Dark Reasons Ch. 08-09

"Justin, shut up and go make coffee." She took the end of her towel away from him and snapped him with it when he turned around. Smiling, she went to her room and into the bathroom beyond, stripping out of her sweat soaked workout clothes to get in the shower.

The hot water pounded on her body, finishing the job of releasing all the stress the dream had given her. She stood under it, just enjoying the steady pulsing flow after washing. She finally felt she could think now.

The shower door opened, startling her. A cup of steaming caffeine was shoved at her. She took it, staring once more at Justin's face as his eyes roamed up and down her naked body.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing?" she almost shrieked at him. Turning off the water and grabbing a towel to wrap around her slim frame. She pushed past him, shoving the mug of coffee in his stomach and stood across the room, leaving water to pool on the tile floor. "I can't believe you, Justin. What the fuck is in your head?"

Justin grinned, unrepentantly. "Jenna, you know I've always wanted to take you to bed. Come on, don't you wonder what it would be like between us? Admit it, Jenna." He sat the mug down on the long counter and took the two steps that brought him in touching range of the mostly naked beauty. "I really care for you, Jenna. If you'd let yourself, you know you care about me the same way."

Shock kept Jenna still and allowed him to push his fingers into the deep cleavage caused by the towel she'd wrapped around herself and yank her towards him. Surprise, kept her from pushing him away as he pulled her wet body against his, holding her securely in his long arms. Amazement kept her from knocking him to the floor with a well placed knee when his lips came down on hers.

His lips were firm and moist, talented upon her own as he rubbed and cajoled her into a response. His tongue swept into her mouth, tasting faintly of coffee and mint, tangling with her own as she felt the first inescapable stirrings of passion. Her body responded, her arms slowly sliding up his long body, her hands sliding into his hair. She heard him groan and pull her closer, his body the only thing holding the towel to cover her nakedness.

"God, Jenna," he groaned. His mouth captured hers one more time, his hands fiercely running over the smooth skin of her naked back. He cupped her buttocks, lifting her until she sat on the cold Formica counter, pushing her slender thighs apart to fit himself between. "I've wanted to do this a long time, baby."

Whether it was his words or the cold of the Formica under her naked bottom, Jenna suddenly realized what she was doing. She couldn't have sex with Justin; he was her partner, a member of the same police force she worked for, and her best friend. She pushed him back, struggling with him when he tried to kiss her again.

"Jenna, what...?"

She was saved from an explanation as her phone rang and his pager went off at the same time. She managed to push him back, sliding off the counter while wrapping the towel securely around her and grabbing her robe off of the back of the door as she went to answer the phone. He followed behind her, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket. He dialed some numbers and said hello almost the exact same time as she did.

Jenna listened, she grabbed a pen and wrote an address down on the back of an envelope and then ran to get dressed.

He came in as she was adjusting her shoulder rig, checking the load on her 9mm before slapping it into the holster and securely snapping it. She turned, anger shooting from her eyes, before she grabbed her brush and ran it through her wet hair quickly. "We got another body," she said, trying to control the violence she was feeling toward him now.

"Yeah, I know. Look, Jenna," he ran a hand through his own hair, shoving the tangle blonde mass off of his forehead. "We need to talk about what almost happened in there."

"Yeah, but we got a case to work, Justin. The job is more important." She grabbed a light jacket to throw over her rig and started to walk by him.

"What do you mean, the job's more important? Jenna, don't you know how I feel about you?" He tried to take her in his arms again and she held him off with just a look, rage, confusion and a surprising need blazing from her green eyes.

"Dammit, Justin. We can't talk about this now. We have another dead girl, and a killer who isn't taking much time between kills. We don't have time to talk about how big of a mistake we almost just made. So, unless you want me going on my own, shut up and let's move." She grabbed his arm and shoved him out of her room.

They took his car, Justin speeding all the way there, his red and blue bubble light flashing off the dash as they flew by other traffic. Jenna clutched onto the door handle and held her breath every time he'd take a corner, seeming to come up on two wheels.

She berated herself for what happened, blamed him, and worried what this would do to their relationship.

She only spoke up once on the nine minute long drive across town. Another car, one with Canadian license plates pulled in front of them, Justin swerved, narrowly missing clipping the car next to them. Horns blared and Jenna braced herself, sure that they were about to crash. The words that came out of her mouth weren't for Justin though, only a prayer to whoever was listening that they should get there okay.

She could see the lights flashing ahead of her and the traffic became a mess as people slowed to a crawl to rubberneck at all the cops. Justin cursed and smacked his hand down on his steering wheel, finally pulling over to the side of the street and stopping the car.

"It'll be faster if we walk." He got out and locked the car, hurrying forward to almost run the next two blocks. The body was in the park, and they skidded their way down a steep hill instead of walking around the next two blocks to get to the entrance. They could see the white sheet covering the body from the top of the hill and had to push through a group of photographers to reach it.

Jenna snapped at the first uniform she saw. "Get those fucking news people behind a barricade and do it now." She hurried forward to catch up with Justin, hearing the muttered "bitch" come from the uniform's mouth. Yeah, she was a bitch. She knew it. And he would find out how much of one she was next chance she got.

Justin was kneeling over the body, which was lodged against a half buried rock. Her hand and most of her leg were floating in the river she was lying next to. She crotched down next to him, peering under the sheet that he lifted higher for her.

