Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

  “Leslie, would you say that’s something that we’ll see the Zodiac Master using in future cases?”

  She shook her head no. “He wants to make it hard on us to find the killers. He hasn’t deviated from his grand plan. What he’s done is add another layer into the mix. Gemini is the month of twins, and he’s capitalized on that, hoping it would throw us off course.”

  “Do you see him trying to tip the scales in our favor, or is he trying to make it harder for us to catch our killers?”

  “In my opinion, and what my gut is telling me is that he hopes we figure it out. He wants us be able to match his wits, yet keep us working on the larger puzzle. Gemini’s are known for a split personality, which is why twins work out great. They would be considered bipolar if they were in one body because they switch between things so quickly. It’s not a bad thing, and it gives them a sense of new excitement continually.

  “One of the main things that Gemini’s do well is communicate. They express themselves well, and as we’ve seen with our sets of twins, they stayed in constant contact if possible. Some even had their own level of secret language to make sure that they could speak to each other even if others were in the room.”

  A hand was raised from the middle of the room. “Now, that we know who they are, will we be able to track them easier than we did with Dana, the Taurus killer?”

  Agent Watson fielded that question. “We’ll have the team searching all flights and car rentals. We can then run a search in that city to find our targets. While we may not be able to predict where they will show up, we do have twice as much of a chance this month to actually catch them. They have no clue we have their DNA or prints, or that we know who they are, so they won’t be expecting us to be following them. That should work to our advantage. Does anyone else have any ideas while we run this through the system?”

  I raised my hand. “Do we have a background or parents for these guys? Any reasons why they would be killing sets of twins?”

  “That’s something we’re still working on, but we should have some information by tomorrow at the latest. I’d suggest taking today to work on whatever you can and see where these guys land tomorrow. We can then start following them and finally put them in jail where they belong.”

  The meeting broke up, and Leslie was immediately in a tight group with Adam and Agent Watson. They hadn’t asked me to join, and honestly, I wasn’t really in the mood to hear what they were saying. If it was important, then Leslie would update me as needed.

  Feeling adrift with all the changes, I walked out into the inner garden area where the few die-hard smokers tended to take their breaks. I sat on one of the benches facing the fountain, contemplating life.

  Could I be a good father and work these kinds of cases? What if someone decided to attack my family to get back at me?

  I tried to remember the things my dad had done with me as a child. In reality, he was a great dad, and the memories that I had were of baseball games and barbecues. Not a lot to go on for what kind of dad I would be, but the world was changing so quickly. There was no guarantee that something wouldn’t happen that was completely an accident, or if my kid could go through life and be normal.

  It would depend on what I wanted to do and be. I thought that I’d gotten past all of the big decisions in life, but Shea had given me a new one.

  Wait, if I was this worried about a baby that was only the size of a plum at this point, then what were the parents of these twins feeling? How did the parents of the victims feel?

  I knew in that moment that I would do anything to protect my kid.

  We needed to work this backwards from the parent’s points of view. Even with all the information we had, the killers’ parents would be willing to keep their kids alive instead of having the Zodiac Master kill them.

  Jumping up, I hurried to find Leslie and explain my idea with a renewed sense of peace about our upcoming arrival.

  “Leslie, I think if we can find their parents, we’ll be able to find them,” I burst out as soon as I was close enough that she could hear me.

  “Parents are always saying that they’ll do anything for their children, right? What if we can find the twin’s parents? Then we can explain what’s been happening and how the Zodiac Master kills off his recruits when it’s over. They would rather their kids be alive than what he’s going to do to them, so they just might help us.”

  Looking a little lost, she waited until I was finished. “That would be a great idea, but I’m not sure it’s going to be that easy. I would love to help you, but Adam is insisting that I do a little training so that I can help find them the psychic way.”

  “Do you think it could work?” I pushed, not about to give up on my idea.

  “Yeah, it can’t hurt, and when you locate them, text me. We can head out when I’m done, but it might be a few hours. This kind of thing doesn’t really have a time limit,” she acknowledged.

  “Don’t worry about it. I wouldn’t want you to be in a situation that could have been avoided if you’d been better prepared. Go, I’ve got this.” I shooed her away.

  I was slightly relieved when she hadn’t guessed why I’d come to this conclusion. I could do some of the groundwork on my own.

  The question was, how to do more than the FBI was already doing?

  I helped myself to a computer, trying to think outside the box.

  Darrell and Randell Bishop popped up in the FBI’s system quickly since we’d just started a file.

  They were from Boston, Massachusetts. Born in 1984, the twins had lived with both parents, Robb and Jessica Bishop, until their divorce in 1995. They had two other children, but the information on that was sketchy.

  Instead of going into locked files, I tried what everyone else was using these days, social media. Both guys had profiles on several sites, and there were pictures with updates. These idiots had been showing off their road trip by taking selfies and posting them.

  From what I could tell, there weren’t many pictures with the parents or other siblings, but I did sort through their family associations to their mother’s new name, Jessica Cameron. Listed from her profile was another set of twin girls, but it only had pictures, and no names were tagged in it.

