by A P Morgan
Aries
Murders of the Zodiac
A.P. Morgan
Contents
Cover Title Page
Also by A.P. Morgan
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
A Note from the Author
Copyright © 2019 Alathia Paris Morgan writing as A. P. Morgan
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Aries-Murders of the Zodiac Book 3
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This is a work of fiction and in no way is meant to portray actual people, names, places, events or situations. The ideas were from the author’s own imagination and any resemblance to people living or dead is entirely coincidental.
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission, except in the case of quotations for articles and reviews.
To my daughters: You just take it in stride that I’m writing. You never hesitate to interrupt for hugs and to talk about life. You three are my world; thanks for letting me be in yours.
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Editing by: Rebel Edit & Design
Book cover: Adobe Stock cover photo purchased and designed by Nicole Paris
Also by A.P. Morgan
The Nova Ladies Series:
Ding Dong Is She Dead? Book1—Allie’s story
Death By Poison Book 2—Megan and Sally’s story
Deadly Discovery Book 3—Julie’s story
Death By That – A Christmas Novella
Merciful Death Book 4—Karen’s story. Coming spring of 2019
Saved by Death Book 5—Allie Summer of 2019
When Death Brings Life Book 6—Allie and Justin’s story continues Fall of 2019
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Against Zombies Series:
Moms Against Zombies Book 1
Military Against Zombies Book 2
Co-Eds Against Zombies Book 3
Churches Against Zombies Book 4
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Infected Waters: A Titanic Disaster
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Murders of the Zodiac:
Aquarius Book 1
Pisces Book 2
Aries Book 3
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Coming soon:
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Taurus Book 4
Gemini Book 5
Cancer Book 6
Leo Book 7
Virgo Book 8
Libra Book 9
Scorpio Book 10
Sagittarius Book 11
Capricorn Book 12
Prologue
Leslie
I knew better than to glance back over my shoulder while I was running, but it was hard to go against my natural instincts. I ducked, barely missing the arrow that thunked into the tree inches from my head.
Terror raced through my body. He knew exactly where I was. This was a game to him, and I was his prey. I knew I wasn’t the first one he’d chased through these woods because I’d seen the bodies of those who hadn’t made it. I wasn’t sure about everything that he did to his victims, but I refused to be one. Not tonight.
The moon shone through the trees, giving just enough light for me to see a path, but it also meant he could follow me easier through the less vegetative area.
A scream pierced the night, and instead of heading to safety, I turned back. I couldn’t let him have another girl. He wasn’t going to win this game; not if I could stop him.
Chapter 1
Three Weeks Earlier — Somewhere in California
A dog barked, alerting the hunter of his find. His owner ambled over, assuming that he’d found another dead squirrel, until he saw the hand sticking out of the dirt. Fumbling to grab his dog’s collar, he managed to keep him away from sniffing the finger pointing up.
The leash clipped into place, then he pulled out his phone to make a call. “Sheriff, you need to get out to the wooded area over off the highway. Fred found a hand sticking out of the ground.” The hunter looked around self-consciously. “No, I didn’t check to see if there was a body attached. Yes, it looks real, and Fred went crazy trying to get to it. No, I don’t think he’d act that way if it was fake. Sure, I’ll wait here, but hurry. I’m all creeped out now.”
Twenty minutes later, I pulled up behind Leroy Blake’s vehicle and parked. It wasn’t hard to follow the path he and Fred had made through the woods.
I’d barely made it a few steps away from the squad car when I heard Fred barking.
“That you, Sheriff?” Leroy called out, his voice echoing through the wooded area.
“Yep. Make sure you don’t shoot me,” I chuckled, knowing that he was always careful when out in the woods. We didn’t have much in the way of woods near the beach highway, but there was just enough on the inner side for tourists to get lost in.
“Hey there, Leroy. What’ve you got for me?” I put my hand down near Fred for him to sniff me, before trying to pet him.
“Well, Fred’s the one who found it. We hadn’t gotten far when he took off. I had to chase after him, and that’s when I found him sniffing this hand. I was all I could do to get his leash on and pull him away to call you. Good thing it was out here on the edge, because if we’d have gone much farther, there wouldn’t have been any cell reception.”
I pulled on a pair of latex gloves and bent down to examine it. When I touched the finger that was pointed upward, the hand stayed steady, so I was going to assume that it had been buried and might still be attached to the arm. Wiggling the dirt away from the wrist, I could see there was indeed an arm underneath. Green paint decorated the nails, and the fingers looked a little soft, with few to no wrinkles on the back of the hand. I was going to say they belonged to a woman, probably younger than twenty-five.
