by Philip Cox
Professor Ramos gave both detectives a smile. ‘Wicca is pagan witchcraft. It’s a relatively contemporary pagan movement, developed in England in the first half of the last century. Wicca has a ritual which involves blessing five sacred parts of the body. With each blessing that area of the body is sealed with a kiss. The fivefold kiss is a blessing and symbolises the act of honouring that person as a vessel of the female or male version of the deity. The blessing goes:
‘Blessed be thy feet, that have brought me thee in these ways
Blessed be thy knees, that kneel at the sacred altar
Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be
Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty
Blessed be thy lips, that shall utter the Sacred Names.
‘Of course, that refers to a female Deity. If you were honouring a male version, you would substitute womb for phallus, breasts for chest and beauty for strength. Are you still following, Mr Leroy?’
‘Yes, yes. We’re both good.’
Ramos nodded. ‘The number five is prime. The pentagram - the simplest form of star – requires five lines to draw and is unicursal, meaning it is a continuous loop.
‘We can juxtapose a man or a woman on the pentagram, with the head at the top point and the four limbs at the others. The genitalia will be exactly central.’ He held up a drawing. Leroy nodded: he had seen that before.
‘I won’t bore you with the mathematical proportions of the pentagram,’ Ramos said. ‘They’re very complex and I don’t think you’d be interested. You know, nautilus spirals and the Fibonacci series of numbers.’
‘I’m not sure we’d understand,’ said Leroy. ‘Maybe if you could keep it simple?’
‘For sure,’ said the professor. ‘Now, the pentagram has long been believed to be protection against evil, a symbol of conflict that shields both the wearer and the home. It has five spiked points and a womb shaped defensive protective pentagon at the centre.
‘We have five elements: earth, air, fire, water and the spirit, yes? The word quintessential - meaning the most perfect example of a quality or of anything, really - derives from this fifth element, the spirit.’ He showed them another pentagram drawing, this time with the five elements on each point, spirit at the top, and water, fire, earth and air clockwise around the others. ‘If you trace a path around the pentagram,’ he demonstrated, ‘the elements are placed in order of density. Earth and fire are fixed, air and water are free flowing.
‘This might be apposite to your investigations, Mr Leroy. These point attributions are used in ritually inscribing, as a flourish of the hands or the athame. Now, an athame, as you may or may not know, is a ceremonial blade, generally with a black handle. It is the main ritual implement used in black magic traditions.’
Leroy sat up. ‘Would it have a jagged edge? You know, like a hunting knife or would the blade be smooth, like a Bowie knife?’
Ramos said, ‘Normally smooth.’ He paused a beat while he regained his thread. ‘The ritual would be to invoke or banish each of the elementals.
‘It could be open, without a surrounding circle. This is the active form symbolising an outgoing of oneself, prepared for conflict, being aware, being active. A circle around a pentagram contains and protects. The circle symbolises eternity and infinity, the cycles of life and nature. The fact that the circle touches all five points indicates that the spirit, earth, air, water and fire are all connected.’
Leroy fidgeted in his chair and manoeuvred his neck. His eyes were beginning to glaze over, but he knew that there might be something here to help the investigation.
‘Now,’ Ramos continued, ‘we come to the inverted pentagram. Mr Leroy, on the backs of your victims, were the pentagrams inverted?’
Leroy closed his eyes for a second, trying to visualise the victims’ backs, in most cases on Hobson’s slab.
‘No,’ he replied. ‘They were all right way up. The top point just below the middle of the neck.’ He remembered also that the smaller carvings on the victims’ thighs were also right way up, but decided against mentioning that.
‘I see,’ said Ramos, almost sounding disappointed. ‘But indulge me while I just run through what I have here about inverted pentagrams. Just in case.’
Leroy gestured for him to continue.
‘An inverted pentagram implies spirit subservient to matter, of man subservient to his carnal desires. It has begun to be seen as representing the dark side and is considered an evil symbol. Indeed, Fundamental Christians actually view it as such. But there are other, more recent views; namely that it represents the need for the witch to learn to face the darkness within so that it may not later rise up to take control. The centre of the pentagram here implies a sixth element – love slash will which controls from within, ruling matter and spirit by will and the controlled direction of sexual energies.
‘Finally,’ he said, much to Leroy and Quinn’s relief, ‘we have the pentagram as a Christian symbol. Until medieval times, the five points of the pentagram represented the five wounds of Christ on the Cross. I covered that earlier, didn’t I? It was in fact the symbol of Christ the Saviour. This is in utter contrast to the view held by Fundamental Christians, again as I said earlier, that the pentagram is a symbol of evil.
‘Eventually, the Church chose the simpler cross as a more significant symbol for Christianity and the use of the pentagram as a Christian symbol gradually ceased.’
