Hatched

Chapter Thirteen

June 30th, 2021

0730 hours

Quinn stood on the lower deck of the rig, gazing out over the sunrise-lit water. Despite his threats toward Dr. Bourke, he hoped she would willingly make an appearance. He knew that in her mind he was now the villain, however, he didn't particularly care if he'd stepped on her toes. While she seemed quite capable, he preferred to have the bureau's zoologist scour the remains. He also predicted that his slight of hand might come back to bite him in the derriere later, when he would actually need Dr. Bourke's assistance, which it seemed to have. Now that she'd stolen the duplicates, and knew more than he intended for her to at this stage, he had to do some damage control. One of his options was to bring her on board sooner, but he wasn't fond of that idea.

Even though a small portion of the choice had stemmed from that rather strong hit to his face, keeping it within the agency had more to do with report, and years of trust, built up within an entity that was characteristically lacking in that area. Once Quinn trusted someone, it was nearly resolute. Perhaps he'd slighted a rather engaging, obviously passionate scientist, but overall, he presumed it hadn't completely hindered her from pursuing her own course of action. His lips twitched amusedly in premonition, expecting he would be seeing her again soon. Not that I left her much choice, he mused.

The necropsy results were rudimentarily complete, and his last hour had been spent thumbing restlessly through the file. It now hung loosely in his hand, not having revealed any great importance. His brows were furrowed as he stared at the ocean, the salty air rough on his throat as he breathed in deeply. Something was plaguing his mind. There were irregularities here, in this case as a whole, and he need to know what. Not for justice, necessarily, but for his own satisfaction. There was a component to this investigation that was missing.

Firstly, Lynne was hiding something. He didn't know what just yet, but he would. Nothing substantial could be made from any of the files he already had access to, which meant that anything incriminating was being closely guarded. Once he had Lynne's background, he would narrow down the points which needed closer inspection, hopefully knocking some skeletons out of the closet. He knew that perhaps the secrets she hid didn't at all pertain to the investigation, but then, he never let a lead go unnoticed. It was unlikely, but possible, that some small shred of information within would send this case spiraling.

Secondly, his suspicion that the murder may not have been committed by a human being was growing. It was irrational to exclude homicide, but the evidence stacking up pointed toward an animal attack, which confounded Quinn. Being so far from land, he doubted any sea creatures were capable of such actions, as they would have to be exceptionally mobile out of the water. Were that the case, drafting a marine biologist to his service was futile. It was laughably improbable that anything inhuman was at the root of this, so naturally, Quinn kept this absurd option open for interpretation. Usually, it was the unusual that served to provide answers, so that was where he would begin searching. Logically, Stan was killed by a man, and the other accidents were nothing more than that; therefore, completely irrelevant and unrelated. Nonetheless, he would continue to handle the investigation assuming all possibilities. Since it was unlikely, however, he did not feel the need to divulge this suspicion to his team just yet.

Thirdly, he was astounded by the inconsistencies between the autopsy report and the necropsy. The two had been so similar, he was sure there was a connection. Again, this questioned his suspicion that everything happening was more than coincidence. Doubt wasn't something Quinn was accustomed to. He had resolved himself to find out the truth. He was, after all, Quinn Jones.

He smiled to himself. Yes, he would find out what dark secrets the middle aged Madonna was hiding on her goldmine. Relevant or not, they would be insightful as he built a profile.