by Paris Morgan
“So anyway, I’m going to go. I’ve got another building to blow up and shit. TTFN.”
“TTFN?” I said to the air once he hung up. “What is that?”
“Ta-ta for now from Tigger on Winnie the Pooh,” Leslie spoke from the doorway behind me. “Who were you talking to?”
“Oh, just my brother, the killer. Nobody important.” I shrugged, not wanting to acknowledge that he got under my skin. I walked to the kitchen and pulled out a cup for her coffee. “Did you sleep okay?”
“I guess. Sorry I got so grouchy. No sleep, and trying to get into his brain makes for a bad combination,” she declared before inhaling the coffee. “So, what’s next? Have we heard from Adam?”
“No, but my brother mentioned blowing up a building. Holy Crap!” I dropped my cup, which shattered all over the floor. “I was so focused on what he’d said about ‘TTFN’ and it being a secret code that what he’d said about a bomb didn’t register. God, I’m an idiot!”
“As in, he’s about to go do that—now?” She picked up her phone. “We have to let Adam know immediately, and that the bombings are the weapon for this month.”
“Also, Jerome called a few hours ago while you were sleeping. He wants to go to lunch with both of us so we can get to know one another,” I blurted out, still in shock as I looked down at the shards of glass on the floor.
“Really? That’s what he said?” She cringed as she typed out a message to Adam. “That’s creepy.”
“That’s what I thought, but I didn’t want to answer for you. I figured I’d let you do that part.”
“Speaking of which…why did you answer my phone?” She called out as she walked into the other room to get dressed. “I’m not mad, just surprised.”
“Oh, I heard it ringing and ran in there to try to find it. When I did, I guess it was just habit. Sorry.” I began to look for a broom to sweep up my mess.
“No worries. Wait a second, you talked to the Zodiac Master. Did you ask him about Shea and Hope? Why he took them or what he’s going to do with them?” She came out with her clothes in her hand, waiting for my answer.
“Uh…” I stammered. “It was just so unexpected, I didn’t even think about it. My brain just kind of shut down. Oh, God, what have I done? I could have gotten something from him. Why did I freeze up?”
“Noah.” She came over and sat her stuff down before pulling me into her arms. “It’s not your fault. He does that to get into our heads. He made you think of other things so you wouldn’t question him about them.”
The phone rang and she released me to grab it.
“I’ll get dressed while you talk to Adam.” She hit the button and tossed it to me.
“Uh, Adam, it’s Noah. We have a little problem.” I quickly explained what we’d come up with concerning the ZM.
“Okay, come on in and we’ll see what we can find out. Ryan’s dozing on my office couch, so be quiet when you get here. I don’t want to wake him.”
“Got it.”
Bombing buildings wasn’t the best idea, and would bring down the entire alphabet on my brother’s head, but maybe that was his intention.
Chapter 5
Leslie
We hadn’t been in the car for more than ten minutes when the sound of an explosion rocked the Dallas skyline. Exchanging glances, I changed direction and headed toward the scene of the blast while Noah texted Adam.
He’d followed through on his threat, and now we were going to be picking people out of the rubble. When would he stop? He had our attention. What else did we need to do to reassure him?
Smoke filled the air. Police cars and firefighters began to arrive as we pulled up, so I made sure to park far enough away to give the first responders enough space to work. While the ZM didn’t have the same profile as that of a firebug, he could still be lingering around to see us arrive.
I began actively scanning the crowd. There wasn’t anything we could do since the emergency rescue crews were already there. Thankfully, any fires that had started were quickly extinguished.
“Do we have any idea what kind of explosion it was?” I asked the fire captain on the scene after explaining who I was.
“Well, ma’am, from the looks of things, I’d say it was a grenade. Not sure how that works, but we’ll know more once we get things cooled down and can get a little closer to the blast area.”
“Were there any casualties?”
He nodded grimly. “Three workers were supposed to be in the building when it blew. We are still checking to find out if they were actually inside or out on a call.”
I frowned. “We’ve dealt with the person doing this, and he prefers to kill. I’m pretty certain that they were inside the building. If you can send me their names, I’ll do some verifying. He likes to kill those whose zodiac signs corresponding to their birthdays.”
“That’s horrible!” he gasped in shock.
“Yes, we’ve been dealing with this guy for almost a year now.”
“A year? And you still haven’t caught him?”
I could hear the judgement in his voice.
“In our defense, he’s been using others to carry out his plans each month. We are so close to catching him.”
“Uh-huh.” Doubt filled his voice. “I’ll get you all the information from this explosion as soon as I have it.” He turned and made his way back to the scene.
“Great.” I threw up my hands in disgust. “Now the people I’m working with don’t even believe me.”
“So what do we know?” Adam asked as he and Ryan raced up to us.
“Nothing yet,” I huffed. “They have to collect the evidence for us, and then they’ll give us a call.”
Adam just smiled at my impatience. “Hey, if you want to go ahead and try to race into a burning building that might fall inward on you, by all means, give it a try.”
“You’re right, they’re right. I’m just pissed off. He’s teasing us again. He called Noah just to tell him he was going to blow crap up.” I kicked at the tire, careful not to put my full force behind it. I didn’t need to add a broken foot to my list of woes.
