Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

  I began to imagine a guide rushing to lead me on a journey. She was tall, and had on a flowing dress that seemed to give off a glow.

  Since she was something I could see, I took off after her, anxious to find out where we were going.

  We walked through a cloudy type of fog and appeared on the other side in a clear field covered in gravestones.

  “What is this?” I asked her.

  She placed a finger to her lips and continued until she was standing in front of a headstone with my name on it.

  “This is your future if you don’t stop the Zodiac Master. He is just a man, and the evil he is spreading must be wiped out.”

  I watched as the name on the headstone changed to Ryan, and then to Adam. Each person that I considered to be important in my life flickered across like a headline updating current events.

  “How do I change our future?” I whispered.

  “Learn to control your powers. He is afraid of the very thing that you possess. Use it against him.” She must have sensed my confusion because she took my hand and led me farther across the field and into the forest.

  She touched my heart. “Love.” Then she moved her fingers to my temples. “Wisdom.” My arms were next. “Strength and courage. Don’t let him douse the flame for justice that you hold within you. It’s what gives you the motivation to see evil wiped out. Stay strong and use your gifts.” She disappeared as quickly as she appeared, and I repeated each of what she had said quietly.

  “Love, wisdom, strength, and courage while using my gifts.” As soon as the words left my mouth, a warm, tingly sensation began to move from each place until my entire body was floating in a glowing light.

  “Wow!” I whispered, even though I felt like shouting at the renewed sense of purpose flowing through my body. “We’ve got this.”

  A voice echoed around me. “When you lose your focus, you lose your sense of purpose, and the goal can never be achieved. Stay the course.”

  The glow stayed with me as I floated back down to earth and felt the ground underneath me again. Opening my eyes, I found Mark sitting across from me with a smile.

  “You’ve been given the spirit’s blessing for your journey. They want to help you. Are you ready to begin?”

  “Begin? I thought I was already on the journey?” I replied in my head.

  In the same manner, he advised, “Now, you are ready. Reach out and take my hands so we can find the person that you seek.” He held his hands out, waiting for me to take them.

  Trust. It wasn’t something you could hold back in the spirit world, but it did take a leap of faith.

  With growing confidence, I placed my hands in his. “I’m ready.”

  “Let us begin,” he intoned, and it was as if a gong had gone off in the room.

  We were tossed into a vast expanse, similar to the sky filled with stars. Some blinked red, while others were various shades of purple, green, blue, and even yellow. It was such a beautiful cosmos of color.

  “Focus on the red, gray, or black dots.”

  I hadn’t even noticed the super dark colors, but now that he’d mentioned it, I could feel the anger and evil coming from those very stars.

  “They’re not good people.” I backed away, unsure if their emotions could spread to me across the empty space.

  “No, they’re not. We have to find him, to see what we can learn from observing him. Your spirit friend knows him. Have her concentrate on finding him.”

  “Mary Ann, do you see the Zodiac Master?” I tugged open the door of the room she was staying in, hoping she would come out.

  Her spirit was a gray swirl. It didn’t feel threatening, which was probably due to the fact that she was indeed dead already, but she moved out to stand beside me.

  “Are there any that completely repel you or draw you closer? Use the connection that you feel to help you narrow it down,” Mark instructed gently.

  I took a deep breath and grabbed Mary Ann’s hand, pulling her along with me as I began to examine all the colored stars around me.

  “The evil coming from most of them isn’t good, but I’m not feeling anything besides disgust when I approach them.”

  “This person that you’re looking for has a deep connection to you, and when you find him, you won’t be able to go anywhere else.”

  Nodding, I continued searching and noticed a black knot forming off to the side, and it started growing, distracting me, almost pulling me toward it.

  “You’ve found him.” Mark gestured at the growing black knot. “Now, embrace it.”

  “Won’t that make me evil?”

  “No, it will let you see what he’s thinking right now.”

  I started to panic at the thought of him knowing I was looking at his thoughts.

  “He might sense something, but he shouldn’t be able to see you. I’m right here if you need to be pulled out.” Mark gave my hand a squeeze to reassure me.

  “Here it goes.” The pull of that horrible looking black thing was irresistible.

  For a moment, all I could see was complete darkness, until I focused harder, and then everything turned to a whitish-gray.

  “You’ve done well, Zesty.” He popped a few of her favorite candy corn treats into his mouth.

  Holy crap! I was seeing everything through his eyes. It felt like I was him.

  “How did your first assignment go?” I looked her up and down, admiring the view. She was a fine-looking woman, but I was committed to making Leslie mine.

  What?

  “Oh, you should have seen him. He was begging me not to kill him, and apologizing for something he thought he did. Sounded to me like he had a guilty conscience.” She gave me a catlike grin. “I just put him out of his misery a little earlier than the grim reaper had planned.”

  “Ready for the next step?” I asked eagerly.

  “Why do you think they call me Zesty? I’m always ready for murder and mayhem.”

  “Good.” I handed her a list of potential victims. “Go forth and sprinkle a little zest into the lives of these men. I’m anxious to find out what they have on their guilty consciousness’.”

