Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

Leslie stopped and rapped on the door. “Psst, it’s me.”

  A lock clicked open and the door swung inward. Leslie waited for the two of us to pass first, and then closed the door behind her.

  “I see you made it, and you brought more people. I’d have chosen a bigger room if I thought we were having a party.” Mac kicked up his feet onto the box across from his perch.

  “Not what I was expecting either,” I mumbled, looking around at all the dusty boxes and desks.

  “So I’ve been keeping Leslie informed about what’s going on at the Urban Energy Corporation. John Reed is into all sorts of shady deals, but there are only a few that the government and law enforcement agencies care about. We can at least have him brought in for questioning. He won’t even know that the three of you are listening. Not that we really think he’ll tell us anything incriminating, but it never hurts to try.” Mac hit a few strokes on his keyboard, and then turned back to us. “Any questions?”

  I raised my hand. “Who are you?”

  He and Leslie both chuckled.

  “I’m what you might say is a specialist in my field here at the Dallas PD. The IT guy who’s been working undercover for about six months now, ever since the first month when you were focused on Noah Preston. I’ve been called in as a specialist.”

  “What about our guy, Kevin?”

  “Oh, he’s still there working on it, but I think they know who he is. My cover is really deep, and I’ve had it since I was a teen.”

  “Cockiness will get you killed, you know,” Leslie warned.

  “Okay, so how is all this going to help us?”

  “Well, there are a few patrol officers picking up Mr. Reed as we speak. He’s being taken to one of our special precincts in the Oak Cliff area. We’re just going to be observers.” Mac’s feet plopped to the floor.

  We filed out, pausing only long enough for Mac to lock the door behind him before we took the basement walk through to the garage.

  A dark paneled van was sitting nearby, and he led the way over to it. “Your chariot awaits.” He bowed, causing Leslie to giggle.

  My lips curled into a snarl, but I realized that anything that took her mind off of her grief might not be a bad thing. Although, I was going to give him a chance if he could help Leslie.

  It was a short trip, and I felt that this was a huge mistake.

  Mac took the lead, with Leslie leaving me and Galen to trail behind.

  Mr. Reed was sitting with his hands folded on a chrome table that had seen a few bad days. No one was in the room, but it didn’t seem to bother him that he was being ignored.

  One of the patrol officers approached us. “We got him in there and told him that he could have a lawyer. He’s chosen not to do that at this time.”

  “He’s refused a lawyer?” I looked at the composed man on the other side of the glass. “Why would he do that?”

  Mac glanced at the officer. “He doesn’t think we have anything on him, and is taking a chance that he’s going to walk out of here. No point in paying for a lawyer when there’s nothing they can charge you on.”

  “I got the file you sent, and the questions you need to have answered.”

  “Great. We’ll let you get started, and then I’ll knock when we can let him go,” Mac instructed.

  “All right. This will make us even, though.” The officer glanced at the rest of us as he hurried inside.

  “Can you sense what he’s thinking?” Mac turned to Galen.

  “Yes. I’ll be able to get most of it if what he’s thinking right now is an indication.”

  He flicked on the speaker, and Mr. Reed’s voice answered the question.

  “Yes, my name is John Reed, and I’m the owner of Urban Energy.”

  “Did you know that there’s evidence that instead of helping the environment, you’re company is dumping waste into the Trinity River?”

  Mr. Reed just sat there. “I’m going to need to see how you know that it’s coming from my company. There are several large companies on the Trinity River.”

  Officer Charles continued to list items that might or might not have been true, but he never took the bait.

  After about three hours of questions, Mac knocked on the window.

  Officer Charles came out. “Yeah?”

  “I have one more question for him. Ask him about his son, Henry Stevens, and if he know that he’s a serial killer? I want to see his reaction.”

  “Your call, dude,” Officer Charles responded before walking back inside the room.

  “So, Mr. Reed, we just have a few more questions, and then you’ll be free to go.”

