When he left, Kate looked around the room and tried to get a feel for what had occurred.Unless this was a conspiracy between multiple parties—which was possible—the killer had struck when there was absolutely no one else in the house.The guests had to have left, and the servants, apparently, had all left too.Or theotherguests andotherservants, if, as Kate suspected, one of them turned out to be their killer.
The large bay window that opened onto an even larger balcony overlooking the Caribbean Sea didn’t appear scuffed or damaged.Kate tried the door and found it locked.She unlocked it and stepped onto the balcony.No scuff marks, footprints, or fingerprints that indicated someone had tried to climb up.
“If you’re looking for forced entry, there wasn’t any,” Rivera said.“We’re leaning toward one of the guests or staff.”
“I am too,” Kate replied, “but take a closer look anyway.”
“We will.Any idea what the writing on the wall is?”
Kate continued to look through the window at the beach ahead.The beach was exclusive to residents of the island and sported dozens of fabulously wealthy men and women with fabulously expensive bodies clad in fabulously expensive swimsuits.Kate wondered how many of those men and women had been here the night before, and which, if any, of them had killed their hosts.
She realized she hadn’t answered Rivera.“It’s a message,” she replied.“A warning to others.‘This is what happens when you break God’s commandments.’”
Rivera whispered.“Well, they sure as hell weren’t subtle about it.”
Kate looked back at the cipher on the wall.She’d have to disagree with Rivera’s assessment.The killer—Cox disciple or not—was brazen in action but subtle in explanation.That was another hallmark of Cox’s murders.The killings were for the masses, and they were as clear and simple as the commandments to which they referred.
The messages, the ciphers, were for Kate.
Marcus feared that Kate would obsess over Cox, and he had good reason to fear that.There was no more doubt in Kate’s mind.This killing had Cox’s stench all over it.
She shivered, imagining his malevolent smile burning through her skull.
I’m not done with you yet.
