Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

  “I’ll wait for you out in the car and give you a ride home.”

  “Thank you. It’ll only be about ten minutes.”

  As she disappeared again, I opened the door, keeping an eye on the small humans so they didn’t escape.

  It wasn’t a full ten minutes before she appeared on the porch and said her goodbyes.

  The car door shut and she leaned back wearily against the head rest.

  “Dying certainly takes it out of you, doesn’t it?”

  “I wouldn’t know, since I’m fully alive.” I grinned with relief that she was safe.

  “Hardy-har-har…very funny.”

  “Honestly, I’m just glad that you’re alive. You had me worried there for a minute. I did some illegal things and had your phone tracked to find you.”

  “Oh, how did that feel going outside of the lines for a change?”

  “Hey, you’re my psychic mentor, not my psychologist. I knew that if it came down to it, I’d rather have you alive than have you lying in a ditch somewhere.”

  “So your extra senses haven’t come back? You haven’t seen any ghosts or had any visions?” She kept her eyes closed while I drove the few miles to her house.

  “Not yet. Should I be worried that it just went away? It’s like a big black void, and every time I think it’s just there out of reach, I fall down the hole of nothingness.”

  “It happens. Let’s just hope you didn’t burn yourself out. Don’t try so hard. If you’re meant to have the gift, it will come to you when you’re ready. If you force it, that could cause other problems that we don’t have time to deal with.”

  “There’s like a whole other part of me that I knew I relied on that’s missing. Evidently, it was more intertwined with my regular instincts than any of us knew.” I tried to keep the whine out of my voice.

  “Completely normal after a huge growth for you to take a step back. It will help you to sharpen your other senses, and when it comes back, then you’ll be that much stronger because you can pick out the difference in training verses spiritual vibes.”

  We pulled up at her house.

  “Hey, I’m going to let you go get some rest. You look exhausted.”

  “Are you sure? I’ve been staying over there for the past few days, and once I get a shower, I should be as good as new.”

  “Yes, I’m sure. You can’t teach me anything if you’re falling over from exhaustion. I’ll come over tomorrow after you’ve had some time to catch up.”

  “Thanks. Drive safe, and have fun on your date.”

  “Wait…do you know his name too?” Her knowing such things still brought me up short.

  “Chris. He’s a nice guy. Good aura. No darkness that I can see, but you’ll need to check that out for yourself. Have fun.”

  She waved and closed the door.

  “Dang it,” I muttered as I put the car into drive. Having a psychic for a friend was still an adjustment. I could imagine that it was more difficult for Ryan when your partner changed into that overnight. Maybe taking a slight break was a good idea.

  I just thought I was ready for the big time because I’d communicated with a few ghosts. There were still so many things for me to learn about having a gift like this, and I wanted to prove that I was worthy of having it.

  The drive back, I spent using my cop skills to pick out different cars that were involved in criminal behavior or needed a ticket. I’d missed being in a patrol car, but being a detective had its own benefits.

  ***

  The dreaded grocery store trip beckoned as I drove past on my way home with hours to spare before my date. I might as well get it taken care of now so that I wasn’t hungry during the movie.

  With a sigh, I pulled in and trudged up to grab a cart. I hadn’t refilled my freezer or pantry in a while, and since I was already in the store, I might as well get it all done now.

  Restocking my shampoo and toiletries, I turned the corner, almost running full tilt into Jerome.

  “Um…h-hi,” he stuttered, moving out of the way.

  “Hey,” I returned. Of all the grocery stores in the world, he had to live close enough to use mine.

  “How’s it going? You home for a few days?” he asked hopefully.

  “Not that it’s any of your business, but yes, I’m home. What’s it to you?” I could feel my hackles rising, but realized that I didn’t need to sound so rude regardless.

  “Sorry.” He raised his hands, backing up slightly. “I didn’t mean anything by it. Just making conversation during an awkward moment, that’s all.”

  “You caught me off guard. It’s been a long day. Is everything going okay in the consulting business?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Well, it was nice running into you.” Jerome nodded and slipped around the corner with his basket hooked over his arm.

  “Hmm, that was unexpected.” After the day I’d just had, this was not making it better. If I didn’t seriously need groceries, I’d have left right then and gone home.

  Now, I was angry with myself for letting him get under my skin like that, and walked through the frozen foods section, slamming doors while muttering, “How dare he come to my store? Who does he think he is asking if I’m home and how it’s going?”

  When I made it to the checkout counter, I honestly couldn’t tell you what I’d put in the cart. I guess it would make for an interesting month of food choices.

  I couldn’t really be mad at him, now that I was out of there and away from the situation. I took a deep breath. I hadn’t realized that I’d fallen so hard and fast for his charms.

  Nothing left to do now but go out and let my heart heal, if that was even possible.

  ***

  Chris met me at the theater, and I was relieved that I could laugh and enjoy life still. Jerome hadn’t taken that away from me at least.

  The movie was great, and just what I needed to take my mind off of things. It was nice to have someone beside me that didn’t require any pressure.

