Page 7 of Condor’s Vow

Chapter 3

The clock read four am as Clay sat up and grabbed his phone off the bedside cabinet. Seeing Dax’s name, he felt his adrenaline start to flow through him. They had their first case. “Clay.”

“We have a body down by the River Walk.”

“On my way.”

Clay hung up and called Hawk, Sandstorm, Omega, and Lyric and told Omega to head to the office and the others to meet him at the scene. He was out the door and in his car six minutes later, his mind running through everything he needed to do. Arriving at the scene he saw Calder was already there, along with his team and Dax.

Clay approached the cordoned-off area of the River Walk as he spoke to Hawk. “What have we got?”

“White female, probably around five feet five. Killed by asphyxiation.”

Clay moved closer and got a good look at the victim. She was wearing a nurse’s uniform with a denim jacket over the top. She had blonde hair and looked to be in her mid-twenties. He bent down and checked her purse, seeing her driver’s license. At least they had an ID. He cast his eye over the victim, noting she wasn’t wearing a name badge, but she could have taken that off when she finished her shift, although that struck him as odd.

He stood up when Calder Stonewall, the Medical Examiner and a good friend, moved toward him, giving him a chin lift as he came closer.

“Do we have a time of death yet?”

Calder nodded. “At an estimate, I’d say she’s been dead about five hours.”

“Cause of death? Strangulation?”

“Best guess but until I examine her properly, I can’t say for sure.”

Clay looked slowly around the scene to get a feel for it, carefully scanning for onlookers. He stopped a crime scene tech. “Get photos of the crowd over there. I want to see if her killer hung around to watch.”

Dax was acting as a liaison for the Texas Rangers on the task force, so Clay didn’t need him for anything yet. But Hawk, Sandstorm, and Lyric were waiting for his orders. He felt the pressure for just a second and took a breath to calm his nerves. It was silly to feel nervous, but the responsibility he felt for the victims and their families was heavy.

“Hawk, Lyric, speak to all the witnesses and find out if anyone saw anything. That camera over there by the Steakhouse might have caught something. Sandstorm, as soon as you’re done here, go to the hospital and find out who she is. Talk to her friends and co-workers. See if anyone was harassing her or argued with her.”

The men nodded and he picked up his phone. “Omega, I need to know everything you can find out about Serena Burke. I’m sending her social security number over now. Also, check if there have been any similar cases involving hospital staff or women her age in the last five years.”

“Sure, already on it.”

“Good. Text me her family’s address as soon as you have it. SAPD is speaking with the family first, but I want to talk to them too.”

Clay hung up and watched as Calder supervised the loading of the body into the van to go to the morgue. “How long before we get some answers?”

“I can get this one done first if you think it warrants it.”

Clay cocked his head in thought. “Yes, I think it does.”

“No problem. Be there at eight if you want to watch. I’m heading home to have breakfast with Hope and Noah before I officially start my day.”

He watched Calder head to his car and pondered his words. What would it be like to want to be with someone so badly that even a simple breakfast could make you smile like Calder just did? His mind went to Hattie and their date that weekend. He was excited about it, but first, he needed to work the case. He was mindful that the uniform the nurse wore was from the same hospital where Hattie worked and wondered if she knew the woman at all.

Clay got back to the office five hours later after an interview with the girl’s distraught family, which Cruz had done with him. Cruz had an affinity for that kind of thing, a way about him that showed he really cared about each case. It allowed him to learn more about Serena Burke than they might have otherwise.

Serena Burke, according to her mother, was a good girl who worked hard, didn’t date much, and always came on Sundays for dinner with her mom and dad. The roommate had a slightly different view. According to her, Serena was sleeping with a married doctor at the hospital and had been staying out more and more.

“What have you got for me, Omega?”

Omega began typing so fast and moving between screens, Clay could hardly follow, which was fine. He needed to co-ordinate, not type.

“Serena Burke, twenty-six, no debt or obvious signs of problems with her credit history. An Internet search shows she had numerous social media sites and was active on them. She was a member of a dating site called ‘One and Only’ but hadn’t logged on for a few months. She made calls and texts to this number regularly, mostly late at night and was indeed sleeping with a married doctor.”

“I need to know who the doctor is and who that number belongs to.”