Page 17 of Go Under

Right away, she found the cipher. “Here it is,” she said. “Right here underneath the table just above Donna’s lap.”

The detective flushed. “Oh. Yeah. We should have thought of that.”

Kate took pictures of the cipher. “Maybe, but the killer likely placed it here to ensure that only I could find it.”

Marcus stiffened. Darnell frowned at her. The detective gave her a blank stare, and Kate realized her mistake. It wasn’t exactly classified info that Cox often left messages specifically for Kate at crime scenes, but it wasn’t common knowledge either.

“Wait, only you?” the detective said. “Why only you?”

“Let’s focus on Donna,” Marcus said in a tone that made it clear that subject was dropped. “Who discovered the body?”

“Her sister, Carol. She showed up this morning at five-fifteen to visit.”

“Five-fifteen?” Kate asked. “Why so early?”

The detective shook his head. “We weren’t able to get that far. She went hysterical a few minutes after we got here. We had an ambulance pick her up and take her to New Castle Regional.”

“We want to talk to her,” Marcus said.

The detective started to lift his hands, then caught himself and lowered them. “Look, as far as I’m concerned, this is your crime scene now. The uniforms will hang out to call CSI when you guys are done, but I’m leaving the rest up to you.”

Kate looked frankly at him. He reddened but stood his ground. “We’ll just get in the way,” he insisted.

“You can make a phone call to the hospital to let the staff know that Miss Frick should expect a visit from us,” Darnell told him.

“Mrs. Ames,” the detective corrected. “She’s married.”

Darnell’s eyes narrowed. The detective decided that quibbling over details wasn’t helping and stepped away to make the phone call.

Kate turned her attention back to the cipher. At first glance, she could tell it used the same substitution ciphers the first one did. She took a few more pictures, then got to her feet.

“No footprints,” Marcus said. “We’ll dust, but we won’t find fingerprints either.”

“You’re sure?”

Marcus pointed at a small gray smudge on the tabletop. “That’s talcum powder from a latex glove. The killer made sure not to leave evidence.”

“There’s always evidence,” Darnell opined. “We just need to look hard enough and find out where it is.”

“Have you verified yet that Donna Frick was the witness in the Avery case?” Kate asked.

“I’ll call the court,” Darnell said.

He stepped aside to do that, leaving Kate and Marcus. Marcus checked for signs of forced entry while Kate examined the cipher.

The first line repeated the commandment: Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness.

After that, the message continued with another reference to Kate. Those who offer poison and call it healing deserve the suffering they receive.

Kate frowned. Her father hadn’t poisoned anyone, though. His stem cell research was still considered paramount to many medical treatments even now fourteen years after his death. His results had been replicated by teams of doctors from renowned research universities and extolled in medical journals as one of the greatest breakthroughs in recent medicine.

What the hell was Cox talking about?

She wasn’t going to get an answer to that right now, and she didn’t want to start orbiting Cox again, so she moved on. As before, once the commandment and the jab at Kate were out of the way, the code turned to the victim. This woman spoke poison into willing ears and called it truth. Her venom has now poisoned her. All those who bear false witness will suffer the same fate.

Marcus returned. “No forced entry. I’m guessing the killer was known to the victim.”

“We don’t have enough to say that,” Kate told him. “It’s possible that Gerald Mace and Donna Frick were both the type to answer their doors.”