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Skunk immediately curled up at her feet. Morgan had justenough time to notice, as she had last night, that the sheets smelled quite oldand dusty. She added “wash the sheets” to her growing mental list of things todo but was asleep before she fully had time to process it.
Her sleep instantly threw her into a nightmare…or asinstantly as sleep makes it seem.
She was swimming in a river and there were four peoplewalking toward her. They were all dead, zombies walking on the water andlaughing at her. She swam hard for the shore but as she drew closer to thebanks, she saw that the only thing waiting for her was a prison cell. Herfather waited there, also dead. He was waving to her, as if he hadn’t seen herin forever, and when she waved back it was only then that she realized he wasn’twaving to her at all. He was waving to the dead people on the water.
“You’re going to fail again,” he said.
She was torn out of the nightmare by the ringing of herphone. She grabbed it right away because it was an anchor to the real world,proof that the nightmare wasn’t real. She took a moment to collect her breath,still seeing those zombies on the water.
“Yeah? Hello?”
“Hey, Morgan. It’s Derik…sorry to call so early.”
How early was it? she wondered. She hadn’t even checkedthe time on the phone when she answered it and there was no bedside clock.
“What time is it?”
“A bit past five in the morning. Look…can you be ready intwenty minutes?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“Because the Seven Signs Killer has just fulfilled thesixth sign.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
When Morgan stepped into the apartment, she was horrifiedat just how clearly she could smell the freshly spilled blood. She of coursehadn’t stepped foot in a crime scene in years, so maybe her senses hadforgotten what it was like. Back in the day, she’d been used to it…the scentlike copper and, underneath, something almost like sweat. It wasn’t toodissimilar from getting used to the smell of your own house.
But her body had adjusted to the smells of prison cellsand body odor, of pungent cleaning supplies and dust. The smell of the victim’sfresh blood was almost sickening.
She did her best to stay in control as she and Derikstepped into the apartment. There were three people already there; two wereuniformed cops, standing in the large room that served as an adjoined kitchenand living area, and the other was a man of about thirty-five or so. He wassitting on the couch, his hands in his head, stifling small cries.
As one of the cops came over—the other busy with tryingto speak to and comfort the man on the couch—Morgan took a moment to closelystudy the body of the victim. It was a male, dressed in a very basic suit. Hewas lying face down on his kitchen floor, a pool of blood surrounding his headlike a halo. It was hard to tell with his back to them, but Morgan was quitesure he’d been struck or cut on the head.
Roughly three feet away from the blood was a single scrapof paper. The number 6 had been written on it in red marker.
“What do we have here?” Derik asked.
The cop, a grizzled-looking man of middle age, lookeddown at the victim with a frown. “Victor Rhyman. Forty-one years of age.Discovered forty minutes ago by the gentleman on the couch.”
“At such an early hour?” Morgan asked.
“Yes. Mr. Rhyman was blind, and—”
“And I’m a part-time caretaker,” the man on the couchsaid, looking up but trying to keep his eyes away from the body.
“Your name?” Derik asked.
“Lee Case.”
As Morgan slowly made her way over to Lee Case, she heardDerik whisper to the officer. “We’re good here.”
The other officer must have heard this because they gotup from the couch and followed the other officer into the kitchen, near thedoor.
“Mr. Case,” Morgan said, “can you walk us through themoment you discovered the body?”
Lee shuddered and looked up at Morgan, his eyes filledwith tears. “I…I came in to check on Mr. Rhyman like I usually do. He was blindand needed help with a few things around the apartment. When I walked in, Ifound him lying there like that. I didn’t know what to do, so I called 911.”
Morgan nodded understandingly. “And before that, did youhear anything unusual or see anyone suspicious around the building?”
