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CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
“No, that’s not quite right,” Ambersaid, looking at yet another picture of a pendant in the office she and Simonhad borrowed from the Keystone PD.
The problem with astrologicaljewelry, it turned out, was that there was a lot of it out there. From smallonline crafters to major jewelry chains, it seemed that everyone had their ownversion of it.
That continued to make searchingfor a particular style of piece difficult, if not impossible. Yet Amber wasn’tsure what else she could do. All of the victims so far had owned thesependants. That made the pendants the best connection between the three. Theyhad to run that connection down, no matter how much time and effort it took.
“Any luck?” she asked Simon.
Simon shook his head. “I can’t findthis exact design. It feels as though this case has more questions than answersat the moment.”
Amber could only agree with thatsentiment, starting to list the things they didn’t know yet in the hope that itmight give them a clearer picture of where they needed to look.
“Why is the killer doing this? Whywas there a two-year gap between the first kill and the second, only for him tohave two kills in two days? Where did the pendants come from, and why are theysignificant to all of this?”
“That’s a lot of questions,” Simonsaid. “I want to look at the possibility that the killer didn’t stop fortwo years.”
“You think there are more cases wedon’t know about?” Amber asked. “In a town the size of Keystone, I think astring of astrological murders would have gotten attention before now.”
“Which is why I want to look foranything similar up and down the east coast,” Simon said. “Maybe we’re dealingwith a killer who moved on for a while, then came back.”
"Maybe," Amber said, notsure whether to hope that Simon found something or not. If there was a patternout there waiting for them, then maybe it would lead them to the killer, but itwould also mean that more women had died at his hands. "I'll keep tryingto run down the pendants. I still think that when we find who made them, we'llbe able to find out more about what's going on here."
Simon nodded, ready to get back towork, but even as he did so, Detective Arquet came bursting into the office.
“Agents, come out here. There’sanother message from the killer!”
Amber could see the near panic onthe detective’s face. He obviously suspected the same thing that Amber did:that the killer was announcing the next victim he would kill. Which meant thatthe killer might already be on the move, getting ready to murder someone else.
Detective Arquet led the way outinto the bullpen of the Keystone PD, rows of desks set out for the officers ofthe department to work from, harsh lighting looking down on their efforts evenin the daylight. It should have been a bustling place, full of police officersand detectives working on different cases. Instead, a crowd of them were allstanding around one desk, which Amber guessed was probably Arquet's, judging bythe way they moved aside to let him through.
The desk had files from the threemurder cases on it, along with a stained coffee cup, a computer with a crackedscreen and a couple of photographs of a smiling family that must have beenArquet’s. Amber’s attention was on the sheet of paper lying on the desk,covered in astrological symbols, a circular birth chart set out beneath them.
“The style is the same as the lastone,” Arquet said. “And the note is a detail we haven’t released yet to thepublic, so we’re confident that it’s real.”
That was important. They didn’twant to risk going on a wild goose chase following a fake note. But even ifArquet hadn’t said anything, Amber would have known that this note was real. Itmatched the details of the previous one almost exactly.
“Can you decode it?” Arquet asked.
Amber nodded. “Assuming it’s thesame cipher.”
It was just a question of findingthe right key. The one from the last note obviously wasn’t right, but Amberguessed that was just because it was from the wrong day. She tried again, withthe symbols taken from today’s astrology section in the local newspaper, andquickly found the words making sense.
Amber read them aloud as shetranslated them.
“I’m disappointed in your efforts.You can’t stop me. The stars won’t allow it. Tonight, when Taurus is at itszenith, its sculptor shall die. All her sign’s strength will not be enough forthe weight of her work.”
“So a sculptor is going to dietonight?” Simon said. “If so, we might still have time to protect her.”
Amber nodded. “There are definitelyfewer sculptors out there than warriors. We should be able to find her.Particularly if we can get the birth chart interpreted.”
“We still have Alonzo Ruiz in thecells,” Arquet said. “The DA is still deciding what, if anything, to charge himwith, so we haven’t transferred him to the county jail yet.”
Amber nodded. He wasn’t exactly herfirst choice of astrologer, but he’d correctly interpreted one of these chartsbefore. Maybe he would be able to help them now.
“Bring him up here. Maybe he’ll beable to help.”
“I’ll go grab him,” Arquet said.“Let’s just hope he’s feeling in a cooperative mood.”
