Chapter 4

“We’ll just make a detour to Abby’s work,” Hank imparted while indicating to turn and swung into the parking place in front of one of City’s tall office buildings.
“She said she might as well go shopping and start making dinner – well, as I couldn’t say exactly when we’d finish interviewing the friend of the deceased, we agreed I’d stop by to hand her the key to the house,” he elaborated.
“I see. So, to put it bluntly, you’ve sucked up to Abby in such a way you reckon she’ll do all the work?” Dwayne ironically raised one eyebrow sitting in the passenger seat.
“Well, no, I wouldn’t put it exactly like that. But it’s good to be doing the cooking together, right?” Hank gave his friend a questioning look and at the same time swung the car into a marked bay for parking.
“I’ll be back in just one minute,” he added getting out of the car and crossing the parking lot toward the two large glass doors in the building’s entrance and disappearing inside.
He returned just a couple of minutes later, his cheeks glowing and his eyes sparkling.
“Say, she really is a fantastic woman, Abby. Would you believe it, she actually plans to cook a meat loaf with browned potatoes as accompaniment!”
“She plans to… wasn’t it you and me who were going to give the girls a treat, cooking?” Dwayne gave his friend an inquisitorial look.
“Well, eh, yes of course. But honestly, what do you know about preparing meat loaf? I for one have no idea. And I did say we’d get home as soon as possible.” Hank smiled, contended, while launching the car out into the traffic on the road, heading toward the campus area.

It was a quiet and pale Liza Roberts who opened the door when they knocked at the college room she’d been sharing with her friend, Charlotte Wright.
Nervously, she asked them to come in and asked if they wanted a cup of tea.
The two guests took a place on the small sofa and Liza sagged in an armchair opposite.
“I hope you’re feeling a little bit better today?” Dwayne said looking at her, sympathy in his eyes.
“Well, that… I just still cannot believe it – Charlotte being dead. It’s so awful to think about her getting killed out there while I was sitting here waiting for her with a pot of tea. I’d begged and reasoned with her to stay in, but… well, that was because of the weather, I didn’t imagine, obviously, that something else much more terrible was waiting for her out there. Have you found the person who did this to her? Oh, if only she’d stayed in that night – then she’d still be here.” Liza twisted a small drenched paper handkerchief in her hands. Her swollen face and red eyes told of lengthy crying and lack of sleep.
“Unfortunately, no.” Hank made a sweeping gesture. “And that’s exactly why we want to talk with you once more now as we hope the initial paralyzing shock has worn off.” He gave her a friendly and at the same time sad look.
“As her closest friend you may be the one who knew her best, being in touch with her everyday life, which friends and enemies, did she have a boyfriend… that kind of personal stuff.”
“Charlotte had no enemies, at least not that I know of. She was a kind and helpful person, a bit on the quiet side. Very disciplined when having put her mind to something. As for instance the idea of sticking to her daily running exercise at the same time each day.” Liza looked thoughtfully ahead.
“And boyfriend… well, she’d started to see someone, a guy also attending the Uni, and I was under the impression that it was getting rather serious between them. His name is Dylan, really a nice guy, actually, and one of the male students that a lot of girls had a crush on.”
“Were there any problems between Charlotte and her boyfriend lately – that you know of?”
“Nah. On the contrary. Like I said, I was under the impression it was getting serious between them. Among other things he’d introduced her to his brother. Well, it wasn’t a formal introduction, but Dylan had invited her out for dinner and it turned out that the restaurant they had dinner at was owned by Dylan himself together with his brother.”
“You don’t say! Such relatively young people owning their own restaurant. Is there money in the family?” Dwayne cast her an interested glance.
“Nah, Charlotte said it was money their dad had given them as a loan. Their dad doesn’t lack money, but the two brothers were raised by their mum – the parents were divorced when they were still small kids,” Liza added as an explanation.
“Dylan told Charlotte that the money probably should be seen more as a gift rather than a loan, a sort of apology for having let his sons down in their upbringing. This was a fact Dylan’s brother was rather resentful about, Charlotte told me.