“Noah was saying you had a few ideas for us to follow-up on.” Adam put an arm around my shoulders and walked me back toward the car. “Drawing on your walls instead of a white board means there’s a painting party in your future.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I think we need to look at the ads again. He’s getting a lot more activity than we think. He’s got to have someone helping him go through them and weed out all the crazies. This kind of planning takes precision and lots of control. He can’t just be handing out assignments to any old person who wants their mother-in-law dead,” I surmised.
“Guess not. Call Mac and have him start looking at people who might have responded to an ad like that. Do you have some specific ones for him to look at?” Adam asked, standing with his door open.
“Yes. I’ll get them over to him and see if he can trace the number it says to call.”
I was dreading having to continue this game with the Zodiac Master.
---
When we got to FBI Headquarters, there was an arrangement of Pansy flowers sitting on the conference table. The card with my name on it read:
Leslie, sorry I’ve been so out of things lately. I really should have been more solicitous of you, and then you wouldn’t have gone to my brother when he offered you a little comfort. Not that I begrudge you comfort, but I do wish I’d thought of it. You’ve kept me so busy trying to keep you with something to do that it just completely slipped my mind.
I threw my head back and laughed. “He thinks I’ve gone to the dark side because he didn’t send me enough flowers.” I looked down and continued to read.
My birthday is this month, and I thought you should know that I’m doing these explosions all by myself. Not to brag, but I’m also going to be keeping Shea and the baby alive. They are being well-cared-for, so Ryan doesn’t have to worry about them. Honestly, I’m not a complete monster. Signed:
Your Loving Admirer.
“His birthday is this month, which means he’s going to go all-out for his final event. That’s what he’s been leading up to this whole time,” I informed the group.
“Nah, he wouldn’t be that stupid. I mean, I get he likes killing people, but would he really go to that extreme? He would have to die.” Ryan shook his head in disagreement.
“See, that’s just it. I think he wants to die. If he can’t have me, then what’s his alternative? Let us catch him and send him to prison where all those others who aren’t up to his level of sophistication are? No. If he can’t have a happily ever after with me, then he’s going to go out on his own terms.” I started pacing as things began to fit together in my head.
“What does that mean for Shea and Hope? Will he keep them alive or kill them too for a last revenge kind of thing?” Ryan’s voice shook as he looked at the possibilities.
“He said in his note that he’s taking good care of them. Almost like they mean something to him as well. I don’t think he’ll hurt them, and certainly not the baby.” I hoped what I was saying was the truth.
“Well, he can send them back now. I’ll be just fine with that.” Ryan’s face was grim with determination.
Adam walked up and patted his back, offering comfort. “Amen.”
There wasn’t much comfort to be had as we all sat around the table, racking our brains for a way to get them back.
-----
Two days later, another arrangement of flowers was sitting on the conference table. This time, they were Carnations, the flower best known for the Sagittarius sign.
It was like he wanted me to think about the signs of each month and remind me of what had happened. It was like he knew about my timeline, and was trying to help me figure out what I’d missed.
Each day, there was a new set, or two, of flowers just after we’d get back from whatever explosion had been set off that day.
Geraniums for Scorpio. Roses for Libra. Buttercups for Virgo. Sunflowers for Leo. White Roses for Cancer. Lavender for Gemini. Poppies for Taurus. Honeysuckle for Aries. Water Lilies for Pisces, and Orchids for Aquarius.
The conference room was starting to smell like a flower garden, but I couldn’t bear to throw away the only pretty things in the room.
“What do you think he means by sending all these flowers? Is he really trying to woo me into liking him again?”
Noah shrugged and pushed the Sunflowers over so he could see my face. “Honestly, I wouldn’t have taken you to be a girl—excuse me, woman—who would be easily swayed by flowers. I mean, I’m sure you’d appreciate those and chocolates, but would that really be the turning point in whether you’d love a man or not?”
“No,” I sighed. “I do like flowers, which is why I haven’t thrown them away, I suppose. It does seem strange, though, to try and win me over with ‘gifts.’”
“That’s it. I can’t sit around here anymore and wait for something to happen. We’re going to go eat something. And Ryan, you should come with us.”
“Nope. I’m not hungry. Why don’t you call Jerome back and see if he wants to go with you while you’re at it?” Ryan retorted. “It’s not like my family is missing or anything.”
“Ryan, we’re not forgetting about them. It’s just…we can’t not eat or sleep until we get them back. If we go on like that, we won’t be any good to them when they need us the most. He’s keeping them safe.” I stood up and gave him a quick hug.
Releasing him, he ran a weary hand over his face. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault he’s taken my family. He’s taken enough from you as well. Tell you what, I’ll go to lunch with you. I could use a bit of fresh air.”
We went out to see if there were any food trucks out and about when we literally ran into Jerome.
“Fancy running into you three.” He held out his hand. “Hello, you must be Noah. I’m Jerome.”
Noah took his hand, but tilted his head with a confused look in my direction.
“Hey, Jerome. We were just talking about you a little while ago. What are you doing in this area?”
