Murders of the Zodiac Boxed Set

by Paris Morgan

  “Sorry, man. I can’t imagine how tough that is.”

  “Yeah, thanks,” I answered robotically as I turned and walked over to where Noah and Adam were checking over the area that had exploded. No one could understand, and they never would. Every little thing reminded me of how close I was to finding them or losing them. I couldn’t take it for one more minute.

  “Adam, I’m going back to the hotel. I can’t do this right now,” I announced, gripping the blanket tightly in my hands.

  He looked up and saw the blanket I was holding.

  “Got it. I’m heading out shortly, but why don’t you take the car? We’ll all ride back together.”

  Without another word, I turned and left him standing there.

  I drove back to the hotel on autopilot, going through the motions. It was a wonder I hadn’t gotten into an accident.

  A horn honking made me realize I was sitting in the driver’s seat, staring into space. The last thing we needed was for me to get kidnapped, or blown up for that matter.

  The hotel room door shut behind me, and I flipped the locks closed. Even clearing the room to make sure that no one was lying in wait was second nature.

  I heeled off my shoes before laying on the bed and looked up at the ceiling.

  What would I do if he really did hurt my family? I wondered.

  I’d almost been convinced that he wasn’t going to hurt them until I’d seen the blanket. He wouldn’t have taken them without an ulterior motive.

  With all of my doubts, I hadn’t done enough to actually change my life enough to keep this from happening. He’d still taken my family, and I’d been helpless to stop him.

  What good was all my training? All the information we’d been compiling for over twelve months and we were still no closer to finding him. He couldn’t be this good. Or maybe, we were just that stupid.

  All I knew was that I couldn’t continue to keep hoping when the odds were against us. Unless he suddenly changed his mind and gave me back my family, we really didn’t have much of a choice.

  If I knew where to find him, then he would be dead already. I had no problem going outside the law to take care of a scumbag like him, but we didn’t even know his name.

  I laid there, replaying over and over what I knew. How I could I have prevented all of this from happening? What I should have done was to walk away from both Flora and Leslie at the same time. If I’d done that, then none of this would have ever happened. Jesse might still be alive.

  Then again, all the things I’d been through had changed me, but I wasn’t certain it was for the better at this point.

  Would I still be the person I was even if I hadn’t been through all of these trials?

  Probably, I decided. Yet, I really did rely on Leslie a lot. I know my life certainly wouldn’t have been quite as exciting without her in it.

  “Please,” I pleaded with whichever higher power was listening and willing to help me. “Bring my family home. I don’t think I’ll make it without them.”

  Chapter 7

  Leslie

  I left the scene of the last explosion and headed straight to Jerome’s house. Since Ryan had taken Adam’s vehicle, I’d volunteered to take a cab to his place. I hadn’t really wanted to have Noah with me, because it just felt weird to have my current boyfriend in my ex’s home.

  The door was locked, so I used his spare key to open it. Hoping his alarm code was still the same, I punched in the numbers to make the beeping stop. Nothing went crazy, and no SWAT teams arrived to take me down, so I guess I was in the clear.

  Everything looked the same as I remembered it. Other than a few dishes in the sink, his house had the same smell I’d always associated with him.

  His desk was filled with mounds of papers and research folders.

  I laughed at his eccentric ways in that he would use a computer for work, but many things he looked up were kept in paper form. How he knew which pile to look through was completely foreign to me, but it worked for him.

  I wandered to the bedroom where I found a picture of us when we’d first started dating. I picked it up and touched the frame lovingly. Just because I’d broken up with him, didn’t mean that I hadn’t loved him. It was hard to think that I was the reason another person in my world was gone because of some crazy man’s obsession with me.

  This was why I hadn’t wanted Noah to come with me. When we weren’t in the same vicinity of each other, we could feel the emotions of the other person, but not their thoughts. It was nice and suffocating at the same time.

  Letting myself feel a little bit nostalgic, I laid back on the bed with the picture of us clutched in my hands.

  “So you’re not over him yet?” Mary Ann’s ghost questioned from the doorway.

  “No. Is that horrible? I’ve moved on with Noah, and here I am, hoping that Jerome is alive,” I muttered out loud in response.

  “Love doesn’t just quit happening when we move on to someone else. It’s our spirits that respond to others, and they leave a little of themselves with us when they’re not around. The harder and longer we love someone, the harder it is to completely get them out of our lives. He won’t just be gone. In fact, he might be one of those you always remember fondly. Then again, in three years, you might ask, ‘Jerome who?’”

  “For a spirit that tried to kill her ex, you sure seem to have a lot more wisdom now. Would you say that most of your hate came from him rejecting your love?” I was curious because Mary Ann never mentioned Galen or their child.

  “I just wanted to be loved. I took it out on him because he was the one who could have been long-term. Once the baby came into the picture, he wouldn’t have left me. He’s the upstanding kind of guy that would have stuck around just so his kid had both parents. I’m not sure if I loved him or the idea of love.”

  “But how could you have that much hate for him without having just the tiniest amount of love?”