Anyway, it’s mostly the brother running the restaurant – he attended a culinary school. Dylan’s helping out when he can make time outside his studies.” Liza looked thoughtful for a moment before adding: “Charlotte was surprised by the difference between the two brothers. She said they were diametrically opposed. She didn’t care much for Dylan’s big brother, Alex. She said he was kind of a bully and at the same time complacent and prejudiced…”
“I see. And did Charlotte have anything to do with this big brother – what was his name again?”
Dwayne took out a small notebook and a ball point pen from his pocket, carefully noting the names of the two brothers.
“No, it was just the one time. But – why are you so interested in Dylan and his brother? They didn’t do this to Charlotte. It’s him, the loathsome, cruel guy, the one the newspapers are on about – the serial killer!”
“Well, at this point of the investigation it’s merely about gathering as much information as possible. Of the victim’s everyday life, her social circles, habits and that kind of thing.” Hank gave her a kindly smile.
“This might be a random killing which happened spontaneously because the killer accidentally met Charlotte, but we can’t be sure at this point in the investigation. It’s still early days,” he added.
Liza shivered. “Do you mean you believe it might be someone who knew Charlotte, intentionally following her?”
“We just don’t know. Yet!” Dwayne closed his pocket book putting it back in his pocket.
“We will advise you, though – and the rest of the young girls in the City for that matter – to be very careful when you’re out, especially after dark. The best thing would be not to be out alone until we’ve tracked down the perpetrator.”
The two policemen got on their feet, shaking Liza’s hand in turn.
“Thanks for your time. And if you come to think of anything, anything at all you might want to tell us, please don’t hesitate to give us a call.” Hank drew out a card handing it to the young woman who reluctantly accepted it.

Emma was thoughtful as she drove through the City toward the college building which was on the opposite side of town to Dwayne and Hank’s rented house.
She was worrying about the deal she’d made with her astrology students the night before – taking Alex’ personal horoscope as the starting point for tonight’s class. Alex of course had himself agreed to this after his provocative statements of the night before, but Emma was in no doubt that his agreement was based purely on the fact that he didn’t want to lose face.
She’d been through his birth chart in the hours up to this evening’s class, and now she’d come to doubt the ethics of the approach – despite Alex’ apparently approval.
As she’d expected his birth chart reflected huge problems, problems that he obviously hadn’t worked through yet, considering his arrogant behavior. As with most people, he might not care to have his dirty laundry displayed to a wider circle. It was not the way to have a person look into himself honestly, or to start the hard work of balancing his darker side with the more positive aspects, making it all work together beneficially.
Emma recalled the problematic horoscope on her inner screen: Sun in the sign of Aries, which of course made him an Aries. So far, so good. It might make a person somewhat short-tempered, but at the same time it was the sign of the pioneer. A lot of excellent people – take Hank, for instance – Emma smiled to herself – was born in this ‘full speed ahead’ sign of spring.
As she’d expected Alex’ horoscope, however, showed several more problematic aspects. The planet Saturn wasn’t positioned in the sign of Lion itself, but in the house of Lion, the 5th house. That might indicate a disciplined artist of a kind. But with most people having incorporated Saturn’s qualities into their personality, the planet would feel as a brake in the area of life where it was positioned. This ‘something’ that supplied a feeling of inferiority, anxiety, uncertainty, limitations – and because of that called for compensation.
The sign of Lion, being the creative sign was the place where a person flung his arms about, feeling like a king. With a brake like Saturn in this sign, or its corresponding house, the 5th, one might observe a compensation taking form as pompous inflated ego and arrogance, and sometimes right out unbearable bullying behavior to compensate for the feeling of inferiority. This being especially so if there were unfortunate aspects to other planets in the horoscope, which was the case here.
Other disturbing aspects hinted that the limited self-esteem might result in a violent rage. So: A violent outward acting personality. A tension between the planets Pluto and Mars, obsession and anger, might be especially unpleasantly reflected.
Then of course there were all the other, much softer and gentle aspects, but it wouldn’t be sufficient to teach from these alone.
So, the question was: Could she as a teacher justify using Alex’ birth chart as the starting point for her teaching, agreement or not?
“No!” she decided. It would be hanging him out to dry and no one deserved that, arrogant or not.
She wondered what strategy she might use as an excuse to avoid the agreement from last night. Well, at this point she had to play by ear.