  As she reached to take the list, I pulled it back, out of reach, and leaned forward. “Don’t screw up. I want the detectives to be on your trail, but not close enough to actually catch you.”

  “Aw, how sweet of you to worry about me. You really shouldn’t, though, because I’ve seen your face, and one night I might just have to pay you a visit.” She gave me a wink that left little to the imagination.

  Leslie would never be that crude, but it wasn’t a good idea to let a killer like Zesty know about that.

  “Unexpected visitors might just get what they’re looking for, but I’d hate for us to miss out on terrorizing the men on that list. After all, I’m curious to see what a skilled killer such as yourself can do with the cops on your trail.”

  She perched her hip on the edge of my desk. “You wouldn’t happen to be giving them clues so that they find me more easily, are you?”

  “Now, how fair would it be in the game to do that?” I shook my head no. “I’m counting on you to make such a splash, they’ll find you all by themselves. They can be very determined, and I don’t think you’ll find them as easy to outwit as the cops you’ve been jerking around for the past few years.”

  “Hmm, so sexy,” she purred. “I’ll bet you could go on for hours. A man such as yourself would think of all sorts of games to keep us occupied.”

  I backed away in a hands-off gesture, but she continued. “I know you’re off-limits until we’re done playing our game, but that’s just going to make it so much sweeter when the time comes, don’t you think?”

  All I could think was that I wanted to kill her myself, but she had to take care of these people first.

  “I’m sure that you’ll come up with plenty of ideas for us to work with when it’s time to get your reward.”

  His feelings were so intense that I jumped out of the black dust cloud of his mind,
bypassing the psychic realm, and was back in Mark Hernandez’s home.

  I dropped his hands, panting hard, as if I’d run miles instead of visiting the mind of a psychopath.

  “Well, did you find what you were looking for?” he asked gently.

  “I’m not really sure. It was so different being in his head and hearing his thoughts and words as if they were my own. He’s chosen the new killer, Zesty. I think that’s her professional name and she’s killed before, which is why he’s chosen her.”

  I sat back as the realization hit me. “He loves me. Zesty was coming onto him, and while he appreciated her beauty, he wasn’t into her. It made him sick to have to keep working with her, but he needs her to keep his agenda on track.”

  I shivered, trying to shake off his feelings. He felt something for me. I’d called it love, but it certainly didn’t feel that way to me. I wanted to take a shower and get rid of the dirty feeling.

  The door behind me opened, and Maria peeked her head inside. “Yes, Señor?”

  “Please, help Leslie to her room, and then tell Adam I’ll join him shortly.”

  “Yes, Señor. Ma’am?” she questioned, looking toward me.

  I started to get up, but my body had no strength left.

  She walked over and helped me up, letting me lean on her as she led me away.

  “You’ll feel better after some rest. They always do when progress is made,” she advised, trying to soothe me.

  “Thank you. These psychic sessions always take more out of me then I expect.”

  “Because you don’t let go completely. You must give in. When you don’t, it makes the spirits work twice as hard to get you the information you need. Now, you just rest, and when you get up, I’ll have some food ready.” She helped me to the bed and reached down to take off my shoes. “There, now,” she cooed, pulling the covers up to my chin. “May the Mother bless your dreams.”

  When the door closed, I felt my tears fall from my eyes and onto the pillow. I felt such hate for a man who claimed to love me. There wasn’t a way for me to get rid of the thoughts running through my mind, so while I didn’t necessarily believe in the Mother, I focused my thoughts on her.

  Singing filled my ears as I closed my eyes, concentrating on something good.

  Chapter 4

  Zesty

  The door shut behind me and I tried to shake off the anger I felt. The almighty Zodiac Master had just signed his death warrant. It was one thing for him to say he wasn’t interested in me, but if he was so interested in this Leslie chick, then I might have to set some time aside and meet her face-to-face.

  My heeled boots made a clicking noise as I left the building with his list clutched in my hand. All the men listed were sentenced to death by association with their zodiac sign.

  It wasn’t really my concern who died, I was just happy to have a job that paid me to do what I loved. I’d been killing people for years—some just for fun, and others were for hire.

  The Zodiac Master—as he called himself—was gaining a reputation in the underground about his monthly recruits. Each one had managed to kill for the better portion of a month, yet all but one were now dead. Eight killers, and seven of them had met an interesting death.

  No one could pin the murders on the man recruiting the actual killers, but it couldn’t be a coincidence that they were dying before the cops had a go at them.

  I got into my rented Jeep and drove back to the hotel where I’d left my laptop. When I was out on a job, I had to drive whatever the rental companies had, but when I was home, I enjoyed driving my Bugatti. Jobs like this helped to pad my bank accounts, but honestly, I didn’t have to work because my family was one of the richest in the state.

  Used to the finer things in life, I was what most people would term a “spoiled princess.” They just hadn’t met me on a dark street.

