by Paris Morgan
“See, that’s the other thing: Hope. She’s just a baby, but I want something that’s mine. Someone who I can teach about what’s good and evil. Someone who can learn to love and not become so resistant to the idea of it that they don’t know how to function in the world without it. Hope and love are what changed my mind.”
I pulled up to the house and walked around the car to Noah’s side, meeting him as he got out.
“I’ve changed my mind again,” I whispered, inches from his lips.
“Yeah? How so?”
“Come inside and you’ll see.” I pulled him with me into the house and closed the door. Working on the case could wait. I needed something life-affirming, and he was the perfect person for that.
Snapping the lock behind me, I reached forward and cupped my hand behind his head until his lips met mine.
“This is what I saw in my future,” he groaned against my lips, walking backward toward my room.
I blocked out everything else except for the two of us, needing some time without the world intruding in on us.
------
Although it was the middle of the night when I woke up after our “life-affirming” activities, I felt a strong pull to get to work. I’d managed to get a couple of hours in, and for a detective, sometimes that was all we had to work with.
Quietly, I moved the couch around so it was facing my wall and removed the large picture that hung above it.
Arming myself with Post-its and a marker, I began to make a timeline on the wall. I was going to look at the overall picture, and then add things to it as they stuck out to me.
January/Aquarius – First cases of dead women. Met Flora and Ryan in the same day.
Other than it being my first day, nothing really stood out as unusual. Which meant, the Zodiac Master had known when I got my promotion and had planned for my first day.
Hmm, I was going to need more space for information about the Zodiac Master alone.
Starting a pot of coffee, I rearranged more to make it easier to move between the wall of information and the timeline of events.
He knows me. Just my schedule? Events about my life?
Flora had discovered her powers, which had grown to combat a force of evil.
When did I learn about my promotion?
I had to stop and think about that. I’d taken my detective exam in mid-November last year, and found out I had passed the first week of December. “That might have been enough time for him to start planning,” I mused, adding it to the timeline’s beginning.
When we started working the case, he went from having someone kill to get my attention to adding Ryan into the mix. He made it personal by trying to dig into Ryan’s past. Either he’d had lots of time on his hands, or he was rich and could have someone do that for him.
I was thinking he had someone who searched the internet for him, because otherwise, he would have stopped Barbie and Mac from finding the information they had. Even Kevin had been able to unearth more information that the Zodiac Master hadn’t known about based on his other actions.
February/Pisces – Jesse brought Ryan into it from up north. Maybe the ZM hadn’t been trying to get me involved. Maybe he’d just been trying to get Ryan away from here. I had certainly messed up his plan if that was the case.
We’d discovered that the Urban Energy Company was much larger and had numerous corrupt leaders. Even though we’d taken down a cult leader, we hadn’t taken into consideration how passionate the ZM’s recruits would be toward their cause.
He chose them specifically because they were willing to kill, no matter the cost. Or they simply didn’t care enough to worry about the lives they were taking.
March/Aries – Our mysterious case out in California brought us into the fold of the FBI. The whole thing had been a set up. Although, I wasn’t sure who had done the setting up at this point.
It could have been the ZM making things happen in such a way that the FBI had brought us in. Or it might have been John Reed trying to get us to look somewhere else besides his home turf. Now that we knew the ZM was John Reed’s son, it made more sense that he was actually trying to throw some of the heat away from him by having Gavin request us to be on the case.
I wrote a reminder to ask Adam who had called us in to help.
He had followed us to California, so he must have a flexible job that allowed him to leave whenever he wanted, or he worked from a portable office as many people were doing these days, like Jerome.
I added Jerome to the timeline as well. Though he wasn’t really part of this, I didn’t want to miss something because I hadn’t added him to the board. Everything I’d done had caused a chain reaction.
Speaking of forgetting something, I’d gotten flowers from both Jerome and the serial killer. I added it to the wall.
We’d uncovered a serial killer that even the FBI hadn’t found, and formed a new team. That was after I’d gotten run through by an arrow, but that had actually made the ZM mad. He’d taken out our killer all by himself.
I went over to pour a fresh cup of coffee and stood back, looking over what I had already.
He hired people to kill. Wait, did he pay people or just talk them into doing it for him? I wrote another note and stuck it under the questions on the ZM’s wall.
Maybe we could trace him by following the money. It’s what had brought down some of the most famous criminals of all-time, such as Al Capone.
April/Taurus – One of the harder ones to figure out. Maybe it had been because I was still recovering from my wound, but I thought the poor woman who had taken to killing men over the rapids had been way too easy to catch. Then again, I think she just wanted to be put out of her misery.
Adam joining the team was the only thing of value that had happened I could remember, but maybe one of the others might remember something.
May/Gemini – The month of twins, and when I discovered I could see ghosts. My latent talent had come out to scare me when facing one of the bloodiest crime scenes I’d ever seen.
