Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

  Mrs. Sandford burst into tears, while Mr. Sandford patted her gently. “We lost Heather to suicide about two and half years ago. We’d sent Nancy up there to…I don’t know, settle her down I guess? But it didn’t seem to help. After Heather’s death, Nancy seemed lost and couldn’t find her way. She’s been missing for about six months.”

  Nick took up the line of questioning. “Missing? Or has she just left home and hasn’t had contact? Have you filed a report?”

  Mr. Sandford shook his head no. “We always thought she’d come home when she figured out what she was searching for, but it’s been six months. We’ve discussed having a private investigator track her, but we can’t afford it.”

  “Do you have a phone number for Nancy?” I asked, hoping it would at least give us some kind of trail to follow.

  “She stopped answering the day she left home. We’ve been afraid that we would get a visit saying that she was dead. In fact, when the bell rang this early in the morning, I knew this was it. If she’s dead, just tell us,” he pleaded, holding his wife’s hand tightly.

  “I’m sorry, we’re trying to find her ourselves. Was there any reason other than her sister’s death that would have made her leave home?”

  He exchanged a look with his wife. “She was really mad at the company that laid Heather off. We weren’t certain how they were to blame because things happen, but Nancy was certain that her sister would still be here if she’d been able to keep working.”

  I hesitated to ask, but there was only one way to get the information for Ryan. “Do you think she would do something that could harm others or herself?”

  “Oh, she would never do anything to hurt herself. She values life too much, which is why it made her angry at her sister for giving up,” Mrs. Sandford replied.

  “Do you, by any chance, have an old address for Heather that we could use? Sometimes those who are grief-stricken go back to the scene for closure.”

  “It’s in my little address book.” Mrs. Sandford eagerly opened the drawer of the little table sitting in between the chairs.

  “Thank you. Do you have anything of theirs that we could look through that might help us?” Nick gestured to the pictures on the walls.

  “Oh, their rooms are just like when they moved out. We didn’t have the heart to move stuff when Heather transferred up north. Nancy seemed so upset, and then we sent her up there right as they laid Heather off. Nancy called home many times, so upset that Heather wasn’t handling it very well. They were both so young to be facing life-changing things like that, and there wasn’t any way that we could go up there to help them since we had jobs of our own down here.” Her husband patted her again, as if he didn’t quite know how to comfort her.

  “We thought they would grow up in the process, and there are always other jobs. We even sent money a few times, but Heather just couldn’t take the pressure.” Mr. Sandford paused, trying to keep his composure. “After Heather was gone, we brought Nancy home only to have her withdraw further from us. She wouldn’t go to college classes, but we did compromise on a job to keep some of her time filled. By the time she left, she was just a shadow that moved around. She never tried to talk to us, but seemed to live off her anger and frustration. I’ll show you to their rooms. If you find Nancy, can you please let us know if she’s alive?” He walked down the hall to the back bedrooms.

  “Certainly. If and when we locate her, I’ll personally call you with the update.” I followed him, curious as to what was behind door number one, while Nick took door number two.

  I’d gotten Heather’s room, which appeared to be a normal teenager’s room. Posters of the past boybands hung on the walls, with a few special stuffed animals placed on the bed to keep watch. I was looking for hidden diaries or journals, anything that would help us, but I was afraid that Heather’s belongings wouldn’t be of much use.

  “Boxe!” Nick yelled from the other room. “I’ve got something.”

  I raced into the other room where he was holding back the meager clothes to show a wall filled with hate penciled everywhere. “Here, take these out so we can get some photos and shed some light on the subject.”

  Some names were mentioned, but mostly the Urban Energy Company held the most of her anger.

  “It’s not just about killing the ones who did it. She’s going to go after the head of the company if she can.” I fumbled with my phone, dialing quickly.

  “Ryan, Heather’s sister Nancy is going to kill the head of the company. She started with the smaller fish, and is working her way up the guilty ladder.”

  “We found Heather’s place, and it’s an abandoned house. It looks like she might have been staying there for a while, but she hasn’t come back yet. I don’t want to go check on Mr. Hamilton because he’s horrible, but I would feel bad if he died. I’ll get back to you when we finish doing his well check.”

  “Great. We’ll keep searching here.”

  As things tend to go, there wasn’t anything else to be found in Nancy’s room. We made our excuses and headed back to the station.

  “Thanks for going with me.”

  “It turned out to be fun. I hope Ryan has good news for you and they find this chick soon.”

  “Me too.”

  Chapter 13

  Ryan

  I could feel that we were closing in, but we seemed to be just missing the killer. The abandoned house was one of the worst that I’d been in in a while. It wasn’t the best of neighborhoods, and I’m sure after Heather’s death, no one had wanted to make it their home.

  Leslie had called as we were finishing up, giving us a new direction to follow. The head of the Northwestern division lived in a nice part of town with gates and plenty of security.

  Not wanting to wake his family up, but not seeing another choice, I dialed the number Margaret had given me to contact her.

  “Margaret, I need you to call Mr. Hamilton and make sure that he’s alive. We’re on the way to his residence right now.”

