by Paris Morgan
My phone could get us most of the information, but it was a small screen to work with.
“There are too many listed on here. We’re talking several dozen in each state and throughout the state parks. I don’t see a way to figure this out on the go. We’re going to need to stop and make some calls to see if anyone is booked for a business trip.” I shook my head in frustration.
“I’ll make a call and see if we can get some of the others working on this to stop her before we get there,” Adam volunteered.
He walked off, made a call, and returned moments later. “Agent Watson is working on it. He’s going to wait and see if we can get a location before they leave there. At the moment, he wants us to stay unless we get a specific lead, and then we can pursue it.”
The waitress arrived with our drinks and took our orders.
“What are we going to do if it’s days before she does something?”
“From her letter to us, I would think that she’s on an accelerated plan. She may not even be following what the Zodiac Master had planned for her. If she’s killing this many people and it’s only the first week, then he might even take her out on his own,” Ryan declared.
I hated to burst his bubble, but… “It just means that she’s going to take a break at some point. We only have ten victims right now, if she keeps to the same groupings of people. The Zodiac Master won’t allow his recruit to make mistakes this month. He’s going to keep a tighter rein on her to make sure that she stays within the boundaries he’s set for her.”
“You sound very in-tune with this Zodiac Master. Almost as if you have a connection to him,” Adam mused.
“It sounded like you were accusing Leslie of something there, buddy.” Ryan tilted his head critically.
“No. She was even wounded, and unless she somehow managed to impale herself on an arrow, which is pretty impossible, then there’s no accusation. I just think she’s more connected to this killer than she may know. It’s almost as if she can get inside his head and see stuff that’s going on,” Adam assured us.
“Look, I see a lot of things that are considered premonitions, or where there’s a psychic connection between two people. It’s not unusual, but most of the time it’s because they both suffered the same tragic event, and the magic of the world is tying them together to resolve it,” he offered, trying to put everyone at ease.
I could have taken it offensively, but I knew exactly what he meant.
“It’s like when you see something happen on a TV show, and you don’t just sympathize with the actors, you empathize. Like you’ve been in their shoes before, or walked a mile in them. You feel connected, as if the universe has made it a point to make sure that your paths cross,” I added, aware of the strange tugs I continued to feel from this very evil person.
Karen spoke up. “I’m certainly a pragmatist, but for some reason, Leslie has always seemed to know what others were feeling. She was more optimistic that we find the good in everyone. I know some of that sunshine nature has rubbed off, but deep down, she can’t help rooting for the underdog.”
“You should have been a defense attorney instead of a police officer,” Ryan teased. “Then you could have explained how that knife joyfully plunged itself into its victim.”
“Har-har, that’s funny. I guess I did want to be a cop to help people out. Sort of a hero or heroine complex, but that changed when it became less about helping those committing the crimes and more about justice for the victims. If someone’s been driven to using a knife on someone and it wasn’t in self-defense, then I probably wasn’t going to deliver some speech that would make a difference in the short time they were in my custody.”
“She’s pretty trusting for a detective. I worry about that sometimes when cases like this happen that she’ll get too invested and get hurt.” Karen laughed at the irony of her words. “Wait, she’s already done that.”
“Rain check,” I growled.
All three guys turned to look between the two of us for an explanation.
“When a sibling does something and all you want to do is slap them upside the head, but you’re in public and have to behave properly, you just say ‘rain check’. Then, when you’re away from the public eye, you can hit, punch, or throw a pillow at them, collecting your ‘rain check’.”
“That is soo awesome.” Kevin looked up from the computer long enough to comment.
“It cuts down on the fights and keeps us behaving in public. It’s great when you’re driving because then you can catch them unaware later on.” I smirked at Karen. “I may be a little more trusting, but I can always surprise Karen and scare the snot out of her.”
“That’s only because you know my weaknesses. Being my sister gives you an unfair advantage. Can we just focus on finding this killer?” Karen gave me a glaring look.
“Sure, I’m not the one afraid of clowns. You should’ve seen her when we were young. I could put on a clown mask and jump out at her, causing her to scream like a banshee.”
“Not true. Did you know that Leslie used to dream she’d marry Leonardo DiCaprio? She always wanted to save Jack.”
Things were going downhill quickly, but we all needed a good stress release as we went around the table, telling funny childhood stories.”
***
It took two days of regular police work before a news broadcast shined a light as to where our prime suspect had been plotting her next crime: Winston-Salem in North Carolina. She hadn’t meant a literal historical place, but one that sounded historical.
Kevin had set an alert on his computer to notify him when anything mentioning whitewater rafting came across any type of media.
I’m sure that Adam notified Agent Watson, but we were back at the airport and on another plane before the news could make it onto the local stations.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, was a little different than I’d imagined. After reading up on the city, I found that it’d been one of the largest tobacco cities in the U.S., since I didn’t smoke. I wondered how the city was fairing now that smoking was on the decline.