Twins had been a surprising twist, but we’d managed to get a hold of an overlooked piece of their DNA that tied them to the scenes.
June/Cancer – Three things stood out to me. Ryan and Shea found out they were expecting Hope. Just saying her name put a smile on my face, I just wished the ZM had taken me instead of taking her and Shea. Second: We’d met Adam’s brother, Galen. Third: Mary Ann had come to live in my head.
I felt her give way at my acknowledgement as she watched the process unfold.
That had probably been the happiest month, but as they say, “it’s always darkest before the storm.” I’d had no idea what kind of storm was coming my way.
July/Leo – The month had swept me off my feet as I tried to deal with new powers, a voice in my head, and a boyfriend. That was until the ZM killed him. We’d been thrown for a loop when our killers had been women two months in a row. He’d had us completely fooled.
Kevin went undercover and I went into mourning. At least that’s how I saw it, but the time away from the case had in fact been good for me.
“Henry Stevens,” I spat out in disgust. It was so evil that I wanted to wash my own mouth out with soap.
How’d a guy like him get away with so much and not get caught? We had his DNA, which hadn’t hit in the system. All those deaths, and I’d uncovered his own personal burial field, but we still couldn’t catch him.
Rumors had started to fly around FBI Headquarters as others began to question our sanity. I knew we were doing the right thing, but Ryan had been listening to those doubts. In fact, I would be surprised if he returned to active duty, even as an officer on a regular police force. He was going to have PTSD from having his family taken from him.
Was any of this really going to help me find the killer? It had to be someone who was masquerading as a normal person. They’d managed to get listening devices and trackers into most of our homes and vehicles.
Who had been helping him?
Ther
e had to be someone. There was no way he could do all this alone. Someone to run errands for him and make sure all the lists of victims were correct. It was way too big of a job for him to do all by himself.
The ads. That was how he could wade through his killers and not have anything traced back to him. The ads were put out in someone else’s name, and that someone did the early screenings, then sent or showed the ZM the worthwhile prospects.
I knew this was it. I could feel it, that I’d found something we hadn’t been looking at before. He was charming. People didn’t see red flags when they met him.
Ready to dig for more, I realized this was where the dark had gotten thicker. Noah might be my soulmate, but Chris had been a nice guy who didn’t deserve what happened to him.
August/Virgo – The month of my birth. He’d killed the friends I’d made, and I had to watch them, knowing he was going to take them away at any moment. At least he spared me that little bit by taking me for that little drive in his van, but that was hardly a comfort when so many were dead.
In another twist of fate, his recruited killer hadn’t done what he’d been told. He’d wanted to live. Well, that was what he thought before all those people died. I don’t think he’d be able to handle the guilt after a while.
I needed to get Mac to look into his background. The IT techs we had at the FBI weren’t horrible, but nobody could do the job that Kevin had done for us. Mac and Barbie were a team to reckon with, and if it could be discovered, they could find it.
His partner had to have some tech knowledge, because Luigi had been terrified that he’d been found. He must have thought there would be a way to trace him.
September/Libra – Things had gone from bad to worse. We’d hit all the roadblocks that he set up for us, and just when we thought we’d have to give up, something else would be dangled in front of us.
It’s like he doesn’t want us to give up. He wants us to catch him. He’s pleading with us to catch him.
That’s what she was trying to tell us when she took me. I thought she was going to go against his rules and kill me, but she wanted to give me a warning. The only way to do that without him going bonkers was to try to kill me. She’d known I would never have tried to meet with her after she killed Kevin because I wouldn’t trust her.
The door to my room opened, and Noah walked out.
“Do you know it’s five in the morning? What on earth made you get out of bed this early?” He paused as his eyes adjusted to the light. “Whoa, what is all this?” He took in the walls filled with Post-it notes. “You’ve been busy.”
“I told you I was going to reexamine things and see what we’ve overlooked. I’ve even found a few things that might help us root out the ZM from his horrid little hole.” I giggled in excitement and walked to the kitchen to refill my cup for the fourth time.
“Yeah, I think we’re not going to let you have any more of that.” He gently took the cup from my hands. “If you’re going to be awake, we should go out and get you some food. Then, when we get back, you can show me what you’ve discovered.”
I looked around at my walls, noticing they looked like something you might see in an insane asylum.
“Okay, you win.” I pried myself from his arms. “I’ll go get dressed.”
Chapter 4
Noah
Breakfast was amazing, and I listened as she filled me in on all of her theories just as the sun was creeping over the horizon.
“Here comes another day of torture,” she commented with a heavy sigh.
“That doesn’t sound like you. Where’s your hope?” I tilted my head, trying to see what had caused the sudden change in her.
A snort escaped her lips. “She’s gone. All the good things keep leaving. He’s just taking everything away from us. What did we ever do to him?”
Tears began to fall, and from the look on her face, I knew it was only going to go downhill from there. I threw a few dollars over the total on the table and took Leslie’s elbow to guide her out to the car.