“Oh, I had to run something over to the newspaper office and see the editor about a few things that aren’t working so well in our communication network. I just got everything done and walked the two blocks over to see what they were serving for lunch. How about you guys? Case going okay?” He gave the guy his order and stepped back to wait.
“Uh, not exactly.” His being there seemed like a really big coincidence, but he hadn’t done anything illegal by wanting to eat lunch. It’s not like this wasn’t a public area.
“Oh, no. Noah told me it was keeping you up at night.” Jerome nodded to where both Ryan and Noah had walked down a little ways to one of the other trucks.
“Yeah. I’ve had a harder time sleeping with the way things have been going the past few weeks. It doesn’t feel right somehow.” I shrugged and walked forward to give the cook my order.
“Things will work out, you’ll see. It all has to in the end, right?” He gave me a small smile. “Ah, there’s my order. I’ll be seeing you around.”
As quickly as he’d appeared, he disappeared just as fast.
Surprised, I collected my food and walked over to where Ryan and Noah were taking a seat.
“Where did he go?” Noah glanced around, looking for Jerome.
“He had to leave. Anyway, I’m kind of glad. It seemed a little weird that he wanted to meet you, Noah.”
“I got that vibe as well. Now we can enjoy lunch out here in the sunshine without having to worry about your ex-jerk boyfriend,” Noah proclaimed before taking a bite of his food.
“He wasn’t a jerk, was he?” I asked, suddenly unsure as I turned to Ryan for confirmation.
“Eh, he kind of was. Not at first, but more toward the end. I think you’ve got the better man here beside you.” Ryan nodded toward Noah.
“Thanks, man. I love you too.”
I rolled my eyes. “Do I smell a bromance between you two?”
“Ugh, no.” Noah groaned and moved away from Ryan, who did the same.
“Whatever.” I took a bite of my lunch and let them act like they didn’t know each other.
We finished our lunch and were starting to feel a little better as we headed back to the conference room, where Adam was on his way too as well.
“Oh, good, I was about to call you. Mac just got a video and needs you guys to hear it.”
“A video? Wasn’t he supposed to be finding stuff on those ads?” Ryan questioned as he held the door open.
“Yep, he was, but this was sent to him only moments ago. He’s tried to trace where it came from, but he’s not sure if he can.” Adam hurried ahead, leaving all of us to wonder what was in the video.
Everyone settled in as Adam brought Mac up on the screen.
“Mac, what’s so urgent?” I settled in and put my feet up into the chair in front of me.
“Yeah, you’re not going to like it. Just watch.” He pushed a button, and the video appeared on his screen.
Jerome appeared with a gag over his mouth as he sat tied to a chair.
“Hello, my pretties. I think you’re missing this. It seems like lunch was cut a little short. I suppose you should have kept him with you, hmm? Well, he’s mine now, although I don’t plan to ride my broom through the skies in a demand for ransom.” He let out a maniacal laugh. “He’s yours when you find me. Until then, I’m gathering quite a collection. Is there anything you want to say?” A gloved hand ripped off the tape covering Jerome’s mouth.
“I’m sorry. He took me by surprise—”
That was all he got to say before the Zodiac Master took over again, placing the tape back over his mouth.
“Now, your time is running out, and you don’t have many more friends you can lose, so you’d better make sure you make it count. TTFN.”
The screen went black.
“You’ve got nothing, Mac?”
“Nope. I’m still trying. It came by email
, and that email has already been deleted. With this many layers, it could take days, if not weeks to take it back to its source. From what he just said, you don’t have that much time.”
“We don’t. It’s already been almost a week and we’re no closer than we were before.” Ryan pounded his fist on the table. “We have to do better. Not because Jerome got kidnapped, but because it means he’s still got my family.”
I couldn’t disagree because he was right. We needed to come up with something to get our people back, and fast.
Chapter 6
Ryan
Another explosion on the outskirts of Dallas had us driving out there with only a few moments to recover from the last bomb that was dropped.
The fire captain had assured us that these were small grenades similar to landmines, or explosives that were made to blow up small areas.
“I don’t see why he’s using these grenades. If he was hoping to do a lot of damage, this is just the opposite. Small area with minimal impact, but they’re still causing casualties.” He shook his head as he tried to wrap his mind around it.
“He’s mostly doing this for the attention. He wants us to know he’s in control and using everything in his power to finish his mission statement. He knows we’re getting close, and he doesn’t want it to end on our terms,” Leslie explained.
I wasn’t paying complete attention to her as she continued to discuss the situation with the captain while moving closer to the smoldering ashes of the office building. Sticking out of the soot was a baby blanket with the embroidered name “Hope.”
While I knew rationally that there wasn’t a reason for my baby to be here at this office space, I couldn’t help but think the worst had happened.
He’d killed my baby.
“Did anyone see a man with a baby before the explosion?” I held up the fragment of the baby blanket.
“No one mentioned it. Why?”
“My child is missing, and this is one of her blankets.” I tried not to let it get to me, but it was getting harder with every passing day.
Inside, I was screaming at him. Hurry, we have to find her! We have to know if she’s dead! Don’t just stand there!