Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

“Nope. There’s no way that’s possible, even if the East Coast murder was committed first. The time stamps on their phones show it was at the same time.” I hoped the cooks weren’t busy and brought our food shortly.

  “I think there are two killers, or he hired out to take this set of twins out. He wanted to have us thrown off the scent so it would take us longer to start hunting his recruit.”

  We found DNA. The labs are running it now, but it’s from a nail that was sticking out on the counter. I doubt the killer even realized that he’d scraped against it until later and he couldn’t come back.”

  “That’s a huge lead.” Leslie beamed at me.

  “It is if it turns up something, but the likelihood that a match will be in the system is slim.”

  “Well, I was able to find out that the killer had blue eyes that seemed empty. If we can come up with something, then that will help us narrow down our suspects.”

  I frowned. “Was there a witness that saw the murder?”

  “Um, not exactly.”

  “Then how do you know the color of the killer’s eyes?”

  “I talked to the dead women.” Leslie cringed as she said the words.

  “You can talk to the dead?” Shock didn’t begin to cover what I was thinking at the moment.

  “Yes. Evidently, when I hit my head as a child, it rewired my brain. It allows me to communicate with the dead, among other things.”

  “So has Adam recruited you to his special team?” I tried not to let a hint of the jealously rearing its head into my tone.

  “No. I’d have to go through some training first. Then I’d also have to go through FBI training as well. I’m not sure I’m ready to go in that direction. If I can stay on the police force, I’d rather do that, but this case is making that difficult.”

  I gave her a week smile. “That’s a relief. I thought I was about to lose my partner just as I was getting her trained properly.”

  “Right. You just don’t want to have to go back to the horrible jokes and small talk you’d be subjected to with the other officers.”

  “True,” I agreed as the waitress placed my order in front of me.

  “Are we focusing on Urban Energy today?” she asked between bites.

  “I think so, unless Agent Watson has other plans for me, but since we’ve sent Kevin into the lion’s den, we should be working on backing him up. There’s a lot of layers to this company, and it’s going to take a few days just to go through the employee list with potential people who could or would be willing to help our guy.”

  “Where should we start?”

  “Employee records. We need to see if anyone has been on a flight recently? Been spending money or changing their habits. Checking out their social media for anything abnormal.”

  Leslie whistled. “That’s a tall order.”

  “Yes, it is. Kevin already ran a few things through the system, and we just need to go over his data. Then see if anything else comes up that can help us narrow the field.”

  “You know, our guy is really smart. He might not have used the same person for all the murders. He could’ve been using a new person in each of the cities to find out the information before moving on to someone else.”

  “Thanks, Leslie. You just added to our workload by about ten times and made it so much harder.”

  “That’s why we have minions to help us at the FBI.” She grinned, putting her money on the table for breakfast. “Ready to get started?”

  “I guess it’s a now or never situation that’s not going to go away.”

  Kevin hadn’t been kidding when he said he’d compiled the data for us. There were ten stacks of papers over a foot tall with the names of employees, dates of births, and employed statuses.

  “How are we going to process this much stuff?” Leslie groaned.

  “Let’s start with putting each name into the system and cross-checking to see what pops.”

  Agent Watson had given us three more people to help with the process. Even with that, it was going to take the next several days, and people were still dying.

  ***

  Three days later, we had made it through the stacks and narrowed it down to only one stack of about twenty people who were still employed, and another twenty who had been let go or found employment elsewhere.

  “Why are these people being considered at the top of our list? What flagged them?” Agent Watson had joined us to go over what we’d found so far.

  “Each person here has money that’s unaccounted for, or are suddenly spending beyond what they were as of January. Most of them don’t have any family who we can check out for an alibi. We’re gonna have to do the groundwork all on our own. Now that we’ve narrowed down the list a little, we can run through the traffic cams in the areas where victims lived for evidence that they were stalking them.”

  “We’re going to start running those through the system and see if there’s anything that overlaps. Phone numbers called, emails used, double identities,” Leslie concluded.

  “Good job. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to send you to the next set of crime scenes. Kevin just so happens to be our best, and we were just alerted that three more murders fit the profiles.” He looked toward Leslie. “Detective, you seem to be correct. The killer struck in Kentucky, then Indianapolis, and this morning the bodies were discovered in Columbus, Ohio. I’ll get agents working on the traffic cams, but I need your eyes on the scenes in these states.”

  “Yes, sir.” I nodded in acknowledgement.

  I had really wanted to find the missing piece myself, but that wasn’t always the way it worked.

  “Oh, and Ryan?”

  I paused as we were getting up to leave. “Yes?”

  “The DNA came back. Whoever left it there in her apartment isn’t in the database.”

  “It appeared fresh, but there’s always the possibility that one of the officers might have gotten a scrape.”

  “Some of them should have their DNA on file so that if something like this happens we can match it, but it doesn’t always work like that. Until we have a viable suspect to run it against, it doesn’t do us any good.”

  “Thanks for letting me know.”

