Lilith: a novel Read Free

now predictable details that had solidified into a pattern: The records of the bank that Billings had used would show that he had recently made a large withdraw in cash—somewhere between ten and twenty thousand dollars. They would obtain access to records of Robert Billings’ Internet activities, and hopefully his email account. It would be revealed that in the final weeks and days of his life, Robert Billings had been corresponding with someone whom he believed to be a dark-haired woman named Lilith, or Lilly, or maybe even Liza, or Elizabeth. All of those names had appeared in the previous two cases, as the killer had apparently needed to approach the victims more than once, using more than one alias.
    But the name Lilith was the one that had stuck with the investigators, and it was the one that made the most sense to Alan. In ancient Jewish and Christian folklore, Lilith had been the name of Adam’s first wife. Lilith, though, had been no mere woman, like Adam’s second wife, Eve. Lilith had been a monster, a demoness.
    Alan was quite sure that Lilith—whoever he, she, or they were—would turn out to be all too human. But the name of an Old Testament monster seemed quite fitting for someone who could commit crimes like this one, all for ten or twenty thousand dollars.
    Lee and Page were silent as Alan walked around the room and examined the body from various angles, being careful not to disturb anything. He did not believe that the physical evidence here, as discernible to the naked eye, would yield any breakthroughs. But for the sake of thoroughness, he used his cell phone to take a series of pictures. These would supplement the ones that the crime scene team would take when they arrived.
    When he was done, Alan addressed Deputies Lee and Page.
    “I’m going outside for a few minutes. To talk to the victim’s mother.”
    Alan thought of his own mother, who was seventy-nine years old and living in a retirement community in Florida. He imagined her finding Alan, or one of his two brothers, like this.
    When he reached the front doorway, he could hear Billings’ mother. The female deputy was still trying in vain to console her.
    Lilith , Alan thought, I don't know who you are. And I don’t know how many you are. But I’m going to get you before you get anyone else.
     

3.
    Dr. Arthur Koenig was in his late fifties. Koenig wore a beard like that of the late C. Everett Koop, the U.S. Surgeon General under President Reagan. Despite his idiosyncratic facial hair, Dr. Koenig was one of the best forensic pathologists in the region. Alan had worked with Koenig on a number of cases. Alan was relieved when he learned that Koenig had been assigned the autopsy of Robert Billings. It was the morning after Grooms’ late-night drive to the home of the murdered man, and he was running on fumes due to sleep deprivation.
    Dr. Koenig was silent as he dug the slug from Robert Billings’ head. Robert Billings’ body lay naked on the examination table, surrounded by the antiseptic smells and cool temperatures of one of the autopsy rooms in the Hamilton County Coroner’s building.
    Although the rest of the body had been examined, the autopsy was focused on the bullet wound, the obvious cause of death. There was no other damage to Robert Billings’ body—no marks that would suggest a fight, or the forceful restraint of a man who knew that death was near. And the blood work, rushed through the lab in the wee hours of the morning, showed no signs of incapacitating chemicals.
    According to all the forensic evidence available thus far, Robert Billings had undergone no trauma at all, until someone had shot him in the head and instantly ended his life.
    There had been no exit wound, leading Alan to believe that Lilith had killed Billings with a small caliber like a .22. Moreover, a .22 had been used in the previous killings.
    For several years earlier in his career, Grooms had worked in the organized crime unit of the Ohio Department