He laid the legal pad on his desk, took off his glasses and looked at Leroy and Quinn. ‘Is that any help?’ he asked.
CHAPTER EIGHT
‘I hope you got all that, Ray,’ said Leroy as they drove off from the UCLA Humanities Building.
Quinn looked down at his notebook and flipped through the pages of notes he had taken. ‘I think I did.’
‘But did you understand any of it?’
Quinn said nothing.
‘Honestly,’ Leroy pressed.
‘Not much,’ Quinn admitted. ‘And you did, of course.’
‘Not a word,’ replied Leroy, before they both started to laugh. ‘No, no: that’s not quite true. I remembered some of it from before, but he didn’t go into that much detail. And I kind of get what he was saying about the elements – you know, earth, air, fire, water.’ He looked over at Quinn. ‘You ever hear of a band called Earth Wind and Fire?’
Quinn shook his head.
‘They performed stuff like September, or Boogie Wonderland, or… let me think: Let’s Groove.’
Quinn shook his head again. ‘Still haven’t. Must be before my time,’ he added with a grin.
As Leroy turned onto Santa Monica Boulevard whilst quickly giving the finger, Quinn asked, ‘What’s your point?’
‘Nothing really. It was just I kept thinking of the band while Ramos was talking about the elements. You know, earth fire, and like that.’
‘I see. Getting back to reality,’ said Quinn, ‘did anything he tell us have any bearing on the murders?’
‘Murder. Singular. We’re still investigating one killing, don’t forget.’
‘Yes, but you’re convinced it was connected to the others.’
‘I think I am. There has to be a connection somewhere. Just has to be. The second pentagram.’
Now they had arrived back at the station. Leroy drove the car into the nearest available space and switched off the engine. He turned to Quinn. ‘What do you think, Ray?’
Quinn sighed. ‘I think,’ he began slowly, ‘that we’re dealing with one real sick guy. I think either there is some significance in this pentagram - these five elements, or maybe he’s some religious nut - like with Christ’s wounds.’
‘I was thinking about that when he started to talk about the religious aspect; the Christian thing, the Fundamental Christian thing. Back in the day, when I was still on the NYPD, we had a serial killer once. Well, we had several serial killers. But there was one: he was some kind of Christian Fundamental Halleluiah dude. He killed I think it was five women, all hookers,
apart from one, who was a stay at home mother of two or three young kids. She’d been to a party or something at a club, and was walking back to the subway when he mistook her for a working girl. He gave himself up after she was killed, full of remorse. Told us that he had gotten orders from God to clear the streets of hookers, on account of their sinfulness. Once he realised he’d killed an innocent woman, that was too much for him. I think he’s seeing his days out in some kind of psychiatric unit. But, none of the women the Pentagram Killer murdered were hookers. They were all, um…’ he tried to find the right word.
‘Respectable?’
‘That wasn’t the word I was looking for, but you’re right. They were all kind of above the radar. The only commonality they had was that they were in a particular age range, were female of course, and were all single. We got matches when they were eventually reported missing.’
‘They were all single; who reported them missing?’
‘Other family members – parents, siblings; their workplace; I think a neighbour reported one.’
‘I’ll check with the MPU about last night’s one.’
‘Yes, do that. And if it comes up negative, check again in a few days. We never established the time frame between when they were snatched, when they were murdered, and when they were found.’
‘They could have been kept somewhere before they were killed?’
‘We thought that, but when Cordell’s house was raided, there was no sign of anybody being kept at the house. The garage was clean, there was no basement, no attic. He might have used some other place, but we never found it. Perez did have a theory that there might have been other women who he had already snatched but not killed or not left for us to find, but that line never went anywhere. We located the women we found on his laptop - his intended victims - but none that he might have been keeping - alive or already dead - for us to find. I’ll take book that last night’s wasn’t a hooker.’
‘It’ll be Monday before we get much from the ME.’
‘Yeah, so in the meantime, let’s get as much as we can without Hobson’s input. Come on, let’s get started,’ he added, getting out of the car.
‘What about the black magic angle?’ asked Quinn as they walked into the station.
‘Anything’s possible. I’ve never had a case where black magic was involved,’ said Leroy as they walked down the corridor to the Homicide Desk.
Two other detectives were sitting at their desks as Leroy and Quinn arrived.
‘Well, lookie here,’ one of them called out as he sat up from his screen. ‘Leroy and Quinn on a Saturday? Are my eyes fucking with me?’
‘Bite me, Gomez,’ Leroy retorted as they hurried past. Quinn and Gomez high-fived.
‘You were saying about black magic,’ said Quinn as they sat down.
‘Oh, yes,’ said Leroy as he hung his coat over the back of his chair. ‘I’ve never had any case involving black magic, real, or where somebody’s using it just to get laid.’ He sat down and ran his hand through his hair. ‘Of course, it could be that the pentagram carvings are one big red herring, as they say.’