  It was just one more thing that wasn’t going our way.

  I really wanted to work this case without using any supernatural means. I could only hope that it worked.

  Chapter 7

  Leslie

  We were flying around the country yet again, but Adam didn’t come on this trip. I guess I’d proven what I needed to for the moment, and he was giving me the chance to do this on my own.

  “Ryan, what do you think makes this guy get off by killing twins? Is it more fun when you get to take two lives at once?”

  “From what we’ve seen of these killers so far, they don’t even have to have a real motive. It could be something trivial, like the twins didn’t want to go to prom with him,” he offered.

  “Killing twins is trickier because you have to make sure they’re both present when you need to kill them. If one piece of the puzzle is out of place, then you don’t get to kill twins, so how are they doing this so exact when they’re moving by vehicle? It doesn’t give us much room to move if one of them does something unexpected.”

  “Everything that the Zodiac Master has done, he’s done with precision. What if he’s making things line up to suit his own purposes? A well-timed phone call could make that happen in some of the cases, but not all of them. What if one of the twins decides to run or fight back?” Ryan asked, confirming what I was beginning to think.

  “I may have a theory about that, but I want to see a few more crime scenes first.”

  Ryan glanced around, lowering his voice. “What, you have to wait around for a ghost to pop up and give you a drawing of the murder suspects?”

  “That’s not a bad idea, but I have no idea if they’ll even talk to me.”

  “Look, I’m not sure I believe in all this ghost stuff, but I do believe in you. I’ve seen you w
ork, and if a ghost is there, they’d be stupid not to tell you everything.”

  “I appreciate your support. I just hope that something gives us a path to follow.”

  “Speaking of paths, how are you doing with the whole Jerome leaving?”

  “Um, if you’d have asked me last week, I’d have ignored your question. This week, the hurt’s bearable. I never thought I’d fall for someone that fast, much less be upset if we broke up. Dating and relationships have always seemed so far out of reach that I didn’t ever expect it to happen. So when it did, I got all starry eyed and let my guard down.”

  “I’m sorry that happened, but all the good guys aren’t taken. There’s still someone out there for everyone.”

  “You sound as if you believe in fairy tales? Is that true?”

  “Uh, I can be persuaded on occasion to ignore the evidence and work with the fanatical.” He grinned at me.

  “I’ll keep that in mind for future blackmail.”

  “Blackmail could keep you out of the special FBI team,” Ryan pointed out.

  “If that were part of my game plan, don’t you think I’d know how to cover my tracks with any blackmail I’d exact?”

  “Ah, you are crafty. I keep underestimating you.”

  “Most men do,” I teased as I settled in for my nap.

  ***

  At the Springfield airport, a car was waiting for us so that we could retrace the path between the murders.

  The local police met us at the home of the Judy and Ruby. Aware of what had happened last time, I knew that I would need to be alone with any potential victims.

  “We’ve got it from here. Thank you, Officer.”

  Ryan glanced at me, but didn’t correct what I’d said.

  “Why’d you keep the officer outside?”

  “Shh. If this is going to work, I’ll need to listen.”

  He stood back, letting me feel my way.

  I opened my eyes and shook my head. “Either I’m missing it, or this place doesn’t have a violent residue.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I’m still new to this, but nothing is speaking to me. Guess we have to do this the old-fashion way.”

  “Just the way I like it.” Ryan grinned as he made his way farther into the room where they’d said the crime had taken place.

  The bedroom still had blood on the bed and floor. The bodies were gone, but you could see where the murders had occurred.

  “Looks like one of them was in bed and the other had just come back into the room when he killed them.”

  “Bear with me just a second. If he came in from the doorway, wouldn’t the twin on the bed have seen him?”

  “Maybe she called out and that’s why the other twin turned back around, which is when he stuck the knife in. Then he could have easily had come straight to the bed and killed the other one before going back for the other kill.” Ryan began walking toward the bed.

  “On the wall was a picture of the zodiac symbol. I wonder if it was here beforehand. I need to see a picture from before the murder. I don’t see any blood splatter, so I think they switched it out.”

  “Blood is on the walls, and here, but not on the picture. So you’re right.” He tilted his head to get a better look.

  “What are you thinking?”

  “Something isn’t adding up here. I’m not sure what it is yet, but there’s a piece that I’m missing.”

  “Maybe we could figure it out if one of the spirits had decided to show up.” I grinned, knowing it would bother him.

  “Uh, no, we can do this with good old-fashion police work.”

  “Yep, and a little help from where we can find it.”

  “What’s this?” He brushed at something with his foot.

  He bent over to look under the bed. “There’s a few hairs clumped together under here. Hand me some gloves and a bag, please.”

  I hurried to comply. “Isn’t that just from the victim? Hair in a bedroom isn’t uncommon.”

  “You’re right, but this is a chunk of hair. The victim might have grabbed it somehow. It can’t hurt to test it. If it’s just the victim’s then we move on. But if not, we might be able to find our killer.”

