them.

That's when he saw the remaining two bodies. He snapped more photos of their mangled torsos, unable to formulate any ideas as to what could have caused such an apparently painful death.

Cal quietly exited the room, careful not to tip off Kevin to the fact that someone had seen his precious bodies. Cal snuck out a side door and was sitting in Kelly's car when she came out the front door.

She climbed in and inserted her key in the ignition and stopped.

Before she could ask Cal about what information he gathered, a note stuck between her windshield and driver's side wiper flapped in the wind.

She got out of the car and grabbed the note. She shuddered as she read it.

Watch yourself ... or you might end up like those boys

"What is it?" Cal asked.

"Somebody doesn't like what we're doing."

"They need to take a number."

"But this is a threat, Cal."

"Let me see that." Cal grabbed the note, read it, and handed it back to Kelly. "I get threats all the time. Nothing ever happens. Somebody is trying to intimidate us to stop. If they want to stop us, there's only one way."

"Well, you must've seen something in there that convinced you it's worth the risk. What did you see?"

"I have no idea. I've never seen anything like it in my life. I just have a hard time believing that a drug overdose caused those wounds."

Cal began flipping through the pictures and video he took on his iPhone. He showed Kelly the most graphic one causing her to almost lose control of the car. Kelly gasped in horror before Cal continued.

"I'm sure someone can tell us what happened to these boys. But we don't have a lot of time. Once their bodies are cremated, we'll never have a chance to document anything. Other than these pictures, any investigation would stop with Kevin's word."

"Cremated?"

"Yep. I saw a sheet in the lab that said all three bodies were slated for cremation on Friday."

"OK, now we know how much time we have to get to the bottom of this."

Kelly pulled onto the highway in the direction of The Register's office.