I knew something was really wrong when she gave me the keys without protesting. It was like all the happy energy had been sucked right out of her.
Once back at her place, I helped her out of the car and into bed. Since I’d gotten a decent night of sleep, I didn’t need to go back to bed, but I crawled in next to her until she was snoring. Once she was asleep, I went back into the living room to look at all the things she’d written on the walls.
She hadn’t completed the cases because I’d woken up, but honestly, there weren’t many more things that needed to be added.
Her phone rang and I ran into the other room to silence it. Leslie didn’t even stir as I dug around, finally finding it in her back pocket.
“Hello,” I answered in a whisper, “Leslie’s phone.”
“Who’s this? Is this Noah?”
“Yeah,” I replied suspiciously, trying to see the caller ID. “She’s asleep. She’s been up and working for hours. I finally got her to lay down and forgot to turn off the ringer.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I was hoping she was back home and we could all meet for lunch. I know I’m the ex and everything, but I can admit when I’m wrong. Plus, I don’t want to lose her friendship, so I can handle it if you can?” He issued it like it was a challenge to a duel or something.
“Uh, how about I have her call you when she gets up, and then we can see what works for both of you?” I wasn’t going to commit to anything without her saying so.
“Great. I know she needs the rest. She pushes herself so hard when she’s on a case, but you know that already,” he taunted.
“Yep. It’s hard to stop working when people’s life is at stake,” I countered.
“True. I always forget about that part. I just know about the toll it takes on her.”
“Don’t worry,” I assured him. “I totally get it.” That you’re a jerk who can’t let her go, I thought to myself. “I’ll have her call you when she’s up, but it will be a few hours because she just got to sleep.”
“Wonderful. Thank you. Laters.” Jerome hung up and I snarled in the receiver before placing the phone on her nightstand.
“Now to figure out what she was missing,” I mused, putting on a new pot of coffee.
-----
Zodiac Master
I couldn’t believe my good fortune. They still didn’t have a clue who I was or where I’d taken Ryan’s family. This was going to be so much fun.
“Helen!” I yelled from the other room. “How are our prisoners doing?”
She came running in from the office. “Fine, I believe, sir. The cameras are up and working.”
I took a look at the monitor that held four different views of the room with a cell holding Shea inside.
“Where’s the baby? I don’t want her down there where she might catch a cold.”
“Um, about that, s–sir. I kind of got rid of her.”
The veins in my forehead started to pound. “What do you mean, got rid of her?”
“Well, I–I took her to a f–fire station and left her there,” she stammered.
“Why on earth would you do that?” I growled.
She stood up straighter. “I didn’t want you to harm that little baby, and I figured if she wasn’t here, it would take away any temptation you had about the idea.”
“Damn.” I rubbed my chin thoughtfully as I considered that Helen had always done what she was told. “Maybe you’re right. If we threaten the mother with her child, then she’ll behave. Bonus, we can threaten the father to get him to cooperate too. “You can go.” Eyes wide, she left the room in a hurry, shutting the door behind her. “Helen, you’ve been a dear. When I’m about to let things go, I just might let you survive,” I muttered. “Yes, you just might get to live a little while longer.”
Ryan and the gang were due a phone call soon, but I had another couple of things to get finished before I could do that.
Another kidnapping needed to happen, and a video would need
to be made to send to Leslie and Ryan.
After lunch, though, because I was getting hungry, and it was time to give my brother a call.
-----
Noah
The phone rang again and I jumped to turn it off. It wasn’t Leslie’s, it was mine, with the number marked as private.
“Yes, may I help you?” I questioned, frowning.
“Brother, how’s it going?” a deep voice greeted.
“Seriously! You’re calling me when everyone is looking for you? Like we’re old friends or something? I don’t know you, and I don’t want to know you. Turn yourself in, and then we can see about having a nice little chat. Otherwise, I’m not interested.”
“Now, brother, really. Is that any way to treat family?” He let out a deep chuckle. “I have sooo been wanting to have a little brother all these years. Don’t you want to explore our connection better and become a powerhouse team like Adam and his brother, Galen?”
“Um, not really, no. I already have a brother and a family. See, I wasn’t lacking anything like you most certainly are. My family loved me, and I didn’t have to go on a killing spree to try to gain anyone’s attention.”
“Low blow, there, little bro. I had no idea you had so much animosity toward me. I’m going to have to work to change that. But first, we’re going to have to talk about you dating Leslie.”
“What’s there to talk about? She never liked you and she never will. Hmm, what could be the reason she might not want to date you? I wonder if the fact that you’re a killer might have something to do with that.”
“Wow! I’m just wounded. As long as we’re keeping it in the family, just take care of her, okay?”
“Sure. I’d already planned on protecting her from you, so she should be just fine,” I growled, hoping my warning was loud and clear.