  “Ask away. I have nothing to hide.”

  “We’re trying to locate your son, Henry Stevens. Do you know where he is?”

  “I don’t have a son named Henry.”

  “Actually, you do.” Officer Charles consulted the paperwork in front of him. “Belle Stevens claims that you’re his father.”

  “Well, there are a lot of women that try to make that claim, and none of them have been true.”

  “Did you know that he’s a serial killer, and that the FBI is looking for him?”

  A strange look came over his face before he was able to put his mask back into place. “It doesn’t matter what you think he’s done. I have no contact with this man.”

  “Do you know if he’s tried to contact you?”

  “Even if he has, everything goes through my secretary. I’m only alerted if they take a blood test and it matches over eighty percent.”

  “Well, thank you for your time, sir. If you’ll give us just a few minutes, an officer will take you back to your office. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.”

  Officer Charles came back out. “I’ll give you a few minutes to leave so that there’s no overlap.”

  “Make sure to give him this card when you shake his hand,” Mac ordered as we began to leave through the back door.

  “Now what?” I questioned, feeling like a broken record.

  Mac put the vehicle into park and pulled out, heading toward Urban Energy’s main headquarters.

  “We follow close enough that when he makes a few phone calls, we’ll be able to hear what he says.”

  A patrol car passed us, and continued on at a faster rate of speed.

  Only after Mr. Reed got out of the vehicle and walked into the mail headquarters, did we hear anything over the bug that had been given to him.

  “Noah, I want you to call a meeting and get my lawyer here now. Then I want you to search and find anything on Henry Stevens and his mother, Belle Stevens,” Mr. Reed roared.

  “Yes, sir,” Noah answered.

  “We’re going to let him do the actual work for us in finding him. I’m fairly certain that his money, connected with his amount of curiosity, should give us a name to start looking at. We’re pretty sure that Henry has changed his name.” Mac grinned at Leslie.

  “It’s just a matter of time.” Leslie rubbed her hands together eagerly.

  “I’ll drop all of you off, and then spend the night monitoring his activity.”

  At least it was over now, but somehow, I didn’t think that Leslie was going to stop coming up with ideas of how to draw out our master killer.

  ***

  When we returned to the house, Adam opened the door to let us in. “Hey, I just got a call from Agent Watson. He couldn’t get a hold of either of you, so he called to see if Leslie was going to feel up to coming tomorrow, or if she needed a few more days.”

  “Our phones were in the blocked bag. Yeah, I can let him know that I’ll be okay.” Leslie handed our phones back to us, but left them off.

  “He said he’s been getting calls from a Mr. Reed’s lawyer?” Adam looked at the three of us. “I told him I didn’t know where you were or what you were doing right then. He’d have to ask you himself.”

  “Thanks. I thought we were going to go way off the rails, but no lines were crossed. In fact, I think most of those infractions were on the light s
ide, and we might have been able to find something a lot worse. I also reached out to Kevin, and he wants to meet this evening and see if we can find out something about this month’s killer. He’s still monitoring things even though he’s working undercover.”

  “Your killer’s a woman. She’s not just killing because she can, she believes she’s on a mission,” Lex announced, causing all of the adults to look at him strangely.

  Galen walked over and took a seat next to him. “What else do you know, Lex? It could be very important.”

  “You believe me, right?” Lex looked at his dad suspiciously.

  “Yep, I do. I also know that’s probably not all you saw, is it?” Galen prodded.

  “I won’t get in trouble for telling you?”

  “Nope. In fact, if your information is accurate, I’ll take you to get an ice cream after dinner.”

  Lex scrunched up his face as he contemplated whether it was safe to reveal what he knew.

  “Okay. She’s using a gun. Mostly targeting big cities because she can do a few murders before moving onto the next city. With all the gunshot wounds reported in each city, nobody in the FBI was trying to look for that type of weapon among all the other reports. It’s a common weapon, and we tend to think of serial killers as having a weapon that’s more…unusual.”