Disembarking the plane, we found Agent Watson and the rest of those that had travelled to Minnesota.
“Good to see everyone again. I’ve been in touch with the local authorities, but since this was done outside of the city limits, I was directed to the County Sheriff’s Office and Park Rangers. I’ve had the local office arrange transportation, and they’ll be joining us at the site.” He rattled off the information with the confidence he’d been lacking on our previous case.
“Yes, sir,” Ryan instantly replied.
In the past two days of working, I’d forgotten that I was technically on restrictive duty. I tried not to worry about it because so far, Agent Watson hadn’t left me out of the investigation.
When we arrived, the groups of volunteer searchers were ready. We gathered around to hear what instructions the Park Ranger was about to issue to the group.
“At 10 a.m. today, a group of businessmen from one of our energy companies had booked a trip down the rapids. It was supposed to be the easiest class of rapids, not considered dangerous, but somehow they were taken by an unknown guide to a much more difficult part of the river. One of the men happened to be a good swimmer and survived, but he had no way of knowing which direction to go for help. He’s been taken to the local hospital for observation. The sheriff’s office is getting his statement to find out what exactly happened.”
“There’s a survivor?” I whispered shocked.
“She probably didn’t expect any of them to swim in those waters,” Adam offered quietly.
“He can help us identify her, and what she said as she committed the crime. We need to head to the hospital.” I was ready to jump into catching her, because we were only a few hours behind her this time.
“I can’t approve that yet.” Agent Watson moved from behind me. “I need all of you to walk through the volunteers and reporters to make sure that she’s not here hiding in plain sight.”
“While you’re mingling with the crowd, keep an eye out for the Zodiac Master or anyone who seems too interested in what’s going on. I have a feeling he checks the crime scenes more often than we’ve thought,” he advised us before we started moving among the crowd.
“Kevin, I need you to use your phone and get everyone’s picture. We can run it later and see if there’s anyone here that shouldn’t be.” Ryan touched his shoulder as he leaned closer to give those instructions.
I couldn’t help but smile. Ryan probably didn’t even know that he was issuing his own set of orders so that he wasn’t left out.
Most of the people that had shown up to help with the search were ordinary people just trying to help out in a crisis. We didn’t have a good picture of what Dana looked like, but Kevin had taken her photos from when the accident with her mom had happened and done an age progression to give us an idea. The witness would be our best bet for an actual current description that we could use to ID her with.
“I’ll stay here with the car so Karen can mosey around. If I’m walking around with her following me, then we’re more of a circus than doing a job.” I leaned against the bumper. “I promise.”
Karen sighed. “Stay.”
“I’m not a dog,” I complained.
“Then don’t pout like one.”
“Working with your sister isn’t quite what you expected, huh?” Adam mimicked my position.
I eyed him warily. “Did I just get swapped out for a new bodyguard?”
“You picked up on that with your detective skills, didn’t you?” He slyly poked fun at me.
“Whatever,” I shot back. “I’m just going to be over here texting my boyfriend.”
“Okay, I’ll just be here doing my job.”
“What job is that?” I never even pulled my phone out of my pocket because I’d already texted Jerome before we left the airport.
“People watching and figuring them out is the perfect job.”
“So you picked up on that individual watching from behind the news van over there?”
“Yep. The person seems pretty interested in what you’re doing, though. Should we take a walk and end up over there?” He offered his arm to me.
It would have been rude not to accept, so I took his arm and we strolled around.
The guy we’d seen hiding had ducked behind the van by the time we made it close enough to see what he was doing. He was smoking a joint. The smell coming through the crack in the door was unmistakable. He’d been checking things out to see who would notice him.
I pulled the back door of the van open to reveal him inhaling a deep breath of smoke. “Um, excuse me. You do realize that you’re surrounded by cops and the FBI, right?”
He coughed out smoke as he tried to answer. “I’m not on the list of things you guys need to worry about. You need to catch the lady that left those guys to drown.”
“Hold on, you saw what happened?” I tried not to breathe in any fumes.
“Sort of. I was supposed to film them because it was going to be an advertising clip about the fun you could have with your company and bond together. When I asked the guy at the office, he sent me in the other direction, farther downstream where it’s a little slower.” He ignored that we were both standing there and re-lit his joint.
“When I realized that I was in the wrong spot, I picked up the camera and started filming so I could get a shot of them coming down the river.” He fiddled with his pants, where a small hole was just getting started.
“You got the accident on film?”
He grimaced. “It wasn’t an accident. She left most of the paddles on the bank, and then dropped them into the water right before she shoved the raft toward the rocks.”
“How did she shove it toward the rocks?”
“She moved it over and had one of the guys holding onto a rock while she ‘tried’ to get the paddle that had floated to the side. Once she got out, she pulled on what looked like a string and this thing came out. Then she looked straight at them and…” He stopped, his whole body shuddering.
