by Paris Morgan
“You didn’t see anything off or different in your homes? Nothing that said someone had come in while you were gone?” I held the pen, posed to write down their answers.
“No. I was more worried with the rain.” Janna paused. “I think the door might have already been unlocked, but I put my key in like normal, so I wouldn’t have really known. It just felt a little different.”
“Okay, how about you?” I pointed the tip of the pen in Keanna’s direction.
“The same, but my house looked normal. I came in here because I had time to put on something comfortable. I’d pulled off the old and gotten the new on when the clock ticked and it was time to call Janna. Then I heard something, so I have no idea where he could have been hiding. There isn’t much space here in the house for a person to go unnoticed.”
I glanced around and couldn’t help but agree with her assessment.
“Did he hang around after you died?”
Keanna answered first. “I don’t remember anything until the police showed up. I guess I wasn’t completely detached from my body until right as they got here. I don’t think they could have saved me. I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t have a chance to hang around, I was yanked here. All I remember is seeing that knife headed for my chest before darkness settled in and I flew across the country,” Janna replied. “Right before he put the knife in my heart, I looked right at him. He didn’t have a mask on or anything. I guess he was certain that I wouldn’t be alive to identify him. He didn’t plan on us finding a medium that could use our description to find him.”
“You didn’t tell her what you saw,” Keanna huffed.
“Oh, he had blue eyes. They were so frosty looking.”
“Frosty?”
“You know, he didn’t have much emotion in his eyes. Like they were frozen in time with nothing to bring life to them.”
“Ah, I understand. Anything else?”
They both shook their heads in unison.
“Well, thank you both. I’m going to look around if it’s okay with you, and see if I can find anything to help us with your case.”
“Sure. Please find him before this happens to someone else.”
“I’ll do my best,” I promised.
Adam stood silently, leaning against the wall, letting me work in peace.
I tried to recreate the scene. I walked to the closet, pretending to grab a shirt while looking at the clock. A noise would have startled me and I’d turn toward it.
There was our clue that this was the zodiac killer. A zodiac calendar was hanging on the wall with the Gemini symbol taunting me.
“Keanna,” I called, hoping she could still hear me. “Did you already have this calendar here?”
She appeared at my elbow, following my gaze.
“No. Where did that come from?”
“The killer left it. What was in that spot before?”
“A calendar with flowers and roses, but not the zodiac signs.”
“That’s what he does, leaves behind something simple that seems to belong in the room. Then the police don’t think it’s out of place and don’t put it in the report. With this missing piece, we can connect you to the other murders.”
Janna gasped from the other side of me. “He’s killed more women?”
“Were they twins?” Keanna added.
“Yes, and yes. I’ll probably be back. Adam, is there any way to release their spirits from this house?”
He shook his head. “Until you have the killer and he’s brought to justice, they won’t be able to move on to the other side.”
It wasn’t until we were downstairs and away from the crime scene that I started to breathe easier.
“Is that normal?” I stuck my head between my knees, trying to recover.
“For a first-time communication with spirits, I think it went well.”
“You could see them?”
“Nope. I couldn’t see or hear a thing.” He grinned at my reaction, “But I could feel their presence, so I knew you weren’t just yanking my chain.”
“There were two killers because they were killed at the same time. Also, I questioned them and the calendar is new. Keanna had one with flowers and birds, so the killer changed it out and left his mark. I’ll have to call Ryan and see if he can find something similar.”
“You think we’re looking at two killers?”
“Unless they can teleport, then yes.”
The officer who’d escorted us gave me a confused glance.
“Sarcasm,” I explained with a shake of my head as he went to get in the car.
Adam chuckled. “Way to deflect. Norms take things at face value, ignoring things that don’t make sense.”
“So you’re saying I’m not normal?”
“Nope, you’re the one that said it.” He got in, closing the door on the conversation.
“What strange place have I landed in? I don’t think I’m in Texas anymore.”
***
We landed back in Dallas a few hours later and went straight to report what we’d discovered.
The other teams had returned, and we were just waiting on Ryan to land. Everyone was hovering around, eating, chatting, and trying to think about anything except the scenes we’d just come from.
“Gather up everyone. Bring your drinks and notes, Ryan just landed so we’re going to get things started.”
“Hot Springs, your team goes first.”
Agent Star and Agent Snow, two agents I hadn’t met yet, stood up.
“We didn’t think this could be the same case because only one body has been found, but we ran a trace on the victim’s last call to find her sister dead at the airport,” Agent Snow reported. “So we’ve changed our opinion.”
“There was a menu from a Chinese restaurant with the zodiac signs, and her birthday was circled. The second victim at the airport was holding a business card with the same symbol. I’d say that these two were the latest victims.”
“Thank you, Agents. Now, let’s hear from our Springfield team.”
