by Paris Morgan
“Are you Chris Guy?” a gravelly voice asked, keeping their hands in their pockets.
“Yeah?” I wasn’t sure what it was about this person, but my sense of self-preservation kicked in, making me back up toward the police station.
“I’ve been sent with a message for you. It’s not personal, but you have to die so that she’ll get the picture. No one, including you, can have her. She’s his personal property. He’s not going to let her go yet.”
“Who?” I yelled, wanting to run backward, but needing to know why this person was sending a message.
“Leslie Boxe. He doesn’t want her to be happy. You’re distracting her from his mission and you’ve got to go.” The figure stepped into the light long enough that I could see their face.
“But you’re a—” I didn’t get to finish my words as the bullets hit my chest with only a small ‘pop, pop, pop’.
The killer knew what they were doing, because I could feel the life leaving me.
They leaned over me. “I’m sorry. You were a good man, and could have lived a long life helping people, but he said it had to happen.”
Someone shouted in the distance, and the hooded figure took off running, through the darkness.
***
Leslie
Three days later, I caught a look at the newspaper for Sunday morning.
Assistant DA Chris Guy was murdered on Friday night as he left the police precinct after concluding a set of witness statements. He was gunned down in cold blood, and the police have no leads at this time.
I sank into the nearest chair, unable to process this latest death.
“What’s wrong, Leslie?” Ryan asked, noticing that I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on in the Monday morning briefing from our weekend.
“The guy I was dating was killed Friday night.” I thrust the newspaper in his direction.
Ryan started reading, and Adam peered over his shoulder. “The police have no leads? How is that possible when a member of the district attorney’s office was murdered?”
“I’ll make a few phone calls.” Agent Watson had stopped and come over to join us. “We need to know if it’s connected to our case. Do you know when his birthday was?”
“That’s a good question. We hadn’t really gotten that far into the dating process. It should be on his file.” I could tell they were going to keep asking me questions and trying to work on this.
“Look, why don’t you guys work on it. I’m going to go away and figure this out. I don’t really want to talk about.”
Everyone watched as I left the room.
“Don’t cry, don’t break down,” I told myself. “Think about something else that doesn’t have to do with Chris.”
Concentrating on taking deep, even breaths, I made it to the car.
“Why are you doing this to me?” I pounded the steering wheel after I made it inside and locked the doors.
There was no way this was a coincidence. He had done this to make a statement. Anyone that I got close enough to emotionally, he was going to kill them. For some reason, I had gotten his attention, and he was going to continue to make my life difficult.
What was it that made the Zodiac Master so invested in my life? I’d been over it more than a dozen times. There was nothing that stood out in my career as an officer or my time in school. From what we’d established just a week ago, our suspect was at least forty-five, which meant that our paths wouldn’t have crossed very often.
College and high school would have been almost ten to fifteen years ago. If this person had been stalking me for this long, then they were very diligent. Even with an obsession with me, and that was a huge stretch, most stalkers would have made contact at some point.
I was missing some sort of contact that our Zodiac Master thought was significant. What could have been a chance encounter to me, must have had meaning to him.
Nothing had happened to Jerome when we were dating, but then again, that was only a few months, and we were just getting started with our investigation. Chris and I had been on a few dates and a sleepover. We had hardly gotten as close as Jerome and I had. The message to me was clear: he wanted me to focus on him and him alone.
I’d called him several times since I’d gotten home Saturday afternoon, but thought he’d had something come up. He’d mentioned that he might have to spend the weekend working on stuff for a case on Monday.
Anger began to take over my grief, and I yanked the car into drive. It was time to get serious about this case and get on with my life. I would be looking into anyone that had been following me or checking up on me.
It was time to see what Mac could do with my background.
***
Ryan
I watched Leslie leave the room, and knew that I needed to follow her. It wasn’t until I pulled up at her house that I realized that I needed backup.
She was my partner, but right now wasn’t a time for me to go in and offer comfort. There were so many ways that could go wrong. I needed the other half of my personal team.
“Shea, baby. Is there any way you can meet me at Leslie’s house?”
“Sure. What’s going on? Is she okay?” Shea asked with concern.
“No. Her boyfriend was murdered and she just found out.” I ran a hand over my face, still trying to process it myself.
“I’ll be right there. Just be there for her. There’s not much we can do, and what she needs is a chance to cry or scream, and we need to let her work it out of her system,” she advised.
“I hear ya. I’m going to wait for you to get here before I go inside.”
“On my way out the door right now.”
The silence of the car felt stifling, and the walls began to close in on me, so I escaped to sit on the side of the curb.
This was what I’d been imagining for weeks now. I couldn’t handle the thought of losing Shea or the baby. While I’d been in personal situations before, this was way beyond anything I could deal with.
Jesse had been my partner, and I’d worried about him, but I never had to consider his feelings, or the fact that something I said or did might be taken the wrong way.