  “I didn’t hate him, and when I finally tried to kill him, I felt peace. It’s why I’m not off haunting him. There’s no need to hurt him anymore. I’m good with how things turned out. He spent years trying to stay away from me, with good reason. But he missed those years of his son’s life because of it. I’m okay with that. I would never have made a good mom, and now he’ll have a dad and family who loves him. I never had that.”

  I looked at the picture in my hands. “Jerome never had a family that loved him either. Maybe that’s why I feel such a need to stay in his life, even though I’ve moved on. I want to see him happy because I can’t imagine not having someone love you.” Even as I said the words, a feeling of relief washed over me. “Maybe what I’m feeling isn’t love, but more of a feeling of obligation or guilt. You know, if I didn’t know better, I’d say that Jerome fits the profile of our Zodiac Master.”

  With a jerk, I sat up and stared at Mary Ann in horror.

  “Wait, the whole reason I’m here at his house is because he was kidnapped by the Zodiac Master.” I flopped back onto the bed with a sigh. “For a minute there, I thought I must be going crazy.” I remained quiet and thought it through. “Mary Ann, what if there was a way to find out who the ZM was but I’m blocking it out? Like entertaining the idea that someone very close to me is the one who is causing all of this pain?” I stared at the popcorn dots on the ceiling as if they would open up a world of explanation and answers for me.

  “Hey, are you still there?” I popped up from the bed again and looked around. “That’s so unlike her to run away when I’m having a conversation.”

  I went to look around and found her in the office again.

  “Are you tired of talking to me, or is there something here I missed?”

  She shrugged. “Can it be some of both?”

  “Show me what I’m missing.” I sat down at his desk and started looking through his stacks of papers.

  “He’s been doing the same things we have for months. You don’t think he was close to finding out who the ZM is and that’s why he got kidna
pped, do you?” I glanced at Mary Ann, who was sitting in the corner chair, chilling.

  “Maybe.”

  Such a noncommittal answer if I ever heard one.

  “Maybe? You can’t say yes or no? Help me out here,” I groaned, throwing a book at her. It landed on the chair and went right through her.

  “The powers won’t let me comment on things like that. It’s too much help. You have to do most things on your own. We can’t interfere in the endings of things. You have to make some choices and come to conclusions all on your own.”

  “Ugh! Why do the cosmos have to be so rigid? Don’t they want there to be happy endings? This guy is blowing people up every day. How can we balance out evil if they just let him keep going? I thought Karma was supposed to help people out.”

  “Ha!” Mary Ann crossed her legs and went back to reading a magazine.

  Searching through all his findings on the ZM might actually help me narrow down what we needed to be looking for. What if he’d found something that might make complete sense to me but I didn’t have that information? On the other hand, it was kind of creepy seeing him follow me through all the cases.

  As I looked through his notes on each set of murders and the weapons used, I noticed he’d put a profile together on each of the killers. Then, under the file labeled “Zodiac Master,” he’d added a few extras.

  Was he an only child? Why did he feel the need to murder and kill innocent people? What did he get from it?

  He’d answered his own questions.

  Probably raised as an only child, but might have other step or half-siblings. His need to murder stems from the urge to see how things work. It’s not a “have to,” but more of a fun activity for him. He is enjoying seeing how different people kill based on their personalities and life skills. When the Pisces killer took the job from him, he had no idea how she was going to make grown men kill themselves. The fact that she was ingenious in her method of using sand to hoist their bodies was in fact perfect. I would have enjoyed watching her work as well. Such a waste of her true talents based on her need for revenge.

  Jerome had an insight into the killer that I’d never thought about. I’d just assumed he was intent on killing people. What if instead, he’d wanted to explore the way people would react? It could explain why he’d used ads to help him find his recruits. That would give him a completely new set of people to study without having to put a lot of work into finding them. Test subjects.

  Most of the time, the ZM hadn’t actually killed with his own hands, he’d just set things in motion and watched the events unfold in the same way we had. He’d only stepped in when we weren’t finding the killer, or when the killer didn’t do the job in the way he’d imagined.

  That was it. He hadn’t cared how they accomplished it as long as it ended the way he wanted it to. He had nudged both sides toward each other, or thrown in a new player when it would make things more entertaining.

  This was a game to him. A giant chess match, and he’d continued to up the stakes as we’d gotten closer to winning. I thought it was all about me because that’s what he’d been saying this whole time, and in a way it was, but not completely. I knew he didn’t see the lives he had snuffed out, but he only wanted certain results. He’d skewed the experiment because of his obsession with me.

  Any kind of test or experiment needed to be done in a natural way and he’d thrown that out the window when it suited him.

  I continued reading, hoping for something else that would point me in the right direction.

  Jerome hadn’t just admired this ZM’s skill. In fact, it sounded like he was a bit jealous. By the end of his assessment, I would have assumed he’d developed a crush, and would like to meet the man in person.

  “Aw, crap. He came to meet us up there so that the ZM would think he was important to me still. He wasn’t scared in that video. He was excited to be there.”

  If that was the case, then maybe we could rewatch the video for clues that might tell us where they were at. Jerome might have wanted to meet him, but he wouldn’t have wanted to remain his guest.