“These poor girls were at their birthday party. It’s the reason we started searching for murders of twins. The Gemini symbol had been spray painted on the wall above their bodies.” Martha put the pictures up on the wall.
“From what we can tell by talking to the witnesses and family, the twins were having fun when they decided to sneak away for a smoke on the front porch with their cousin Maria. They walked down the alley and were killed before they could reach the front yard. Maria didn’t hear or see anything, but when they didn’t show up, she walked around to see what was keeping them and discovered their bodies,” Kevin informed them.
“It appears they didn’t fight their killer or try to run away. The medical examiner says that any one of the knife wounds would have incapacitated them, making it difficult to run away,” Martha confirmed.
A theory was forming in my head with each murder that they were reporting, but I was going to wait until Ryan got there to make sure.
Next set of Agents hadn’t had to travel far, to Waco, Texas. The only difference was that these two women had been murdered in their bed and no one had found them until the next morning.
“What time did the medical examiner say the time of death was?” I raised my hand as I asked the question.
“Around 3 a.m.” The agent consulted the papers with the case notes.
“Is there a map with the timeline on it yet?”
“No, why?”
“Kevin, can you get one of the U.S. up on the screen, please?”
“Sure, just a second.” Kevin’s fingers flew over the keyboard. “There.”
“Now, add in where we think the first murders occurred in both the Salems’. All right, which murder comes next?”
Kevin got what I was doing and added each of the five sets of murders to the map.
“Look, after that first set of murders, each one was just a few hours’ drive from each other. Kevin, pull up any other murders that have been com
mitted in the last two days within six hours of Hot Springs, Arkansas.”
“There it is.” This was the first time I’d had a gut feeling of this sort and I’d followed through on it.
“Springfield, Tennessee, this time with Judy and Ruby.” Kevin put a dot in the map.
“Bowling Green had a murder today. They’re not saying it’s a twin murder, but I’m going to bet with seven knife wounds, that’s our sign,” Agent Watson agreed.
“Looks like this one is going to drive from one location to another. What I don’t understand is how they can just show up at these people’s homes, kill them, and not be seen? I mean, is there no prep work? Are they not even stalking them to determine their habits?” I hadn’t meant to ask this out loud, but from the amount of faces staring at me, I guessed that I had.
“Thoughts? Ideas?” I threw it out there, hoping someone would have something to add.
“Who’s doing all the groundwork for him?” I questioned, rephrasing it.
Ryan walked into the room. “I believe that Urban Energy is providing details for the killers.”
A rustle went through the room as people started whispering with ideas.
“The company may not even realize that it’s happening. We’ve been looking for a tie-in, and I think that our Zodiac Master is using the company to do his prep work for him.”
“Is that possible?” Martha asked, incredulous.
“Yes. The company is so huge that he could send anyone an email and have them do his scouting for him. It’s very possible.” I nodded.
“The only problem is, we’ll never get a legal way to look at their files or records, and since we’d poked the bear last month, he’s going to be expecting us to do some digging.”
“You don’t think they’re working together?”
“Who, the old man and the Zodiac Master?”
“Nah, I don’t think that old man would let anyone do something in his company unless he knew everything about it.”
“True,” Ryan agreed.
The whole room was silent as Ryan and I went back and forth with ideas.
“What’s everyone looking at?” Ryan growled.
“The two of you,” Kevin answered with awe in his voice. “We’ve seen roundtable discussions and rabbits chased all over the place. The two of you took one thought, ran it in so many directions, and then came to a conclusion. Impressive.”
“We didn’t really solve it. We just excluded a few things that wouldn’t make sense with the patterns of behavior both men have exhibited.” I shrugged off the praise.
“It always comes back to the Urban Energy Company. Is there no way that we can get someone into the company legally?”
Ryan and I both turned to look at Kevin. “I think I saw an ad for a tech guy. That’s a legal way to get information if you’re undercover.”
“It could work, and I know a guy in Dallas PD that could be his backup.” I eyed him thoughtfully.
“They’re going to do a background check, but you can make up your own profile. It’s the in-person crap that’s going to be hard to sell. We’ve given you this boost of self-confidence, and you’re gonna have to dial it back to the shy nerd you were before.”
“Can they do that?” Kevin squeaked.
Agent Watson grinned. “Yes. This is the reason we brought them on board. To think outside the box when all of us suits wouldn’t have come up with this idea. Great job.”
He walked over to stand in front of Kevin. “Do you think you can work a day job and then come back here to work for us?”
“Yeah. I’ll have to clear out my work computers and hide them at home, but it can be done.”
“You have until 8 a.m. to be at that job with a background so tight, I’d even hire you for the FBI because you’re perfectly suited for the job.”
“Uh, I can’t do that,” Kevin protested.
“He’s right. He can’t be perfect. He has to have a few hacking skills and things on his resume that show what he’s capable of. An arrest without conviction wouldn’t be a bad touch either,” I suggested.
