The Wages of Sin (P&R2)

by Tim Ellis

  ‘Are you okay, Father?’

  ‘As a Priest I am used to death and familiar with man’s inhumanity against his fellow man.’ He pulled a chair out from under the table, sat down, and leaned back. ‘Dante Alighieri wrote the Divine Comedy between 1308 and 1321. In it, the Roman poet Virgil guides Dante through the nine circles of hell. The circles are concentric, representing a gradual increase in wickedness, and culminating at the centre of the earth, where Satan is held in bondage. Each circle's sinners are punished in a fashion befitting their crimes. Each sinner is afflicted for all of eternity by the chief sin he committed. According to Dante, the circles range from the first circle, where the unbaptized and virtuous pagans dwell, to the very centre of hell reserved for those who have committed the ultimate sin – treachery against God.’

  Parish took a swallow of coffee and wondered which circle he’d be on.

  ‘Dante’s inspiration came from the Bible. In Revelations 20: 12, it says, “And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done.”’

  ‘Who does the judging?’

  ‘The throne in the passage, is the throne of God.’

  ‘You’re saying that God is judging and punishing these women for what they’ve done – the sins they’ve committed, and the killer is acting as God’s instrument on earth?’

  ‘It would appear so.’

  ‘Which means he’s insane?’

  ‘By current definitions of insanity, he would be considered insane.’

  Parish knew that hearing the voice of God wasn’t always considered the action of a madman. If that were the case, Moses would have been laughed out of Egypt.

  ‘Dante’s nine circles of hell represent limbo, lust, gluttony, greed, wrath or sullenness, heresy, violence, fraud, and treachery.’

  ‘But these victims were punished supposedly for homosexuality, adultery, and bestiality.’

  ‘The Divine Comedy is an allegory, its not meant to be taken literally. The text is also religious in nature. In the Bible, there are many sins for which death is the punishment. Also, hanging the victims upside down symbolises Satan, the chief of the fallen angels, and thus Hell.’

  ‘What happened to forgiveness?’

  ‘First you have to pass from death into life, John 5:24.’

  ‘So, he’s setting them free?’

  ‘The wages of sin is death, Inspector, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 6:23. There are two types of sin – moral and venial. A venial sin is a forgivable sin that does not result in a complete separation from God and eternal damnation in Hell. Whereas a mortal sin is a grave sin, which unless forgiven and fully absolved, condemns a person to Hell after death. All of your victims committed mortal sins.’

  Parish stood up. As much as he enjoyed talking to Father Rosario, he had other things to do and very little time in which to do them. Trying to reach into the killer’s mind for a rational explanation of his depraved behaviour was not one of them.

  ‘Before I go, I notice that the killer is leaving the Hebrew Tetragrammaton – the nomina sacra – at the murder sites? This supports what we were discussing earlier that he thinks he is acting as the instrument of God. The Tetragrammaton is like God’s calling card.’

  Parish offered his hand. ‘Thanks for coming in, Father, you’ve been most helpful.’

  ‘If there is anything else I can do, please don’t hesitate to contact me.’

  Parish paused as he opened the door. ‘Oh, one other thing. Have you any idea how the killer could have known all three of these women had committed mortal sins?’

  Father Rosario’s brow creased. ‘Ah, you’re thinking about the confessional, Inspector? I can tell you that the Sacrament of Penance is bound by the Seal of the Confessional, which is the absolute confidentiality a Priest has not to reveal anything that they learn from a penitent during the course of confession. But, the point here is that these women did not confess, and as such are condemned to suffer in purgatory.’

  ‘It still begs the question, how he knew they were sinners?’

  ‘We are all sinners in the eyes of God, Inspector. That is why Jesus said, when the scribes and Pharisees kept on questioning him about whether a woman caught in the act of adultery should be stoned, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”’

  ‘Yes, I know the story.’

  ‘Well, your killer could simply choose a woman and then discover her sin.’

