Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

  “Don’t worry, I’ll keep her safe,” Ryan assured him.

  “You break her heart and you’ll have to deal with me, even if I’m retired,” Joe warned.

  “Right here, boys.” I waved a hand in front of them. “Joe, that’s really sweet of you to want to protect me, but I’ve been doing it on my own for a few years now.”

  “Hey, just because you can protect yourself, doesn’t mean that your family can’t help you out.” He winked at me. “Now, go before you run out of energy.”

  He didn’t have to say it twice. Even though they teased me about it, I did have a lot of extra energy.

  ***

  Noah’s house was in a highly patrolled community, but we were able to find the alley and what appeared to be an empty house. I ran the address, and when nothing came up, we shut the car off. Sitting in the car was going to make surveillance much harder to do without getting spotted.

  “There’s not a gate on the back driveway. I’m going to go up there and see if Glen’s home.” I had a hand on the door when Ryan stopped me.

  “Both Noah and the driver know what you look like. If they see you, they’ll assume that we’re watching them and back off. I’ll do it, and I can come up with an explanation if I need to.”

  Exasperated, I held out the trackers and dropped them into his hand. “You’re right. Don’t expect it to happen very often.”

  He grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”

  A few minutes later, he returned.

  “I think he just got home because the engine was hot. Maybe we just got lucky.”

  I’d gotten a text from Jerome about doing something later, but I had to tell him that I was working.

  “That the boyfriend?” Ryan asked curiously.

  “Potential one. We’ve only been on a few dates, but he looks promising.”

  “Well, it’s a hard job with long hours. A lot of relationships don’t make it.”

  “How did you and Shea meet? She seems to have a good head on her shoulders, so I’m just curious how on earth you’ve managed to keep her?”

  “Ha! She seems to like me, but honestly, I agree with you. She’s above my pay grade, and I have no idea why she’s stuck around this long. We met in college through mutual friends. We hung out, and then one day the friends weren’t there, and she didn’t run away. I asked her out on a real date before I went into the academy. She knew what she was getting into from the beginning, but we had a lot of friends that had gone the way of the military. They were never home, and at least this way, I’m around.”

  “About halfway into my probation period, she suggested that we move in together because otherwise, we’d never see each other. I wanted to wait to ask her to get married after I went from patrol to detective, so last year, after I was off probation, she got her ring.”

  “How on earth did you get to be in charge after only two years as a detective?”

  “There were a lot who retired, and I had a few breaks when it came to cases that helped put me in front of the brass making the decisions.”

  “Hmm. So, no kids yet?” I couldn’t believe that they’d been together for years, and not only were they not married, but still had no children.

  “Shea would love kids, but she wasn’t sure how well they would mix with my job. We really wanted to make sure that we were financially stable and in a position to take care of them. She’s just gotten established in her job, and it will be a year or two before she could take the time off to have one,” Ryan explained.

  “Sorry. I know it’s none of my business. I’m just nosy.”

  “No problem. What about you? Why are you just now dating? Where are your kids?” Ryan fired back.

  “Oh, I see how it is. I just never found a guy that could stay interested in my brain. Most were just short-term, and without a long-term partner, I just wasn’t interested in starting a family. I knew that I wanted to be a cop, and I would have to put in my time before I would be able do the mom thing. Some people were just made for it, and I’m not sure it’s my thing.” I shrugged, hoping that he would change the subject.

  “Now that Shea and I are engaged, people keep asking when we’re going to start a family, and it gets really annoying. I know it bothers me, and I’m sure Shea hears it more often than I do.”

  “People mean well, but it’s constant. It’s why I don’t have many close friends anymore. They all got married and are doing their own thing with kids. I love kids, but it’s like we’re speaking different languages or something.”

  “Exactly. I help protect the kids and work to catch killers. It’s hard to change out of that mindset and think that everything Nick and Patty do are just amazing. I mean, they walked. Doesn’t everyone?” Ryan looked extremely confused.

  “Yeah, I can see how that might be a problem. Each set of parents are different, I guess. Learning new things is great, but it’s not what I plan to spend my time on right now.”

  I noticed someone come out, but they were only taking out the trash after dinner. My energy was rapidly going away, and we were going to have to take shifts later sleeping if things kept on like this.

  Several hours later, we weren’t feeling lucky. Nothing had happened, and there weren’t any reports of a dead body being discovered. While that was good, it also meant that we had no idea which direction he was going to go next.

  “I think we should call it a night. He’s not going anywhere. Either he knows we’re out here, or he’s done for the night. None of the murders have been at night, and we should get some real sleep before we go driving around all over town tomorrow,” Ryan suggested.

  Stifling a yawn, I agreed. “A real bed sounds nice. Let’s just hope this turns something up and we aren’t just chasing our tails.”

  I turned the key and pulled out. My focus had been on the house in front of us, but not on the white van parked three doors down hidden by a dumpster. It followed us all the way back to the station.

  Chapter 10

  We all met early at the station and checked on all the tracking devices, but they didn’t give us anything unusual from the overnight reports.

