Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

  “I hope you’re right. It sure seems that the universe is working against us.”

  “It’s completely crazy that I’m the one trying to be positive here, but I guess that’s what makes this a good partnership. We’ve got this, partner.”

  ***

  I’d been right when I predicted that we were going to go in a circle. We drove around the Eastern states through West Virginian down to South Carolina, and on into Tennessee. The last set of murders occurred in Nashville. Anytime a crime was committed in a larger city, it made the odds of finding the killer that much harder.

  Nobody remembered seeing anything, or they didn’t think it was important. Talking to lots of witnesses would only get you so far unless you happened to get lucky with the right person at the right time.

  We pulled into Nashville and put in the address for the house. It had been another long day of driving, and I was exhausted. I just wanted to get to there and get out.

  The local cops had been contacted and would be there when they could to walk us through, but we were going to have to wait just a little while.

  Ryan had gotten a message that he needed to call someone, so while he did that, I walked up to sit on the steps of the house while we waited.

  The crime scene tape was still hanging over the doorway. This was a fresh scene, and they had only cleared it a few hours before.

  I leaned my head against the metal post holding up the porch, letting the coolness sink into my skin. It was so nice to be out of the car with the chance to stretch out.

  It had only been a minute when I felt someone touch my shoulder.

  There was a pair of small twin girls standing in front of me.

  “Hey there.” I pasted a smile on my face, hoping that I had enough patience inside to hold a conversation with small children.

  “Do you know what happened?” The twin girl on the left, who looked to be about ten, questioned.

  “They won’t tell us. We waited for hours and no one would explain what was going on inside. A pair of twins like us lived inside.”

  I nodded. “I think that’s correct. I’m not really sure what happened, but that’s why I’m here, to find the person who hurt them.”

  “Will they hurt us?”

  “No, sweetie, I don’ think so. They’ve moved on to somewhere else. They aren’t interested in kids.” I looked around, paying more attention. “Where are your parents?”

  “We haven’t seen them in years.”

  “Years? What are your names?”

  “Sally, and this is Sarah.”

  “It’s getting late and we need to see that you get home safely.”

  The little girl shook her head no. “We have to tell you what we saw first.” The other one nodded her head enthusiastically.

  Now, I was confused. “What do you need to tell me?”

  “We saw them.”

  “Who?” I frowned, my brow crinkling in the middle.

  “The bad people who did this.” Her hand gestured to the house.

  “What did he look like?” I leaned forward with interest.

  “He was tall.” One twin started answering while the other finished her sentence.

  “Blond, and really good looking.”

  “He had blue eyes.” The second twin shivered. “They scared us.”

  “You saw him? Was he coming out of the house or going into the house? Did he have anything in his hand?”

  “No, we didn’t see that until he stabbed us.”

  “Us?” I looked on in horror as a red stain started to spread on their clothes.

  “Yes, it got cold, and then we were here. I didn’t know where home was anymore.”

  The second one agreed. “We didn’t know him. It happened so fast, but he might have put the knife in the dumpster out back.

  I stood up and held out a hand. “Can you show me where that’s at?”

  Her small hand slid into mine, but it felt different than normal.

  “If we take you to the weapon, then will you take us home?”

  I shook my head. “Sweetie, I can’t. I have to stay here and find the bad person who hurt the ladies who lived here.”

  “We lived here. Now, we don’t know where we live.”

  “I’ll promise to try to find the bad person.”

  They exchanged a look. “Then we can show you.”

  I followed them around back to the dumpster and threw the lid open. Lying there on the top of the pile was a knife. It hadn’t been hidden, and might just have some prints on it.

  “Thank you.” I turned back to the girls, but they’d disappeared.

  “Leslie?” Ryan called out, trying to locate me.

  “Back here. I found something. I think this is the murder weapon.”

  A bright light shined on us as we stood there in the back alley with the dumpster open, holding a knife.

  “Drop the weapon and put your hands on your head,” a voice commanded.

  “It’s not what it looks like!” Ryan yelled out.

  To me, he whispered, “Don’t disappear on me like that. I thought something had happened to you.”

  An officer got out of the car to approach us.

  “We’re supposed to be meeting someone to go through the crime scene. Wallet’s in the back pocket.” Ryan calmly tried to defuse the situation. “My partner heard something and came back here to look. That’s when she opened the dumpster and saw the knife. We were just discussing if it was the murder weapon.”

  “If you’re cops, then you shouldn’t have moved it until we got here to record the scene.”

  “It’s all my fault. I didn’t want anything to happen to it before we got a chance to look for prints.”

  The other officer eyed my gloved hand that had been holding the knife. Then she checked out our IDs. “Not many people go around with only one glove on, so I guess you’re telling the truth.”

  We relaxed slightly. “We were just waiting on the patrol car to get here and let us in.”

  She waved to the patrol car, and the officer inside turned the light away so we weren’t blinded. “Go ahead and put the knife in a bag. We’ll add it to the evidence from earlier. I don’t know how CSI missed something like this. They always look in the trash cans for the murder weapon.”

