Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

  Near the janitor’s room in the supply closet was the breaker box. The switches were labeled East, West, North, and South. I worked with computers, not geological positions.

  Closing my eyes, I pushed one of them into the off position before opening them again. With a quick jog out to the cubicle area, I could tell it wasn’t the right one, so it had to be the next one over.

  I flipped it back on and turned the next one off.

  “Bob, did that do it?” I called into the darkened portion of the large room.

  There was so answer. I was prepared to call for an ambulance when I got back over to where he was in one of the few offices.

  “That was really close. I’m lucky to be alive.” He backed up until he found the desk chair and took a seat.

  “Why on earth were you holding live wires like that?” I couldn’t imagine how much stupid it took to do that in the first place.

  “Honestly, I thought they were computer wires until you walked in. I wouldn’t have thought about the fact that they might be electrical until you said something.”

  “This is why we pay electricians to do this kind of stuff.” I took a look around, holding my phone up to give us some light. “We’d better get an emergency crew in here now to fix this, and then see what was causing your problems in the first place.”

  It was really sad that I knew how to do Bob’s job for him.

  Ten minutes and a few phone calls later, we had a couple of people coming to fix whatever Bob had ruined in his attempt to make things better.

  “Geeze, you sure know how to ruin a guy’s weekend, don’t you?” I joked as we waited for them to get there.

  “I honestly thought that if we unplugged everything and re-plugged it in, it would jump-start the system. Didn’t mean to keep you from your plans,” he apologized, wiping the sweat from his forehead.

  “Well,” I conceded, “I didn’t really have anything going on anyway, but I’m going to take the extra hours off on Monday.”

  “Yeah, whatever you need. I could have been killed and been here all weekend before they found me.”

  “I don’t think it would have been quite that bad. They do have cleaners that come in at night.”

  The elevator door opened, and two guys with tool belts walked out.

  “Over here.” I stepped out of the office and waved in the dim light.

  “Got it,” one of the called back as they made their way toward us.

  “What seems to be the problem?” He shined a bright flashlight into the room, almost blinding us.

  “Bob here thought it would be a great idea to start moving wires around, and he almost had them using him as a conduit.”

  The repair guy shook his head. “You’re lucky, Bob. Let us get a look and we’ll get you hooked up.”

  Bob nodded as he carefully walked around the desk and out into the open room.

  “So what was wrong with the computers that you wanted to reboot them?” I questioned curiously.

  “I’m not sure, it was just a feeling I got. Every time I’d log in, it would appear twice and then disappear immediately.”

  “Sounds like someone was trying to hack into your system. I’ll have to run a few tests when they get the electricity up and working, but there’s a way to block that from happening. I’ll need to add a few protocols to make sure that the security is doing its job properly.”

  “These computers are so much smarter than me, and every time we call tech, they always start with unplugging or restarting things.”

  “True. But that still doesn’t explain why you were messing with wires up in the ceiling to begin with.”

  “I turned the computer off, and then unplugged everything. There was a buzz up in the ceiling. I was afraid that we’d been bugged. It’s crazy, I know, but I just couldn’t get it out of my head once the thought was there. So I climbed up to investigate, and then yanked on one set. I lost my balance, and the next thing I knew, I was holding wires in both hands.”

  It sounded like Bob had been doing a little more than just trying to fix a possible problem. I was pretty sure he’d been doing drugs, which was what caused this to happen. While it could have been a dangerous incident, I wasn’t in the mind to turn him in when I was the one doing undercover work in the same company.

  There weren’t any bugs in the wiring, but the subrouters I’d installed worked just as well for what I needed.

  He seemed a little on edge, and kept pacing while they were doing the work.

  “Bob, why don’t you go ahead and go on home for the night. I can handle the reboot and get things going with the tech passwords. I think you’ll feel a lot better if you get some rest.”

  He looked around as if just noticing the emptiness of the room. “I guess that would be okay. No point in both of us missing out on a fun Friday night. You sure you got this?”

  “That’s what you pay me for,” I quipped back.

  “All right, you don’t have to twist my arm.” He glanced toward the room where they were working. “We don’t have to mention this, do we?”

  “I certainly don’t know what happened, but we got the computer problem fixed. It’s a good thing we caught it before the weekend, or we could have had a fire break out.”

  “Thanks, man.” He clapped me on the back. “I appreciate it.”

  Whatever he’d been on must not have been that strong, because I was pretty sure he’d been scared sober. He was going to have to do a lot more to block out what he’d just been through.

  Now it was just me and the repair guys. “How’s it looking in there?”

  “Is that idiot gone yet?”

  “If you mean Bob, then yes.” I tried to keep the grin off my face.

  “It’s a good thing you didn’t try to fix this yourself. These wires were all messed up. This was also up there, and it doesn’t go to anything. I’ve never seen anything like it before.” He tossed me a small connector that spliced into wires which worked to monitor transmissions from any given source.

  Bob hadn’t been paranoid as I’d thought. Or maybe, he was the one who was trying to plant it.

