Audra greeted Cordero and her new team at the sheriff's station before the end of the week. They took up the entire meeting room as well as a room in the back that they set up with six desks, Internet, television, a high-tech phone system, and high-powered specter shields that would keep specters at a thirty-yard distance. Audra had met two of the assembled team members before in connection with other cases.
Thomas Cooper was a barely legal computer genius that had his share of brushes with the law before being offered a full scholarship to MIT after earning his GED at the age of fifteen. He prided himself on being a dark skinned pretty boy with large dark eyes and a troublemaker's alluring smile.
He managed to transform the computer information systems at the office into a work of art. Because he streamlined computer applications, making everyone's computer interaction easier and more user friendly, he had been able to bypass much of the rookie officer hazing crap that regular people like Audra had had to sweat through before being taken seriously.
Yolanda Eagles was a slim woman of average height in her mid-twenties with a mixture of Latin, Native, and Irish heritage that left her racially ambiguous enough to get in and out of almost any place unnoticed or blend into any situation. She was beautiful in a very nondescript manner with brown hair and green eyes. She rarely had to question people face-to-face in order to get the information that she needed, easily filling in the gaps between the stories being told and the evidence in front of her. She was a natural-born observer and prided herself on reading people very well. Yolanda smiled upon arrival, giving Audra a friendly hug and lifting a devilish eyebrow as she shifted her gaze between her and Ethan.
Joshua Kane was new to Audra, having joined the New York office in the last two months to analyze the lab work she'd sent back. He was always thorough and professional in his responses, as well as beautiful in a kind of angelic way that made Audra place him as more of an indoor person. It was clear that the Southern heat was not his friend as his boyishly blond hair was plastered to his scalp by the perspiration that also fell into his golden-brown eyes. Audra wondered how long he would last onsite.
Eric Neil was the strong, silent type with an apparent eye for details that worked well for him in his position as the lead forensic analyst. He had thick, curly brown hair and amazing, almost distracting, blue eyes that became piercing when he spoke with any degree of excitement or intensity. He was able to piece together the timeline of all the murders and their connection not only to a single paternal donor, but also Abigail Stevens and three other mothers.
"Your hunch was correct about Kendra Sheriff Cole, she and Gwyneth Miller were full sisters, with the same mother and father."
Audra took a deep breath and let it out. The full impact of that information hit her hard.
"Since Audra had mentioned Mackenzie Knox's theory that the killer could be a person using chakra energy to kill," Eric continued his debriefing on his preliminary research, "I took the liberty of connecting that theory to theories and beliefs in macro and microcosms."
When a room full of blank faces stared at him he continued.
"Anything dealing with inner space, the body, and outer space, the universe, as it relates to Vedic astrology." Eric paused in order to roll three charts out on the meeting room table.
The entire team continued staring at Eric's electric blue-eyed excitement with blank confusion.
"Okay, Vedic astrology has Hindi origins much like our understanding of the body's energy in relation to the chakras. This can also be applied to any form of astrological study," Eric explained.
"Right," AD Cordero said to push Eric along to his point.
"Anyway, knowing that they all had the same father, but different mothers, and all other victims were also adopted with only estimated birthdates, and were murdered at night, presumably just before daybreak, I wondered if their birth charts had anything to do with the date and times of their deaths."
Eric seemed to pause for dramatic affect as the team waited for him to tell them if indeed their birthdates had anything to do with the date and time of their murders.
"I have no idea," he finally answered, anticlimactically.
Cordero cleared his throat.
"In this type of astrology the birth times within minutes are extremely important or they simply can not be read. But, what I did find interesting, is that all of the victims are female… No males."
Audra felt her own patience slipping away. Eric pointed to a map of the stars.
"In Hindi this cluster of stars is known as the Nakshatra. In Native American legend, the seven sisters are said to have birthed a Savior. And in another Native story, seven maidens were put high into the sky for protection from an angry bear. In Greek it is the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters."
"Seven?" Audra chimed in. "Are you saying there will be two more?"
"Possibly. Or if the killer sees themselves as one of the sisters, there could be just one more," Eric answered. "I tracked the sky over each of the victims at the time of their deaths to find each had the sister cluster hanging over her particular city at the time."
He placed a picture of each victim next to the corresponding star. He placed Gwyneth Miller next to the star of Calaeno, Jenifer Martin with Maia, Amanda Price with Sterope, Linda Parker with Merope, Regina Fowler with Electra, and Kendra Wheeler-Dalton with Alcyone.
"But, Kendra is still alive," Audra said, and it hit her. "She is one of the two still left."
"What stars are left?" Cordero asked.
"Taygete." Eric pointed to the star that didn't seem to stand out at all among the others.
"Taygete and my sister is with Alcyone," Audra thought out loud. "Which means the killer is most likely following both of these stars. When will Alcyone be the central star over Boston?"
"Presumably not for another year," Eric said. "The killer targeted Boston for Amanda Price under the star of Sterope while it was central. Which means they let Alcyone pass without disturbing your sister."
"Maybe they don't think they need her to be dead," Audra said. "After all, it's been thirteen years of that cluster passing over my sister without incident."
"If the killer is actually basing these murders on mythology," Joshua stepped in, pushing his plastered blond hair off of his forehead, "then it's alright if the person or specter is insane, but if not, there has to be a motive. Why are they doing this? What will it get them?" He blinked twice as sweat attacked his eyes once more.
"What do they believe it will get them?" Yolanda spoke up.
"All the power in the universe?" Thomas took a stab in the dark, his young brown face shining with an overconfident and naive smile. "Maybe they think killing these women gives them more power?"
"Mackenzie pointed out that they were all strangled at the throat chakra," Audra offered. "The Throat Chakra is associated with communication and the truth. So the killer could be trying to silence the victims to keep the truth from coming out."
"Maybe they do want power," Ethan said thoughtfully. "But it seems too desperate. I would think that it's someone or something attempting to hold onto a power they already have."
"But as far as we know, none of these women, with the exception of Gwyneth Miller, knew who either of their parents were," Joshua reminded them. "They couldn't really tell anyone anything."
"But it is strange that they all have the same father when Abigail Stevens couldn't have been more than, what… sixteen when Kendra was born."
"We should find out if she gave a baby up for adoption," Thomas, nodding eagerly, said.
"Right, you get on that Thomas," Cordero ordered. "Audra, find her sister Renee, and this neighbor, and talk directly to them," Cordero said.
"I already tried to track down the neighbor. She died of an overdose five years ago."
"Did you get a copy of the death certificate?" Cordero looked to Ethan as he spoke to Audra.
"No," Audra answered, "but I will."
"Good," Cordero approved. "You said it yourself, anyone can say anything. Don't take anything anyone says at face value. I worked this case once and got blocked by apathy, self interests, and lies. Abigail deserved someone better than the sheriff's deputy of this small town to bring her killer to justice. She's waited a long time so don't let her down."
"Whose self interest?" Audra asked.
Cordero took a moment to think and then shook his head. "I don't want to muddy the waters with my own biased opinions. Whoever fathered those children is the main person of interest here. Find out who that is."