“Yeah, what she said. I have a confession.” He grimaced as Agent Watson pinned his penetrating gaze on him.
“What do you need to confess?” Agent Watson’s raised eyebrow suggested there was no going back.
Kevin glanced around nervously. “In front of everyone?”
“Yep. You should have thought of that before telling them all you had something to confess.”
He gulped before blurting out, “I do security and hacking for companies already as a side job. When someone wants to know if they need to up their security, I hack it for them to show them where their weaknesses are.”
“Very nice. I knew there was more to that shy routine than you’d shown us.” Agent Watson nodded approvingly.
“You knew?” Kevin sputtered as the room laughed.
“Duh. We work at the FBI, Kevin. Yes, I was aware of your extracurricular activities.”
“Wow! Nobody can keep a secret these days,” Kevin groaned. “All right, this is the last you’ll see of me as a normal FBI agent. Do I get to sign something that gives me immunity for any crimes committed while undercover?”
“Just what are you planning to do, Kevin?”
“Nothing, but they could torture me into doing something that’s not quite legal.”
“And you could just have the willpower to say no.” I laughed at his expression of disbelief.
“These people aren’t kidding around, Leslie. They’re serious. They could kill me,” Kevin whined.
“Aw, dude, you were doing so good until you started that. Man up, do your job, and then you can get a promotion. Make sure that you grab a few go phones so we can stay in touch. Now, if you’ll all excuse me, it was a long flight and I need to use the little boy’s room before Kevin moves in.” Ryan left the room with a smile.
Kevin gathered all the cords connected to his computer. With a last glance around the room, he said, “Don’t worry about me, I’ll just be all alone out there on my own with the enemy.”
Shaking my head, I followed him out the door.
“Let me give you Mac’s information. He’ll want to create his own profile. I’ve known him a long time and he’s the best out there. The two of you are about even skill level wise, but I’ll let you figure that out. Anyway, he’ll need to be briefed, but he knows how to reach me on our secret channel if he needs anything. Good Luck.”
“Gee, thanks. Insult me and then send me out to work with the unqualified people.”
I cut him off by throwing my arms around him. “Be safe,” I whispered. “This guy is dangerous. Or should I say, both guys are dangerous.”
I left him standing there with his mouth hanging open. We were going to do this and catch this guy. I could feel it in my bones.
Chapter 6
Ryan
As the meeting broke up, I was still left with questions, but since I’d missed Shea the night before, I hurried home so I could see her.
Her car was there, but when I went in, I couldn’t find her.
Searching the house led me to the bedroom where she was already curled up on top of the covers with the TV on, asleep.
Grabbing the extra blanket from the hall closet, I crept in and placed it over her gently, trying not to wake her.
I sank into the living room chair, putting my feet up on the coffee table. It felt like we’d been living in two different worlds for the past five months. It had been one thing for this to happen occasionally when I was on the force, but we’d never been apart for months at time.
Sure, I’d been home for a few days here and there, but that didn’t change her schedule or plans. She’d been having to live without me, and I wasn’t even a consideration when it came to her schedule anymore. She hadn’t said anything, but I knew that she’d gotten over missing me and moved on to doing without me.
I wasn’t sure how to overcome the problem because I was too entangled in this case to back out no
w. Heck, we’d just sent Kevin into the enemy’s territory for information. I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. What other way was there to handle this?
Leslie had gone closer to the dark side by partnering with Adam, but I wasn’t ready to give in to the use of psychics and mumbo jumbo yet. Kevin could find something in just a week at his new job if they let him into the system, and we wouldn’t have to rely on supernatural powers for evidence.
I still couldn’t believe that there was an Unusual Crimes’ Division. How much had been covered over or people had used their gifts as an excuse for shoddy police work?
There was still the problem of how Flora, who hadn’t had any access to our Aries case, could know that Leslie had been missing. The only explanation was the psychic connection, but that was so far-fetched.
It was a lot more believable to have the Zodiac Master with an inside person in the Urban Energy Corporation than to believe in psychics.
That was my last train of thought before I passed out.
Shea must have placed a kiss on my forehead because I woke up just in time to see her car pulling out of the driveway.
“Crap! Missed her again.” I got up stiff and uncomfortable from the night before.
A shower and some warm food was needed before I started digging into the Urban Energy files.
My phone beeped and it was Leslie.
Leslie: We should meet for breakfast to discuss the case.
Ryan: Great idea. Where do you suggest?
Leslie: The Pancake House closest to where you live.
Ryan: Give me thirty minutes and I’ll meet you there.
Leslie: See you then.
***
I slid into the booth across from Leslie, famished. I’d skipped dinner by falling asleep last night, and now I couldn’t wait for them to put some food in front of me.
“So what did you think of your crime scene? Do you think the killer did one and then flew across the country to have them die at the same time?”
