“Hold on a moment.” Jake pulled out his phone. “I took a picture of Adam’s mark when I was in the morgue with Doc Hughes. It should be in here somewhere.”
He scrolled through his phone. “What the fuck?” he muttered, then he handed the phone to Olivia, Theo leaned over her shoulder to get a look.
The photo he’d taken of the mark on Adam’s corpse had the same light flare as the others.
“What does the mark look like?” Theo asked Jake.
“It’s circular.” Jake cast his mind back. “Inside the circle are two serpents entwined in an infinity symbol.”
Theo disappeared from the room and came back holding a sketch pad and pencil. Olivia and Jake both watched as Theo drew on the paper with quick, confident strokes. “Did it look like this?”
Jake’s gaze fell to the paper, his eyes widening and his jaw dropping. Theo had drawn the mark in exact detail.
“That’s it exactly! How do you know what it looks like?”
“Because I’ve seen this symbol before.” His expression was grave.
“Where?” Jake’s eyes narrowed.
“Salem, 1695,” he replied, and looked at Olivia. “You remember the cleric I told you about, Nathaniel Boothe?”
“Yes.”
“This was his personal seal, one he wore it around his neck. He was never without it,” Theo explained.
“What the hell is a seventeenth-century seal doing on the corpses of twenty-first-century murder victims?’ Olivia frowned.
“I have no idea, but I do know Nathaniel Boothe had a connection to your family, Olivia. From what I understand, he was the one responsible for the death of Hester and Bridget West’s mother. I also know he was after something he believed they had.”
“What was it?” Jake asked.
Theo shrugged. “All I know is it was called Infernum, but I don’t know what it was.” His mouth twisted as he turned his gaze to Olivia. “If you think about it, the murderer is linked to you somehow, whether it’s your father or not. They are marking them with Nathaniel’s seal and dumping the bodies near your home. I don’t know how it all fits together but it is a link.”
“This doesn’t make any sense.” Jake frowned in frustration. “How can all this be connected to a cleric who lived over three hundred years ago?”
“Maybe the link isn’t to him but to a descendant,” Olivia mused thoughtfully.
“What?”
“Think about it,” Olivia said. “A lot of families from round here and Salem can trace their roots back to the earliest colonies. What if the murderer is a descendant of this Nathaniel Boothe, and the seal was passed down through his family from generation to generation? I know, for me personally, I have hundreds of years’ worth of history in this house, going right back to the towns founding.”
“I guess it’s possible.” Jake scratched his chin. “But it could just as easily be that someone saw the seal in a book or something and recreated it.”
“Maybe,” Olivia conceded. “But I don’t think so. This symbol means something to the killer, something personal. If we can figure out its significance, maybe we can figure out who the killer is and how they’re connected to my family.”
“Okay.” Jake stood. “I’m going to take the file and the packaging it came in and see if I can trace who sent it and where it’s from. Why don’t you try to piece together the family history of Nathaniel Boothe and see if he has any descendants living in the area?”
Olivia nodded. “I’ll give Renata a call at the museum and see if she can help me.”
“I’ll take a look at the symbol itself,” Theo added. “See if I can find out the history of the seal, where it came from, what it symbolizes.”
“Good.” Jake hummed in approval. “If you guys find anything, call me straight away. No more playing detective, okay? It’s one thing driving into Salem to talk to a little old lady, it’s another thing entirely to go chasing after a psychotic killer.”
“We will,” Olivia promised.
Olivia walked Jake to the front door with Theo following behind her. Once the door closed behind Jake, she turned to Theo, and for a few moments, they stared silently at each other.
“I’m going to take a shower, then I’ll get started on the symbol,” Theo finally said.