  “Could we be on the wrong track with Glen and Noah?” Ryan asked doubtfully.

  “How do these three get so much information on these women? It would take weeks, if not months to stalk them this thoroughly. I mean, if he was dating them, at some point he might have found out some information. This level of stalking would take almost all of his time so that he would know their routines. Even if he only watched for a few days and moved on to the next one, he’d have to check on them again to make sure nothing changed before he committed the murder.”

  Joe looked at both of us to see if we had answered the question. “We’ve run both these guys through the system, and there haven’t been any real complaints. A few tickets for speeding, and a few episodes when they were in school for ballooning the president’s office, but other than that, they’re clean.”

  “Either they’re psychos who know how to hide it well, or we’re looking at the wrong guys. I suggest that we bring them in again and see if they rattle very much. We haven’t even talked to Glen yet, and he might know something about Noah that would be helpful.” My gut wasn’t getting quieter about them, and I was getting worried I might have an obsession of my own.

  “I’ll have some uniforms pick them up. It might be nice to see what their reactions are if they see each other being questioned.” Joe nodded to a few of the extras that had been helping out with this large case.

  “We’ve verified that most all of the women who have been murdered so far were into charitable giving or volunteering somewhere to help those who needed it,” Ryan added. “Have you heard anything from the psychic again?”

  “You still had someone at her house when I went by, didn’t you?” I shook a playful finger at him. “It’s okay. You told me to see if I could get more information from people if you weren’t around. I took you at your word.”

  “Did you find out anything that might hel
p us?” Ryan prompted.

  “Oh, uh, just that most of her skills are just becoming active. She has good readings on people, and offered to listen in to tell you if a suspect is the right one.” I grinned, knowing what his response would be.

  “Hell no. We’re not going to let some civilian come in and tell us who’s guilty and who isn’t.” He stood up and started pacing.

  “Well, to be fair, she was getting her degree in psychology and could shed some light into their character from her real-life skills.”

  He shot me a dirty look, but Joe grinned. “Hey, why not? If she can get here before they get back with those two, there’s no reason that she can’t watch the interviews. We’ve got nothing to lose at this point. Call her.”

  Ryan glared at both of us. “I need some fresh air.” He left the room, muttering to himself.

  “I get the feeling this lady gets under his skin more than you do, which is kind of funny.” Joe sipped his cold cup of coffee and looked back at the board. “What are we missing?”

  ***

  An hour later, everyone was in place, and Flora was watching from behind the glass as Ryan, Joe, and I entered the room with Glen.

  “Hi, Glen. Did the officers tell you why you’re here?” Joe started off with the questioning.

  “Something about a woman that died, I guess. I don’t know why that involves me. I don’t even know who she is.” The shorter young man folded his arms defensively.

  “Well, if you don’t know who died, then how do you know that you weren’t involved?” Joe pressed forward with his inquiry.

  “I didn’t kill anyone, so it doesn’t matter who it is. I didn’t do it. Why would I be a suspect in something like this? I don’t have a record, I’ve never stalked or threatened anyone. So what’s this really about? I may decide that I want a lawyer.”

  “Are you asking for a lawyer?” Ryan stepped forward.

  “Not yet. When you tell me what I’m being suspected of exactly, then I can decide if I need one.” Glen looked at each one of us. “I’m going to guess that you don’t have any evidence or I wouldn’t be here, now would I?”

  “Ignore these two. There have been a group of murders, and we have enough reasonable evidence to suspect your friend, Noah. What we can’t figure out is if you’re both working on it together, or if it’s just his thing?” I smiled to calm him down, but it had the opposite effect.

  “You think Noah is killing these women and that I’m involved? Boy, are you guys crazy.” He shook his head while laughing at us. “I’m gay. Noah’s my best friend because he doesn’t care about my sexual preferences. I like women as friends. I could never hurt them, much less kill them. Now, Noah does like to get around, but he’s not one of these guys that gets angry or hits on women either.”

  “So because you’re gay, you couldn’t kill women?” Ryan frowned at the suspect’s logic.

  Glen leaned forward. “Most of the time, when you see someone murdering women, they’re getting their kicks off. That wouldn’t apply to me. I don’t have enough hate or anger to slap one, much less hurt them permanently.

  “Noah’s never had any complaints in the sex department, and most of the women he dates know it’s only a short time thing. If one of them came up dead, he wasn’t the one that killed them.” Glen grinned at the idea of Noah committing murder.

  “One of his recent, or even current girlfriends, was one of those who were found dead,” I added, knowing that even if Glen was involved, we weren’t going to get anything from him.

  “Look, I’m sorry. His last one, Susan, had gone on a little longer than some of the others because she just wanted a sexual relationship. She was driven, and didn’t have time for flowers or phone calls. That would have taken her focus off of whatever she was trying to do with some business deals.”

  “So you’d met Susan?”

  “Yeah. She’d been around for about three months. Noah brought the more trusted women back to the house. Not everyone that wanted to sleep with him had pure intentions, and wanted a chance to get some of his money. Susan wasn’t like that, so she got the more royal treatment.” Glen shrugged like it was a normal thing for girls wanting sex had pure intentions.

