Hour Game

"Most everything was washed away. There was an inch of bloody water on the floor of the car. Steve Ca

"And the girl?" asked Michelle.

Williams hesitated. "Janice Pembroke had a reputation with the boys."

"As being… accessible?" asked King.

"Yes."

"Was anything taken? Could it have been a robbery?"

"Not likely, although two things were missing: a cheap ring Pembroke usually wore and Ca

"You said Sylvia finished the autopsies. I'm assuming you attended them."

Williams looked embarrassed. "I had a little problem halfway through Jane Doe's post, and I got tied up while she was doing the other autopsies. I'm waiting on Sylvia's reports," he added hastily. "We don't have an official homicide detective on the force, so I figured coming here and picking your brain wouldn't be a bad thing."

"Any clues?" asked Michelle.

"Not from the first killing. And we haven't identified her yet either, though we were able to fingerprint her and we're ru

"Any reason to believe the killings are co

Williams shook his head. "Pembroke and Ca

King and Michelle exchanged glances and then he said, "In the first killing either the murderer lured the woman into the woods or forced her to go with him. Or he killed her elsewhere and then carried her into the woods."

Michelle nodded. "If the latter, a strong man, then. With the killing of the teenagers the person might have followed them there or been waiting on the bluff."

"Well, that area is well known as a make-out place, if they still even call it that," said Williams. "Both victims were naked. That's why I'm thinking it was maybe some boy Pembroke dumped or a kid who was jealous of Ca

King looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, "The watch in the first murder, did you really notice it, Todd?"

"Well, it seemed a little bulky for the girl."

"Sylvia said the arm the watch was on was deliberately braced up."

"She can't know that for sure."

"I saw that the watch was set to one o'clock," continued King.

"Right, but it had stopped, or the stem was pulled out."

King glanced at Michelle. "Did you notice the make of the watch?"

Williams looked at him curiously. "Make of the watch?"

"It was a Zodiac watch: circle with a crosshairs."

Williams almost spilled his coffee. "Zodiac!"

King nodded. "It was also a man's watch. I think the killer put it on the woman."

"Zodiac," repeated Williams. "Are you saying…?"

"The original Zodiac serial killer operated in 1968 and 1969 in the Bay Area, San Fran and Vallejo," answered King. "I thinkthat Zodiac would be a little long in the tooth. But there have been at least two Zodiac copycat killers, one in New York and another in Kobe, Japan. The San Fran Zodiac wore a black executioner's hood emblazoned with a white crosshairs in a circle, the same symbol that's on the Zodiac watch. He also left a watch on his last victim, a cabdriver, if I recall correctly, although it wasn't a Zodiac. However, the man suspected of being the Zodiac in San Francisco owned a Zodiac watch. They believe that's where he got the idea for the crosshairs-in-a-circle logo he wore that earned him his nickname. The case has never been solved."

Williams hunched forward in his chair. "Look, this is all really speculation on your part, and quite a stretch at that."

Michelle glanced at her partner. "Sean, do you really think it's a copycat killer?"

King shrugged. "If two people copied the original, who's to say a third person couldn't? The San Francisco Zodiac wrote to the newspapers in code-one that was finally broken. The coded letters revealed that the killer was motivated by a short story titled ‘The Most Dangerous Game.' It's a story about hunting humans."

"A game about hunting humans?" Michelle said slowly.

King asked, "Did either of the bodies in the car have a watch on?"

Williams frowned. "Wait a minute, Sean, like I said, they're totally different killings. Shotguns and, well, I still don't know how Jane Doe died, but it wasn't by buckshot, that's for damn sure."

"But what about the watches?"

"Okay, both the kids had watches on. So what? Is that a crime?"

"And you didn't notice if they were Zodiacs?"

"No, I didn't. But then I didn't notice it on the Jane Doe either." He paused and considered something. "Although Ca

"Sort of braced up, you mean?"

"Maybe," Williams said warily. "But he got hit with a shotgun blast. No telling how that would have blown him back."

"Were both watches ru

"No."

"What was the time on Pembroke's watch?"

"Two."

"Two exactly?"

"I think so."

"And Ca

Williams pulled out his notebook and turned some pages until he found it. "Three," he said nervously.

"Had the watch been hit by the buckshot?"

"I'm not sure," replied Williams. "I guess Sylvia can tell us that."

"The girl's?"

"Looks like a piece of glass from the windshield hit it."

"Yet her watch read two and Ca

Williams continued to be defensive. "Come on, except for this watch business, which isn't all that convincing, I don't see any co

Michelle shook her head stubbornly. "First killing was number one, Je

"You really need to see if the watches on Steve Ca

Williams used his cell phone to make some calls. When he finished, the police chief looked confused.

"The watch found on Pembroke was hers, a Casio. Her mother confirmed it was the one her daughter wore. But Ca

King's brow furrowed. "So no Zodiac watch, but Ca

"The bluff Ca

"And Jane Doe wasn't that far from the lake," said Michelle. "You just had to go over the crest of the hill she was on, and there's a cove right there."

"What I would do, Todd," said King, "is start working the Zodiac watch co

Williams was looking down at his hands, his brow furrowed.

"What is it?" asked Michelle.

"We found a dog collar on the floorboard of Ca

"Could it have been Pembroke's?" asked King, but Williams shook his head.

They all sat there puzzling this over when the office phone rang. King went to answer it and returned with a pleased expression. "That was Harry Carrick, retired state supreme court justice, now country lawyer. He's got a client accused of some serious things, and he wants our help. He didn't say who or what."