Michael White - Equinox

'Mom … I mean. .' Jo frowned. 'Isn't all that alchemy stuff simply a load of baloney?'

'Just hear me out, OK?' Laura said.

Philip and Jo looked at each other and fell silent.

'Good. Well, this is the deal. Turns out that one of the connections alchemists cared about was the link between humanity and the universe. Most alchemists tried to draw parallels between the human body, the planets, the stars and the movement of the heavens. They believed that the human form was a reflection of the celestial sphere. That God created these patterns — these repeat images, if you like — and that it was their job to unravel the links. Almost a sacred duty.'

'And you think this has something to do with the murders?' Philip looked completely confused.

'Alchemists believed they could only make gold if they discovered the legendary Philosopher's Stone, a magical substance that when united with any base metal could turn that metal into pure, solid gold. The Philosopher's Stone could only be discovered by the noble of spirit, by an alchemist who truly understood the holistic aspect of the universe and who could free his mind to flow with the Universal Spirit. Crucially, the alchemist drew links between metals and parts of the body'

'Don't tell me,' Philip interrupted. 'They connected gold with the heart and silver with the brain?'

'Ten bonus points to Mr Bainbridge. But there's a whole heap more. Alchemists believed that the body and the celestial sphere mirror each other. So the planets may also be associated with the organs of the body. .'

'Mom? So let me get this straight,' Jo said. 'You've spent all afternoon finding alchemical links between — God, what was it? Gold, the sun and the freakin' heart? Where does Santa come into all this?'

'The point is,' Laura said, 'there is quite possibly a connection between all this hocus-pocus and the murders. Simply because the murderer believes in it. It doesn't matter if it's all complete bullshit.'

Jo looked rather shamefaced. 'OK, mom. .'

'There's more.' Laura replied. 'If you want to hear it, of course.'

'Oh please!' Jo rolled her eyes.

Laura grinned. 'If you thought what I just told you was weird, here comes the really kooky bit. Some alchemists devoted their entire lives to the thankless task of trying to produce the Philosopher's Stone: blending chemicals together to make a magical substance that they believed could transmute base metals into gold. It has consumed and spat out centuries of hope, from ancient times to. . well, some say there are still alchemists out there today. But the point is, the effort expended to make the Stone was incredible. The adept had to follow a set of instructions that came from many different sources and they spent literally months, sometimes years on a single experiment.'

'Anyway, as I was reading this stuff I started to wonder what it was that guided them. Then I thought about the most important connections the alchemists made and it struck me that most of them must have also been astrologers. I was quite into astrology when I was a student. I snapped out of it pretty quick, though.' Laura stole a glance at Jo who was shaking her head. 'Alchemists did everything by the stars. Each stage of the process was undertaken on particular dates and at significant astrological alignments.'

Laura's audience was silent.

‘For the alchemists, one particular day of the year stands out as the most important. The vernal equinox.'

The what?' Jo asked.

'The vernal equinox, the first day of spring, when the days start to get longer than the nights,' Philip said.

'Correct. Alchemists viewed it as the most auspicious day for starting new plans. It was the time when most of them would begin a fresh set of experiments to produce the Philosopher's Stone. It falls on 20 March, two days ago — the day of the first murder.'

'So what are you thinking, Laura?' Philip asked after a few moments. 'It's, well… creepy, I suppose, but how 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.'