Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

  ***

  Things moved quickly once the FBI showed up, with Agent Perez heading things up. Before the day was out, we got a call to come to the morgue to find out how the five women had died.

  “What have you got for us, Foster?” Agent Perez asked as she walked through the door, barely noticing the body laid out on the table.

  “This is the second one, but I’m going to give you a preliminary cause, which is most likely going to be the same on the other three. I’ll have those reports to you in the morning.”

  “Foster?” She raised her voice slightly. “How did they die?”

  “Yeah. From the rate of decomposition, I’d say they were all about a day apart when they died, and they haven’t been dead for long either. I started with the two that seemed the oldest, and I’d say they’d been in the ground less than a week.”

  “How did they die, Foster?” Agent Perez asked him again.

  “An arrow through the heart.”

  “What?” It slipped out, and I didn’t miss the look that Agent Perez threw over her shoulder at me.

  “Each of the women, I’m guessing, are all between twenty and thirty, and were killed by an arrow. From the wounds and bruises all over their arms and legs, they were chased through the woods before he shot them. Thankfully, they were dead before he buried them.” Foster continued moving things around, getting things ready for the next body.

  “Were they sexually assaulted?” Agent Perez asked the question that I was dreading most.

  “No, not that I’ve seen so far from the first two. Most of the damage is on the outside of their bodies, and there isn’t any tearing or signs of forced entry. The women were dehydrated, which means they could have been out there for up to three days, possibly running or hiding from their attacker during that time.”

  He moved over to where the other three women were lying out on trays. “If you look over here at the bodies, you’ll see where the shots from the arrows pierced their hearts exactly. Your killer is an expert marksman. I doubt that any of these women stopped long enough to present him with a still target.”

  “I’ll have the profiler come over in the morning, but I’m going to start running this through the database and see if we get a hit. Do we have the prints from the girls to run through the system?” Agent Perez consulted her phone. “I’m going to bet these weren’t runaways, but they had to have gotten here somehow. Sheriff, can you have your patrol start looking for places that their cars could be hidden?”

  “We can. The most obvious places would be on a farm or junkyard somewhere. He could’ve driven them over one of the small cliffs if he was going to hide one, but five makes it more problematic.”

  “As soon as we have IDs on the women, it’ll help us to find out where they came from, and what kind of cars we’re looking for. This guy’s probably been doing this for years, and he just happened upon your town. He may have even moved on from the area. Let’s get some dinner while we get a few of these searches going so afterward, we can go over the results.”

  I grimaced at the thought of food after seeing the insides of the bodies. I’d seen horrible things in my line of work, but I didn’t normally eat right after.

  “Sure. There’s a diner over by the B&B. City Hall’s gonna let us use their conference room since it’s the biggest space available that won’t be open to the public.” I grinned. “With the station right next door, it’ll make keeping the reporters out much easier.”

  “They haven’t shown up yet, and while it sometimes helps to let people know that we have a killer on the loose, in this case, it would cause panic. We have no idea where he’s capturing these women before he starts his little game. It could be in Los Angeles or San Francisco, or it could be at the gas station up the road. Until we know more about what we’re dealing with, I’d rather keep it low-key for the moment.”

  “Agreed. How quickly will we have an ID on those prints?” Now that we were out of the county morgue, the smell of food was bringing back my appetite.

  “I’d give it an hour or two for it to run through the California DMV. If we don’t have a match from in state, then we could be looking at days, even weeks. We’re running it through the criminal database, but I’m betting that none of these women had more than a parking ticket on their record. We’ll also run their faces through a recognition program, and hopefully, it’ll turn up something between the two.” Agent Perez perused the menu before giving her order to the waitress.

  “I’m just sorry that I had to call you in on this, but there was no way that we could even try to bring justice to these girls without help. I’m afraid he’s going to do it again.”

  “No problem. That’s why we give those cards out, because we’d rather jump on situations like this early rather than lose evidence, or have the trail go cold by the time we’re called in. You did the right thing.” She smiled at me. “More than likely, he will. The question is, if having us here will stop him for a short while until we leave, or if he’s bold enough to attempt it while we’re here to catch him at it. You can never tell.”

  “I wish he would’ve picked a different town. I know that’s horrible, because these women would still be dead.” I shook my head at my own short-sightedness.

  “You aren’t the first one to think that, nor will you be the last. It is what it is. We try our best to deter crime, but someone like this actually enjoys it. Sometimes they’ll go for years without being caught, and then something will happen, like a dog finding something unusual, so we catch a break.”

  The waitress brought my usual, and Agent Perez’s order to the table.

  “Let’s chow down on some hot food while we can.”

  ***

  The Killer

  I listened to the conversation between the FBI Agent and the sheriff from the table behind them. They had no idea what they were dealing with. Not only had I been killing for many years, I was really good at it. It was the thrill of the hunt and knowing that my prey couldn’t escape me. Those five women had been good sport, but the agent would make a great contribution to the hunt.