  “There wasn’t anything that would make you think he’d have her killed? Or pay someone to do it for him?”

  “You mean like a hit? Oh boy, that’s hilarious. Women were just a means to an end, a way to scratch an itch. Noah has been told who he’s going to marry for years now. When he turns forty, if he hasn’t married her, then he loses all of his inheritance from his grandfather. He’s got about three or four more years to play around before that happens. He wouldn’t have any reason to have one killed.”

  “All right, sit tight and we’ll be back in a few.” Joe motioned us outside. “What do we think about what he said?”

  “He’s got a point. Most gay men don’t go around killing women,” Ryan agreed.

  “Hey, Flora, what’s your take on Glen?” I turned to her as we stood looking at him through the glass.

  “He has some issues, and hides behind his sexuality. While I don’t think he killed anyone, I think he could still have a part in this.” Flora looked uneasy.

  “My C.I. did mention that he got kicked out of the elite club for being over the top,” I mentioned casually.

  “Well, let’s see what Noah has to say about all this.” Joe led us into the other interrogation room.

  “Noah, thank you for agreeing to meet with us again.”

  “Anything I can do to help. Susan was a wonderful girl.” Noah placed his folded hands on the table.

  “We’re just needing a few more details about your relationship. How did you meet? Did you part amicably?” I leaned in expectantly.

  “A mutual friend introduced us and we hit it off. We’d been hanging out for the past month or so, it wasn’t serious. We both had different career goals, but at the moment, our schedules fit together. We hadn’t really parted yet because it was a casual thing. We’d been out a couple of days before you guys showed up to tell me that she was dead.” Noah brushed a tear away.

  “Thank you so much. We’re wondering if you’ve met any of these other ladies?” I opened the folder with several of the dead girls’ pictures and put them in front of him.

  He flinched at the morgue pictures, but glanced through them, shaking his head no. “I haven’t met any of these ladies, at least not that I know of. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help to you.”

  “Would your friend Glen be capable of something like this?” Joe left the folder open as he pointed to the wounds on one of the victims.

  “Glen? What does he have to do with this? He’s gay,” Noah protested.

  “It seems like quite a coincidence that these women were killed in the same way that Susan was, and we’re just trying to connect the dots. Someone killed them, and it just figures that the same person knew them or had a reason to want them dead,” Joe argued. “Just because he’s gay, doesn’t mean he couldn’t have killed them.”

  “Look, I think this is enough of this type of questioning, and if you need anything else, you can call my lawyer. I’ll be retaining one for Glen as well.” Noah got up and started for the door. “Just because we’re protecting ourselves, doesn’t mean that we had anything to do with this.”

  Ryan opened the door and let him through, as there wasn’t anything we could hold him on.

  “This sucks,” I grumbled. “Now we’re back to square one again.”

  A knock at the window startled us, but we cleared out and joined Flora in the other room.

  “Have you seen the paper with the horoscope for this month?” Flora held up a copy of the daily that had been sitting on the table.

  “No. What’s so exciting about it?” I questioned.

  “It predicts the deaths of those born this month.” Flora pointed to the daily horoscope.

  There will be a new person that arrives with life-changing news on the day of your birth while the sun is in the sk
y. Beware of strangers who bring death hidden by happiness.

  “That’s not really a proclamation of death,” Ryan scoffed, picking up the paper to read it for himself.

  “True, but look at yesterday’s paper. It’s the exact same message. Normally, if you have a daily horoscope in a paper, it will change every day. Look at the other signs. They’re different from yesterday to today. Why is Aquarius the exact same?” Flora pulled the two papers together so that we could look at them side by side.

  “Could someone change the horoscope to say what they wanted?” Joe seemed leery of the idea.

  “The only way to find out is to call the paper and see who was working on it.” I turned to go back out to the desk area to make the call.

  “Nick, is there any way you could get me the papers for the last few weeks?” I asked as I walked past his desk to mine.

  “Sure. Is there a break in the case?”

  “We’re checking something out, and it might just point us in the right direction,” I replied over my shoulder.

  Minutes later, we had my desk covered in newspapers while I was on hold for the right person.

  “They’re all the same, from the twentieth of January through today. The other signs all have different ones for each day.” Ryan pointed to the circled words spread across the papers.

  “Yes, I was looking for the person in charge of writing your horoscopes? It’s for a police investigation, and I need to find out if they are written in-house or from a national databank?” I turned my attention back to the person on the phone.

  “Normally, they’re written in-house. Carl Sanders is in charge of that, and he’s working from home today.”

  “Do you have a phone number that we can reach him at?” The frown on my face widened as they told me they couldn’t give out that information over the phone. “Thank you. Have a great day.” I disconnected in frustration.

  “Got it. Carl Sanders lives in the Highland area.” Nick waved a post-it with an address.

  “Let’s go.” I paused as we started to leave. “Thank you, Flora, for your help. I’ll call you if we find out anything important. Nick, can you please see that Glen is released for the moment?”