  I shook my head as that thought crossed my mind. He was too dumb to plant anything like that, and he’d been genuinely scared when he realized that he was holding live wires. Someone else had put it up there to keep an eye on Bob’s actions.

  He did have a higher security clearance than most of the people on his floor because he was a supervisor. Yet, most of the stuff I’d pulled from his computer had been routine. Maybe it deserved a closer look after all.

  “There, we’ve got you put back together. I’ll go flip the breaker and make sure that we did it right.”

  His partner finished putting up the ceiling tiles and closing the ladder they’d brought with them.

  Suddenly, the entire area was filled with light, and I squinted as my eyes tried to adjust.

  “I don’t envy you having to stay longer on a Friday. At least we kept you from blowing things up.” They waved at me as they left, and I took a seat behind Bob’s desk.

  It was a little eerie knowing that I was alone now, but it was better to not have someone looking over my shoulder as I turned Bob’s computer on.

  Sure enough, Bob had turned his computer completely off, which had saved it from losing all the information on it. Stretching out my arms and rolling my shoulders helped to keep me from having problems when working for long hours in the same position.

  Even though Bob wasn’t the brightest in the tech department, I was betting that he knew more about the inner workings of the company than he’d let on.

  On a hunch, I opened the drawer on the right, hoping to find his password. It wasn’t there, but when I moved the keyboard, I noticed a piece of paper sticking out.

  “Ah-ha!” I threw a fist in the air. “I knew he wasn’t that smart.”

  Typing in the password took a few minutes off of what I normally had to do to gain access to locked files.

  I slid my special USB drive int
o the slot. It started working through all the files, looking for ones that held anything important. While everything was being scanned to transfer, I saw a folder labeled “P.”

  “No way.” I double clicked on the folder, only to find it full of pictures of scantily dressed or nude teens.

  “That sicko.” Any remorse I might have had about hacking into his system faded when I found that folder. I pulled it into the files to transfer as more evidence, because now, Bob was on my list as an accessory to child porn.

  Whether we took down the company immediately or six months from now, I was going to turn this into Barbie and let her and the cybercrime division do what they did best with this kind of scum.

  He was going to be in a world of hurt on Monday when he came to work and turned on his computer. In fact, I could help things along, so I sent the file to everyone’s inbox. They would ask me about it later, and I could honestly say it happened when I turned it on.

  A sound out in the cubicles had me glancing up to see what was going on, but I couldn’t see anything specific to worry about. It was time to finish what I was doing and shut things down.

  I pocketed the USB and the small device that I needed to turn into Agent Watson. He could decide what kind of person or group was spying on us and what we were doing.

  Turning the lights out as I left, the sixth floor became oppressive with only the hallway lights for guidance. The brightly lit elevator was a welcome relief, and I fingered the small pepper spray canister on my keychain.

  It was a nervous habit from not being allowed to have a gun when out in the field, but needing to have something to protect myself with.

  The night guard in the lobby gave me a quick wave as I walked past him and toward the parking garage.

  This company might not be hiding anything, but they certainly kept a large amount of security cameras and guards to indicate otherwise.

  I couldn’t wait until Monday morning to see the look on Bob’s face when he realized that his problem was in the entire sixth floor’s inboxes.

  Chapter 2

  Ryan

  After another hospital visit by Leslie, I thought I was prepared for anything, but her silent absence was telling.

  The betrayal by yet another person in her life had seemed to take the life out of her again. While I sincerely hoped that her mental health had recovered from losing her boyfriend to the Leo killer, I knew what I would have been feeling if our places had been reversed.

  I wanted to be there for her, but with Shea being close to having the baby, it was difficult to get away. Adam had made a few trips over to her house with Flora and said that she was fine.

  Having never met a woman that was really “fine,” even though she’d said the words, made me worry. This last case had been really hard on all of us, as we’d watched a room full of people die, and there was nothing we could do about it.

  Each month, this Zodiac Master was finding new ways to torture us as we slowly gained more information about who he was and why he was doing this.

  We’d lost people who were important to us because we were close to them. As detectives—though each life that was extinguished by the action of this man took another little chunk of our souls—I was worried that Leslie had closed herself off and was becoming unattached to the situation around us.

  This was what drove me to leave the generous hospitality of the Demeter’s Ranch and head into town. I had a briefing with Agent Watson to find out what we were doing to stop this madman before this month’s killer could get started on their killing spree.

  Although, there had been some doubt as to the trustworthiness of the agent, he was still the one heading up the investigation from the FBI’s side, and I couldn’t afford to be on his bad side.

  Adam had suggested that we continue to act as if nothing was wrong until we had proof that he was the one leaking information to the other side. We had considered feeding him bogus intel to see if there was a nibble on his end, because it would at least give us a place to start working from.

  All the familiar people that we’d worked with over the past few months since joining forces with the FBI were gathered in the conference room, including Leslie.