A gasp came from her throat and it was all she could do not reach up and rub her eyes in disbelief. The body, naked again, was of a slim, tiny brunette about twenty years of age. She'd been stabbed, but no where near as bad as their first victim. Little stab wounds could be seen, around her breasts, on her stomach and thighs, across the bare flesh of her sex. Her throat was slashed; a deep cut that had almost decapitated her.

The smell of blood was still heavy in the air, the body cold but not in full rigor. "She hasn't been dead long. What is it, about eight a.m.? Damn, he couldn't have left her here not two to three hours ago." Jenna scooted around, almost stepping into the water to get a better look. "Not enough blood under the body, this is a secondary crime scene. Maybe even a body dump."

Justin turned and looked at the long hill they had just come down and the distance between where they now stood and the top. "No way he tossed a body that far. With the beginning of rush hour traffic on the road, no, he had to have brought her in from the park entrance."

"We should check it out anyway." She called another uniform down and got him to round up a group of about ten officers. She had two check out the hill for signs of blood or a body falling, but with the traffic coming down the hill, any signs of disturbance could be someone's heels. Unless blood was found, there was no way to be certain. They put out a call for tracker dogs and closed down the park. The chief, after a heated discussion with Justin, called the Mayor to get it approved. Blockades went up at all entrances as a detail started making a slow but thorough sweep, the dogs were brought in and given the scent from a scent pad pulled from the body.

Jenna stayed with the body, watching the crime scene crew as they finished taking there samples and fingerprints. Finally, the coroner's van was allowed in to take the body. Jenna stared at the face of the girl before they covered her up, a face that held an expression of horror and pain, an expression she recognized as the one that had been on her own face during her dream this morning. What made it even worse, her face, the high cheekbones, pointed chin, short wispy black hair were similar enough for the coroner to be making comparisons.

Tape was set up, marking the location of the body, and the gurney carrying her was taken away. Jenna stopped to speak to the CSU techs. "I need your reports as soon as possible."

Chad Bennett, a seasoned member of the crime scene unit and someone she'd worked with many times before, nodded. "You got it Jenna, as quick as we get anything."

"I need the print card you took, I want to check the prints out myself." She stared into Chad's eyes, black and deep and filled with sympathy and understanding.

"Jenna, you know I'd do anything I could to help you out. But, that's our territory, not yours." He looked at her for a moment and then shook his head. "Okay, fuck it. But I didn't give you this, got me?" He took the card that was tucked safely into an envelope and handed it to her.

"You're the best, Chad," Jenna said, smiling at him and patting him on the cheek. "I won't forget this."

"You'd better not girl, because you now owe me." Chad grinned and winked, packing up the rest of his stuff. Until the primary crime scene could be discovered, he was done.

Jenna, card in hand, went to find her partner.

He wasn't difficult to find, a sudden baying and barking of the dogs leading her right to where he was. They had found the primary kill spot. She walked up, careful of her steps and stood next to him as they took in the horror.

Clothing, female and lacy, lay in cut up slices, thrown in different directions from where a large pool of blood was slowly soaking into the ground. Red pump heels were within ten feet of each other, one with it's heel broken off. Both showed signs of being dragged which Jenna could see from where they were standing. Something sparkled in the grass, caught in a ray of sunshine.

An earring, the post bloody, lay in the grass. Jenna closed her eyes, going back into her mental file to the body. Was she wearing the other one? Could the killer have taken it as a souvenir? She wasn't sure.

"Those clothes don't look like what someone would wear for a walk in the park," Justin gestured towards the shoes with their mile high heels. "I can't even see trying to out run anyone in those."

Jenna remembered her own recent hatred towards a pair of heels and sighed.

Justin heard her and put his hands on her shoulders, rubbing the tense muscles with delicate strength. He found a twist of knots and dug in with his thumbs feeling her relax slightly and moan, her head lolling forward. The she tightened back up and pulled away from him, skirting the edge of the crime scene.

"Jenna," he said quietly, waiting until she looked away from the grizzly scene and looked at him instead. "We need to talk about what happened."

She nodded her head. "But not here, and definitely, not now." He could hear the crime scene techs coming toward them and stepped aside to let them do their work.

His hand snaked out and grabbed the hem of her jacket as she tried to walk away from him once more. "When, then?"

Dammit, Jenna thought. It was a mistake, why couldn't he see that? "Later," she sighed, feeling her irritation level rise as he still tugged at the jacket.

"When later?" he persisted. "Tonight? I could come by your place? I could bring dinner," he offered.

"No, not tonight. I have a date." She lifted her head and looked into his face, seeing a fleeting look of hurt settle then disappear.

"The doc again?" The look might have been fleeting but his voice sounded like it would take a team of doctors to mend.

"Yeah, he's coming over tonight for dinner. I'm sorry, Justin." She turned to face him, looking around to see if anyone was paying attention to them. Everyone was working, the CSU techs doing their thing, collecting samples, taking pictures. The dogs and their handlers were gone, a few uniforms were stringing crime scene tape. And them, that was it.

She put her hand on Justin's arm. "That kiss was a mistake, Justin. It shouldn't have happened." His face turned stony and hard and she knew she was losing him. "We're partners, Justin, and friends. Anything more, well, it just complicates things too much. You know that."

A multitude of emotions flitted across his face, disbelief, hurt, anger, and then finally, resignation. "Well, you can't blame me for trying. You've got this, right?"

"Yeah, sure. Where are you going?" Concern made her reach out and touch his arm again, and she flinched when he pulled away.

"Move my car. I'll be back soon and then we can go into the office." He turned and almost trotted off, his long legs eating up the distance as Jenna watched him go sadly.