  “Okay…but Ryan, he doesn’t get up for another hour, and will be really pissed if you wake him up for a wild goose chase.”

  “He can decide if being alive is more important than loss of sleep when I get there. Call him.”

  “I’ll let him know that you insisted.”

  My car, and the three others behind me, sped through the streets with light and sirens blaring, hoping that we weren’t too late.

  Margaret’s name flashed on the dash with an incoming call. I hit the button. “Did you get him?”

  “He didn’t answer, so I called his wife. She didn’t answer either. I’m worried. I’ve programed the gate to open so you should have access straight to the house. I’ll turn off the alarm system too. Hold on, it’s already off. That means she’s there, doesn’t it?”

  “Don’t panic. It might just be that they forgot to set it. I’ll let you know when we get there.” I felt bad for Margaret. Not only did she have to work for a crappy boss, she was such a nice person herself that if something happened to him, she would blame herself.

  Even though Mr. Hamilton’s house was what most would consider a mansion, it didn’t matter in the end because death wasn’t a respecter of bank accounts.

  He was hanging from the banister with a note pinned to him.

  “He started it all when he ordered layoffs to give himself a raise. From the bottom to the top, those who committed transgressions against the oppressed have paid for their crimes. They can’t take it with them.”

  Signed -- Justice is Almost Served

  It was hard to disagree with our killer, but taking life wasn’t up to us. We weren’t the ones allowed to play God and choose whose life was worth more.

  Margaret had mentioned a wife who wasn’t answering her phone, so I ran up the stairs, hoping to locate her.

  She was the only other person in the large home, lying on the bed in the master bedroom, asleep.

  “Hey, guys, can you send one of the paramedics up here to check on the wife? She’s
passed out.”

  When she woke up, I was going to have to tell her the bad news that her husband was dead and she was a widow.

  ***

  The amount of paperwork that followed a death was horrendous, and this report wasn’t even for me. Green Bay’s department needed a detailed list of what I’d found and my reasons for concluding that Nancy Sandford was the killer, spreading her own brand of justice.

  Leslie had sent the pictures of her hate-filled list from the back of the closet, along with a more current picture to send out to the patrol officers.

  They were going to issue a statewide All Points Bulletin to help us find Nancy before she killed anyone else.

  At this point, I’d been up for more than twenty-four hours, but I couldn’t rest until I’d check on my friend Jesse.

  Almost two full weeks after his attack, we finally had a lead on the person who had done this to him.

  “How’s he doing?” I crept into the room, mindful of the early hour, even though the nurse had probably been there all night working.

  “The doctors are encouraged that he’s still breathing on his own. He does have some brain activity, but they can’t determine how affected the lack of oxygen will have on his memory or motor skills.”

  “Thank you for taking care of him.” I sat next to the bed.

  “My pleasure,” the nurse mumbled as she left the room.

  “Hey, buddy. We found out who the killer is, but we’re still looking for her. Yeah, I know, a girl was behind this. We weren’t thinking outside of the box enough. Doesn’t matter, though, we found the trail, and whatever happens, we’ll follow it until she’s in jail.”

  His hand twitched under mine and he gave a groan.

  “Nurse!” I yelled. “I need a doctor in here!” I frantically began searching for a button to get someone’s attention.

  A team raced in and shooed me out as they checked him out.

  “He coming to, but it might be a while before we can run all the tests.” The doctor had a large smile on his face. “He’s woken up, though, and is going to need a lot of rest.”

  I sank to the floor in relief. No matter how bad it turned out to be, Jesse was alive.

  “Speaking of rest, you’re looking a little rough, and I think you should head to your hotel. He’ll need some time to recuperate, and it won’t require you sitting by his bed to do it.” The doctor chuckled. “In fact, if I see you’re still here in the next five minutes, I might throw you on a free bed and hold you down until you pass out.”

  “Don’t tempt me, Doc, I’ll go. Just call me, or I’ll check in when I get some sleep.” Suddenly, the idea of a getting vertical on a bed was the best suggestion I had in a while. I just had a few loose ends to tie up first.

  Calls to both Margaret and Leslie took up most of the drive back to the hotel, and my body urged me on as I got closer to my goal of having a bed under me.

  ***

  My world ceased to exist for almost a day, but my body couldn’t handle it any longer without taking a moment to rest.

  A shower, room service, and an hour later, I was ready to find out what I’d missed.

  “Any word on the search for Nancy?” I called the station to see if we’d found her yet. Considering where she’d been staying, she wouldn’t have trouble acquiring a place to hide.

  “Nothing yet. I’m sorry, I wish we had better news.”

  “Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and criminals don’t think the way we want them to, that’s for sure. I’m going to head over to the hospital.”

  “A good idea. Hope Jesse’s up and getting around.”

  “Agreed.”

  When I showed up on the floor of the ICU, one of the nurses redirected me to one of the regular rooms on one of the upper floors.

  If they’d moved him out of ICU, then he had to be doing better, so this was good news.

  His entire family was crowded around the bed, and Jesse was propped up, smiling at them.

  “Ryan, my good man. It’s so good to see you. I’m sorry you had to come all this way.”