  “I’m sure you’re all wondering where we stand,” Agent Watson began, getting the meeting started. “We lost a lot of good people last week. There’s no getting around the fact that at every turn, the Zodiac Master has outsmarted us.”

  “No, sir,” Leslie interrupted. “He’s not outsmarting us. He’s simply playing by the rules that have been set, that keep our hands tied as agents and detectives. We’re going to have to get a lot more aggressive and be prepared to cross a few lines to get the needed results. The time for being passive is gone. We’ve been letting him guide us. It’s time for us to take the offensive and move onto his turf, which should make him uncomfortable.” Several agents shifted nervously. “I know what you’re all thinking, that I’ve gone crazy. We’re supposed to uphold the law, and you’re right. We’re the ones who bring justice to those wronged and make sure that criminals get what they deserve.” She surveyed the room before adding, “Through legal means.”

  “How exactly to you propose to do that, Detective?” Agent Watson asked in exasperation.

  “By thwarting his every move.”

  A hand was raised from the back of the room. “I thought that was what we’d been doing all along, Detective Boxe.”

  “He’s written the story, and now he’s watching it all unfold. It’s time for the tables to turn, and we’re going to manipulate the events so that we have the upper hand. We’d almost accomplished that this month, but I underestimated just how much he wants us to suffer. He likes to see our reactions—he craves it.”

  “If he figured it out this month and used it against us, then how are we going to do the same when we don’t even have you to use as bait this time?” Adam questioned, knowing where Leslie was going was going with this.

  It wasn’t fair that they could communicate psychically, leaving the rest of us in the dark. I guess it did give us the chance to have a genuine reaction and make the mole think we hadn’t planned it.

  “He’s showed his hand by letting me live. He wants to see what I’m going to do. Not to be conceded, but his sole focus is on what I’m doing, or what I’m going to do.” A wicked smile crossed her lips. “I’m going to be doing a lot of things that will put the heat on him. He’s going to beg to meet with me again.”

  Adam and Leslie hadn’t told me all of their plan, but I knew that Adam had been checking into the FBI databases to find a list of all the weapons used thus far, and we had narrowed things down to only a few new creative ones that we would need to start searching for.

  The most obvious choices were off the list—guns, knives, poison, etc., and there had even been a few that were a little more unusual. I mean, I don’t think I’d ever heard of someone using nunchucks to kill someone, but then again, I didn’t deal with this kind of homicidal maniac on a regular basis. Most of the murders that came through the Ft. Worth Homicide Division were domestic or gang related.

  Until these murders had started over nine months before, the deaths we investigated weren’t that difficult to solve because the killers had no idea how to cover their tracks.

  The Zodiac Master not only took the time to train his recruits, but he made sure the he killed them before they could give us any information about him or the next month’s killer.

  Once it had been determined that this case, or cases, were bigger than we had the resources for, the FBI had stepped in to lend a hand. We had certainly benefited from their help, but we weren’t much closer to finding the mastermind behind the process.

  There had been a few instances where we’d saved a few lives, but compared to the amount of deaths and destruction that were being left in the Zodiac Master’s wake, it felt like only a drop in the bucket.

  Until now, we’d been able to keep the murders away from the media, but the massive amount of deaths in the same da
y by the Virgo killer had brought unwanted attention to our investigation.

  Their families were demanding that we find out who had done this and why their family members were dead.

  Agent Watson had explained that they were all the victims of a large conspiracy, and were given “vitamins” that caused their deaths. Since we had a confession of sorts, Watson had been able to blame it on the missing psychologist, and that the FBI had no knowledge that he had planned to massacre the group.

  The Happy Hills Rehabilitation Facility would probably close permanently and reopen as some other type of resort after the devastating ordeal had time to die down.

  The killers had kept to a few single victims in any one area, and the FBI had been able to prove the suspect was in custody, or had died in the process.

  This last month had been on such a large public scale that there was no way to cover up what had happened.

  I wasn’t sure if the Zodiac Master was enjoying the publicity, or if he was hoping it would all die down so he could get back to the act of killing more people.

  Leslie was outlining a plan to draw him in so that we could get close enough to catch him.

  “We’ve determined that he’s going to use some type of blade, or some type of blunt object, which could be anything already at the crime scene. If he holds true to the pattern, we should have a female killer, and she’ll have a past that makes her hate men. Look for any men between the ages of 20-45 who are killed with something unusual. We’re ruling out guns, knives, and poison. Anything else, or a variation of them, is up for grabs. If you find two deaths that have a similar death pattern, we’re going to analyze it quickly and decide if that’s the correct weapon.”

  “Most of the murders have been committed in different states. Do you think he’s going to have them go back to that pattern?” Agent Scott asked, sensing the tension in the room.

  “I believe that he likes order, and may even be slightly OCD. He can’t stray too far from the pattern or it will cause problems in other ways. His last two killers have focused more in the south, so I’m thinking we should focus on towns in the Northeast or Northwest. While he does have a pattern, he’s also not stupid, and doesn’t want to have people on the lookout for his killer.”