  Gathering up a few of the files for Adam and Noah to look over, I was almost to the front door when something stopped me. I returned to the bedroom and grabbed the picture of the two of us.

  I might not love him the way he wanted, but having a picture would remind me of the man I had once loved.

  Resetting the alarm, I went out to the car and drove back toward headquarters, not noticing the car sitting just down the street that pulled into his driveway once I was gone.

  ------

  Chapter 8

  Ryan

  I’d been in a light sleep when Leslie called me, telling me she had an idea of how to find the ZM. Not even bothering to change out of my well-worn clothes, I’d pulled my shoes back on, hurrying to get there immediately.

  Everyone was there when I arrived, and I slid into one of the empty seats.

  “We’re going to rewatch the video, because I’m pretty sure Jerome got himself taken on purpose. He wanted us to find him. He was hoping to meet the ZM so we could track him, and it looks like he got his wish. I think there’s a little bit of admiration somewhere in there as well, but if it helps us, then I’m not going to complain. When we have them back, I’ll recommend he see a therapist to work through his issues.”

  “Why would he want to meet the ZM? He’s crazy and kills people.” Noah eyed her with disbelief.

  “That’s just it. Jerome was helping me in the beginning, and evidently, he continued to work on it even after we broke up. He had tons of files of information on each murder, the killers, and what he could find on the ZM himself. He even came up with a pretty good description of why the ZM was doing this.” Her excitement was contagious, but I still wasn’t convinced.

  “He’s changing the rules when it suits him. He throws in extra players or game pieces when he needs things to move in a certain direction. That’s why he hasn’t hurt us or the girls. He wants them alive. He had Chris killed because it suited his methods to get him out of the way because of me. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have interfered.”

  “I’m glad you’re convinced he’s not a killer at heart, but how does that get us closer to finding him?” I raised a questioning brow.

  “Jerome said something that would give us the right clues. He told us where to find them.”

  “Nah, that’s too easy,” Noah scoffed. “The ZM wouldn’t let him do that.”

  “You’re right, unless he wanted to be caught. We’ve known this was the end game, and now he’s giving up.”

  “Whatever. Let’s just watch the video.” I waved at the screen that was paused on Jerome’s face.

  Two minutes in, I had to agree with her. Jerome wasn’t upset; he was excited to be there.

  “I don’t want to die like Kevin did for his team of techies.”

  “How did we miss this the first time?” She paused the video and looked around for other theories.

  “That. Could he mean they’re in a warehouse near Barbie and Mac?” She paused the video and looked around for other theories.

  Adam dialed Mac, putting him on speakerphone.

  “Mac, do a search of the warehouses near you. See if you can find anything that’s been purchased in the last few years.”

  “What about where Zesty died? The Libra killer? That warehouse isn’t far from them,” Leslie noted.

  “We’ll check it out.” Mac’s tone sounded confident.

  “No, don’t,” Leslie warned. “If he’s there, he’ll have it booby trapped, and I don’t want you to get blow up from a grenade.”

  “Good point. I’ll call the bomb squad to meet us over there,” he assured us.

  “Great. And Mac? Be careful.” Adam cautioned before hanging up. “Let’s go.” I stood and headed toward the door.

  “We have to finish the video. What if there’s another clue in there that saves them?” Leslie pleaded.

  Reluctantly, I returned to my seat. “Fine.
Continue.”

  We watched it three more times with no success.

  “Can we go now?” I questioned, not wanting to get up only to have to sit back down again.

  “Yeah, I guess so,” Leslie replied, dejectedly.

  “Hey, come on. You might have found the thing that will lead us to them,” I offered.

  “Sure.” She nibbled on her lip, not saying anything else, but obviously wanting to.

  It didn’t take us long to get to the warehouse, and Mac with a couple of members of the bomb squad were working to check out the building where the Libra killer had died.

  “Anything yet?” I couldn’t be patient when I might be this close to being reunited with my family.

  “No, they haven’t found anything. They’re about to take the front door off and see what happens,” Mac reported, gripping my shoulder.

  “Okay.” I tried to hold on, but it had been a hard few weeks. And while I’d continued to believe they were alive, it was just hard to keep believing when there wasn’t anything to go on.

  The squad pried the door off, and when nothing happened, they carefully examined the area before proceeding inside.

  Ten minutes later, the leader came out with his helmet off.

  “It’s clear. We couldn’t find anything, and the dogs didn’t pick up any hint of explosives. There’s something you need to see, though. It’s for Ryan.” The words had barely left his mouth before I was racing past everyone to see for myself.

  I skidded to a halt when I saw the words written in blood on the one piece of drywall in the whole place.

  Ryan, hope you’ve had a great day. It’s time for you to choose. Do you save the baby or the mother? If you want the mother, she’ll give you more babies. But then again, Hope is pretty cute. How could you let her die? Your choice. The clock is ticking.

  “What the actual fuck? How can I make a choice like that?” I screamed at the invisible enemy.

  As each one of the team reached me and read the words, something strange happened. They began dropping to the ground.