  “Somehow they missed it this time.”

  “So it would appear. While my partner takes this away, do you still want to go inside and look around?” she offered.

  “Yes, please. We need to see if there’s something that will link this to the other murders we’re investigating.”

  Relieved, we made our way inside. The lights came on and I gasped.

  The pictures on the walls were of the two little girls I’d just been talking to and that had led me to the alley.

  “What’s wrong?” Ryan gave me a worried look.

  “Sorry, I just felt lightheaded. Must be with all this driving around, we forgot to eat.” I laughed it off.

  “You sure?” He waited for me before walking into the kitchen where their deaths had occurred.

  “Yeah. I’m glad we didn’t eat beforehand, though.”

  “Coming to this kind of crime scene with a full stomach is always a bad idea,” the officer agreed. “I don’t need to look again, so just go on in and you’ll find everything you need.”

  “Thanks.” I didn’t want to look at the pictures, but they were staring at me with pleading eyes, so I hurried past to the kitchen.

  This scene was probably the bloodiest one that we’d been to yet. It was splattered all over the walls and cabinets.

  “Did he leave them with anything inside their bodies?” I stepped gingerly around the larger pools, but I was going to have to wash my shoes off when I left.

  “Hey, with this much blood, there had to be a trail out of here, right?”

  Then I looked closer. The floor was covered with blood, and then the officers that had been in had made a mess of it. I would have to see if they had gotten any pictures of footprints from
the officer in the other room.

  Ryan was trying not to step in anything either. “He’s getting more violent.”

  “Well, we’re up to what day now, fifteen? So he would’ve stabbed them fifteen times each. There’s no way that he left here without getting blood into his car. He had to be covered in it.”

  “What if he was wearing coveralls and walked out the door, stripping them off before he left? Then he’d only have to worry about his face, hands, and shoes.”

  “Come on, let’s get out of here.” I shivered. “This is starting to get really creepy.”

  Ryan stood, peering out the back door. “Yeah, I think you’re right, and you have to tell me what happened when we walked in the house.”

  I ducked my head sheepishly without replying.

  “Excuse me, ma’am? Do you have pictures of the crime scene before they moved the bodies? We need to see if there were footprints left in the blood.” Ryan waved at the officer as we walked out.

  “Um, I’ll have to check. I was here, but the CSU would be the ones who took the pictures.”

  “Would it be okay if I took a few pictures for our files until yours get sent over? We’re trying to find this guy before he does this to another set of twins,” I pleaded.

  “I don’t see why not. Help yourself.”

  Without alerting her to what pictures I really wanted, I started snapping in the kitchen, and then backed out until I got to the photos on the wall. I needed a picture of the twins when they were girls. Something had tugged at me beyond the fact that I’d had another conversation with dead people.

  “We’re done.” I smiled as I made my way out the front door. “Thank you.”

  “We’ll get you those pictures and anything from the knife that our lab can get for you,” she assured as she joined her partner in the vehicle.

  Wiping our feet in the grass to get as much blood and dirt off as possible, we got in our car and let the silence settle over us.

  “Are we ready to find some food for your dizzy spell while you tell me what was going on in there?”

  I let out a heavy sigh. “I was sitting on the porch waiting for you to get off the phone when these little girls started talking to me. They were about ten, and I thought they were neighborhood children, or maybe the deceased’s children. Anyway, they described a tall, scary, blond, blue-eyed man. They showed me where he put the knife.”

  “How are you going to explain that in court?” Ryan asked skeptically.

  “I’ll say that inspiration hit me while I was waiting. Those poor girls don’t know where home is anymore. They were so lost. They wanted me to take them home.”

  “At least we have a little more information than we did before.”

  “Who was on the phone? Never mind, I’m being nosy.”

  “Nah, it’s only fair.” He started to fidget in the driver’s seat.

  “What is it?”

  Whoever he’d talked to was making him completely uncomfortable.

  “It was Flora,” he confessed.

  “Why on earth would she call you?” I slapped a hand over my mouth. “That sounded so much worse than I intended. It’s just she’s not your favorite person.”

  “You’re right, but it’s not that I don’t like her. She and all of this,”—he motioned to me and the house—”just makes me really uncomfortable. She was calling to say that I needed to check in with Shea. Something happened, and I needed to make sure that she was okay.”

  “Oh, wow. I was going to have us go home in the morning, but drive to the airport. Once we’re there, we can grab a bite while we wait on a flight.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” I nodded emphatically. “You don’t need to wait. If Flora thought it was important enough to call you, then you need to get there as quickly as you can. The only thing I’m willing to do first is get some food.”

  “You got it. I’ll feel better when I can talk to her and see what’s going on.”

  We were so engrossed in getting on a flight that we missed the blond stranger who had followed us to the airport, watching us closely.

  Chapter 8

  Ryan

  I hadn’t wanted to let Leslie know, but the feeling of doom that I’d gotten from Flora was making me consider that maybe there was something to this cosmos stuff.

