THE LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS - BWS

five

He didn't even flinch when we came in, focused on what he was doing. Not that he could see us anyways considering half his back was turned to us, but he must have heard the door open and close.

I had no control on the sudden rise of my body heat or the speed my heart was now beating at or the odd tingling sensation on my skin. I hadn't expected to see him there, and especially not with his hands deep inside a corpse.

"Good morning, agent Parker."

My heart skipped a beat. Not only because of his use of my alias's last name instead of the first name like he had the night before, but mostly because from the angle of his head, there was no way he could have seen me. How did he know it was me who came in?

"Chief," he then greeted the man next to me. "Working with the feds now, are we?"

He didn't once lift up his head while he spoke, but the teasing in his voice was unmistakable.

Chief Turner laughed.

"I take help wherever I find it," the older man answered as he walked closer to the trolley. "Did you find anything?"

"Not yet, but I'm sure I'll find some kind of genetic marker somewhere."

That was when he decided to lift up his head and turn it in my direction. His eyes met mine, and his lips curled into a grin. He brought his attention back to the body before I could realize I had stopped breathing again.

"Don't you need DNA for that?" Chief asked, not understanding the reference.

How could he have? He wasn't in William's office yesterday. But I was, and this was a clear reference to it.

My mind started buzzing with questions while the two men talked.

William knew it wasn't an animal attack, I was certain of that. But why would he lie about it? There were a few reasons that could explain it. He could be a Hunter trying to hide the existence of creatures. He could be a creature himself, although I doubted that. Creatures didn't normally have jobs, and if they did, they were crappy jobs that allowed them to stay on the low. Plus, the smell of blood would have driven him mad with hunger and there would have been a lot more victims in the city. Or he could work for a creature. Again, very unlikely considering his rank and how respected he seemed to be in the community.

I couldn't help but notice the ease with which his hands moved on the body, examining it and cutting samples. If I didn't know any better, I could have thought this was his real job. But it wasn't. Had he been trained on mortuary medicine? That led to another thought. How convenient was it that the medical examiner was on holidays when the killing happened, and he was asked to perform the autopsy? Was it really a coincidence or was all of it connected?

'I hope you'll be careful if you decide to stay,' he had said to me last night. It would have seemed like a protective thing to say if it wasn't for the tone of his voice. It was a threat, I was certain of it. Why would he want me out of the city if he had nothing to hide?

"You are awfully quiet this morning, agent Parker."

His voice pulled me out of my train of thoughts. I lifted my gaze from the floor to meet his. He was fully facing me now, his hands empty of any surgical instrument.

"I wouldn't want to distract you from your work," I answered, holding his amused gaze. "It would be a shame if you missed a piece of evidence somewhere."

The corner of his lips turned into a grin again.

"It really would."

If I had any doubts about William tampering with evidence before, the look in his eyes erased them. His being assigned to the autopsy of the killings was no coincidence. There was a lot I needed to find out about Dr. Stoker, who apparently had enough power and authority to send a medical examiner away at his will. But the bigger question was, what motive did he have to do so? Did he have something to hide? Had he been involved with the killings? He couldn't possibly—