  “Do we send it to our own lab or use the local one?”

  “Local, and I’ll alert Agent Watson to check on the results.” Ryan stood up with the bag. “Time to bring in the officer.”

  “Yep, then off to the next scene.”

  ***

  We made it through each of the other three scenes, and it wasn’t taking as long to drive between the cities as I’d imagined.

  “I keep seeing a pattern here. Each set of twins are in the same lines of work, or something similar. Most of them still live together, or close enough that they see each other frequently. I’ve never seen family that sticks this close together. There are always a few families who actually like each other, but this is above and beyond. Don’t you find it strange?” I was processing while he drove for this part of the trip from Columbus, Ohio, to our next destination in Morgantown, West Virginia.

  “Yeah, I’ve been surprised at how much of the stuff we’ve heard about twins is actually true. How connected they really are to one another.”

  “Could that be one reason we’re not seeing anyone fight back? I mean, that one scrap of hair has been the only thing we’ve found that may prove someone did fight, or possibly it’s just reflex. What if the twin connection is making them so shocked that they’re rendered almost immobile?”

  Ryan glanced at me. “What exactly are you thinking? Like they felt the pain from the other twin and it was as if they had been stabbed already themselves?”

  “Yes. Wouldn’t that seem to be what we’re seeing at all the crime scenes? I mean, how else can we explain that two people are in a room together and they don’t move into protective mode to jump up and stop the killer from hurting their twin? Nothing else would make sense unless it was their connection to each other, which does the exact opposite of protecting them.”

  “Hmm… There have been tons of studies on twins, but I doubt that anyone has been able to do a study on how they respond in a dangerous situation.”

  “You know, with us driving to each scene, we might just end up where we started.” I sat up straight in the seat and made a call.

  “Agent Watson, have there been more murders reported yet?”

  I put it on speaker so Ryan could hear as well.

  “Not so far, other than West Virginia. That’s where you’re headed now, right?”

  “Yes, I was just looking on this map and I think we might be going in a circle. Is there any way we can pull up all sets of twins in West Virginia and see if there are more that fit the profile in the closest states? I don’t think there can be that many female twins who have Gemini birthdays.” I wanted to save these women on the killer’s list so badly.

  “I’ve got Kevin’s team on it. We might be able to narrow it down, but there’s still no way that we can put out a warning for them.”

  “Any word on Kevin?” Ryan asked.

  “He’s checked in, but so far they’ve just done the hiring part. He was a great candidate, but it will take time for him to be able get access to what we need.”

  “We’ve put a rush on the DNA sample and should have something for you tomorrow.”

  “Great. We’re going to get into town and find a hotel for now. First thing in the morning, we’re going to visit another crime scene.” My voice lacked any enthusiasm.

  “Don’t sound so weary. I know it’s hard to constantly look at crime scenes when all we see are the horrible things that have been done to someone. Serial killers are even harder to deal with because we start to blame ourselves for not catching the killer. If we had, more people wouldn’t have died. We’re not the bad guy, they are.”

  “Thank you. It still doesn’t help that feeling of being defeated.”

  “I think you need to get with Adam again. We’ve found that people with your s
kills need to take precautions so that they don’t become overwhelmed with all of that negative energy.”

  I shook my head, which he couldn’t see over the phone. “That makes sense because I can certainly feel more connected at the crime scenes than I did before. Although, I have to say that I always feel depressed after several crime scenes. Lately, it’s worse because we know that even if we catch this killer, he’s just going to replace them the next month.”

  “It makes sense. This is the first mass serial killer that the FBI has had in years, maybe ever. There really isn’t a protocol for this kind of thing. We’re keeping it under wraps still so there’s not a mass panic.”

  “Yeah, that’s always one of those hard decisions. Incite panic to save lives or let people stay in their happy worlds with no warning,” Ryan mumbled.

  “From what we’ve come across, it doesn’t help nearly as much as it causes us to be working with tons of bogus leads or sightings. If we had more of a viable suspect, then it would make sense, but without that it doesn’t work.”

  I sighed. “Can’t be helped. We’re doing all that we can, but it just needs to be more.”

  “Get some rest you two. I’ll call you as soon as we have anything to tell you.”

  “Yes, sir.” I hung up and put my feet on the dash, trying to stretch out a little bit.

  “It’ll be okay. I have to believe that. After all my years in horrible situations, it’s the only thing that keeps me going,” Ryan spoke over the music.

  “I’m trying to tell myself that. Where are the forces of good that step in at the last moment to save everyone?”

  “That’s us. We’re the last defense against the evil that’s threatening to take over. We can’t let it so we keep fighting. Every morning is a new day with a chance to balance the scales in our favor.” He was trying to cheer me up.

  “What if evil’s already taken over and we just don’t know it yet?”

  “Then it’s going to have to come and knock on my door, telling me that I’m about to die, because until then, I plan to stand for those who no longer have a voice. Justice doesn’t fade away just because evil knows how to wiggle around it. It just means that we have to follow the path to find it.”