  I’d almost become a cop, but I’d been in an altercation that couldn’t be reconciled leaving a mark on my record. It had shown me that I needed to have someone to outsmart, and local cops weren’t normally enough for me to engage with. I’d learned enough during those first few months that it was much harder to catch me if you couldn’t even find my crime scenes.

  This match was going to be a lot closer with the FBI hanging around. I still wasn’t sure what the larger game was that had me using a bow and arrow. True, it didn’t make any noise, and carving the symbols on the trees had been easy. What I didn’t like was how much information my current employer had regarding my hobbies. I needed to do some more research and find out what made him engage others to do this work for him.

  Just wait, Agent Perez. I was going to take one of the locals and find out how long it was before anyone noticed that she was missing. This challenge was just getting started, I thought, as I took another bite of the delicious homemade pie. There were benefits to moving locations on occasion. Local cuisines were always better than all the fancy city food.

  A smile stretched my lips as I thought of the poor woman huddled in the cage, waiting on me to bring her dinner. Good thing I’d already ordered a doggy bag to take home, because the night was just getting started.

  Chapter 2

  Leslie

  I walked to my desk every morning in fear of finding a newspaper there, telling me that we were going to find a growing body count. So far, it had been quiet, but it was only the first few days into the new zodiac sign.

  With no sign of impending doom, I caught myself humming. Crap that was always an indicator that someone was in a relationship. Jerome and I had talked as I’d driven him home from dinner with my friends a few days before. Any relationship was going to take work, but I had to know that he wasn’t going to be jealous over the guys I worked with.

  I’d finally convin
ced him that I didn’t date in the same place that I worked. Keeping business and pleasure separate had always seemed to be the best way to stay out of trouble. Female cops already had a bad rap, and there were always rumors about sleeping our way to the top. There was no reason to fuel the flames.

  Promising him another date with no sex to get to know more about each other was going to be hard, but it would be worth it in the long run. At least, that was my motto for the day. But if I didn’t work off this extra energy from the last case soon, I might not be able to keep my resolve.

  A text from Ryan pulled me out of my self-speculation.

  Ryan: Anything on your desk?

  Leslie: Nope. Maybe we’re just missing it, and he wants to see if we can figure it out before giving us any hints.

  Ryan: That’s what I’m afraid of. But all the reports I’ve looked at don’t have anything specific that matches.

  Leslie: The bright side is, it’s only been a few days. The bad side, he could already have killed and we’re behind again.

  Ryan: All this waiting is making me antsy, knowing there’s something evil out there, and I can’t do anything about it.

  Leslie: Yet. We can’t do anything about it yet. We will, though.

  Ryan: Yeah. Meanwhile, I’m stuck doing all the reports that didn’t get turned in while I was gone.

  Leslie: It could be worse.

  Ryan: How’s that?

  Leslie: You could still be up in the cold and snow right now.

  Ryan: Good point. Message me if you find out anything.

  Leslie: Will do.

  Now Ryan’s anxiety was making me anxious. I needed to be put to work, and I knew just how to do it.

  “Joe, didn’t they need someone to do some follow-up interviews on that triple homicide from yesterday?”

  “Yep. You volunteering?” He smiled sympathetically. “Can’t sit still, huh?”

  I shifted my weight from one foot to the other, embarrassed that I couldn’t hide what was bothering me the most.

  “Well, let’s go see what you’ve learned while on this intercity task force.” He grabbed a jacket from the back of his chair.

  Once into our first follow-up, I was trying to figure out what on earth I’d been thinking while listening to the old lady’s fifth attempt to offer us cookies while she told us her eyewitness account of what happened from the beginning.

  ***

  As I slid into the booth across from Jerome, I noticed that he was a little more reserved than he had been the other night. I was hoping that we could put the past behind us and move on.

  “Hey. Big case today?”

  “No. We just did a few follow-up interviews. Routine stuff that has to be done. I feel bad for Joe because I was supposed to be his partner, but I’ve been pulled off to work these other cases twice now. It’s like waiting on pins and needles until it happens again.” I wasn’t trying to gloss over Ryan’s involvement, but there was no point in bringing his name up so much either.

  “How can you be sure it’ll happen again?” Jerome’s question made me pause.

  “Besides the fact that there was a note after Heather Sandford was found dead? My instincts say that this person is trying to get us engaged in catching him, or her.”

  “What if she wrote the note herself just to throw you off track?”

  “That’s a possibility, but I don’t get that feeling. It just feels like something’s been left out of the equation. I had no connections whatsoever to this lady, but there were newspapers left on the desk that pointed to Wisconsin. Why would she send that to us?” I asked, puzzled. “Even if for some reason she was using the connection between Jesse and Ryan, why would I get a newspaper?”

  “Maybe she’d seen something about your recent case and thought you’d be interested?” He was cautious about mentioning Ryan as well, and I was beginning to feel that we were having two different conversations.