Would I be racing to comfort any of my other partners like this?
I shook my head. This was crazy. Leslie wasn’t just my partner, she was my friend. I couldn’t handle things the same way because I’d already lost Jesse, and I would blame myself if something happened to her. It was time to forget being gentle and go see if my partner needed me.
With a soft knock on the door, I was surprised to see Leslie’s puffy eyes absent of tears. “I’m really sorry.” I leaned in to give her a hug.
“Thanks. I just can’t believe he’s gone.” She walked over to the couch and curled up in the corner. “I texted him Friday afternoon and everything seemed fine.”
“There had to be someone who saw something,” I mumbled, reassuring her as much as myself that this wasn’t just a senseless poke to try and get us upset. “Was he working on anything dangerous?”
“We didn’t really talk about work stuff. Our dates were a comfortable place to forget that and relax. Now, he’s gone.” She sniffled. “It’s just so random. I know that he dealt with criminals and people who made threats, but none of it was serious. I killed him. By associating with me, I’d put a target on his back. I take back what I said the other day. We’re dangerous. No one’s safe.”
“Hey, now, that’s not the way to think. Loving someone is always a risk. Granted, this is a little more involved than that. It might not be related to us. He’s with the DA’s office. That put a target on his back the minute he signed up for the job.”
She aimed a disbelieving look in my direction. “Yeah, right. Because he’d been fine for years, and within a month of meeting me, he’s dead. Nope. Not a coincidence at all.”
A knock sounded, and I got up to answer it. “Hey, babe.”
Shea didn’t even stop to give me a kiss, and instead, rushed straight to Leslie, lowering herself qui
ckly to the couch.
“Honey, I’m so sorry.” She held out her arms and Leslie burst into tears.
“There, there,” Shea cooed. “Let it all out.”
I felt out of place. I had no idea what to do besides stand there.
“We’d just gotten comfortable with each other.” Leslie’s voice muffled against Shea as she tried to talk.
“It’s okay.” Shea patted her back, saying the only thing she could.
Leslie’s head popped up as tears streamed down her face. “No, Shea, it’s not okay. I’m going to kill the bastard with my bare hands. We can’t live like this.”
Shea was completely taken aback at her anger, so I walked over to sit on the coffee table, and took both of their hands.
“You’re both right. Shea means that you’re going to be okay. Maybe not right now, but you’ll make it and come out stronger. I thought I wouldn’t be able to work again after messing up after Jesse. And Leslie’s right too, honey. We shouldn’t have to live our lives, wondering which of our loved ones could be next. You know I’ve been so worried about you, especially with me being gone so much. This guy isn’t playing around. He wants us to quit because we’re so scared.”
Leslie lifted her head in defiance. “Oh, I’m not scared. I’m pissed off. I’m so mad that he thinks he can get away with this. He can’t keep targeting our families. His mom may be dead, but that doesn’t mean I’m not going to find out who he cares for the most.”
“Leslie, you can’t target his family like that. Violence never solves anything,” Shea pleaded.
“Oh, I’m not going to be violent. I’m going to hit him the one place that he’s least expecting. His father, John Reed, is going to jail. It’s the one thing that will make him come out of hiding. He’s been trying to get his attention just as much as he wants to play this game with us.” She swiped the tears away.
“We don’t have any proof. There’s no reason that we can even have him in for questioning,” I protested.
“That’s not really the problem right now. We have stuff on him. The FBI was just hoping to have more before they brought him in for questioning.” She got up and walked over to the kitchen, where she pulled a small SD card out from behind the blender.
“I have something on him, and we’re going to let him go after we ask him about his son, Henry Stevens. I don’t want to keep him. I want to force him to reach out and bring Henry to us.”
This was a side to Leslie that I hadn’t seen before, and while it was a little scary, I couldn’t blame her in the slightest.
“Let’s see if we can flush him out. Are we telling Agent Watson about this?”
“Nope. I don’t want it to blow back on him, and we’re not arresting Mr. Reed. We’re simply questioning him.” She gave me a triumphant smile.
“We’re going to need a plan.” I shook my head at her.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got one. Let me make a few calls.”
***
Chapter 6
Flora
A deep voice filtered through my consciousness.
“Doc, do we have any idea why she’s not responding?”
“I’m afraid not. For some reason, her mind hasn’t wanted to deal with the present. She has brain activity, but there’s nothing we can do except to keep her comfortable and make sure she has nutrients.”
“I’m here.” I tried to move in response to their comments, but I couldn’t make my body even twitch. It was like I was looking down on myself from above.
The man standing next to the bed looked around the room as if he’d heard me.
“Hello, I’m inside here and I can’t get out,” I called again.
He walked over to the door and closed it the last few inches. “Flora?” he whispered.
“Yes, who are you?” I could barely contain my excitement. I had no idea how he’d heard me, but it was something.
