Cancer: Murders of the Zodiac

by Alathia Paris Morgan

  “I promise.” She buried her face in my chest, “Just do the same and be extra careful.”

  “You have my promise.” I muttered against her hair.

  ------

  The entire rest of the night, I tossed and turned thinking about the note the Zodiac Master had given to Shea.

  I’d never considered Leslie as girlfriend or sidepiece. I wasn’t even sure what to call it really. She’d just seamlessly fallen into place as my partner. She pushed me to expand my horizons and it hadn’t taken long for us to start working as a team.

  With a variety of partners over the years, some for a few weeks and others for a few years, I had always just seen them as co-workers. Sure they had been friends and some were I still considered family, but I wasn’t the type of guy that thought about other women romantically because I was already in a committed relationship.

  If that was really the case though, why did I feel so guilty when I read that note? Was there something I was missing? Shea was the one I’d chosen to share my life with. Hell, we were having a baby together so why was this bothering me so much?

  Not really finding an answer to my musings, I continued to stare at the ceiling hoping that I would see something hidden there to explain all the things running through my head.

  Only shadows met my gaze giving me a sense of foreboding which was unusual because I didn’t believe in all that mumbo jumbo.

  ------

  Chapter 8

  Galen—

  When I heard the news Brian O’Leary was missing, I knew that she’d done it. She was my ex-girlfriend and the ex was for a very good reason. She was completely crazy. I was certain that she had something to do with it, but getting proof was going to be much more difficult.

  While I was in no position to actually get proof, I needed to be ready for when she came for me. I could feel it in my bones that I was going to be on her target list and as each new report of a body was discovered, I knew my time was running short.

  I didn’t like people in the general way which meant that I had to interact and deal with their drama. The forest where I’d built my home made it possible to interact with people on my terms.

  Occasionally when the need for human connection made me wander down the mountain, I could easily find a logging crew that would be willing to have an extra pair of hands for a couple of months. I never lasted long, but that was when I’d met her.

  At first she had seemed to make the world around me brighter with her smile, then after about six months of dating I started to see a few red flags. It had been ten years and I still kept track of her because I knew that one day she’d come back for me. I put together a plan hoping that I could survive long enough to evade her, but now I was going to set a trap so she didn’t continue to kill men who had dated her.

  Mary Ann had her own thoughts about how a relationship should go and speaking to anyone that wasn’t her hadn’t been on the list. Once she was certain she’d made a claim on you, then she didn’t like if you did anything without her. She wanted to be with you twenty-four seven.

  I’d gotten off easy because I had been sleeping in the loggers quarters at that time so she assumed that I didn’t have a home to take her to. When I left in the middle of the night, she had done a little digging to discover my cabin.

  An unpleasant visit and a restraining order later, Mary Ann was a memory. She’d moved on to other communities and left a trail of men behind her. What she hadn’t counted on was that most of the men who left the civilized world to become loggers out in the isolation of the wilderness were easy pushovers. She’d wanted puppets that she could control, but loggers had to be tough and didn’t do things the way which she expected.

  When I’d left civilization early on to hide from my own demons, I’d kept a few of the modern conveniences of satellite, internet and the news. I might not want to interact with humans on a personal level, but I did want to know what was going on in the world. Maybe one day I’d heal enough that I could handle being a normal part of society, but I wasn’t going to let Mary Ann be the one to dictate when that would be.

  Twenty men had lost their lives so far because I hadn’t spoken up. I looked at the map and put another pin in a city only fifty miles away. If you didn’t know where to look, you wouldn’t be able to tell what she was doing.

  My instincts as a profiler couldn’t be helped no matter how long I’d been away from the game. They may have been dormant because I’d suppressed them and ignored the warning signs, but this had gone on long enough.

  I prepared my home for a long absence. It was time to return to the very thing I’d been running from for over fifteen years. The memories of my mistake were still fresh as if they had occurred only yesterday.

  Rolling up the map with all of the information I’d collected, I put it in my bag just as the electricity in my home died. I had hoped that I had another twelve hours before she showed up.

  The stone fireplace had a special brick that when pressed would allow me to hide in a small space. While it had seemed like large fireplace that would heat up the entire cabin, I had created a walking space that was hollow behind it. I hadn’t ever expected to use it, but I knew it was always possible considering the type of work I’d done in the past.

  Mary Ann wasn’t worried about hiding or trying to cover her tracks at the moment. She entered like she owned the world.

  “Galen,” She called, “Guess who’s home?”

  Silence met her as I struggled to stay quiet.

  I could imagine her progress through my home as I sat in the corner holding my revolver hoping to use it only as a last resort.

  The large living room was open with a small loft area for the bedroom. Living alone, I hadn’t seen the need for lots of walls and in the winter it helped to keep cabin fever from setting in with the large cavernous feel.

  When she reached the ladder up to the loft, I could feel her anger that she hadn’t discovered me hiding under the bed. Not that I was doing much better by hiding in the fireplace, but while I felt guilty for my mistakes, I wasn’t ready to die yet.

