does it help us catch whoever is killing these women?'
'I've not stopped thinking about that since I left the library today. I don't know whether it can help right away, but it could prevent more murders.'
'How?'
'Well, think about it. Monroe told you that Forensics believed Rachel Southgate was killed on the evening of the twentieth. That was when the sun entered Aries and the Earth passed through the vernal equinox. For the murderer it was a new beginning, the start of a project.'
'Nice,' Jo exclaimed. 'Good project.'
'The point I'm making,' Laura went on, 'is that the timing of the second murder probably has an astrological connection as well. God knows what. But if it does, and if there's a planned third or fourth murder, they could be linked with precise dates and times too.'
'Makes some sort of sense, I suppose,' Philip muttered.
'Of course it does,' Laura snapped. 'Trouble is, I don't know the half of it.'
'Well, don't look at me,' Jo exclaimed. 'I'm a mathematician.'
'Beg your pardon,' Laura laughed.
'But… I was about to say, you may be in luck.'
'Oh?'
'Tom is depressingly into the whole thing. I don't get it, such a bright young chap in all other ways,' Jo concluded, putting on a plummy British accent. 'And he's supposed to be coming over. Any moment now'
'He is?' Philip asked.
'Hope you don't mind, dad. He wanted to see how I was.'
Philip threw up his hands. 'No problem at all.' 'We'll get him to sing for his supper,' Laura said.
Tom arrived twenty minutes later. He looked surprisingly healthy apart from the aluminium cast encasing two fingers of his left hand which had hairline fractures from the car accident. A rugby Blue at Oriel, studying medicine, he was six feet three inches tall and weighed more than two hundred pounds without an ounce of fat on him. Square-jawed and with large blue eyes and well-cut wavy brown hair, he was strikingly handsome. Tom sat next to Jo on the sofa and Laura explained what was going on as Philip went off to the kitchen to get a drink.
'Wow,' Tom said after Laura's monologue. 'Wow. And this is for real?'
'Afraid so,' Philip said as he came back into the room and handed Tom a glass of cranberry juice. 'Laura's spared none of the gruesome details, I imagine.'
'I hope not!' Tom laughed. 'So, you think the murderer is planning his moves according to an astrological timetable?'
'I'm not sure yet.'
'But you know for sure the killer committed the first murder around the time of the vernal equinox and left a gold coin and. .' He paused. 'Removed the girl's heart. The second murder was less than twelve hours later: that time the killer left a silver coin and he took the victim's brain.'
'Correct.'
'Well, you're right about the connections. The brain is linked with silver and with the moon. So I would think it's obvious that the moon entered Aries at the time of the second murder.'
'What do you mean?' Jo asked.
'Of course,' Laura exclaimed. 'Why didn't I think of that?'
'Think of what?' said Philip.
'Well, it's obvious now. The sun, the moon and the planets all move across the sky, don't they?' Laura explained. 'The movement of the sun through the zodiac over the year gives meaning to the twelve star signs. Is that right, Tom?' He nodded. 'So,' she went on, 'during the first month of the year, the sun is seen in Capricorn, then in Aquarius, Pisces and so on. The sun enters Aries sometime late on — what? The twentieth or early on the twenty-first of March. Which is also around the date of the vernal equinox. After that it goes on to Taurus and all the others. But the planets and the moon can also enter and leave the star sign during the month.'
'But that doesn't happen all that often,' Tom added. 'The moon and the planets might be the other side of the sky all through the month, but sometimes they succeed each other into the star sign.'
'Yeah, b-' Jo began. Tom was there before her. 'I know what you're going to say, Jo. We've had this discussion before. You think it's all nonsense, but you have to differentiate between real astrology and the rubbish printed in women's magazines and
Sunday supplements. That stuff is based on nothing but the imagination of the hack who writes it. A properly trained astrologer deals with a far more complex set of ideas — a consideration of the effect of all the heavenly bodies, not just the sun.'
'The implication being,' Philip remarked, 'that these other heavenly bodies sometimes follow the sun into the sign of the zodiac and contribute to the astrological influence?'
'Exactly.'
'So it might well be that the moon went into Aries soon after Aries became the current sign and that's the link with the date and time of the second murder.'
'I would put money on it.'
'Yeah, but hold on. . You'll probably shoot me down in flames, but isn't there an elemental error here? These star signs were worked out — what? Ten thousand years ago?'
'Well, not quite that long,' Tom replied. 'Astrology began in Mesopotamia about 4,000 BC, I think.'
'OK, whatever! Six thousand years ago. The thing is, the constellations can't be the same as they were then because, relative to the Earth, the stars move quite a bit during a few thousand years. The constellations are not the same shape they were during ancient times and they are certainly not in the same places they were in then.'
'Well, actually, Jo, it's irrelevant,' Laura said.
'Why?'
'Because it only matters to tabloid astrologers.' Jo looked bewildered.
'Well, think about it. If everything has shuffled along one sign or more, it doesn't matter except to those who try to attach characteristics to people born under a particular sign. You know … if you're an Aquarius you're unconventional and have weak ankles. All that crap.'
'The celestial shift is something that real astrologers take into account. Laura's right,' Tom interjected.
'But then the vernal equinox is no longer in Aries.' Philip said.
'It doesn't matter unless you subscribe to Sunday-supplement astrology' Jo sighed. 'I guess.'
Laura grinned. 'It's OK, doll, you're just a mathematician.'
Jo laughed resignedly and took a sip of her soup.
'Anyway,' Philip added, 'our murderer appears to be inspired by astrology. We only need to concentrate on what
'All right,' Laura said, putting her hands up. 'Let's get back to the real issue. Tom? You reckon it's likely the moon moved into Aries at the time of the second murder?'
'Well, it's easy to find out.' 'It is?'
'Just look it up at
almanac.com
I'm a subscriber.' 'Oh my God!' Jo said.
Tom was already walking over to a computer on the desk close to the sofa. 'Is this on-line?' he asked.
'Yeah. I've got ADSL,' Philip said and joined him at the terminal.
They brought up Google and Tom typed in almanac.com
It appeared a second later and he put in his personal ID. Then a new menu appeared. Along the left-hand column was a list of questions, with empty answer boxes.
Laura had followed them over, but Jo remained on the sofa.
'I just need to put in a few figures,' Tom said. 'It's a cool site, software that calculates the location of any planet and the moon at any time between now and the year 3000.' He hit the keyboard. 'OK, so, the moon, date: 21 March 2006.' He followed this with a few more numbers and answered a succession of questions before clicking on SEARCH.
