“You know, darlin’, I don’t expect you to service me while we endure our two-week medical abstinence.”
Sidney smiled at him and dumped a packet of sugar into her coffee. “Are you complaining?”
“Hell no. You can wrap your luscious lips around any part of me you want to. I just don’t want you to think I expect it.” He placed a finger at her chin and looked into her eyes. “You’re still recovering from what your body’s just gone through, Sid. I know that sex, in any form, must be the last thing on your mind right now. And that’s okay.”
He leaned down and placed a sweet kiss on her lips.
Sidney smiled and took his slice of avocado toast and walked away, heading to the table. Isaac grinned and spread the remainder of the mashed avocado on the other slice of toast and took a bite just as his cellphone rang.
“Taylor,” he mumbled around a mouthful.
“Good morning, Detective Sergeant. You’re needed at Wade Park. There’s a dead body in the grass.”
Isaac swallowed. “Wade Park? You mean the Lagoon?”
“Yes, sir. Patrol is already on scene.”
“Okay. Have Detective Vega meet me there.”
“Will do.”
He ended the call and took another bite of his toast.
“I gotta go,” he said, walking into the other room. “Another day, another dead body. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Okay. Be safe. I love you.”
He clipped his gun to his side and leaned down to kiss her.
“I love you.”
Then he headed for the door, stuffing the last of his toast into his mouth.
On the ride to the crime scene, his mind worked over the whole salt shaker ordeal, and Isaac tried to convince himself that he hadn’t actually seen it trying to move. That didn’t really happen.
Except that it did.
He’d seen it with his own eyes. He’d made that salt shaker move across the counter, just by thinking about it.
Okay, so it hadn’t moved far. Only a couple of inches. But it did move. And maybe Geneviève was right and it was time for him to stop fearing this side of himself and just try to embrace it.
Or at least try to figure out how to control it.
He took a deep breath and shook his head. His life was so over the top lately. What the hell was that about?
He pulled up behind a marked police cruiser and got out of the car glancing around to get his bearings. Wade Lagoon Park was fairly close to the university, and that alone made him wonder what the odds were that this murder would somehow be related to the one from yesterday that they still had zero leads on.
He walked across the grass where the Crime Scene Unit was already hard at work, taking pictures and gathering evidence, and Isaac glanced at the horrors around him.
“Holy shit.”
The victim was a Caucasian male, wrists and ankles bound by duct tape, naked and castrated, just like yesterday’s victim. Only this one’s genitals had been stuffed into his mouth, balls first. The grass beneath him was saturated with blood, and a small pile of what could only be vomit sat near the foot of the body.
A strong sense of revenge crashed over Isaac while he took in every detail.
“Morning, partner,” Pete called out. “What we got?”
Isaac opened his mouth to respond as Pete drew nearer, but only shook his head instead.
Pete looked at the scene as he came closer.
“Holy mother of God.”
Isaac nodded.
“What the hell is going on around here, Ike?”
“I don’t know. But there’s no question that this body is tied to the one from yesterday.”
“Do we have an ID?”
“We don’t have anything yet.”
Pete gestured to the pile of bile. “Do you think the killer lost his dinner after viewing his own handy work?”
Isaac could only shake his head again in response. Then he turned to the nearest uniform.
“Who found the body?”
“Jogger. He’s pretty shaken up.”
The officer pointed a few yards away where another uniformed officer stood near an older African American man who sat on a bench, hunched over.
“Thanks.”
Isaac motioned for Pete to follow, and they walked over to the bench. Isaac flashed the man his badge.
“Detective Sgt. Ike Taylor. This is Detective Pete Vega. What’s your name, sir?”
“Roger.” The man took a breath and tried again. “Um, I’m Roger Meaux.”
“Do you jog this park often, Mr. Meaux?”
“Y-yes. Most days I do. It’s so pretty here. It’s a nice way to start the day, you know? Well… normally.”
Isaac studied him closely.
“Did you happen to see anyone else around the body?”
Roger shook his head. “No. No I was just jogging with my earbuds in. And I saw something on the ground at a distance. I was angry that someone would toss trash in such a beautiful place. So, I jogged over to pick it up and find a trashcan.” Roger paused and got emotional. “I thought it was a bag of trash!”
Isaac took note of how genuinely shaken the man seemed.
“Then I got closer and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I-I’m afraid I lost my breakfast over there.”
The words were spoken softly, and loaded with embarrassment.
Isaac nodded.
“Well, that explains the vomit,” Pete mumbled.
“I don’t suppose you can ID the victim?” Isaac asked Roger.
Roger shook his head once more. “No, I’ve never seen him before.”
“Okay. If you think of anything else, please give us a call.” He gestured to Pete, who handed the man a card.
They walked back over to the body, and Isaac scanned the scene once more.
“We’ve got everything we need here, Sarge.” One of the CSU techs said.
“Thanks.” Isaac raised a hand and motioned to where the medical examiner and his staff were waiting to transport the body. Then he turned to Pete.
“Until we get a positive ID, we need to assume vic number 2 is