  “Hello, Galen, I know you’re here. I’m willing to wait for you to come out of hiding.” She took up a seat on the couch to settle in until I decided to pop out.

  My cameras weren’t connected to the electricity of the cabin and I was able to watch her movements as I planned to out wait her.

  Every so often she would get up and move about the house, poking in new corners in hopes that I would be hiding there. She kept up a running conversation that made me realize that I’d dodged a real bullet. Although, I had only pushed it further into my future because now I was a hostage in my own home.

  The sound of my refrigerator opening made me smile, she was making herself at home. Now, if she would only lay down or fall asleep, I could sneak out the back and make it through the woods to where I’d parked the car.

  I waited to be certain when she did fall asleep that she was really out before I made my more. The back wall slid open and I kept my revolver out in front of me just in case Mary Ann had managed to fool me.

  The woods surrounding my home were quiet as I walked along the path to where I had my vehicle parked on the other side of the mountain. Since the first body had been discovered, I made sure that I’d had a second way to get out of the woods. My closest neighbor was about five miles on the opposite side of the mountain and they’d let me park a car over there for the past few weeks.

  Nothing moved as I made my way in the dark, glad that I’d escaped her clutches this time, but knowing that it meant going back to something I didn’t want to deal with again.

  -------

  Hours later, I’d made my way across the country to the Dallas airport. While I’d wanted to forget all about civilization as I called it, returning to the peopled world was like getting on a bike.

  Rows of taxis were waiting to whisk me away to my destination and I was thankful that I hadn’t become a complete hermit or I wouldn’t have had the new too
ls for getting around. Then again, if I’d become a hermit, I never would have dated Mary Ann and incurred her wrath.

  Guess, I was still making horrible decisions that were always going to affect my life.

  He was still living here in the suburbs of Dallas and I hoped that he would be home because I had no way to contact him. I hadn’t done more than let him know I was alive from time to time, but I hadn’t called because I didn’t want to hear the judgement in his voice.

  I raised my hand to knock, but the door was thrown open.

  “About time you came back into the world.” He grabbed me engulfing me in a hug.

  “How did you…?” I trailed off. I should have known.

  “The closer you got to home, the more I could feel your presence.” Adam hadn’t let go of me as he pulled me inside and over to the couch.

  “I wouldn’t have come home, but I had a huge problem that’s connected to what you’re working on.”

  “Wait you’re not back for good?”

  “That all depends. I think your killer is stalking me. In fact when I left she was sound asleep, which is why I made it to your house in the wee hours of the morning.”

  “Speaking of morning, Happy Birthday.”

  “You know that’s one of the reasons she was on my doorstep ready to kill me right?”

  “Yeah, but you got out and now we can go get her.” Adam reassured me.

  “It’s not that easy. Not only will she be gone, but she’s going to be pissed off that I was able to evade her. If I thought just turning her into the authorities would work, I’d have done it. If for no other reason then so I didn’t have to come home.” I forgotten how easily he could read or sense my thoughts.

  “Breakfast should be ready in just a few minutes. We can discuss it while we eat.”

  “Ugh, if I wasn’t starving, then I would tell you to go to hell, but I can’t. Please tell me you didn’t call mom? I’m not here on a social visit.”

  I haven’t yet, but you’re going to have to come up with a pretty good explanation as to why you are here and didn’t see her. You know she’s probably already sensed you as well.”

  “Oh, well, I hadn’t thought of that. It’s been a while since I had to worry about others with my gift around. To be honest, I don’t even use it because there’s not much use in reading a squirrel’s thoughts.”

  “Don’t let mom hear you say that, she’s always thought our gift was important and not using it was one of the worst things we could do.”

  “I remember. There’s a lot I remember, not all of it good.”

  Adam stopped what he was doing at the stove to look at me. “You know what happened wasn’t really your fault. There was no way we could have saved that family.”

  “That’s what everyone told me, but it didn’t feel that way to me. I’ve done a lot of thinking all these years alone. I can’t change what happened, but if I don’t use my gift then nothing can happen. No one dies because of me.”

  “But you aren’t taking into account all those who are alive because of you. We saved more lives than we took. Isn’t saving one life more important than wallowing in self-doubt about all the ones we couldn’t?” Adam argued.

  “Who are we to play God though? What if it’s part of the grand design that those people died? Or that other things would have happened if we hadn’t messed with things?”

  Adam continued to crack eggs into the pan, “How are we to know that we aren’t following the plan by using our gift? Maybe the universe gave it to us to balance the bad things out.”

  “You know, if that was the case then I’d think that they’d give us a map or plan to work with, sort of like the one I’ve been putting together the past few weeks.” I withdrew the map I’d been working on before I’d had to leave my home.

  “Ha, I knew that you weren’t just wasting away up there in the mountains. You’ve been working all this time. It’s a good thing you decided to join us because this last case has been driving us insane. We were able to use one of the locals who tapped into the spirit realm for just a second. I thought she had potential, but I’m afraid that she may have burned out.”

