Page 35 of Counter Attack

Of course. Sheriff Stone would be one of the doctor’s patients. Williams had probably even come to the house to check on him. With only five regional forensic centers in the state with forensic medical examiners and pathologists, each county had at least one local medical examiner who was usually a practicing doctor.

She checked her phone, then looked up. “Gramps isn’t being a particularly good patient—wanting to do more than Gram thinks he should. Otherwise, he seems to be improving.”

“I should’ve known he’d push it when he said his cardiologist told him to do what he felt like doing. I’ll have a talk with him ... or call his cardiologist and have him talk to him.” The doctor nodded toward the door. “Are your techs done?”

“They just let me know they’ve finished checking for footprints in the kitchen, so we can go in.”

“Then I guess it’s time for me to do my job.”

“Did they find any shoe prints?” Nathan asked Alexis after the doctor went inside.

“No. Evidently Gina Norman had recently mopped the floors. They’re still checking for fingerprints.”

With Alexis behind him, he walked up the wooden steps and inside the house, dread filling him, knowing what they would find. A victim who was someone’s daughter, maybe a sister, possibly a mother ... Nathan paused in the kitchen doorway. He would find whoever did this.

Gina Norman lay on her back, her arms extended cactus-like with a White pawn in her right hand. Except ...

For a split second, Nathan thought he was looking at Alexis, and his knees threatened to buckle. When his sergeant said the victim looked like Alexis, Nathan hadn’t expected to think itwasAlexis, even briefly. Then reason took over. She was standing beside him.

Nathan tried to swallow, but his mouth was cotton-dry.Shake it off.He shifted his gaze to the note pinned on the victim’s shirt that made no sense. Just numbers, and his mind returned to the resemblance to Alexis. Even though Parker said the other victims bore a resemblence to Alexis, he hadn’t been prepared for the reality. “She could be your younger sister,” he said softly.

She was focused on the note and didn’t answer.

“Alexis?” He raised his voice. “What is it?”

20

The unique way of printing was the same as the notes with the victims in Chattanooga, but this time there were only numbers, no letters. 0-0-0.

A chess term Alex had seen before in her limited research, but the meaning eluded her now. She knelt beside the victim. Gina Norman was so young. Sadness and a sense of failure weighed on her heart that another victim had died a senseless death. She snapped a picture of the note with her phone. “It’s not a copycat.”

“Why do you say that?”

She felt Nathan’s gaze on her and stood. “The note. It’s the same ink and handwriting as the others. Since we haven’t released that bit of information, it’s something only the killer would know.”

“Is there any other information I need to know about?”

“No.” Alex stared at the body. She’d been hoping against hope...

Dylan unpinned the note and bagged it. “There’s something on the back,” he said, handing it to Alex.

She turned the note over and froze.

“Welcome to Russell County. Phame.”

After taking a breath, she read the note again. Questions bombarded her mind, the first being why had the killer followed her here? And who or what was a Phame? “Can someone explain this signature for me?”

Dylan turned toward her. “In the computer world, it’s a code name,” he said. “Could have started out a hacker name, but I’d put my money on this person being a gamer. Names like Fame or Fate or even Freak spelled with a p-h were popular back in the 1980s, and it hasn’t gone away in some circles, like gamers.”

Oh, great. It wouldn’t be so bad if the person was a gamer, but if they were dealing with a hacker, it would be someone who understood and preyed on weaknesses. “But if this person was around in the eighties, that would put our killer in their fifties now.”

“Maybe not,” Nathan said. “How popular are these names now?”

Dylan shrugged. “Pretty popular on the dark web or dark net as some people call it. Practically everyone uses an alias there.”

Alex pointed to Dylan. “You sound familiar with it, so I need you to research the dark web and discover all you can about this Phame person.”

“There’s probably more than one user with that name,” Dylan said.

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