  A light bulb flickered to life in Parish’s brain as he realised that there was another way of looking at the problem. The killer could have parked outside a gay club, a motel, or Friendly Farm, then simply picked someone and followed them home.

  ‘A good point, Father, have a nice day.’

  ‘I hope today is the day you catch him, Inspector.’

  ***

  Time was galloping by. It was already quarter to eleven. He shook his wrist to make sure the Casio Pro Trek Titanium Chronograph was working properly, but he knew it was – it always showed the correct time unless the battery had died.

  He walked along the corridor to the toilet, and met Kowalski coming out.

  ‘Parish, as I live and breathe.’

  ‘Don’t block the door, Kowalski. If you’re going to talk to me you’ll have to come back into the toilet – I’m bursting.’ He pushed past Kowalski and draped himself over the middle urinal of the five available.

  ‘I’m not in the habit of hanging out in toilets, Parish.’

  ‘Who’re you trying to convince?’

  ‘They can’t find Naylor.’

  ‘What about his wife and kids?’

  ‘A burnt out car was found smouldering by the railway track near Luxborough Lane – there were three bodies in it – an adult female in the driver’s seat and two children in the rear seats.’

  ‘Jesus… Do you…?’

  ‘Forensics found a gun on the floor of the car, but we won’t know if its Naylor’s wife and children until tomorrow. Doc Michelin is going to have to compare dental records because there’s not much of anything else left.’

  Parish washed his hands. ‘What type of man would kill his own wife and kids?’

  ‘The type of bloke that never forgets a good deed. You’re the one that got him fired, so make sure Richards is watching your back.’

  Leaning against a sink, he dried his hands with two paper towels. ‘Naylor won’t bother with me, he’ll already be sunning himself in a South American country without an extradition treaty.’

  ‘Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Anyway, working on the assumption that it is Katie and the kids, and that Naylor’s responsible, I’ve put out an All-Ports Warning, but if he is leaving the country he won’t be using his own name.’

  ‘God… and he’s a copper. The media will have a field day with this one, Ray.’

  ‘That’s why I’m doing everything by the book. How’s your case going?’

  ‘Don’t ask.’

  ‘Well, Richards is beavering away at her computer doing something important, the chit-chat seems to have gone out the window.’

  ‘Good, she hasn’t got time for chit-chat, and without stating the obvious Kowalski, murder is a serious business.’

  Kowalski’s booming laughter reverberated down the corridor as he opened the door. ‘Murder is a serious business. Yeah, I’ll have to remember that one – brilliant!’

  ‘Glad you liked it, Kowalski, I’ve got lots more where that came from.’

  ‘Hey, Richards, your boss should be on the stage.’

  Kowalski carried on up the squad room to his own desk still laughing.

  ‘What’s he laughing at, Sir?’

  ‘Toilet humour, Richards. So, what’s happening with you?’

  ‘My boss is making me work like a slave. Do you feel better after your confess
ion with Father Rosario?’

  ‘Much better. Come on let’s go to the canteen while your boss is away. You can treat me to a four-sugared coffee and a triple-chocolate muffin to keep my strength up before we have lunch, and while I’m re-fuelling you can also fill me in on your progress.’

  ‘Okay, I could do with a break.’ She stood up and gave him his car keys back. ‘The files have been returned to Redbridge Social Services, and the summary list is on your desk.’

  After walking down the corridor, they started up the stairs with Parish taking the steps two at a time.

  ‘Good. Did you…’

  ‘Yes, I rang Miss Linden’s secretary – Adele, and said thank you.’

  ‘You’ll make some man a very efficient secretary one of these days.’

  ‘I don’t want to be a secretary, I want to be a girlfriend. Do you know how many cards I got on Valentine’s Day?’

  ‘Five hundred?’

  ‘Two.’

  ‘Well, there you go then. I only got one.’

  ‘Yeah, but your card was from my mum. Mine were a stupid one from Kowalski, and a gushing one from Paul.’

  ‘Some girls haven’t got any admirers and don’t get any cards, Richards.’

