“I’m not hungry,” Ruby replied. Looking at crime scene photos and the pressure of solving a case could be quite the appetite suppressant.

“Suit yourself,” Gabe said, “but it doesn’t sound healthy to me.”

Ruby couldn’t argue with that, but it also didn’t lesson the tension in her body either.

“I just don’t know how you can still feel hungry after visiting the morgue,” Ruby said. She compromised by turning away from the wall. The intense focus and stale air of the office was beginning to dry out her eyes. She sat across the table from Gabe as he expertly manipulated a pair of chopsticks.

“I’ve seen worse,” he said. “Try forcing down freeze dried meals after a military operation.”

Ruby winced, taking Gabe in with a new consideration. Their backgrounds had both led them to much more death than the average person would ever have to face, but also in vastly different circumstances. Each case Ruby was involved in still occurred somewhere familiar to her, but each case also carried a huge amount of personal responsibility.

Sometimes people went through things and it meant they could never comfortably live normal, nuclear lives afterward.

“I’m going to make some coffee,” Ruby said, “want any?”

She couldn’t bring herself to down cartons of Chinese food, but it was a good idea to walk away for a moment.

Gabe sighed, casting a long glance at the map.

“No. I’ve got to head out soon,” he said, “and I’d like to actually sleep tonight.”

Ruby couldn’t wipe the surprise from her face fast enough. They hadn’t made any significant progress. There were no promising leads. Another victim could be killed within the next twelve hours and they were no closer to identifying a suspect.

“There is something here we’re not seeing,” Ruby said. “We have to keep looking.”

Gabe raised a hand to stop her.

“There’s no way to tell for sure the killer will hold to a two-day pattern,” he reasoned, “how are you going to be sharp when he actually does strike again if you haven’t slept?”

As much as Ruby wanted him to be wrong, she had no good rebuttals ready. Knowing that she was blind to some connections here and she wasn’t leaving until she figured it out wasn’t a great argument.

“Look, unless this guy has something against Aries, we’ve got to wait for more information,” Gabe said.

Ruby tilted her head, taking in that clue, that one commonality. Maybe Gabe was more perceptive than Ruby gave him credit for.

“They’re both Aries?” she said. The victims weren’t born in the same month, but that wasn’t the same as being in the same star sign. It wasn’t something she’d put together yet. “Both the first sign in the Zodiac?”

Gabe huffed in exasperation.