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“Yeah?” Derik’s voice answered in her ear.
“I got a small nugget of information,” she said. “Itseems Rhyman played the organ at a local Methodist church.”
“Seems like a connection to at least a few others, huh?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m thinking. You ready to head to thestation?”
He hesitated for a moment and then, with maybe a bit toomuch sincerity in his voice for Morgan’s liking, he said, “Yes, but are you?”
Morgan sighed and bit back the vile retort that came toher tongue. In the end, she only said, “I’ll meet you downstairs.”
With that, she left the body of Victor Rhyman toforensics, hoping there might still be a few viable connections lingering amongthe victims even after a decade away.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Morgan wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting when shelogged onto the precinct’s database, but it certainly hadn’t been an amplifieddepression. Everything about it was different beyond the log-in screen. Shealso discovered that because of her prolonged absence and guilty verdict, she’dbeen removed from network access anyway.
She was rather delighted to find that this angered Derikalmost as much as it angered her.
“You’d think,” he said, plopping himself down in hisoffice chair, “that they’d make sure this crap was straightened out beforeasking you to rush back into this damned case.”
“No access to the database, no office…I’m not feeling toogood about my chances of coming back full-time after this case.”
Derik was pulling a spare chair over. It was one he keptin the corner, littered with books and three different jackets. He removed thebooks and positioned the chair beside his, so that it was facing his laptop. Hethen looked at her with a curious smile.
“Do you think you’d come back full-time?”
“I don’t know. It depends.”
“On what?”
Morgan shrugged. “I don’t know that either. So…show methis newfangled database system.”
He showed her the ins and outs of the new system as theyhunted down connections and leads from the previous victims that might somehowtie into the most recent killings. As he did, Morgan started to feel thefrustration all over again. They knew the murders were linked because the SevenSigns Killer was pointing it out to them. And because of the stories of the SevenSigns in the Bible, they had at least some indication of what the murders wouldlook like.
So how in the hell had this guy evaded them for so long?
“Tell me,” Derik said about half an hour later as heprinted out the backgrounds of six different potential suspects. Some werebeing recycled from their first batch of interviews and interrogations from adecade ago, but there were some new names, too. Honestly, none of it felt solidto Morgan.
“Tell you what?”
“If we don’t catch this guy and he gets his tenth victim…orhowever many he’d able to take out with his next little sign. Do you think he’lljust disappear? Do you think he’ll consider his work done?”
Morgan leaned back in her chair, considering Derik’squestion. She knew it was a possibility. Some serial killers stopped afterreaching a specific number of victims or once they felt they had accomplishedtheir “mission.” Or because they were afraid they were on the brink of beingcaught.
But the Seven Signs Killer didn’t strike her as someonewho would just disappear. Even if he carried out his sick “seven signs,” maybehe’d find some other religious symbol or account to inspire him. He seemed totake pride in getting the better of them, so she doubted he’d be able to simplystop.
“I don’t think so,” she said finally. “This guy is toometiculous, too calculated. He’s been planning this for years. I don’t think he’djust stop after reaching the seventh sign. He’ll find a new way to continue hissick game.”
Derik nodded, looking serious. “Yeah, that’s how I feel.While you were in prison and he went quiet…we all thought he’d just stopped,you know? That what happened to you might have felt like it had hit too closeto him.”
“You mean for those of you who thought I was innocent?”she asked with just a bit of bite in her tone.
“Yeah…” He nearly fell quiet here, and Morgan could sensehim wrestling with something. Finally, he turned to her and said: “You know,you have to stop pretending that everyone thought you were guilty. I never did.There are several others that were pissed when you went to prison, too. I can’teven imagine what you’re dealing with right now, or what the past ten yearshave been like…but you have to drop the grudge against me.”
“Drop it? Derik, tell me…have you ever lostten yearsof your life because everyone you worked with and respected thought you wereresponsible for the murders of several people?”
“Of course I haven’t. You know I—”
