Page 25 of Absent Remorse

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Amber sat in her apartment, not knowing what to do. She felt as though she should be continuing to work on the case, but at the same time, she knew that Simon was right: they needed to pace themselves if they were going to solve this without burning out. She tried to work on the puzzles that she was being paid for by potential clients, hoping that would distract her from the urge to keep going with the investigation. It wasn’t the same, though, and Amber found that she couldn’t focus. How was she meant to keep her mind on preparing quiz questions when life and death were at stake in the investigation?

That was the problem; now that she knew about the puzzle at the heart of this case, the kind that she’d been preparing before seemed insignificant by comparison. Amber didn’t know if the puzzle the killer had sent really was the hardest puzzle out there, but the ingenuity that it had taken to produce it was impressive. There was a level, not just of planning in it, but also of skill in the crafting of it too.

The killer wouldn’t have been able to simply commission the puzzle from someone, would he? No, because that would make it too easy to trace him, simply by putting out calls to any engineering firm able to create it. Amber wondered if she should do that anyway, emailing as many firms as she could to ask if they’d made the puzzle. She didn’t, but only because she suspected that it would be something that would be better coming from Simon. He would get answers where she couldn’t.

Amber was still considering that when Joseph called. That was one distraction Amber was more than grateful for. Just the thought of him was enough to pull her mind away from the problem of the puzzle, at least for the moment. She picked up quickly.

“Hi, Joseph,” Amber said. She could hear the note of happiness in her own voice. A part of her wished that Joseph was there with her. She’d enjoyed their date, right up to the point where it had dragged her into the middle of a murder investigation.

“Amber, I just thought I’d call to see how you’re getting along.”

“I’m fine,” Amber said.

“I was wondering if maybe I could come over.”

That was unexpected, but not entirely unwelcome. Under other circumstances, Amber might have invited him over eagerly. After the way their date had gone, it might even have been in the cards for them anyway. Only the issue of the puzzle had diverted them from the way the evening had been going.

“I … I’d like that,” Amber said. She thought about the case then, and about the early start that she was going to have to make in the morning. “But I think I probably need to get some sleep soon. I’m still working on the case with the FBI, and I need to be fresh in the morning.”

“I just wanted to talk to you,” Joseph said. “Maybe find out how things are going for you on the case? Are you making any progress with the puzzle?”

Amber wanted to tell him all of it, but she also knew that there were only so many details of an active case that she could give to a reporter, even to Joseph.

“I … I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say,” Amber said.

“But the puzzleisconnected to the murders?” Joseph asked.

“I think so,” Amber said. After all, the puzzle had made use of the locations of the murders to provide clues to the last layer. “I’m sorry, Joseph, I’m really not sure if I’m allowed to talk about it.”

“I understand,” Joseph said. “And I’m not going to push. But when this is done, I’mreallygoing to want the inside scoop from you on it all. There’s definitely a story in it, our former puzzle editor solving a puzzle this hard to stop a murderer.”

“I haven’t solved it yet.” Amber couldn’t keep the note of frustration out of her voice at the way things were going. She wasn’t sure how she was meant to even start when it came to the next layer.

“You will.” Joseph sounded far more confident than Amber felt. “If anyone can, it’s you. Just remember, however difficult this gets, you’re the best person in this city when it comes to solving puzzles.”

Amber hoped that he was right.

They hung up, and Amber got ready for bed. She lay in her bed with the lights off, waiting for her thoughts to still and sleep to claim her. She needed to get some rest if she was going to come at this fresh in the morning.

The only problem was that her thoughtswouldn’tstill. Her mind was still on the blank metal of the pyramid, and on the symbols that were etched into the side, discernible only by touch. The thought of those symbols wouldn’t let Amber sleep.

She got up instead, going and finding the copies of the symbols that she’d made back in Simon’s office. She’d been staring at the symbols for so long today that they were burned into her mind, impossible to dislodge, but she stared at them again now, fetching her laptop and starting to search for them

It didn’t matter how late it was now. Amber knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep until she had at least the beginning of an answer. She kept looking through online dictionaries, trying to find anything that might match one of the symbols.

Then, to her surprise, she did.

In a dictionary devoted to Mandarin Chinese, she found that one of the symbols seemed to be the symbol for the number five. Amber wondered if it was possible that they were all numbers, so she started looking for numbers in as many languages with non-English alphabets as she could find.

It worked. Slowly, she started to build up a picture of the numbers, between one and three per side, numbered from one to eleven. The points on the pyramid appeared to denote another order in which something should be done to it.

The only question now was what.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Aiden was listening to crime podcasts to try to help himself sleep, lying in bed, ear pods in, trying to blot out the rest of the world.

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