Page 30 of Go Under

“Ray Castillo,” Gomez, the police sergeant assigned to liaise with the agents informed them. “Age fifty-eight, former loader for Northeast Transportation. That’s the freight rail a few blocks away.”

“Right,” Kate said, sweeping her flashlight over the scene.

“Neighbor found him on her way in from work,” Gomez continued. “Saw the door open and the blood. Went to her own unit, locked the door and called us. Didn’t want to go inside in case the killer was still there.”

“Good for her,” Marcus said. “That means the scene won’t be contaminated.” The sergeant looked pensively at his feet, and Marcus said, “Well, not more contaminated.”

Gomez cleared his throat and added, “I should also point out that Ray was an informant of ours for many years. He kept his nose clean, but he had his ear to the ground. We busted a lot of drug dealers thanks to his help.”

“Ever catch any murderers?” Kate asked, shining her flashlight on the cipher carved into his coffee table.

Gomez frowned. “No, not that I recall. He claimed he provided information in a murder case for Philadelphia some years ago, but we never verified that.”

The three FBI agents shared a look. Darnell nodded at Kate and Marcus. “I’ll follow up and find out if that’s the Avery case.”

He stepped outside. Marcus continued to question Gomez while Kate studied the cipher.

“Did anyone hear anything suspicious?”

“If they did, they’re not talking.” Gomez lowered his voice and explained, “This is the kind of neighborhood where you ain’t seen nothin’, ain’t heard nothin’, don’t know nothin’.”

“What about security footage?”

Gomez chuckled. “Building this old? I’m surprised it still has hot water.” Marcus frowned, and Gomez cleared his throat. “No, no security footage.”

Marcus sighed and turned to Kate. “I’m going to search for anything that might indicate a connection to Cox.”

Kate nodded and pulled out her notepad to scratch notes about the cipher. Same coded Akkadian script, same furious, energetic handwriting, same concise message. It opened with the commandment, then presumably contained a message for Kate—she still hadn’t decoded that portion—then continued with the judgment against the victim. This man produced false evidence and presented it as the truth. He sealed an innocent man’s fate and called it justice. This night, true justice has been served.

The gloating was new. The previous ciphers were straightforward condemnations and warnings that the same fate awaited others. Did the change in tone indicate an end to the killer’s mission?

If so, that meant Kate had failed to stop them in time. On the other hand, it meant no one else would die. Kate decided she’d be happy with that result.

She glanced back at Ray Castillo’s body. No, happy wasn’t the right word.

She looked back at the cipher and worked on the middle portion, the part that should contain the message to her. The code was different this time. Kate tried several different substitution methods, but none of them gave her the answer.

That was another change. Whatever was written here was meant to be the primary message Cox had for her.

If it was Cox. She really couldn’t decide if they were looking at a Lawgiver-inspired killing or if they were looking at a copycat using his “preaching” as an excuse.

If the latter, then Kate feared an epidemic of murder spawned by one vicious man’s hate.

“I’ve got nothing,” Marcus said. “The guy’s apartment is bare. He doesn’t even have a receipt anywhere in evidence. We’ll take his cell phone and laptop to cybercrimes and see if they can pull anything up, but for the moment, nothing’s jumping out.”

Kate nodded. “Same with me.” She showed Marcus the cipher. “Whatever’s in that middle portion is going to be key.”

“That’s the part that’s the message to you, right?” he asked.

“If there is a message.”

Marcus looked at her. “You really don’t think it’s Cox, do you?”

She took a deep breath. “I think… that I don’t want to get my hopes up.”

Before Marcus could respond, Darnell walked back into the apartment. “Fellas, I’ve confirmed it with the court. Ray Castillo led the police to evidence used in the prosecution of Daniel Avery.”

Kate nodded. Cox or not, this confirmed the killer’s motive. She would focus on stopping this killer. If Cox was involved, he’d let her know.