  “Want to grab something to eat?” I suggested as we walked out with the other moviegoers.

  “Yeah, that’d be great. I kind of don’t want the night to end. There’s a pancake house up the street if you’re interested.”

  “Sounds good.”

  We met up a few minutes later, and I felt all of my stress disappear.

  “So, tell me more about yourself,” I coaxed as we placed our orders.

  “Oh, geeze, where should I start? I’m from a small town where there are more cows than people most days. I knew that I wanted to get out and do something that paid well, and law school seemed like a good choice. I was used to worrying about how the weather affected the money we had, so I chose to do something that wouldn’t be determined by outside stuff.”

  “I get that. Our town wasn’t that small, but I’m used to parties out at the hay bales with a fire pit for the Friday night after-party. My sister Karen became a cop, and I thought it would be a great profession for me as well. I love living in the city, whereas she’s worked for the state patrol, and then the local city police. It’s nice to visit, but I enjoy having my choice of food places only minutes away.” I spoke with fondness of my younger days.

  “See, I knew that you’d understand. There’s only so much room for someone with ambition out there. It’s not like you can get a promotion from the cattle or the corn crop. I needed something that could motivate me, and criminal law seems to work really well for me.”

  “I was telling someone today that working a puzzle was a fun challenge. Finding the criminals so they don’t commit more crimes is just one giant puzzle for me. I have to sift through the pieces for the information that I need to catch the right culprit.”

  “My challenge is making the charges stick long enough to fit the crime. I’ll work my way up by taking the cases I’m given and winning them.”

  “Yep. It’s nice to have someone who doesn’t have to explain it all to them. Does your family mind that you didn’t come back to the farm?”

&n
bsp; “Nah,” he drawled. “Although, you can take the boy out of the country…”

  “You can’t take the country out of the boy,” I finished with him.

  “Ha-ha, you know it. I’ve adjusted, though, but I do enjoy going home for the holidays for all the home cooked meals.”

  “That is my one regret. I can cook, but I’m never home long enough to really enjoy it. Now, baking is a completely different story. To hear my mother tell it, though, you’d think I’d given away the secret family recipes to spies or something because I don’t actually use them.”

  “Oh, you’re a horrible daughter all right. I’m on my mom’s list because I haven’t settled down yet. According to her, if I’m going to get promoted, then I need to find a piece of arm candy that will get the higher-ups to notice me. I’ve tried to explain that I want someone with some substance, but try telling that to a mom who wants grandbabies.”

  “It’s like they can’t wait for us to leave the nest, but then they want us to fill it up again so we have all the crazy going on in our lives that they were so ready to get rid of.” I shook my head at the logic.

  Chris glanced at his watch. “Gee, I hate to eat and run, but I’ve got to be in court first thing in the morning. If you’re free, I’d love to get together sometime this weekend.”

  “Work is kind of up in the air at the moment, but if I’m still in town, I’d love to hang out.” I offered up a smile as we walked out to our cars.

  “Since I can’t exactly walk you to your door to say good night, guess this will have to do.” He leaned in and waited, hoping I’d meet him halfway for a kiss.

  I took him up on his offer, but got more than I’d bargained for.

  Whereas Jerome had been his own type of slow melt, Chris was a consuming fire that made my bones melt. I couldn’t have pulled away if I wanted to. Instead, he placed an arm around me to steady me.

  “W-What was that?” I managed to get out after I caught my breath.

  “Our first kiss,” he chuckled at my reaction.

  “Wow! I thought I’d been kissed before, but that one ranks up there as hitting the top ten.”

  “Only the top ten?” He placed a hand over his heart in mock hurt.

  “I’m going to have to have another demonstration before I determine if it’s top ten worthy.”

  “Maybe this weekend.” He winked and walked to the door of his car. “We’ll have to see if I can make it into the single digits.”

  With a grin plastered on my face, I got into my own car, thankful that it had only been a kiss. I was going to have to slow things down, or he was going to sweep me into an undertow I wasn’t sure I could come back from.

  I’d been up for two days straight, and while my body might have been enjoying the warmth left over from that kiss, it was time to get some rest before we were called out to face whatever the zodiac killer had in store for us, but I still had to meet Mac at our secret spot.

  ***

  Chapter 5

  Ryan

  All day I’d been spinning my wheels, exhausted, trying to find out the message that the Zodiac Master was trying to send us.

  Each piece was supposed to lead us closer to the goal, but all I could see were a lot of things that held no meaning when put together.

  Most of the team had gone home already since there wasn’t an active killer yet. Agent Watson didn’t like adding overtime pay if he didn’t have to.

  Kevin was supposed to drop by when he’d lost anyone following him from the Urban Energy Company. Until then, I was going to start putting the pieces together in my own way.

  There was an empty office I’d spied earlier on, and I wanted to stay out of sight until my marker mustache was gone.

  I used the empty walls to put up a section on each of the killers. Then I taped the new pictures to a separate wall, along with all the information about Urban Energy’s connections.