  When I got home, it was just after midnight, and Shea was already in bed. Not wanting to wake her up, I went to shower off the grime from our crime scene road trip.

  As I slipped into the bed, she stirred and rolled over, snuggling into my arms. I wasn’t sure if I should wake her up or just wait until the morning to find out what was going on.

  “Hey there. You’re finally home.” She grinned up at me in the mostly dark room.

  “Hey yourself. A little bird told me that I’d been neglecting you, so we hurried home. I didn’t want to disturb you, though.” I pulled her closer, glad that I’d followed Flora and Leslie’s advice.

  “Did Flora call you?”

  “How did you know?” I leaned back, curious.

  “Well, you were gone, and I needed someone to talk to, and she was the perfect choice. I didn’t know she’d call you, but I’m kind of glad that she did.”

  “Is everything okay?” Concern edged my voice as I tried not to panic.

  “Okay is such an overused word. Unexpected is more what I would consider to explain what’s going on.”

  “Don’t keep me in the dark. What is it? You’re not sick, are you?”

  “No.” Shea smiled. “At least not yet.”

  “Huh?” I frowned, not understanding what she was getting at.

  “We’re expecting.” She waited for the light to dawn on me.

  “Expecting? As in, having a baby?” I gulped, suddenly nervous.

  “Yep. I took a test last week and got an appointment to have it confirmed. I’m about eight weeks along, give or take a week.”

  “Wow, that’s amazing,” I muttered.

  “You’re not happy.” She searched my face.

  “Just in shock. The happy will come later.” I blinked, trying to clear the fog that had been clouding my head since Flora had called.

  “I was thinking it was bad news, and now I’ve got to adjust to the idea that I’m going to be a dad.” I laughed out loud. “I’m going to be a father.”

  Her face lit up with my statement. “I’m so thankful that you’re not mad.”

  “Mad? Why would I be mad? It takes two of us to make this happen.”

  A slight blush filled her face at my words. “It just wasn’t what we were planning yet. Most guys aren’t ready for a baby until after the wedding, and I know we’re engaged, but we haven’t really set the date yet.”

  “Once it sinks in, I’ll be ecstatic. I’m overwhelmed at the moment, but I do know one thing.”

  “Oh? What’s that?”

  “I absolutely love you. This baby is something that we made together, so I’m going to fall completely and totally in love with it.” I leaned over to kiss her.

  “Can’t wait to meet this little guy, but I think we should celebrate. We don’t want our baby making skills to get rusty just because we got it right.”

  She grinned. “I think I could be persuaded to work on a repeat performance.”

  ***

  So much had happened in the past twenty-four hours that I hadn’t even begun to process when I arrived at the FBI building. A knock on the car window startled me.

  “Leslie, hi,” I greeted her.

  “Whatcha doin’ sitting out here? The meeting’s about to start.” She tilted her head quizzically.

  “Uh, yeah. I’m just a little overwhelmed with all that we learned, and was trying to process what’s going on with stuff,” I answered evasively.

  “Sure, I get that. Are you gonna come in?”

  “Right,” I mumbled, getting out of the car.

  We made it inside just as things were getting started.

  Agent Watson stepped up to the front. />
  “Attention, everyone. We have a few new things to update you all on. We also want to get reports from the detectives about their trip. First, we’re halfway through the month. That means we’ve got fifteen sets of murders and fifteen sets of possible murders. I don’t want these last fifteen sets of twins to die, not if we can help it.” He looked around the room at us.

  “Kevin is starting his new job today. They’re going to be monitoring him, so there’s little he can get right in the beginning, but he’s skilled. I’m sure that he’ll have something for us soon.”

  “Now, we were given the gift of DNA at one of the first scenes, but it didn’t show anything useful. Then a patch of hair was found at a different crime scene. We ran it, and it wasn’t a match. Not exactly anyway. Then we had a knife turn up with prints which got a hit of sorts.”

  “Do you get the idea he’s leading up to something?” Leslie whispered to me.

  “There were no matches on file, but when we ran the knife, both DNAs matched each other beyond 100%. This is completely unusual in that we don’t get many cases of this type. No one has a clone, but twins have the same DNA. The prints from the knife led us to a name which gave us a set of twins—Darrell and Randell Bishop.”

  “I knew it.” Leslie started bouncing in her seat.

  “Tell us why you thought so, Detective.” Agent Watson grinned at her enthusiasm.

  “When the first set of murders were done on two different coasts, it seemed an unlikely possibility, but there could’ve been an explanation. Then it seemed really weird that each set of twins wouldn’t have tried to run or fight back, but if it was a set of twin killers, it would make perfect sense.” Leslie stood, walking to the front as she explained it to the room.

  “With two killers, the twins wouldn’t have had a chance to fight back because they would have done it simultaneously, giving them no chance to respond. The hair we got was a lucky moment of reflex I believe. From what I’ve read, twins have the exact same fingerprints, and their DNA can match exactly. Most twins do have a few things that make a familial match much closer than the normal brother and sister or parent match.”