The Impaler

Chapter 24

“I’m telling you I found it,” Markham shouted into his BlackBerry—traffic, a semi passing him on the interstate making it hard to hear.

“You don’t think it’s a coincidence?” Schaap asked on the other end.

“No. The murder sites mimic the dynamic of the Starlight Theater itself—the lips and the microphone inside the stars, the crescent moon. Vlad is literally responding to a message in the sky—perhaps even to a voice that he thinks is speaking to him.”

“Then you’re thinking the theater is where it all began?” Schaap asked.

“Yes. Maybe Vlad had some kind of epiphany there. Maybe something about Rodriguez’s performance set him off. Christ, Vlad could be a performer at Angel’s himself for all I know at this point. All I can tell you is that Rodriguez was the first because of his connection with the crescent-moon visual in the drag theater. I just know it.”

“But how the hell did you connect Rodriguez to Angel’s?”

“The possible homosexual connection to Canning,” Mar- ham lied. “I started canvassing the gay bars in Raleigh on a hunch. Started alphabetically and got lucky.”

Silence on the other end—the sound of Andy Schaap thinking, not believing him. Markham felt a pang of guilt about lying to his partner, but he would take Marla Rodriguez’s secret to the grave with him, no matter what.

“I also checked out the alley behind the club,” Markham continued. “That’s where the performers come and go. It’s dark back there, hidden, and has an adjoining parking lot and a broken-down fence through which the killer could’ve slipped in and out. If Vlad hit them there, if he neglected to pick up his bullet casings—”

“Forensic team is already on its way,” Schaap said. “I’ll meet them there in—”

“No, I need you back at the RA.”

“Why?”

“Just a hunch, but I think I may have discovered Vlad’s constellation, too.”