  I grabbed him by his arm in a brotherly arm shake. “Anytime. But you can space out the next crisis? Or better yet never to do this again. Okay?”

  “I hear you, man. My brain feels tired, but I know I’ve been sleeping for weeks now.”

  “We’re going to go now so you two can talk. We’ll be back later before visiting hours are over.” Lucy started to shoo the kids out of the room. “He won’t get better if we stay here watching him all the time.”

  Only Lucy could stop the protests before they started. I just wished that she would rethink this divorce thing and start dating Jesse again.

  “Later,” I called after them, thankful for the chance to pick my buddy’s brain as I explained all the details of the case.

  “Wow, I can’t believe I’ve missed so much, or that you’re working here in Green Bay without me.” Jesse wiggled around on the bed.

  “Dude, you kind of weren’t in a position to help me out. I mean, I did follow the clues you left, and it was a good call on the Simon guy, but he wasn’t behind any of it.”

  “What do you think this Nancy’s end game is now that Mr. Hamilton is dead?”

  “You know, that’s been puzzling me too. I think someone must be helping her that was also mad at Simon. She can’t be the only person to have a grudge against his followers. I had a listing of people who protested against his followers and their ideals. I’m going to go and see if anyone on the list matches anything else we’ve got on Nancy.”

  “Go, and come visit me in the morning. I’m going to catch a nap while the family’s gone.” He winked at me. “Plus, I can’t flirt with the nurses when my ex-wife is standing there.”

  “Aw, you haven’t changed at all.” I laughed as a nurse changed places with me as I left.

  ***

  Frustrated that I hadn’t found her after pursing leads and pounding on doors all night, I decided to swing by the hospital before I went to the hotel. Technically, visiting hours were over, but the nurses were pretty good at letting cops move around more freely.

  The quiet of the darkened halls was shattered as an alarm went off, and was echoed by another one from the opposite hallway.

  Deciding which way to go, I headed toward Jesse’s room to make sure he was good first. Skidding to a halt outside his door, I couldn’t see why the nurses and a few doctors were crowded around his bed. There wasn’t anything for me to do here, so I backtracked down the hallway to see what the other commotion was about.

  I made it just as a team of doctors and nurses were filing out of the room.

  “What happened?” I questioned, flashing my badge at them.

  “Sorry. One of the nurses walked by and noticed someone in the empty room. She was already dead when we got here. We were about to call you guys.”

  Pushing past the surprised nurse, I flipped the light back on and found Nancy lying on the bed with a rope discarded on the floor. I glanced at the clock; it was midnight.

  A piece of paper was lying off to the side, moved when the doctors and nurses had pulled her down to revive her.

  “Another month is gone. Can you stop the murders from happing next time? Tick tock, a new zodiac clock is about to start.”

  She’d tried to get one death in on each day—hers and Jesse’s.

  My fist started to crumple the note when I realized that Jesse might not be dead yet, and I took off running to find out.

  All of my hopes were dashed when I rounded the corner, and the other team of doctors were leaving the room. It seemed like only minutes, but she’d managed to have the last word.

  Sinking to the floor, I wept. Not only were we not able to save anyone from another killer, but this time, I’d lost my best friend for good.

  ***

  Jesse’s family didn’t want to wait for an autopsy because they knew what had happened. I stayed for the funeral, but left straight after for the airport. I couldn’t handle hanging arou
nd when my best friend was lying in the ground. Having found the killer did nothing for my state of mind, because someone else was pulling the strings, and I wanted to know who they were.

  Chapter 14

  Leslie

  This time, I wasn’t the only one feeling a sense of emptiness surrounding the end of a case. Ryan hadn’t been himself since Jesse had passed. Unfortunately, the only thing I knew to do was to remind him of reasons to live.

  He’d promised that if we found the killer, he would take Flora out to dinner. I had a solution that would help him do that and ease back into another situation I was dreading—dinner with Jerome.

  I’d managed a lunch, but we’d kept it all very light-hearted. I was hoping this idea would work to everyone’s advantage.

  Not telling any of them why they were coming to dinner, I sat waiting at the bar for them to arrive.

  Flora was first, and I gave her a hug. “I’m so glad that you could make it. Are the nightmares gone?”

  “Oh, thank heavens, yes. The clouds have lifted and the sun is shining again.”

  Jerome caught me around the waist and pulled me into a hug with a peck on the cheek. “You didn’t tell me that we were having guests.”

  “I hope it’s all right. I invited two other people who are needing a little fun and a night out. If you play nicely, I’ll explain things when I drive you home later.”

  His cheek twitched, but he simply held out his hand. “I’m Jerome. I think I’m Leslie’s boyfriend, but I’m not sure where we’re at right now.”

  Playfully swatting at him, I turned to introduce them. “Jerome, this is Flora, my friend that’s been helping me learn about the zodiac signs and horoscopes for the cases we’ve been working on. Oh, and this is Shea and Ryan.”

  Jerome’s fingers dug into my arm, but just as quickly, he released them. “Ryan, I’ve heard so much about you, but Leslie didn’t mention what a lovely fiancée you have.”