This was going to take more than just me to find out what had happened. I’d done my part in checking out a call from a friend, and now it was time to make it official and call in the crime techs.
“Leroy, can you do me a favor?”
“Yeah. Need Fred to help track down the body?” Leroy asked eagerly.
“Uh, no. I’m afraid it’s not very exciting.” I stood up, looking at the area around the hand sticking out of the ground. “I need you to cancel your hunting trip for the day and call my office when you get out to the road.”
“Aw, Sheriff. That’s not fair. I’m the one that found it—well, Fred did, but we’re a pair, and he can’t have his picture taken or be interviewed by the news channels, but I can speak for him.” Leroy groaned in dismay.
“Now, Leroy, you know I wouldn’t want you to miss out on all the fame this could bring. If you can keep quiet for about twenty-four hours, I’ll make sure to call the media myself and tell them that you were the first person on the scene.” I held up a hand in warning. “But, I’ll only vouch for you if you don’t tell anyone about it until I tell you to. If I catch wind that you’ve gone and told the whole town before I say you can, then I might tell them you’re a suspect.”
Panic filled Leroy’s features. “Now, that’s not fair. I won’t say anything unless you tell me to, but how am I supposed to call your office if I can’t say anything?”
“Just tell my office where I’m at, and that I need a crime scene team. This way, if nothing important comes to light, then they won’t laugh at you down at the barber shop. If we do find something, then you’ll be the town hero.”
Leroy scratched at his stubbled chin. “I guess that makes sense. You wanna keep from letting the killer know about it. I’ll do jus
t what you say, Sheriff.”
“Thank you. It’s people like you that make police work easier.” I watched as he straightened with pride before pulling on Fred’s leash.
“You can count on me,” Leroy called over his shoulder, hurrying toward the road.
Exhaling the breath I’d been holding, I scanned the area around the strange finger, noting four other mounds that looked like burial plots as well. I’d been worried that I had one body on my hands, but if these others were similar, then we had a serious problem.
This was going to bring the Feds into my town, and that wasn’t good for the tourist business, as we were just getting into spring. One of California’s major tourist highways ran through our town, drawing people to stop for the night, or to take advantage of the beaches that went crowded with college students on break.
Walking in a small circle around the five mounds, I didn’t see anything that stood out. This person hadn’t left even a gum wrapper behind, which told me that this wasn’t their first kill. This part of the woods had a few regulars that came out to hunt birds or squirrels. There wasn’t much wildlife beyond that, and the hunting rules were pretty strict if it wasn’t the right season for that license.
Leroy, a town local, was one of the few that still went out hunting on a regular basis, but he always returned with very little to show for it. I felt pretty sure that he just went out with his dog to get away from people who weren’t quite sure what to do with him and his quirky behavior.
My radio beeped, meaning that other squad cars were in close enough range to communicate.
“Hill, that you?”
“Yes, sir. We’re pulling up behind your vehicle now.”
“Did you request the cadaver dog?”
“I sent Sam out to borrow one. He’ll be back with it shortly,” Hill answered.
“Great. Follow the path, and you shouldn’t have any problem finding me.”
“On our way with the equipment.”
“Roger that. And keep off the radios with information.”
“Yes, sir.”
Patience wasn’t one of my strong suits when it came to this type of thing, but thankfully, this wasn’t a stakeout. I hated those with a passion.
Most of my team was used to working in the woods or on the beach, but hauling the tools needed for this job would make the ten-minute hike take longer. I leaned against a tree, wishing that I hadn’t quit smoking. It would at least give me something to do while I waited.
Standing there, it was easy to see that the five mounds were laid out in a row, each one at the foot of a tree. I wasn’t more than ten feet away from them, but it appeared that something was etched into the tree about six feet up from the ground.
Carefully walking around the mounds, which I was certain were graves, I pulled on another pair of gloves to trace the symbol that was carved into the tree. It looked like two circles with a V in between them. I’d seen it somewhere before, but at the moment, it escaped me. The carving looked fairly fresh, and now that I was looking for it, I could see that both of the other trees had the same symbol etched into the bark.
A branch snapped behind me, and I had my gun halfway out of the holster when I realized that it was my officers.
“What have we got, Sheriff?” Hill asked, out of breath, dropping the bags he was carrying onto the ground.
“Five murder victims, and the killer left us his sign.” I turned, confident that our quiet little town was about to become anything but quiet in the coming days.
There had been five bodies, all young women. Damn, I hated to be right about something like this. We’d sent them to the county coroner, but since we didn’t normally have things like this happen in our county, and with only one coroner, I wasn’t sure that we’d get all the evidence we’d need off of five bodies. I’d asked them to hold off on doing anything with them while I made a few phone calls.
