Avenge Thy Brother

Chapter 4: The Source

"So, we keep this only amongst the four of us?" asked Cox. "Okay, I like that idea."

"There is still one unanswered question," said Saunders. "Where do we start? How do we go about finding Kemari?"

"I don't know at the moment," I admitted. "However, I do believe when their backs are against the wall, they will slip up. Well, either that or they'll do something to distract us."

Not a moment after I said that, an officer entered the boardroom and told us, "You all may want to come with me."

We quickly followed him out of the room and over to an opening in the middle of the precinct where all the emergency calls came in. The officer stepped over to the microphone and asked the dispatcher to repeat what they'd told him. A chill went up my spine when the dispatcher repeated, "A body has been found displayed out in Fernbank Forest. It's believed to be the body of Michael Travers. Over."

"10-4, over," the officer said to the dispatcher.

"Displayed?" I asked. "What does he mean by displayed?"

I prepared myself for the worst as we drove out to Fernbank Forest, which was a wildlife preserve and museum located in the Druid Hills suburb of DeKalb County. Karen, Cox, Saunders and I worked with the officers on the scene to lock everything down and let no one into the woods. The precinct phoned in a forensics team and Karen also phoned in the FBI Atlanta field office's forensics team. After checking the credentials of everyone working the crime scene, we headed deep into the woods to where the body of Michael Travers had been displayed.

"Do you want to make the official recording or do you want me to do it?" I asked Karen after we'd found the body.

"You can do it," she said without looking up at Michael Travers's mutilated corpse. "I'm afraid I'm already feeling sick."

"Jeffries..."

"I'm fine, Rowell. Just do it."

I stepped away from her and pulled out my phone to record my examination of the crime scene. As I approached the tree Michael had been nailed to, I began recording, "The victim has been fixed to a tall tree with what appears to be railroad spikes just off of the walking trail in the southwest section of the woods near a small creek. He is approximately eight feet above ground and is completely nude. There are signs of torture in the form of burn marks and superficial cuts on the victim's face, neck, chest, wrists, arms, and legs. The victim's abdomen has been cut open and his intestines have been stapled to several nearby trees; creating somewhat of a spiral design that loops back to the tree the body has been fixed to. I cannot make an educated guess on the cause of death because it appears the victim's disembowelment occurred postmortem." I paused the recording the moment I heard Karen vomiting near the creek.

"This is sick," said Cox. "I can't believe what I'm seeing."

"Working homicides isn't for the squeamish," said Saunders with a laugh.

"This isn't funny," I snapped at him. "That is someone's child up there. Show some respect."

"My bad, man. You're doing a better job keeping it together than your partner over there. Get that girl some water."

"That's it," I said angrily. "You need to go search for anything the killer or killers may have dropped out here."

"Hold on, you don't get to order me around just because you're with the FBI."