“Oh shit, you’re whistling. That means one of two things: you won a bet, or you got laid.” Max knew him better than anyone.
“The latter, my friend. And she slept in, so she didn’t nag me this morning.”
“Slept in, huh? You must have worn the poor girl out. Maybe you should keep that in mind. It might make for more pleasant mornings and save your marriage. Though, God knows why you’d want to do that.”
“You really hate her, don’t you?”
“With a passion.” The guy hadn’t liked her for years. At first, he thought she was the hottest thing in town, but then Darek had invited the guy and his girl on a double date, and she made a spectacle of herself. Darek forgave her, but Max hadn’t. He had pegged her as a spoiled princess, and he had no use for the type.
“She’s pretty bad, isn’t she?” Darek laughed as he sat at his desk. He couldn’t get the sound of her moaning out of his mind, or how good it felt to be inside of her. “But, sue me, I love the girl.” He leaned back, resting his hands behind his head.
“Well, I’m glad you’re happy, man. It’s good to know you’re having a nice morning for a change.”
He was, but he should have known that like all the other times in his life, once he let himself get too high, he’d hit his head on the ceiling and come crashing down.
Lizzy walked into the office looking like the cat that ate the canary. “Hello, boys.” She gave them a sly smile and tossed a folder down on the table. “I’m glad you’re both here. I’ve got something to show you.” She pulled up a chair, and Max waggled his brows at Darek and pulled up a chair of his own.
Darek scooted his closer as Lizzy opened the folder. What he saw sent ice water through his veins. The girl in the photo was pale in contrast to the mud around her, and Lizzy flipped that photo to the back of the stack as she thumbed through a few others.
Darek’s blood pumped at record speed, and his heartbeat was so loud in his ears, he was sure Max could hear it.
“What case is that?” Max asked.
“It’s a case down in Virginia from about twelve years ago. A girl was found in the woods behind this diner, and she’d been carved up and beaten pretty badly.”
“Damn. Did they make an arrest?” Max took the picture she handed him and gave it a look.
Lizzy put a few of the other pictures on the desk and scattered them. “Yeah, a homeless man was arrested. The report said he’d had contact with the girl while she was at work. And he must have planned to use her in some sort of ritual. They said he had a bunch of satanic symbols tattooed on him.” She laid the next picture down to show the homeless man shirtless with his tattoos. The look in his eyes was one of death, and it was no wonder they’d pinned the murder on him. His scary eyes made Charles Manson’s look as gentle as a lamb.
Darek focused on the tattoos as the memories from his past flooded in. The news had covered the gruesome findings and the hunt for the murderer, but they’d been focused on the man all along.
“His name was Otis Gough,” Lizzy said.
“Was or is? Did he die?” Max passed the image of the girl across the desk, and Darek took it, remembering another name that had burned in his memory. Emily Johnson.
“Otis Gough died in prison,” she said.
“And how does this relate to the case we’re on?” Darek knew his tone was a bit firm, and Lizzy looked up like she was just noticing him there. “I mean, this girl had the symbols carved into her back, but we’ve got a tattoo.”
“A tattoo that was carved up very much like the girl, only with the zodiac symbols,” Lizzy said. “The zodiac is the link, and not only that, but get this—Otis Gough swore to his innocence until his dying day. On his deathbed, he even told the police that they’d let one get away.”
Darek turned the photo of the man around and pointed to it, his thick finger jabbing the photo right over the man’s eye. “This is the face of a killer. And a liar. The guy did it. They proved he did it.”
“There was not much evidence, besides circumstantial. Sure, they did find her blood on him, but he found her body. He’d been camping out in the woods near the diner at night and eating scraps from the dumpster. The girl’s father wanted the case over and done with, so it was a rush job. The father was happy to pin it on the guy, and the cops solved their case. A nationally known case with that much media attention, the little town couldn’t handle that shit.” She seemed really convinced, and Darek knew he was going to have a hard time convincing her differently.
“What if Victor Barnes was the real killer?” She folded her arms and gave Darek a challenging grin. “You’re the one who said there was a gut feeling something was off. What if this is it?”
“I meant that possibly, Victor didn’t commit the crime at all. You’re saying he committed more?”
“I’m saying there could be a connection, and this might actually be a serial killer we’re dealing with. Either that or maybe he’s a copycat. This case was in the headlines for a while, at least until they finally got Gough sentenced, and then it died away. What if there’s a connection from Victor to Gough? It’s possible. We really need to look into this.”
“No, we don’t.” Darek gathered up the photos and shoved them back into the folder. “We need to focus on this case, and this case has nothing to do with some poor girl who was beaten and carved up in Virginia twelve years ago.”
Max stood up straight and raked his hands through his hair. “Relax, man. She’s got a point. The carving and zodiac symbols are way too fucking similar to ignore. And a homeless man, who is eating out of the garbage and has a bunch of pentagrams and goat horns on his chest, is an easy person to pin it on.”
“Whose side are you on?” Darek hadn’t thought that his own partner would choose Lizzy’s theories over his own.
Max held up his hands defensively. “I just don’t see why you both can’t be right?”
Darek wanted to scream. Not because they were wrong, but because the frustration of having the past knocking on his door was getting to be too much. This wasn’t coincidence. Someone was fucking with him, and he needed to know who.
“The man who was caught in that case has taken the truth to his grave.” Darek knew he had to choose his words carefully. He felt the guilt and grief creeping back in. Seeing Emily’s picture, seeing the way he’d left her, it burned a hole in his gut.
“If the man really was innocent, don’t you think this girl deserves to have the real killer found?” Lizzy’s eyes bored into his, and the moment was so tense between them that he had to look away.
“Yeah, she deserves it.” He knew it was the truth, but he had to do something to deflect the attention from it. He needed to talk to Bay and tell him all of this. Bay was going to go berserk.