Pat Hill was my second-in-command, and he was going to stay with the bodies until I could work out some sort of protective detail. We didn’t have the workforce for something like this, and I already had everyone out in the woods searching for any signs of the killer.
I fingered the business card that I’d been given at a training meeting two years ago by the speaker, Ava Perez. I really didn’t want to dial call, but this wasn’t about me. It was about the town I protected.
“Hello, this is Ava Perez.”
“Hi, this is Vance Turner. We met at sheriff training function two years ago.”
“What can I do for you, Sheriff Turner?”
“We just found five bodies, all young women, buried out in a patch of woods. I’m afraid that we don’t have the skills to process the bodies appropriately, and might miss crucial evidence.”
“Ah. So, you need a little extra help from our labs?”
Holding my breath wasn’t going to make this any easier. “You said that if we needed help to call. Well, I’m calling. We have a killer on the loose, and it’s not going to go over well when it gets out. I don’t have the manpower to watch over the overflow of people and try to find this killer.”
“I’m glad you reached out. I’ll have a team headed your way in about an hour. How long before the media gets wind of this?”
“I’ve given strict orders to keep it quiet, so maybe a few hours before the entire town knows what went down.”
“Can you make reservations for someplace quiet for about ten people?”
“Yes, I can do that.”
“Don’t let them touch the bodies. Our autopsy guy will do those on-site.”
“I’ve got the bodies under guard right now. We’ll hold down the fort until you get here.”
“Thank you, Sheriff Turner. See you soon.”
Wearily sinking back into my chair, I felt relieved that someone else was going to handle it. This was going to cost me the election in the fall if I didn’t play things very carefully. Picking up the phone, I called the only bed & breakfast in town that could handle that many people to make the reservations.
Things moved quickly once the FBI showed up, with Agent Perez heading things up. Before the day was out, we got a call to come to the morgue to find out how the five women had died.
“What have you got for us, Foster?” Agent Perez asked as she walked through the door, barely noticing the body laid out on the table.
“This is the second one, but I’m going to give you a preliminary cause, which is most likely going to be the same on the other three. I’ll have those reports to you in the morning.”
“Foster?” She raised her voice slightly. “How did they die?”
“Yeah. From the rate of decomposition, I’d say they were all about a day apart when they died, and they haven’t been dead for long either. I started with the two that seemed the oldest, and I’d say they’d been in the ground less than a week.”
“How did they die, Foster?” Agent Perez asked him again.
“An arrow through the heart.”
“What?” It slipped out, and I didn’t miss the look that Agent Perez threw over her shoulder at me.
“Each of the women, I’m guessing, are all between twenty and thirty, and were killed by an arrow. From the wounds and bruises all over their arms and legs, they were chased through the woods before he shot them. Thankfully, they were dead before he buried them.” Foster continued moving things around, getting things ready for the next body.
“Were they sexually assaulted?” Agent Perez asked the question that I was dreading.
“No, not that I’ve seen so far from the first two. Most of the damage is on the outside of their bodies, and there isn’t any tearing or signs of forced entry. The women were dehydrated, which means they could have been out there for up to three days, possibly running or hiding from their attacker during that time.”
He moved over to where the other three women were lying out on trays. “If you look over here at the bodies, you’ll see where the shots from the arrows pierced their hearts exactly. Your killer is an expert
marksman. I doubt that any of these women stopped long enough to present him with a still target.”
“I’ll have the profiler come over in the morning, but I’m going to start running this through the database and see if we get a hit. Do we have the prints from the girls to run through the system?” Agent Perez consulted her phone. “I’m going to bet these weren’t runaways, but they had to have gotten here somehow. Sheriff, can you have your patrol start looking for places that cars could be hidden?”
“We can. The most obvious places would be on a farm or junkyard somewhere. He could’ve taken them over one of the small cliffs if he was going to hide one, but five makes it more problematic.”
“As soon as we have IDs on the women, it’ll help us to find out where they came from, and what kind of cars we’re looking for. This guy’s probably been doing this for years, and he just happened upon your town. He may have even moved on from the area. Let’s get some dinner while we get a few of these searches going so afterward, we can go over the results.”
I grimaced at the thought of food after seeing the insides of the bodies. I’d seen horrible things in my line of work, but I didn’t normally eat right after.
“Sure. There’s a diner over by the B&B. City Hall’s gonna let us use their conference room since it’s the biggest space available that won’t be open to the public.” I grinned. “With the station right next door, it’ll make keeping the reporters out much easier.”