  When no one stopped him, Lex continued, closing his eyes. “She’s sad and hurt. There isn’t anyone stopping the monsters, and so she’s going to take care of them. The Zodiac Master has made it possible for her to smoothly take out those that don’t deserve to be here in this world any longer.” Lex’s eyes popped open. “Can we get pizza? I’m hungry.”

  All of us adults were focused on him, and when he changed the subject, it startled me.

  Galen grinned and ruffled his hair. “Sure thing, kiddo. Pineapple and ham on yours?”

  “Yeah. Can I go play video games until it gets here?” Lex stuck out his bottom lip, hoping it would help.

  “Of course. Run along.”

  He’d almost made it to the hall when Galen called his name. “Lex? If you see anything else, please let me know. Don’t hold it back because you’re scared of what’s going to happen. Everyone in this room will believe you and do their best to get the information where it needs to go, okay?”

  “Yes, sir,” Lex answered as he disappeared down the hall.

  “That kid.” Galen shook his head in frustration. “He’s so gifted, but all those years of hiding who he is have made him nervous.”

  “Don’t worry about it. He’ll get the hang of it. How could he not when he’s got a great dad and uncle?” Leslie encouraged.

  “With that new information, we can run a different set of perimeters to find our killer. How could we have missed that it was a woman instead of a man?” I wasn’t sure that we were working as well as we had in the past. That made for sloppy detective work, and I wanted to make sure that we caught him.

  “Think about it. He knew we’d be looking for a man, which is why those suffocation deaths didn’t hit our radar as being the correct theme. He’s trying to make it harder for us to find him. Also, with a weapon like a gun, there would have to be a specific message attached. The local police aren’t going to be looking for that in the same way we would. They may not even realize that it’s important to their case.”

  “Does this mean that we can’t expect the same MO each month?” I couldn’t believe that he’d changed things that drastically.

  Leslie shook her head. “I don’t think so. He’s just using the six-month mark to change it up. I’m going to bet that next month will be a male killer again. The question is, if he’s using guns, what else can he come up with?”

  Galen looked up from his phone after placing the pizza order. “He’s counting on the fact that we’re going to be chasing our tails. Even if we heard about a female killer, we wouldn’t have paid attention to it.”

  “The problem we’re looking at is that a gun murder, or even an attempt, happens every day. There are over three hundred people a day that are shot with at least a hundred dying. That overloads the system when we’re looking for a specific type of weapon,” Adam explained.

  “We can run it through the system and look for another match. There has to be something in common between the Leo killer’s crime scenes.” Leslie stood, looking out the front door to make sure nothing was out of the ordinary.

  “Leslie,” Flora said softly. “Sweetie, I know that you’re trying to protect us all, but you can’t keep this paranoia going. It’s not good for you.”

  “Um…” She shifted away from the door self-consciously. “I hadn’t realized I was doing it.”

  “The other cops in the room probably didn’t notice because they’d been contemplating it themselves, but we can see the layer of worry that’s not normal for you,” Shea added.

  “It’s a habit, and I’m going to be watching over my shoulder for the next five months unless we catch this monster before then. I’m going to move on, but I can’t guarantee that there won’t be a few extra things that I have to do to be able to cope with Chris’s death.” She sat back on the floor.

  “You don’t have to cope with this all on your own. I’m going to suggest that Agent Watson send you to a meditation camp at the end of the month. You need to purge the old out and work on the healing process,” Adam announced.

  “Look, I appreciate it, but I don’t need to meditate. I need to find this killer.”

  A knock on the door made her jump, her hand on her gun before anyone else could even register that there was someone at the door.

  “Maybe you’re right,” she acknowledged sheepishly. “I’m going to hurt someone if I don’t settle down.”

  I smiled. “I’m marking this day on the calendar for future arguments. You admitted that someone else was right in front of witnesses.”