  In the canteen, Nancy stood behind the counter like the Colossus of Rhodes.

  ‘Well, if it isn’t the beautiful Mary Richards and the grumpy Jed Parish come to visit poor old Nancy before she withers away.’

  ‘Good morning, Nancy,’ Parish said with a smile.

  ‘Have you caught him yet?’

  ‘Not yet, but we’re getting close.’

  ‘I suppose you want your usual?’

  ‘Yes please, Nancy.’

  ‘What about you, Mary?’

  ‘Water and I’ll have one of those low-calorie nutty biscuit things.’

  ‘Full of energy they tell me. Never been one for low-calorie foods myself, I need proper meals to keep my good looks and lovely personality intact. That’ll be eleven pounds fifty-five, dearie.’

  At the table Richards said, ‘Eating now isn’t going to spoil your lunch is it, Sir?’

  ‘What do you think, Richards?’

  ‘I think assisted suicide is against the law.’

  ‘Tell me about all the suspects you found on the mental health database?’

  ‘There’ve been lots of mental people released into the community, Sir. In fact, most of Redbridge appear to have mental health problems. Did you know that mental health issues affect one in four people every year?’

  ‘We’re two of the other three, Richards.’ He took a mouthful of muffin and then couldn’t talk, so he gesticulated with his right hand for her to get a move on.’

  ‘In the past month three hundred and seventy-one people were released from mental health hospitals and now live in the Redbridge area. A hundred and fifty-five of those are children, a hundred and seventy-seven are female, thirty-seven are men either too young or too old for them to be our killer, which leaves two.’

  Parish swilled the muffin stuck to his top palate down with coffee. ‘Good job, Richards. Now, we have to do a similar process of elimination on the men from the Electoral Roll. Have you checked whether…?’

  ‘Yes, Sir. The two men’s names appear on both lists.’

  ‘Mmmm… Sounds promising.’

  ‘You’d be better off with a chocolate biscuit, Sir.’

  ‘Yes, but it wouldn’t be as much fun, would it?’

  ***

  While Richards examined the thirty-seven names on the list of men who lived alone Parish deleted his emails and reduced the size of his intray by skimming and signing files before sending them back whence they came.

  At five past twelve Richards said, ‘Done.’

  ‘What have we got left?’

  ‘The two I told you about earlier and another one.’

  ‘One…? Is that it, Richards? Are you sure?’

  She pushed the list across her desk and onto his. ‘Here, you check if you don’t believe me. Thirty-one are either too old or too young, another three have physical disabilities and couldn’t possibly do what the killer does, which leaves three. Two are the men with mental health problems, and another one.’

  ‘Okay, I trust you.’ He stood up. ‘I’ll wait in the incident room while…’

  ‘…I make you a coffee?’

  ‘Don’t forget the four sugars… and then we’ll go over the case to make sure you haven’t forgotten anything before I buy us lunch.’

  ‘Sometimes…’

  ‘…You wonder how dreary your life was before I came along and brightened it up?’

  ‘Something like that, Sir.’

  Chapter Seventeen

  ‘Okay, we have three murders,’ Parish said as he stood in front of the array of incident boards and a flip chart with a marker pen in his right hand. ‘The killer started with Tanya Mathews in 2003, why?’

  ‘Are you expecting me to give you an answer, Sir?’

  ‘I’m expecting you to use that tiny little walnut rattling around in your skull, Richards. Lack of use will result in calcification, you know.’

  ‘If it was Christmas you’d be called Scrooge, you’re so mean.’

  ‘As wonderful as I am, we’re not here to talk about me. ‘Why did the killer start killing in 2003 and again this month? We’re looking for two incidents that would trigger psychotic events’

  ‘Something happened?’

  ‘Define “something”?’

  ‘He’s been living with his father, maybe his father died?’

  ‘Now we’re talking. How old was our killer in 2003?’

  Richards scanned the incident boards until she found what she was looking for. ‘Twenty-seven.’