  I grinned, “You found someone new to guide. Is she single? Cute?” My brother had always had a soft spot for those with the gift, but then he had this entire moral code that kept him from sleeping with them because he was their mentor.

  “Nope, when we met she was dating someone. I think there is someone else in her future, but it just hasn’t worked out yet. You know I’m waiting for the perfect one and so far we haven’t crossed paths.”

  “Always the knight in shining armor.” I chided with humor, but it was the truth.

  “Of course, how else am going to prevail against evil.” He slid a perfect looking omelet onto my plate.

  “You should have been a chief. Saving the world one meal at a time.” I mumbled as I took a bite. “Now this is something I’ve missed.”

  “Well, you could have learned if you’d even tried.”

  “Gourmet cooking just wasn’t my thing.”

  “Profiling certainly is,” Adam appeared impressed as he looked at my map. “She’s been all over the country now. Mostly loggers, from the looks of it.”

  “Not just loggers, but those that she’s dated who left her. For some reason she has a type which includes those born under the sign of Cancer. If I remember correctly because we dated years ago, her birthday is also this month.” I explained feeling dumb for not learning more about my ex-girlfriend.

  “She’s part of something much larger than just a few grudge kills. We’ve been tracking this Zodiac Master for six months now. He finds a new killer each month before doing away with the old one. It’s driving us crazy because he’s always one step ahead of us.”

  “Ah, man. That sucks. I guess you need the information that I’ve gathered on this one because it’s personal for me.”

  “You’re always welcome, but only if you promise to see mom.”

  With a sigh, I agreed. “Help me catch this crazy lady and I’ll go see mom before I leave town.”

  “Done. Now, let’s get you to headquarters so you can meet the team and get an update.”

  --------

  We arrived in the conference room where the rest of Adam’s team was arriving.

  “You’re new girl’s the one in the green shirt isn’t she?”

  “Yes, can you feel that amount of energy coming from her?”

  “She has no idea does she?” I quickly took a quick look around at those who were wandering in the door.

  “No, she doesn’t. You don’t see something like that every day.”

  “Quite a team you’ve got here.”

  “It should be because they were all handpicked by Agent Watson. He got the position when the last agent got a little out of hand. He seems to work well with the two detectives that were put on this case.” Adam stood in the back with me pointing out the players.

  “The auras on a few of these guys are questionable. I’d do a financial look into the one setting up the laptop.”

  “Martha? She wouldn’t hurt a mouse, but I’ll have one of our guys check on it. Who else?” Adam knew that I was able to sense things that other sensitives didn’t pick up on.

  “That guy in the purple shirt and the one on his left.” I couldn’t tell you why they had auras that spoke of evil connections. Occasionally it just meant that something dark was going on in their lives like the death of a loved one, but to be on the safe side.

  “It’s like putting on a comfortable pair of shoes isn’t it?” Adam grinned as I moved into my normal role of profiler.

  “True, but it doesn’t erase the past.” I brushed past him to take a seat as the Agent in charge walked through the door.

  “Well, look what the cat dragged in. Agent Galen Dalca back from the ends of the earth.”

  I accepted his hand shake, “Good to see you again, Gavin.”

  “Ah, it’s not a social visit is it?” He looked at me and then
at Adam.

  “Did you read him on everything or just this briefing?” Agent Watson directed his question to my brother.

  “Just this meeting he know more about our current case. In fact he has all of the details that we need to catch her.” Adam grinned as he threw me into the deep end.

  “Looks like we could use your help for a short while if you can stick around.”

  “You’re going to need me for my own protection.”

  “Would you like to start the briefing?” Agent Watson offered, “I’m curious to know what you’ve got that would bring you out of hiding.”

  I shrugged in response not really seeing much of a choice.

  “Attention everyone, we have a returning Agent with us today that has some information to share about the case.” He waited until everyone had settled down before turning to me, “Go ahead, Galen.”

  “For those of you who don’t listen to the rumor mill, I’m Galen Dalca former profiler for the FBI. I retired about fifteen years ago and went to live far away from people up in Wyoming. When I’d get bored or need to be with people, I’d get a day job as a logger on a crew. That’s where I met, Mary Ann.”

  Everyone was listening, but the two detectives were my main focus as I talked.

  “She was nice and we started to date. Things went okay for the first few months, but I started wanting to get away from people again and she became very clingy. When I disappeared in the middle of the night,” I heard a few snickers from around the room, “yes, I ghosted her. In my defense I did leave a note breaking up with her, but sometimes that’s what you have to do for your own sanity.”

  “Anyway, a few of the other loggers were friends and let me know that she questioned everyone trying to find where I lived. Thankfully, they had seen what she was capable and no one really knew where I lived. I’ve kept an eye on her whereabouts so I’d know where not to be in case we might run into each other.”

  “Fast forward to ten years later. Brian O’Leary is murdered after his big win at the annual logging competition. I’ve watched as she made her way back to Wyoming over the past two weeks. Somehow I knew she was going to show up on my door this time and I was prepared.”