¹ Snipes || Reacher

03. First Dance

Lizzie walked onto the scene and she was silently looking at the body that was nailed to the wall, being very thankful that she did have a strong stomach and not much of a gag reflex.

"The majority of these lacerations appear to be shallow and were possibly done with a serrated blade, which leads me to believe that they were intended to inflict pain rather than cause death. Preliminary examination of Police Chief Edward Morrison." Jasper was saying and Lizzie was shaking her head at the sight.

"Subject has been nailed to the wall contra-laterally with six spikes, two of which were driven between the ulna and the radius near the wrist and... One laceration to the left cheek." Jasper continued, having not noticed that any of them were there.

"Prints?" Reacher asked and he was scanning the crime scene. Meanwhile, Tommy took one look at the scene before Lizzie pointed out of the house and unfortunately for him, they could hear all of his food coming back up.

"Poor kid." Lizzie murmured quietly and Reacher glanced at her, but she was looking around at the area. "This is crazy." She said softly.

"I ask the questions, like this one: how did you know about the nails?" Finlay's questions were starting to get irritating for both of the former military police. "Even in Margrave, word doesn't travel that fast."

"Would it kill you Finlay, just to trust us for more than a second?" Lizzie shot back as he looked affronted at the words. "If you can't trust him, can you at least trust me?" Lizzie asked coolly and Finlay sighed.

"All of them wore rubber overshoes and gloves. Latex. Like whoever killed my brother." Reacher said as he was scanning the room, very carefully moving throughout the crime scene and now, being very careful to not mess with any evidence or prints.

"What makes you say that?" Finlay asked and Lizzie glanced between the two of them before she was looking over at Morrison.

"Because, there needed to be three of them there. Three of them were needed together to take down Joe..." Lizzie shook her head as she pieced it together. "There would have to be at least three or four to nail him to a fucking wall." She remarked quietly, rather casually gesturing to the dead chief of police and Finlay scoffed.

"That was our boss, show some respect to..."

"He was a piece of shit who was clearly as dirty as fuck." Lizzie snapped quietly and at the words, Finlay's eyes nearly popped out of his head and Lizzie was silently shaking her head. "Am I right?" She asked, glancing at Reacher.

"You're right. Three people killed my brother. At least four to do that to a guy Morrison's size." Reacher replied evenly.

"Holy shit, his fucking balls are gone!" At the terrified-sounding yelp from Jasper they all turned to look at him.

Lizzie glanced closer at the body and she was nodding quickly. "Could have gone my whole life without seeing somebody's balls cut off." She quietly muttered and at the words, Reacher's eyes narrowed slightly in sympathy.

"Keep it professional here, Jasper. Cursing's the sign of a weak mind and a weaker character." Finlay's morals were starting to become aggravating, to those of them who heard it all of the time.

"Sorry, I'm just not used to this. You don't see this kind of thing every day." A weak, nervous-sounding chuckle came from Jasper. "Pardon my French, but... Where the heck are his testicles?" Jasper asked.

"In his stomach." Lizzie nearly jumped at Reacher's voice coming back into the room now, at a volume that everybody could hear and she shook briefly.