Relieved with a conclusion she was able to live with she turned her pickup into the parking area in front of the seminar building and switched off the engine.

“Tonight, we’ll delve into how the horoscope functions in a single person’s life,” Emma started, having welcomed her 12 students to yet another evening class.
“Oh yes. And we agreed on delving into Alex’s horoscope!”
Emma looked at the audience. The student speaking was a pretty young woman sitting at the back of the class room. What was her name again…?
“Well, Susan, that’s right. We did hint at that possibility yesterday. I’m not sure, though. Everything said, it’s much easier educationally to take a basis from the birth chart of a famous person, someone of whom you know where he or she used their potential, and, more to the point, how the person used it.”
“I’d rather we look into Alex’ horoscope. Unless he’s got cold feet. Do you, Alex?”
Susan Campbell cast a challenging look up toward Alex’s table. He turned halfway around toward her, studying her slowly.
“Of course not. Why would I?” he answered in a voice aimed at carelessness.
Several voices joined in, demanding the promise from yesterday to be kept.
Emma sighed. Yeah, well. She’d just have to play it by ear, going easily over the deeper aspects.
“Okay, then. Here’s the birth chart for one Alex Black.” Emma hit a couple of keys on the keyboard making a horoscope circle turn up at the same time on the white board and the student’s laptops.
“Take a look at the horoscope in full and mind the things we talked about yesterday: The elements of the birth chart and how they play together. As you see, Alex’s Sun is placed in the sign of Aries, which makes him an Aries.
As you recall, Aries is one of the three fire signs, which provide a person with, shall we say, a quick temper.
“Not to say extremely hotheaded!” Susan Campbell said dryly from her seat at the back.
“Well no, not necessarily. But somewhat fiery tempered, which can also be a fine quality, yes. And often a pioneer in his field, Aries being the sign for pioneers.”
Emma went through several of the planet-positions in the chart together with some of their aspects to the rest of the birth-planets.
“And here we have the so-called planet of fate, Saturn, in the 5th house. It’s the Lion’s house though not positioned in the Lion-sign itself. This is the symbol for the area of life where we’re playing like children, where we’re creative. It’s also the area of romance and one’s own children. With Saturn in this area of life you might imagine a person engaged in one of the artistic occupations, going about it in a rather disciplined way. Is this something you recognize, Alex?”
Emma sent him a friendly smile. He was staring fascinated at his horoscope, listening to the interpretation as if he was Moses listening to the burning thorn bush in the desert.
“Well, actually you might say so. I’m a chef with my own restaurant. In that profession you must be both creative and disciplined,” he conceded.
“Well, there you go. As Saturn often feels like a kind of limiting brake one might imagine you sometimes experience problems in this field – is that so?”
“Oh yes, every time he burns the dinner,” some witty head amongst the students suggested.
“Well, yes of course there’re annoyances now and again, can’t be avoided in that line of business. But as you said, with discipline…” Alex had a contented smile on his mouth. This wasn’t bad at all.
Emma quickly went through the rest of his horoscope without going into any of the deeper and more disturbing aspects, and after a short time she’d finished the somewhat superficial exposition.
The students looked satisfyingly impressed. Even Alex showed a much more serious interest.
She decided to take advantage of the positive atmosphere.
“Now, let’s have a look into another horoscope belonging to a person we all know of: John F. Kennedy who, as you know, was assassinated when he was the president of the US. There’re a lot of myths about Kennedy, so let’s have a look on his birth chart to see what kind of person he was. In connection to that we’ll have a look as well at the planets in transit that especially activated his horoscope the day he was killed – November 22. 1963.”
While Emma made Alex’ horoscope disappear from the whiteboard, replacing it with the one of the famous president’s, she thought with happiness of the end of this evening’s seminar. It had been a bit heavy getting through the teaching this evening, and she was looking forward, like a child toward Christmas, to the cozy dinner together Dwayne had promised her would be on the table when she got home. Oh, and not least being together with her three dear friends, to be able to relax and just be herself.
She gave a deep sigh and then pulled herself together, pointing with the laser stick to the horoscope of the deceased president.
“As you can see the Sun is in the sign of Gemini. So, here we’ve got a person whose sense of identity is closely combined with his skills of communicating…”