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“This is… a lot,” she said.
“It’s not all of it,” DetectiveArquet said. He took an evidence bag from within his jacket. In it, there was asheet of paper, and on it, there were more signs and symbols. Some werearranged in a kind of wheel, some in neat lines of script. “This is the thingthat made us ask for you, Agent Young. It was sent to us yesterday. The killer hasgiven us some kind of code, and we can’t make head nor tail of it.”
Amber took the sheet of paper,still in its evidence bag, her mind already working, running throughsubstitution ciphers, trying to make some sense of it. For the moment, though,nothing would come.
Something sprang to mind, though: a briefglimmer of memory, something she’d read about. Amber knew enough not to ignorethat kind of instinct. She stood there, perfectly still, trying to dig through hermemories for the answer.
“There’s… another similar case, Ithink,” Amber said. “A couple of years ago?”
“You mean the van Nuit case?”Detective Arquet said.
The name let something click inAmber’s mind. “Yes, I think that’s the one. Weren’t there astrological symbolsthere?”
“I… don’t recall,” Detective Arquetadmitted. “I only joined the department as a detective a year ago.”
Amber turned and hurried back tothe car, with both Simon and the detective following behind. She got out herlaptop, looking for the case while Detective Arquet kept the reporters back.Now that she had a name, it didn’t take long to find it. Katrina van Nuit hadbeen a kindergarten teacher. She’d been found killed a couple of years ago.Amber looked through the file, checking the crime scene photographs.
“You really think these cases arelinked?” Simon said. “It says that van Nuit was strangled.”
“But look at the crime scenephotographs,” Amber said. She pulled them up.
There was an image of Katrina vanNuit sitting next to a mirror, terrifyingly still in death. It was a horrifyingimage, but it wasn’t the body Amber was looking at. It was the symbols on themirror. Astrological symbols, the same as the ones that had been drawn aroundthe pool in the training facility.
“It looks like the detective’sinstincts were right,” Simon said. “We’re looking at a serial killer.”
A serial killer who might still beout there, and who would kill again if they didn’t stop him.
CHAPTER FIVE
Amber always hated going to see thecoroner. There was something so clinical about the environment of a morgue,something so sterile and devoid of human feeling that it always sent a shiverdown her spine.
In this case, the morgue backedonto a local hospital. As Amber and Simon walked into the reception area of themorgue, Amber saw paintings on the walls, gentle landscapes that she suspectedwere intended to produce a calming environment. As far as she was concerned, itwasn’t working.
There was a reception desk at thefront of the lobby. The woman behind it looked up as they approached. She was inher late twenties, with spiked dark hair and a silver nose stud. She was alsowearing surgical scrubs, which suggested to Amber that this wasn’t areceptionist.
“Hi,” Amber said, flashing herbadge. “I’m Agent Young, with the FBI, this is Agent Phelps. We’re here aboutthe Alice Chan case.”
The woman smiled back at Amber.“I’m Liz Selwyn, the coroner here. And you… wait, Amber Young?”
Amber nodded, frowning slightly.
“The puzzles expert?”
It always caught Amber a little bysurprise when someone had heard of her, although she guessed it shouldn’tsurprise her at this point. Her former boyfriend, Joseph, had been a reporterfor the Washington News. He’d publicized a lot of the cases Amber had workedon, as well as her successes as a puzzler.
Simon nodded. “That’s her.”
“I used to love your column in theWashington News,” Dr. Selwyn said. “And now you’re here because of the codeleft by the body? I couldn’t make any sense of it.”
“We’re here to catch the killer,whether it’s through the code or not,” Amber said. This wasn’t just about thepuzzle the killer had left; it was about the life, lives that had beencut short by this killer. “We were hoping that you might be able to tell ussomething that could help.”
Dr. Selwyn nodded. “I’ve finishedmy autopsy. If you want to come through, I’ll talk you through my findings.”
“Thank you,” Simon said.
Amber and Simon followed thecoroner through into the main room of the mortuary. It was considerably colderthan outside, the chill there to help with the preservation of the bodies whileDr. Selwyn worked on them.
Alice Chan’s body was on a gurney,covered by a sheet. Amber recognized her face from the crime scene photos and whatshe’d been able to find out about Alice online so far. Even so, it was verydifferent seeing her lying there like that, so utterly still. Amber had toswallow back a wash of disquiet at the sight of her there, sudden sympathy forthe dead woman threatening to overwhelm her.
