Second Chance

Chapter 28

OUTSIDE, I WAITED FOR CINDY, and I watched Aaron Winslow mingle among mourners and weeping schoolmates.

There was something about him I liked. He seemed genuine to me and he definitely had a passion for his work, and these people.

“Now, there's a man I could share a foxhole with,” said Cindy, coming up to me.

“And just how do you mean that?” I asked.

“I'm not sure. All I can say is I came out here yesterday to talk with him, and I left with the hairs on my arms standing up at attention. I felt like I was interviewing Denzel Washington, or maybe that new guy on NYPD Blue.”

“You know, ministers aren't the same as priests,” I said.

“Meaning what?”

“Meaning it's okay to go in foxholes with them. Just to get out of the line of fire, of course.”

“Of course.” She nodded. Then she mimicked an exploding mortar shot, “Pow!”

“He is impressive. His speech made me cry. Is that what you meant to show me?” “No,” she said with a sigh, coming back to the matter at hand. She dug in her black shoulder bag and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "I know you told me to butt out... I guess I've just gotten used to covering your ass.

“Right,” I said. “So what do you have for me? We're a team, right?”

As I unfolded the paper, to my shock I found myself staring at the same lion, goat, and snake rendering I had just given Kirkwood to identify. Professional restraint couldn't keep my eyes from opening wide. “Where did you get this?”

“You know what you're looking at, Lindsay.”

“My guess is that it's not Tyco's new toy craze.”

She didn't laugh. "What it is, is a hate group symbol.

A white supremacist thing. A colleague at the paper did research on these groups. I couldn't help looking into it after our meeting the other night. This is used by a small, elite group. That's why it was hard to find out about."

I stared at the image that I had seen over an dover again since Tasha Catchings had been killed. “This thing has a name, doesn't it?”

“It's called a chimera, Lindsay. It's from Greek mythology. According to my source, the lion represents courage, the body of the goat stubbornness and will, and the serpent's tail stealth and cunning. It means that whatever you do to crush it, it will always prevail.”

I stared at the symbol, the chimera, the bile roiling in my gut. “Not this time.”

“I haven't run with it,” Cindy said. "But it's out there.

Everybody thinks these murders are connected. This symbol is the key, right? Let me give you a second definition I found: ' grotesque product of the imagination.' That fits, right?"

I found myself nodding. Back to square one. Hate groups.

Maybe even the Templars. Once Mercer found out, we'd be busting the doors down on every hate group we could find.

But how the hell could the killer be black? It didn't make sense to me.

“You're not mad at me, are you?” Cindy asked.

I shook my head. “Of course I'm not mad” So that source of yours, did he tell you just how they killed this chimera back then?“ ”He said they called in some big hero who rode a winged horse and cut off its head. Nice to have dudes, or dudesses, like that around in a pinch, huh?“ She looked at me seriously. ”You have a winged horse, Lindsay?"

“No.” I shook my head again. “I've got a Border collie.”