“Adam. You called me saying you were in trouble. When I got there, you were passed out, and still haven’t regained consciousness. It’s been three weeks.” He directed to my body as if we were having a conversation.
“I must have knocked my head because I don’t remember you.”
He grinned, pulling a chair closer to the bed and reaching for my hand. “We’ve never met before. I work with Leslie and Ryan.”
I brightened. “I know them. They’re working on a case.”
“That’s correct. I’ve helped Leslie with her psychic abilities. It’s how you knew to call me. She’s been having problems, and I was the closest connection that you could safely reach out to.”
He couldn’t see my frown, but I had a nagging feeling there was something important I needed to remember.
“So, I’m talking to you psychically?”
“Sort of telepathically. Only those with a connection can communicate like this.”
The door to the room opened, and a little boy peeked his head through, followed by another man who closely resembled Adam.
“How’s she doing?” he asked.
“Well, her body is the same is what the Doc said when he came in a few minutes ago,” Adam answered, but I didn’t like that they were talking about me like I wasn’t in the room.
“I’m right here, guys!” I yelled as I tapped the foot of my spirit body in frustration.
The new guy’s head whipped up so quickly.
“There’s no need to yell.” He rubbed his ears. “I guess you were going to tell me her spirit woke up?”
“Sorry. I just got frustrated,” I responded in a normal voice. “Wait, you can hear me too?”
It was the little boy who answered. “Yes, we can. I’m Lex, and this is my dad, Galen.”
From the shocked faces of the two men, I was guessing that the kid hadn’t done this before.
“It’s nice to meet you, Lex. I’d do it in person if I could figure out how to get into my body again.” I shrugged.
“Just lay down over yourself and close your eyes. When you try to open them again, you should be awake in the real world. Your body has to adjust to having your soul back again,” Lex instructed easily.
“Okay…I’ll give a try.” I maneuvered my body into position over my still form. “Here goes.”
I let myself drop into the body. It felt a little tight and weird, but maybe that was normal after having been apart from it for a few weeks.
Tentatively, I tried to open my eyes. Nothing happened.
“Did it work?” Lex’s voice asked as he poked my arm.
“Ow, that hurt.” I slurred the words.
“She spoke,” Adam exclaimed with joy.
“Flora, squeeze my hand if you can hear me.”
I thought about my arm, and could feel his hand holding mine. I put as much pressure as I could into squeezing his hand.
“Yep.” Adam grimaced. “I can feel that, Flora. You can let go.” He pulled away, shaking his hand to get the blood flowing again.
Since I’d had that success, I thought about wanting to see his face, and it took a few blinks to adjust.
“Adam?” I looked into his green eyes and knew that I was completely safe with this man.
“Yes?” He looked closer and saw that my eyes were open. “Galen, her eyes are open.”
A smaller body crowded in to peer at me. “Told you it would work.”
“Thanks, Lex,” I tried to say, but my mouth was really dry after three weeks, and it came out more of a croak.
“Here, drink this.” Galen picked up a bottle of water sitting on the table next to the bed.
I sat up slightly, and tried not to gulp the water down. It was silly to try and make a good impression on this guy I’d never met, but I didn’t want to drool all over him.
“Better?” He pulled it away.
“Yeah. Thanks. What happened?”
Little pieces of thought came to my mind, but nothing explained how I’d come to be in the hospital.
“In the middle of the night on July 4th, you spoke urgently, telling me that y
ou were in danger. Then you were gone. I raced to your house and found you asleep, or so I thought. When I couldn’t wake you the next morning, I had you transferred here to the hospital.”
“I took sleeping pills to help keep the veterans’ thoughts from overwhelming me. I don’t remember being in trouble, though.” I shook my head, which made my vision start to swim.
Lex piped up, “He did it.”
All three of the adults in the room turned to him.
He looked at us carefully before he answered our unspoken question.
“The Zodiac Master. He had someone interfere while you were helpless. They put a shield between you and your body. It’s why it all went black. Even asleep, you knew that something wasn’t right and tried to fight it. Whatever he did either dissipated, or you broke through enough that you were able to regain yourself.”
Adam’s quick intake of breath told me this wasn’t usual for the kid.
“How did you learn all of that? I haven’t been a psychic long, but I wouldn’t have known about all that.”
“I’ve been reading up on it since dad brought me back. He and Uncle Adam are psychics like you, but I thought he was pulling my leg when he told me that. I could read people’s thoughts when I was little, and I knew when something bad was going to happen. I told them a few times, but they didn’t believe me. When it happened like I’d described, they sent me to a new home. I thought I was crazy.”
“Oh, Lex, you’re not crazy. You’re very special. These two had no idea how to help me get back into my body.” I smiled at him.
“I know. That’s why I told you how, and about all the other stuff. You’re not like them.” He looked at the two men. “They hide things, you don’t. I can see everything you’re thinking.”
