Page 29 of Absent Remorse

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Amber had the pieces of the puzzle spread out in front of her on the floor of Simon’s office, trying to see the pattern in them while Simon worked on his own aspects of the case from his desk.

“Are you sure you’re all right down there?” Simon asked. “You don’t want a desk or something?”

Amber shook her head, sitting on the floor in the midst of the pieces. “I’ll work better like this.”

At the newspaper, she’d had her desk, but back at home, she’d worked wherever the problem had felt as though it made the most sense, fitting things together in whatever way they seemed towantto go together. It was one of the reasons that her apartment was kind of a mess, with puzzles left wherever it seemed to make the most sense to leave them. Of course, back there, she’d been the one setting the problems rather than trying to unravel them, but Amber suspected that the same principles applied here.

So, she sat there, staring at the pieces of the previous layer of the puzzle, trying to see how they fit together. Assuming that they did. After all, it was only a hunch that had her here like this. A hunch based on the killer’s previous behavior, admittedly, but he’d already shown that he was willing to break his existing patterns.

No, Amber couldn’t think like that. There was no point to the symbols on the second layer of the puzzle unless they had some kind of meaning for the rest of it. Including them without that significance would be wasteful, inelegant in a way that the rest of the puzzle simply wasn’t. No, it had to all mean something. The question was what.

“How are things going?” Amber asked Simon.

“I’m looking for any potential connections we may have missed between Aiden Merr and the others,” he said. “I’ve asked his company if any of the women were his clients. I’d like to ask for a fuller client list, but without a warrant, I doubt they’d show it to us. There are too many important people on it for them not to hold back.”

“You’re hoping that the three dead women might have been clients?” Amber asked.

“Or worked for one client, or had dealings with them, or been friends with them. If I can bring this back to one person, there’s still a chance that there might be a point to this beyond the puzzle.”

Amber still wasn’t convinced by that approach. She was sure that the puzzle was the heart of all of this, and that solving it was the best way to catch the killer. She had to remind herself that Simon obviously felt the same way at least a little, because otherwise, why would he have brought her in on this case?

For now, she tried to focus on the pieces of the puzzle, and on the smooth metal pyramid that sat at the heart of it all.

“There are symbols on the pyramid,” Amber said, realizing that she hadn’t told Simon this part.

“What kind of symbols?” Simon asked.

“They’re in a bunch of different languages. I did some research last night. They seem to be numbers. A series from one to eleven spread across the sides of the pyramid.”

“Does that mean that there’s another series to unlock them, like with the watches?” Simon asked.

“I think so,” Amber said. “But I’m not sure what it is. I’ve tried touching them in order, then in reverse order, but there’s no sign of it doing anything. I’ve tried moving the ball bearing on top to each of the points in turn, but again, there’s nothing. I suspect that the rest of this is some kind of clue to what I’m meant to do, but I can’t work out what.”

“Keep going,” Simon said. He was already focusing on his screen again, obviously trying to chase down any link he could find.

They were both so engaged in their work that when Agent Palliser walked into the office, Amber started sharply.

She didn’t hesitate before getting to the point. “Agent Phelps, I hear there’s been another murder linked to the killer who sent the puzzle cube.”

“That’s right, ma’am,” Simon said, with a slightly pained expression. Amber suspected that he knew what was coming.

“And what progress are you making on the case?” Agent Palliser asked.

“We’ve established some connections between the victims,” Simon said. Amber held back from saying anything yet. She knew that Simon’s boss didn’t like her being there, so she didn’t want to jump into the middle of the conversation and give her an excuse to throw Amber off the case.

Not just off the case. If she wasn’t involved in this, then she wouldn’t be able to keep working on the puzzle, and it was too fascinating for that. Worse, if she wasn’t working on it, maybe the puzzle would neverbesolved, and the killer would just be free to keep murdering people.

“But from what I hear, those connections just led you to a guy running a gym,” Agent Palliser said. “A guy who had an alibi for the murders, and who is, at best, a low-level drug dealer for the local PD to clean up.”

Amber saw the determination in Simon’s expression. “Palliser, you know as well as I do that we have to run down any leads we find, even if they don’t take us to the killer.”

“And what about the puzzle?” Agent Palliser asked. “The one thatwasmeant to lead to the killer? Why is the puzzle expert you brought in on the floor like some kind of child surrounded by her toys?”

Amber couldn’t help replying then. “This is my process.”

“And is that processgettingyou anywhere?” Agent Palliser demanded, looking at Amber for the first time. In that moment, Amber was all too aware that she was still sitting on the ground.

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