Consumed Read Online Free PDF

“Agents Harper and Rawlings to see an Agent Clifford.”
    The woman turned her head. “Tom!” she shouted.
    A man poked his head from one of the offices at the back and looked out at us. He left the office and approached.
    The man appeared to be in his fifties, average height and build. He had short brown hair that was graying but still formed a damn-near-perfect flattop, and he wore a gray suit with a yellow tie.
    “Are you the two agents from Virginia?” he asked.
    Beth pointed to herself and then me. “Beth Harper, and this is Hank Rawlings.”
    We both shook his hand.
    “Tom Clifford. Why don’t you guys come on back? I just got off the phone with the sheriff’s department. I guess they found another woman’s remains an hour or so ago.”
    Neither Beth nor I responded.
    He opened the waist-high wall at the walkthrough, and we followed him back to the office he’d come from.
    “Grab a seat,” he said.
    Beth and I did.
    “What can I do to help?” he asked. “I’m not really sure how we are handling this here.”
    “We’re going to bounce between the sheriff’s department and here and also try to work with the Nashville PD,” Beth said. “Hopefully, if we all work together, we can get a lead.”
    “Sure, but I mean, are you two in charge of this thing, or what?”
    “It’s our investigation, yes,” Beth said.
    I glanced over at her.
    “Okay, I just had to know where we were at there,” he said. “We’re pretty much a jack-of-all-trades kind of place around here—everything from drugs to guns to murders, but I can’t say that I’ve worked a serial-killer investigation before. Where do we start?”
    “Well, what do you know about the history of this investigation?” Beth asked.
    “Geez, it’s kind of ingrained into the area around these parts. Everyone knows about the torsos and The Butcher. I can’t say that I’ve ever been through the files prior to yesterday, though.”
    “The Butcher?” I asked.
    “Local name,” he said.
    “Sure. So when were you first contacted by the local sheriff?” I asked.
    “Yesterday morning. Chief Deputy Whissell is who called me.”
    “And what’s your relationship like with the sheriff’s department?” Beth asked.
    “Good. Real good. I’ve known Auggie, the chief deputy over there, for a couple of years. He transferred in from somewhere when the last chief deputy retired.”
    “Okay, we’ll need to meet with him,” Beth said. “Preferably this evening yet, if they’ve found another body.”
    “Sure. Let me give him a call and see where he’s at.”

CHAPTER SIX
    Beth and I took her rental, following Agent Clifford toward the sheriff’s station. He’d told us the drive would be about ten minutes.
    I looked over at her. “What’s with the ‘it’s our investigation’ thing? I thought we consulted and aided unless otherwise necessary.”
    She rocked her head back and forth. “Yeah, I think this is one of those necessary times. I have a couple reasons why if you’d like to hear them.”
    “Shoot. I’m all ears.”
    “Well, we’re bouncing between a police department in Nashville, a sheriff’s department, and a tiny little resident agency of the FBI.” Beth held up a finger for each reason. “You know how Agent Clifford gave you that ‘we’re a jack of all trades here’ line?”
    “Yeah,” I said. “I wasn’t going to finish the quote for him.”
    “Exactly. A jack of all trades is a master of none. Think about it. We have… what, like twenty different divisions in our location. Each division has how many people? This guy and the few people he works with have to handle all of that. Don’t get me wrong—he’s an agent, and probably a damn fine one, but this is our specialty, and in this instance we need to head it up. That, and if our killer has been doing this in the same area for thirty years… I’m just saying that if someone hasn’t been caught by now, they probably never will be if someone from outside