  The desk chair in the office allowed me to twirl as I considered each different wall of information.

  The Zodiac Master chose each of his targets carefully, but I was willing to bet that he met with them personally. In a very short time period, he managed to get them on board with his plans and instill in them a very strong sense of loyalty.

  The Gemini twins would rather have died than turn him in. Money wasn’t a motive for any of our killers. They hadn’t been driven by only a sense of righting what they saw as a wrong committed against them. With the exception of the Aries killer, most of them hadn’t been professionals.

  How did he turn them into violent killers? It was one thing to take a single life as an act of revenge, but to continue to kill took a special kind of person. One who had nothing left to lose.

  Leslie had been looking at major newspapers to see if she could find a correlation between the months and ads for his recruits. The computers were still working on her search questions.

  She’d even asked vice for help, knowing that sex traffickers used ads for things like this all the time. We were just waiting for a meeting with one of their experts. They certainly weren’t considering her request a priority, though.

  He’d been a step ahead of us for a while now, and I was certain that we had someone inside the FBI that was feeding him information. Even if we managed to find the ads and followed where they lead, he would possibly have abandoned the idea and moved onto another method.

  If he kept doing this, I was going to have to get something to help with severe depression, because all I could see on the horizon was a really dark cloud that was getting bigger by the month.

  No closer to a solution than when I’d walked into the office hours ago, I flicked the lock behind me as I went to go see what Kevin had brought us to help with the grand scheme of things.

  ***

  Due to the sensitive nature of Kevin’s undercover work, and the fact that Agent Watson was aware we’d been compromised, he chose a different conference room that our group hadn’t used before.

  There were only four of us: Agent Watson, Agent Dalca, and myself, with the addition of Kevin in the room. I could only hope that this would bring whatever he brought us one step closer to finding a way to take this growing cancer down.

  “Kevin, how are you holding up?” Agent Watson started the conversation cheerfully.

  “It’s been interesting, to say the least. I think I may have a little information that’s helpful for what you’re looking for.”

  “Well, that’s good news, isn’t it?” Agent Watson declared with enthusiasm.

  “I hope so, sir. Most of what I have access to during the day isn’t worth mentioning, it’s what I’ve come across during the evenings that’s really worth it.

  “John Reed is actively involved in several special projects preserving the planet. His bank account from the company all show large donations to groups that are politically tied to a greener atmosphere. His photo ops and other activities all coincide with the company’s agenda.”

  Kevin smiled as he doled out the next piece of information. “It’s his other bank accounts that are more interesting. They’re all run through another name, John Armstrong.”

  “Isn’t that the name of one of the major drug cartel/mafia lords?” I knew that was a familiar name in the media.

  “He’s climbing the ranks on all of the agency walls toward number one’s most wanted. The thing is that nobody, and I mean nobody who’s alive still, has seen John Armstrong’s face. He’s a myth of a man that everyone says they work for, but can never explain how they know him,” Agent Watson advised.

  “There’s no way we can tie these two names together. John Armstrong is protected by so many in the Golden Company, that he simply sends word and people run to do his bidding. I backtracked from the Golden Company to see if anything intersected, and that’s when I found a few thin threads that led to this conclusion. Nothing hard we can use as evidence yet, but it does give us a starting point.”

  “This still doesn’t explain why the Zodiac Master is so focused on the
Urban Energy Company. How could he possibly know that John Reed and John Armstrong are the same person?” Adam Dalca asked, looking for the tie-in to our case.

  “He is, or was, closely associated with John. This is his way to get back at him,” Agent Watson mused.

  “No, that doesn’t pan out because he could’ve taken any of this to an agency and had John arrested. He didn’t because he’s not trying to take them down himself. He wants us to do it while he has fun with his recruits.” I shook my head. “We’re still missing part of the bigger picture.”

  “I’m still working on the family and founders’ names, but with this new information, John could have fathered children under a hundred different names and there would be no records.”

  “There have only been small gaps in his history where he would disappear on hunting trips. I’m working on putting John in the same places as his Armstrong name during those gaps. It’s going slow because there are only a few here and there of actual sightings. I think I’m on the right trail, though.”

  “All right. Keep hunting and let us know what you find. I think we’re on the right track, and if we can take down the worst serial killer in history, as well as the most wanted man in the world, I’m good with it.” Agent Watson slapped Kevin on the back.

  “Kevin, be careful out there. We have reason to believe that there may be someone inside our agency that’s working for the Zodiac Master. If you’re right about this other, then we know there are a lot of people here in our building watching out for him.”

  “Got it,” Kevin acknowledged, without letting on that he’d said as much at our private meeting.

  “Don’t call me. I’ll call you when I’ve got something to tell you. Keeping updates in person would be the best way to make sure that nothing is intercepted.”

  Kevin walked out, and the three of sat there in silence for a moment.

  “This case just got a whole lot bigger. We can’t put people on this because it will alert them that we’re doing the investigation.” Agent Watson slammed his fist on the table, startling us.