Page 25 of Go Alone

“Find anything in the cipher?” Marcus asked.

Kate nodded. “It references Proverbs 30:15 and 16. The killer called Deborah Holt a barren womb.”

Marcus lifted an eyebrow. “She has three kids, though.”

Kate shook her head. “Those verses talk about four things that are never satisfied: the grave, the barren womb, dry soil, and fire.”

“Huh. You think the soil is connected somehow?”

“Maybe. It could be a reference to the dry soil or to the grave. I think the barren womb probably means that she always wanted more. I think this killer’s punishing the act of theft due to covetousness, but I think he’s correcting the underlying greed behind that covetousness. This cipher was even more of a rant than the first.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. He said, ‘Deborah Holt couldn’t be satisfied. Even when she had everything, she always wanted more. She saw others content with what they had, and she took from them to fill the void in her own soul. She even falsified legal documents to take what wasn’t hers. But it didn’t work. She was a barren womb. It was never enough.’”

“He seems almost sad for her,” Marcus commented. “Like a parent who’s upset because their kid can’t be happy with what they have.”

Kate nodded. “Yeah. There’s a ghost of anger there, but like I said the first time, I think he’s more grieved by all of this than anything.”

“Do we think maybe he’s an observer and not a victim? Maybe like Emily Warren, he wasn’t personally harmed but was witness to the harm?”

“Maybe,” Kate said. “He specifically pointed out the mechanism by which both victims stole property. In Deborah Holt’s case, he wasn’t even esoteric. He actually encoded the term ‘falsified legal documents’. So he has to be familiar with the cases.”

Marcus nodded. “I’ll see if I can find a connection between Greer and Holt. Maybe one of his employees in the city planner’s office knew Deborah. Or maybe the killer was part of a law office that interacted with victims of both.”

“Sounds good,” Kate said. “I’m going to follow up with Gabe. I want to see if he’s gotten anywhere on the other text the killer quoted.”

Marcus’s brow furrowed for a moment. Then he remembered. “Oh yeah. The old legal document, right? The killer quoted it again?”

Kate nodded. In between the commandment and his rant about Deborah Holt never being satisfied, he wrote, ‘Full and fair representation shall be offered of all parties concerned with the exchange of real property. Neither shall manipulate by obfuscation or falsification the character or circumstance of the other.’”

“Hmm. You said Gabe’s been working on it?”

Kate nodded.

Marcus rubbed his chin. “Well, whatever it is, it has to be unique or a Google search would have turned it up. That could be a good lead. Our killer would have to be one of only a few people who know it.”

“Here’s hoping.”

Marcus took a deep breath and gave Kate a tired smile. “Well, I’m tapping out. I’m going to wake early to shower, but tonight, the bathroom is all yours.”

Kate returned a tired smile of her own. “Thank you, good sir.”

“See you in the morning.”

While Kate showered, she pondered the mind of a killer who took lives while also grieving them. All of their past killers had shown some sign of personal anger, except maybe for Thomas Brennan, the Second Commandment Killer, whose aggression came partially from mental handicap and partially from true zeal.

This killer showed only the ghost of anger. Not really even anger so much as frustration. Even with Greer, Kate heard the exasperation of a parent, not the triumph of a man seeking revenge as she first thought.

Parents didn’t start by punishing their children, though. They warned them first.

Whoever their killer was, he had warned his victims. Maybe the connection was many years old, but it was there, buried somewhere in the detritus of a past long since scattered to the wind. Collect that detritus and rebuild that puzzle, and they would have their killer.

But would they have him before he dispensed more punishment?

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Saturday, March 13th