“She said, “You ignored the people underneath you and used their hard work to get where you are, and now you must pay.” Then she yanked the last paddle out of the guy’s hands and sent them into the rocks. With their boat leaking and no way to steer past the rocks, they didn’t last long.”
“She just stood there and watched them drown?” Adam shook his head, incredulous at how callus she’d been.
“They might’ve drowned eventually, but most of them got thrown against the rocks. There was no way they could survive.” He nervously tried to light his joint again.
“I hid behind one of the trees and watched as she hopped across the rocks to shore and headed back to the parking area. I didn’t want her to see me, so I went back the way I’d come and no one was in the parking lot when I got there. I made the call to the police and hid in here, ready to calm my nerves.” He held up the roach as proof.
“Sirens started up, and I got out to film whatever was going on. Then you showed up and I wanted to find a good place to get away from all the people.”
“We’re going to need to see the film of what went down out there.” I held out my hand for the memory card.
He fumbled to get the camera out from the middle of the van and opened it up. He didn’t argue or anything, which seemed odd.
As I held it in my hands, I suddenly knew why he was giving it to me. “You’ve already aired the footage, haven’t you?”
Shrugging, he pushed past us as he got out of the van. “Yeah. I sent it to the reporter I work with, and she’s doing the voice over right now.”
Adam looked at his watch. “The noon news has already run, and by the time we get a motion to stop it, it’ll have run on the five o’clock news too.”
I had to be content that we could watch the footage and have Kevin use facial recognition on it to help us find Dana.
“We need to get Kevin working on this immediately.” I backed away from the news van and scanned the area for Agent Watson.
He was talking with a couple of officials and seemed upset when we pulled him aside. His attitude changed when he heard what I held in my hand.
“Let’s get this somewhere we can watch it.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s already been on the news,” Adam said, breaking the news to him.
“Great. Now, we have a murder being committed and the entire world is going to watch it.” He marched over to the vehicle where Kevin was bent over his laptop working on something.
“Pull up channel ten news at noon,” he barked at him.
“Yes, sir.” Kevin’s fingers flew over the keyboard and had the video up in seconds.
We all watched in horror as Dana pushed the floundering boat straight into the rushing river’s rocks.
“That’s a terrible way to go,” Ryan commented over my shoulder.
“It is. I can’t imagine what they must have thought when she gave that speech and then sent them to their deaths. Did we find out what the survivor had to say?”
“That’s what I was discussing with the others in charge. The female officer gave us a description, but we can use the live video instead. He was at the front of the raft and knew when she made that little speech that it wasn’t going to be good for them. He jumped right before the boat hit, but the news guy couldn’t see that from his vantage point.”
“So what do we do now?” I moved out of the way, where everyone was huddled around the computer as Kevin started to watch the unedited film.
“Now, Detective Boxe, we go back to Dallas.”
“What?” Ryan and I spoke in unison.
“Why would we go back when the trail is here?” I was honestly confused.
“From what we already know, Dana isn’t going to hang around the area. Sh
e’s already moved on and we should too. We don’t have an office here. It’s over in Richmond, which is three hours from here. A couple of agents from there will finish up, but we need the task force and more than a laptop to work on.”
Once he explained, it made sense. But it still didn’t sit well for us to be leaving a crime scene.
“You need to see the doctor and get cleared for duty. Karen has to go back to her job. And now with the count at sixteen, it should be a few days before Dana does anything again. It’s just time to regroup.” Agent Watson began gathering up the people who’d come with us to Minnesota and then here.
“Just think, you’ll be sleeping in your own bed tonight. Isn’t that exciting?” Adam clapped his hands together.
“Not really, but we don’t have much choice,” I complained.
“Would you rather keep working with one hand behind your back or be cleared to do everything you’re used to?” Ryan tried to pacify me.
“All right, you’ve convinced me.”
While everyone loaded up, I continued to look around, observing people. One of the people on the fringes looked a lot like Jerome, but I must have been imagining things because I was thinking of going home. Maybe a little R&R wouldn’t be a horrible thing after all.
Chapter 7
Ryan
Flying around the country was messing with my head. While I hated to be stuck in a box up in the air, I was adjusting to this mode of travel. If what we’d experienced from the Zodiac Master recruits so far, we would be going all over the country, so I had no choice but to get used to it.
“Listen up, everyone. I know you’re all anxious to get to your homes. It’s been a tough few days. Take the night and be back here at 7 a.m.” Agent Watson dismissed his team, but waved me and the others aside.
“I wish I could let the five of you go home, but we need to get that video analyzed with a BOLO out to all airports and officers. In the morning we’ll send faxes to all the companies that deal with whitewater rafting to be on the lookout for her.”
Leslie and Karen started to walk with us, but he stopped them. “I know you want to join us, but I’m going to insist that you go home. See the doctor at your earliest convenience tomorrow, and if you’re cleared, meet us when you have the documentation to prove it.”