  ‘Okay, would a twenty-seven year old have been affected by his father dying?’

  ‘If he was mentally unstable, which according to Amanda Sprinkles he is, then he could very well have been affected.’

  ‘We’ve made the assumption that he currently lives alone,’ Parish said writing on the flipchart. ‘What if his father didn’t die? What if something else happened to him in 2003 like a heart attack, a stroke, or some other medical condition that resulted in him being cared for at home? What if the killer still lives with his father?’

  ‘Then what started him killing again, Sir?’

  ‘Maybe his father died recently, and if that is what happened then the death won’t have made it onto the Electoral Roll yet. As such, the household would still be categorised as a father and son household.’

  ‘Then we won’t find him because we’re not even looking for him. I know where this is leading, you want me to go and ask Cheryl to do another database query for households with two men?’

  ‘Do I? We might get lucky this afternoon and find the very person who matches our profile, but then again we might not, and if we don’t we’ll have nothing. Having nothing is not a very good place to be on a Friday night after working hard all week, and I’m sure the Chief Constable will not be impressed at the blank page we call our suspect list.’

  She got up and headed for the door.

  ‘Did I mention…’

  ‘That you want a coffee?’

  ‘I thought you’d never ask, Richards.’

  While Richards was out of the room he stood in front of the flipchart working on his mind map.

  ‘There you are,’ she said putting his mug down on the table when she returned. ‘Cheryl’s not happy, but I talked her round.’

  ‘Has it got…’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘You’re not just saying that so that I think I’ve got four sugars, but actually there’s only one in there… like a placebo?’

  ‘Would I, Sir?’

  ‘Yes you would, Richards. I think you have no respect for the authority invested in me by the Queen via the Police Commissioner.’

  ‘You know it’s nearly lunch time, don’t you?’

  ‘I know you’re trying to change the subject, but I suppose we’d better g
et a move on. Let’s go over what we’ve done up to now. We’ve checked all the victim’s backgrounds, eliminated their spouses and work colleagues as suspects, and discovered that the motive for the murders is because the victims were sinners. Tanya Mathews was a lesbian, Susan Reeves we assume was an adulteress, and Marie Langley is purported to have had sex with animals.’

  ‘Yuk.’

  ‘Thank you for that invaluable contribution, Richards.’

  She smiled. ‘You’re welcome, Sir.’

  ‘The killer steals a van, and then abducts his chosen victim using chloroform…'

  'Where's he getting the chloroform from, Sir?'

  'Good point. Put it down on our list for tomorrow, but I'm not optimistic. Although the government restricts the purchase of chloroform it can easily be obtained on the Internet.'

  Richards wrote in her notebook.

  Parish continued. 'He drives them to an abandoned building where he tries to have sex with them, but fails because he suffers from erectile dysfunction due to his diabetes. He stabs and mutilates them in his rage, hangs them upside down using a butcher’s hook through the ankle, and removes their eyes. Finally, he pins a pre-prepared message in an ancient language through their nipple, and leaves his signature – a Tetragrammaton – somewhere near the body.’

  ‘I hadn’t thought about that before, Sir. He must know exactly what he’s going to do to the women if he’s sitting at home reading the Bible, and writing religious quotes in ancient languages.’

  ‘God is telling him what to do, Richards. As well as that, we know he has a shoe size of 11½ and he’s between 5.11 and 6.1 in height. We have his DNA, and from that we’ve discovered he has diabetes, and because there are no erection-aiding drugs in his bloodstream, we know he can’t perform the sexual act. Psychologically, we know that he has a schizoid personality. On the one hand he is an angry sadistic monster, and on the other a shy, timid recluse. And while I’m thinking about it, Tanya Mathews was his first victim – why? She worked in the mental health team, our killer has mental health issues. If this afternoon proves to be a wash out we’ll re-visit Social Services and check that we’ve got everything. Maybe she was working on cases we don’t know about. There must be a reason he chose Tanya Mathews as his first victim.’