  This search was more difficult, but I finally discovered that her twin daughters had died in a horrible accident.

  The newspapers provided a more detailed account of their deaths: “Diamond and Sapphire Cameron were found dead in an accidental drowning. The parents had left their older brothers in charge of their care. When the parents arrived home, they found the girls lying face down in the swimming pool. The brothers pleaded that they had put the girls down for their naps and had been watching TV. The police have ruled their deaths an accident, and at this time, the twin brothers are currently with their father.”

  “Well, that explains so much,” I murmured to myself. “The trauma from their sisters’ deaths caused them to want to kill the others. But their sisters weren’t stabbed, so what’s going on with this?”

  Mulling over their actions, I couldn’t decide if they were the reason the twin sisters were dead, or if it had just happened and they were recreating some form of sick therapy with the deaths of more twins.

  Going through a divorce was difficult for any child, but that wasn’t a good enough reason in my book to turn into serial killers.

  I ran their names through the Boston papers, hoping that I wouldn’t get a hit, but when a news article came up with the deaths of another set of twin cousins, I knew what was happening.

  We were dealing with a pair of sociopaths, and/or psychopaths. Since they were twins, it could be a combination of both.

  “James and Rebecca Bishop are mourning the loss of their twin baby girls today. The girls were discovered this morning in their cribs, both apparently having died of SIDS.”

  “Wow, these guys have been doing it for years now.” Another article caught my eye as being related to the previous one.

  “The oldest Bi
shop son, Robb, and his wife Jessica, have made their divorce official. When asked if the death of the twins the year before had anything to do with their separation, they declined to answer. A source close to the family revealed that Robb was convinced that his twin sons had something to do with the deaths of their cousins, Raven and River.”

  Whistling out loud, I jumped and went to find Agent Watson.

  “I found out what happened to the Bishop twins. Or let me rephrase that, the living Bishop twins.”

  “There’s more than one set?”

  “Yep, and get this, there was a set of baby girls who died in their sleep. They were Darrell and Randell’s baby cousins. Then, about ten years later, after Darrell and Randell’s parents divorced and remarried, the mom had twin girls. They both drowned at the age of four while the Bishop twins were watching them. Leslie mentioned that the killers’ eyes were described as a cold blue, and without feeling. It would fit the profile,” I rambled on, not noticing that Agent Watson’s mouth hung open.

  “Randell and Darrell were the reason that their parents split up. The dad was convinced that they’d had something to do with his nieces’ deaths. Their mom didn’t believe him, and took her sons with her, only to later have her daughters drown.”

  “I wonder if the mom is feeling a little differently these days. I know I would if I was her. Let’s get you and Leslie on a plane tonight and have you do an interview with her in the morning. It’s the last thing they’ll be expecting.”

  “Yes, sir. I feel like this is something we can use to help us track them down.”

  “You seem to be on the right track. I feel that we really have a chance this time. Keep me in the loop if you find out anything.”

  “Will do. I can’t imagine thinking that your child, or children, might be responsible for the deaths of your family. It’s just a horrible thought.”

  “Yeah, it’s a hard place to find yourself in.”

  “I’ll keep gathering information until Leslie’s ready.”

  “You might be there a while, so prepare yourself.”

  I nodded and went back to the computer I’d snagged.

  Chapter 9

  Leslie

  Adam had dragged me away as soon as Agent Watson finished the briefing. I felt bad that I hadn’t been able to help Ryan with whatever he was going through. I knew that Flora wouldn’t have called him without a very good reason, and he’d seemed to be on edge today.

  I couldn’t think about that now because I was supposed to be clearing my mind of everything.

  “Focus on the first set of women that you met in Oregon. Draw on their presence and see if you can open a line of communication with them,” Adam instructed. “Can you hear them talking?”

  Squinting my eyes shut, I pulled on the emptiness to think on those twins who’d had their lives taken from them so early.

  A whoosh of air knocked me back, and I felt Keanna’s spirit hovering over my body. When I opened my eyes, it was as if she was seeing right through me.

  She whispered in my ear as she placed her hands over my eyes. “You need to watch my death.”

  I saw Keanna in her room, changing her shirt as she dialed her sister’s number. I could feel her excitement that she couldn’t wait to call wish her sister a happy birthday. It had started to ring when a noise had me turning around. The knife started to plunge into my chest when Keanna suddenly moved back before it could happen.

  Gasping, I bent forward, unable to breathe with the intensity of the replay.

  “What just happened? Would I have died if she hadn’t pulled back?” I yelled, scared that I’d just done something that could have killed me.

  “I believe that you were possessed, and yes, you can be pulled into a memory so much that you feel the death. It shouldn’t cause your death, but depending on how connected you are to the individual, you could come out of it in a coma, or worse,” Adam cautioned.

  “You’re much stronger than we’d assumed. It’s like you’re a fount of untapped power. Keanna came to you quickly, and you didn’t even have to work for it. The violence of her death gives her more energy, and she can respond faster.”

  “Now, I need to see it again, but slowly. I’ll need to touch him to increase the connection to him. Is that possible to change a memory like that?”