  Galen had gone to the door and made sure it was the pizza guy. He paid and turned back toward us with six pizzas. “I hope this is enough?”

  Lex scrambled into the room, alerted by the knock. “I hope that you guys can share one of those pizzas, because this one’s mine.”

  “I think we can manage.” I laughed. “Just make sure the pregnant lady gets her own pizza, and the rest of us should be safe from violence.”

  Shea blushed. “Hey, I can’t help that I’m eating for two, can I?”

  “Don’t let the guys get to you.” Flora put her arm around Shea as they walked to the counter for plates. “Us girls have got your back. I think our odds are pretty even at the moment.”

  “Watson just messaged again. I’m going to tell him that we’ll all be there in the morning, and that we may have information that’ll give us a lead on the killer.”

  “Sounds good, but where are Flora and Shea going to be while we’re chasing this killer?” I took the plate Lex handed me and scanned the pizzas.

  “I have just the place,” Flora informed us. “My family has a place on the outskirts of the metroplex. We’d be welcome, and anyone that came after us would have a hard time getting through a Romani tribe without someone being alerted. The shields they have in place should protect us, and they have a midwife in case anything happens with the baby for Shea.”

  “What do you think, honey?” The word ‘midwife’ had so many interpretations, but it wasn’t my body, so I’d let her make that decision. If she felt comfortable among the Romani people, then I’d be okay with that as well.

  “Well, it’s a few months before the baby’s due, but it might be nice to have other moms around who’ve had babies show me the ropes.” Shea nodded as she put ranch dressing all over her pizza.

  “Adam, are you okay with this solution?” He and Flora might have just gotten together, but he’d been emotionally invested for the past few weeks as he sat at her bedside.

  “I only have one problem with the idea. Lex, would you be willing to go with Flora and Shea somewhere that you would be able to learn about your gift? There’s an entire group of people who are just
like us, and they’ll help you figure out how to use it in the best way.” Adam looked at his nephew to see what his response would be.

  Lex just shrugged. “Do they have electricity? I’m not going anywhere without my video games.”

  “Fair enough.” I thought I might have made that stipulation when I was his age.

  “Can you call them and see if that’s okay with them?” Adam slid his arm around Flora’s shoulders.

  “Done. They’re okay with it.”

  I didn’t want to know how she did that, but if we were good to go, then I could do my job without worrying as much.

  “Leslie and Ryan can stay here with us while you two are gone. Strength in numbers and all that.” Galen motioned around with his slice of pizza.

  “But I don’t want to do that,” Leslie protested.

  “I’m pretty sure it’s not up for debate. We’ve got a killer targeting us, and you lost someone close to you today. You don’t need to be alone tonight. After tomorrow, I’m certain that we’ll be on the road, and there won’t be a chance to worry about it.”

  “Okay. I guess I don’t have a choice,” Leslie grumbled.

  “Whoa, you don’t see either Flora or Shea complaining because we’re putting them in a safe place, do you?”

  “No, I’m just being selfish. Let’s get them moved safely and call it a day. I’m suddenly exhausted.” She shoved her half-eaten pizza onto the coffee table.

  “You can use Lex’s room for tonight. That is, if you can handle the smell from a tween boy’s unwashed clothes,” Galen offered.

  “Dad, my clothes are clean, and they don’t smell,” Lex huffed.

  “I’m sure I’ll manage. Thanks, kid.” She walked down the hall and disappeared before anyone could say anything.

  “Do you think she’ll be okay?” Shea asked hopefully.

  “Eventually, but it’s still fresh. She just needs some time,” Adam reassured.

  Chapter 8

  Leslie

  I knew everyone had been worried about me, but I fell onto Lex’s bed and passed out immediately. It wasn’t until Adam’s voice called from the doorway that I knew I’d slept through the night. Somehow, that didn’t seem fair. How could I sleep when Chris was gone?