  Everyone would be surprised to find out that I was a diva invested in fashion, who had taken the opportunity offered to me when I was young to train with my bodyguards. My father had allowed it because the possibility of me being kidnapped at some point was a very real danger for someone with our kind of money.

  The guards had laughed at first. They helped me through many humorous attempts to learn, but as I got better with every lesson, they started to take me seriously.

  After I’d taken out half the guards in one session, I’d laughingly told them I was going to take it easy on them as they laid on the mats, gasping for breath.

  I’d taken to sneaking out for lessons with one of the greats, but I hadn’t told him my name. As I’d gotten older and traveled all over the world, others had recommended masters in Tae Kwon Do and other forms of martial arts, but I’d settled for one of the deadliest—Krav Maga.

  When I shed the expectations of my family’s name and was able to move freely with my alter ego, I’d enjoyed the energy that living with a second identity brought to my life.

  The only thing I let overlap to both parts of my life was the need to eat constantly. My poor mother had worried about it for years and complained that I was going to lose my perfect figure, but with all the training that I did in my own home, out of sight of the family, I honestly needed the calories. Candy corn was my addiction, and it wasn’t something that I was going to give up anytime soon.

  I booted up my laptop and put in a few extra keywords that might help me get some insight into the man I was now working for.

  His online history was pretty bleak, and from the lack of information, one could only assume that he’d had someone come in and clean out any references that could be traced back to him.

  He was serious about no one knowing who he was, and I was willing to bet that whoever had done the scrubbing of his mentions on the internet was no longer of this world.

  If I couldn’t find anything on him, maybe I could find something on his crush, Leslie Boxe. She was a detective from the same area I’d grown up in, and would be much easier to find. I might even be able to meet her in a not so Zesty capacity.

  This had just gotten more interesting. Now, to get a good night’s sleep before getting to work on the names from my list.

  ***

  A daylight killing was something new for me, but I was willing to up the ante and add a little more Zest to my job.

  Eugene, Oregon was one of the few on the list labeled as a Sun Libra due to the fact that the city had been founded on a certain latitude and longitude.

  I had to give the guy credit, he had given this killing thing a lot of thought, and had really worked to include anything that fell into the zodiac signs’ guidelines.

  Larson Teller was about to get a visit that would change his life.

  Arriving early enough that I had to wait for him to leave work, I sat there, eating a bag of my favorite candy.

  There he was, right on time. All the information on each man was meticulous, telling me everything I needed to know about them, down to the type of toothpaste they used. I wasn’t sure who had done the research, but they’d done a very thorough job.

  Larson moved into traffic and headed to his regular stop for coffee. He never saw me move into position behind him.

  He went inside and I waited, perched on the hood of his car, just out of sight at the side of the building.

  One of those who preferred to interact with people, he went to a small shop where he could go inside and pay cash for his purchase.

  My presence startled him, causing him to splash coffee over his hand once he arrived back at his vehicle.

  “Who are you, and why are you sitting on my car?” he demanded.

  “I’m your executioner.” I lifted my katana and swung, taking him completely off-guard.

  While I was sure that he had some last words, I’d decided to skip the pleading and get straight to the point by making his head roll.

  I used candy corn to outline his body like the police did with chalk. I couldn’t take as much time because I didn’t want to get caught, but I wanted to leave some kind of message.<
br />
  Playing around with these detectives was going to be extremely gratifying.

  On to the next place for another birthday surprise.

  Chapter 5

  Leslie

  When I woke up, it was to the smell of pancakes and coffee. I had slept for twenty-four hours straight.

  I swung my feet over the side of the bed, wanting to test how I felt before trying to stand up. There didn’t seem to be any dizziness or aftereffects other than that my entire body ached like I’d run a marathon the day before.

  Unsure of where to go to find Adam, if he was even in the house still, I opened the door cautiously. I felt naked without my phone and gun in a strange place.

  “Ah, Señorita, you’re awake. Breakfast is ready if you’re feeling up to it this morning.” Maria smiled brightly.

  “I’m starving. Is my friend Adam still here?” I fell into step beside her as she bustled toward the kitchen.

  “Yes. He and Señor Mark are both at the table.”

  “Thank you…gracias.” I nodded at her. While I didn’t speak Spanish, there was no way you wouldn’t pick up a few words here and there living in the state of Texas.

  “Leslie, I’m glad you’re up. How are you feeling after getting a good night’s sleep?” Mark rose and pulled out a chair for me.

  “Quite well. It was the first dreamless sleep I’ve had in a while, actually,” I confessed. “What did you two do while I was out?”

  “Mark and I discussed a few things about the case. He’s pretty impressed with your latent gifts. The fact that they’ve been dormant and are now showing such strength means that you’re going to be someone powerful.” He winked. “If we can get you trained more, you’ll make a great addition to my team.”

  “Adam,” I protested, “I’m not sure I’m ready for that kind of thing right now.”

  “You should listen to him. He is more powerful than he lets on.” Mark sipped his coffee while raising his eyebrows in Adam’s direction.

  “Way to throw me under the bus like that,” Adam tossed back.