  Adam hesitated. “I’m afraid if you connect to him, it may do more harm than good. I don’t want you to get hurt doing this. It’s too big of a risk, and you haven’t gotten used to using a shield on yourself. If you do this and open yourself up to connect to him, it could do that so that you see everything he does. It would feel like you were committing the murders yourself. We don’t want that.”

  “Is that really possible?”

  “It is. Because you appear to be a magnet for spirits, anything that’s close to this could make a permanent home in your body. We don’t want the killers or any other spirits to decide that you’re a delectable treat.”

  “I’m so new to this, but what’s making me so special or attractive to spirits?”

  “Your personal energy has positive and negative responses. They bring others toward you or repulse them. It’s why some people immediately hate someone or fall in love with them. Because of your abilities, it’s like your energy has multiplied by a thousand, but only to those of the spiritual or supernatural world.”

  I could understand the idea of what he was saying. “In other words, by opening myself to the universe, I’ve become catnip for all spiritual beings.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “All right, I can accept that. What can I do to strengthen my shields? Are there special exercises or spells that can let me do this?”

  Adam smiled at my enthusiasm. “What you’re doing right now is more harmful than what could happen. You don’t have a healthy fear of the unknown. These forces for good and evil have been playing this game for centuries. They aren’t afraid to use you to further their purposes.”

  “Is there a course or classes that I need to take? Like a Psychic 101 for all the basics?”

  A loud laugh erupted from Adam. “Leslie, you’re amazing. Let’s slow things down just a little bit and focus again on the second set of twins that spoke to you. See if you can learn anything else from them and I’ll guide you as much as I can.”

  I closed my eyes to focus.

  A dozen voices started buzzing around my head. They were distracting, so I began grabbing the balls of light making the most noise. When I pulled them close, I would listen for a short minute and let them go. The process took about five minutes and cleared the air around me.

  With all of the extra noise gone, I could concentrate again. The two dead twins, Sarah and Sally, with their little braids and freckles, flashed in front of me, like a hologram that was a little blurry. I reached out to them, and their little hands grabbed onto mine, completing a circuit.

  An amazing glow rippled through my body as I let them speak directly to my mind.

  “Hello again,” Sarah greeted.

  “You survived the bad guys.” Sally shivered.

  I wasn’t sure that ghosts could actually get cold, but I would find out later.

  “Hi, girls,” I responded before answering Sally. “I haven’t yet. They’re still out there trying to hurt more people. That’s why I reached out to you. I need your help to find them. Can you show me what they did to you?”

  Sally shook her head no.

  Sarah placed a comforting arm around her. “She’s still frightened, but I’ll let you look at my memories.”

  “Sarah, I’ll need to do a little more than just look at the memories. I need to touch the killers. Will you let me do that?”

  “I don’t know. Will it help you catch them?”

  “Yes, it will.”

  She bit her lip. “If you need to, then yes.”

  “Okay, show me.”

  This time was different than when Keanna had put her hands over my eyes. Sarah simply held my hands and shoved the memory of her mur
der toward me.

  “Hey, Sally, get me some of that ice cream while you’re getting yours, please.” Sarah turned to shut the refrigerator door, and the first twin was standing right there. He wasn’t wearing a mask, so she could see his evil smile as he lifted the knife. At the same moment Sally had seen the killer in front of her sister, someone tapped her on the shoulder. I’d seen the face of the other killer, and I used his touch to jump over and onto his skin.

  Instantly, I was filled with rage and anger. The twins had to die. There couldn’t be a twin left alive that would compete for our mother’s attention. We were the only twins that should be allowed to live. My brother’s happiness as he plunged the knife into the other girl echoed within me as I made the same movements. By rote, I counted as the blood splattered, hitting my face. Each time we took out a set of twins that didn’t belong on earth, we were going to be soaking up their energy.

  I could feel his gleeful energy floating up through our connection. Fourteen, fifteen, and done.

  “Ah, this is amazing. I wish it could last longer so we could keep this high going.”

  “Yeah, bro,” he responded, watching the blood pool around Sally’s body.

  I joined him. “We should go. I’m having too much fun to get caught. Make sure to take the knives with us.”

  Releasing him with a gasp, I blinked rapidly. “Thank you, Sarah and Sally. You may go.”

  “What happened?” Adam asked, his tone full of accusation.

  “Nothing. Why?”

  “All I could see were those glowing balls, and then your eyes rolled back into your head. What did you see?”

  “The twins. Sally was too scared, but Sarah let me watch through her memories.” I ducked my head sheepishly. “He touched Sally and I jumped into his mind. It was so weird. Like they were clearing out all twin girls who could steal their mother’s affections. Then they were like little kids playing in the blood like it was fun.”

  “Their psychopaths, Leslie. They don’t process emotions the way others do. That is if they have them at all. They’re wired differently. Something about the twin girls set off their brains. They don’t see what they’ve done as bad or horrible. It’s the only way to get rid of a problem, and why not find some enjoyment while they’re at it.” Adam eyed me carefully.