  “I don’t know how to explain it, but I’ll give it a try. You’re a cop who has a cousin that’s working in Alaska, and someone dies in a car accident. The next day you find a newspaper on your desk about this car crash in Alaska, but your cousin knows nothing about it. Now, do you ignore it as a crazy coincidence, or think that it’s a threat to you or your cousin? How did the person who sent the paper know that you were related? It’s not like you put out neon signs saying ‘this is my relative’. The person who sent the paper had to stalk you and check out your information. There’s nothing that screams ‘investigate’ more than a mere coincidence, and this was pretty specific.”

  “I guess. I’m not sure that my brain works the same way that yours does, though. I never would’ve thought beyond a moment about it being weird that I’d gotten that paper. I’d assume that my cousin had sent it to me for a reason.” Jerome shrugged in resignation.

  “Understandable. Would you want us both to think the exact same way? The world could get kind of boring if we were all the same.”

  “No, I wouldn’t want you to think the same as me. I just never would have looked at it like you did.” He took my hand and gave it a squeeze. “You wouldn’t be you, and that’s what I’m really liking. You keep surprising me. Let’s find something lighter to talk about over dinner though.”

  “What made you want to go into research? Did you always want to do something in this type of field?” I wanted to find out what made this guy tick, and see if we were compatible in more ways than just the bedroom.

  “I’ve always been curious about how things worked, and asked my mom tons of questions. She hated it, and finally started questioning me back so I’d figure things out on my own. Once I could read, that’s how I spent all of my free time. I questioned everything, and always had to know more about any everything.

  He rubbed a finger along the back of my hand, making it hard for me to concentrate on what he was saying.

  “We didn’t have Google back in the day, and actually had to read about a subject that we wanted to know more about, so that’s what I did. I started reading, and by the third grade, I’d read every non-fiction book in the school library. My mom started taking me to the city library, but that only lasted until I was able to take the bus by myself. When it came to learning, I devoured every word.”

  “So why aren’t you an engineer or analyst for some big company making lots of money?” I slapped my hand to my mouth. “I didn’t mean your job wasn’t good enough, but if you’d studied like that in school, then wouldn’t you have been better suited for something more than fact checking for a paper?”

  He laughed, breaking some of the tension that had been hovering around us since we’d sat down. “See, that’s what I like about you—you’re honest. I could’ve gone the technical route and gotten a few degrees, but I didn’t like being told I could only study what I was told to. I did attend college because I had a full scholarship, but I dropped out after the first semester.”

  I could feel the astonished look on my face. “I’d be losing if we were playing poker right now.”

  “It’s okay. People assume that I got my smarts from going to a college or university. I’ve taken online classes, and have a Bachelor of Arts in Intelligence Studies. It’s designed to enhance your ability to research, analyze and convert data into clear, coherent, and concise words that the average person can understand. I wanted to have a degree, and with online courses, I didn’t have to sit through hours of lectures that meant nothing. I would take a class and have most of the homework done in the first week. Then I would schedule it to submit on time and passed with flying colors.”

  “Wow! That’s amazing. Do you have siblings that are as smart as you?”

  He shook his head. “No siblings. My dad abandoned us when he found out Mom was pregnant. When she wouldn’t have an abortion, he disappeared the next day and didn’t look back. Once I got old enough, she told me who he was and I looked him up. He got married right around the time I was heading off to college. He didn’t settle down for many years, and from what I’d l
earned of him, we didn’t miss much.”

  “I’m so sorry. I don’t know what I’d do without my sister, Karen. I know I’m the youngest, but she never made me feel that way when we were growing up. If there was an adventure, she’d take me right along with her. Maybe that’s why I followed her into law enforcement, because I knew there would always be something exciting and challenging to do.”

  “It fits your personality. You’re too determined to figure things out and independent, but at the same time, you can’t stand injustice. It’s rare to find someone that actually believes in the system.”

  I almost spit out the water I’d just taken a sip of. “Oh, that’s too funny. I hate the system. It doesn’t work at all. This is exactly why I thought we should get to know each other better.”

  “How is that possible? You chase bad guys and put them in jail. How can you even do your job if you don’t believe in what you’re doing?” Jerome asked in disbelief.

  “You’ve got it mixed up. It’s because I do believe in what I’m doing that I put the bad guys away. Now, is everyone that gets put away a ‘bad’ guy? No, but that’s not my job. Things are a bit more cut and dry in homicide because we don’t arrest someone unless there’s a good amount of evidence to support that they did it. Whereas, being a beat cop, I came across all sorts of things that were wrong with the system, and I had to enforce the law under that system.

  I paused, trying to think of a way to explain it better. “We say that we’re impartial to everyone, but that’s not true. If we gave everyone the same treatment, we would see less crime. And what I mean by that is, those who use their money or position to maneuver through the system can and do get away with murder, while those without money aren’t protected in the same way. They should all be held accountable for their crimes and treated the same.”

  “So we should have a socialist system instead, and throw capitalism out the window?”