‘How so?’ asked Quinn.
‘That whoever killed that woman last night is just fucking with us. Which makes him even more dangerous, because all the symbolism, all the stuff Ramos told us, is bullshit. Meaningless. He could have carved the Olympic rings for all it meant.’
‘But, Sam: the tiny carving on their legs. You said nobody knew about those.’
‘Nobody did. It wasn’t in the public domain. So how did it find itself on last night’s victim’s leg?’
CHAPTER NINE
‘I’ve no idea how it got there, Sam,’ replied Quinn. ‘What’s your explanation?’
Elbows on his desk, Leroy rested his chin on steepled fingers. ‘That information - about the little pentagram - wasn’t included in the press releases.’
‘Why not? Was everything else?’
‘Yes, everything else was. And I’m not a hundred present sure why it wasn’t included. Remember I wasn’t lead detective then. Perez was; it must have been something he and the lieutenant at the time and the captain agreed. I was never given the reason: need to know, I guess. Maybe having something carved at the top of a woman’s inner thigh was too much, too - what’s the word? Salacious? Sensational? Withheld out of respect for the victims? Perhaps it was deemed inappropriate for mainstream media. Or maybe it was just an oversight. In any case, it doesn’t matter. It wasn’t, and so Mr and Mrs Joe Public never knew. Or so we thought. So, where I’m coming from is that either somebody in the Department or the Coroner’s Office leaked it, but leaked it where? It still never showed up on the TV on in the newspapers. And why would they leak it? What motivation or reward would there be? It was only a small detail. The second option is that Cordell had an accomplice.’
‘How likely is that, though?’ asked Quinn. ‘I thought all serial killers were loners.’
‘No, they’re not. That’s a common misconception. Last time, we had some input from the Bureau, as you know, and one of the first things the agent did - it wasn’t Callaway – was dispel some of the myths and legends that surround serial killers.’ He tapped the top of his screen. ‘What the agent told us was that they are not all loners, far from it. Some can hide in plain sight in their community. Married, families, sometimes. Not all white males, although Cordell was. Not motivated by sex in every case. Generally, they operate in a certain geographical area - their comfort zone, the agent put it. And they can stop killing. Lots of reasons why they stop.’
‘And how did your guy fit into those categories?’
Leroy pushed his chair back from the desk and folded his arms. ‘Harlan Cordell was white, single, dysfunctional. No immediate family. No friends: according to his neighbours, nobody ever visited his house. I told you what we found in his den. Not just wire and tape, and knives; but photographs of the victims and of two women who we assumed were to be his next victims. His laptop was full of all sorts of porn, mostly violent.’
‘Straight or gay?’
‘We never found out. No visitors to his house. He worked in a gas station, but all his co-workers could say was that he was a loner, weird, didn’t interact much.’
‘No, I mean what kind of porn on his laptop?’
‘Oh, I see. I think it was a mixture. Why, is that relevant?’
Quinn said, ‘It might just indicate any sexual motivation. You said you found lube inside two of the victims.’
‘Yes, in two of them. And yes, he did stop killing. When I killed him. Which ties in with third explanation.’
‘Which is?’
‘Which is that I did get the wrong guy.’
‘Sam…’ Quinn began to say, pausing when Leroy put up his hand.
‘No, listen, Ray.’ He paused a beat. ‘You know what it’s like when you’re at home looking for something? One of your shoes, or your car keys. Or when Holly can’t find her pocket book? You look in all the obvious places, then you find it.’
‘Yes?’
‘What do you do when you find it, whatever it is? Keys to the car, say.’
Quinn shrugged as if to say what the hell are you talking about? ‘Well, I guess I’d go drive off, or put my shoes on.’
‘Okay. But you wouldn’t carry on looking?’
‘Of course I wouldn’t. Sam, what are you getting at?’
‘What I’m saying is, we caught our man, or thought we did. So, we stopped looking. Once the house had been searched, the case was closed. We managed to trace the other two women just to check they were alive and unharmed and that was it.
‘Ray, some serial killers can stop murdering altogether. The agent told us that at the time, but we were so sure of Cordell’s guilt, so pleased we had gotten a result, we didn’t think any further. If he had an accomplice of some kind, once Cordell was killed, they might have thought, “fuck this, I’m next. I’m gonna get caught if I don’t stop.” So they find something else to do.’
‘Just lik
e that? What else would they do?’
‘The agent gave us an example of another case. You ever hear of the BTK killer?’
Quinn shook his head.
‘He was a guy over in Kansas, I think it was. BTK stands for Blind, Torture, Kill, by the way, so you can guess the kind of sicko this guy was. Family man, I think; local Church, even served. But, he suddenly stopped. Just like that. When he was eventually picked up, years later, it turned out he began to take part in auto-erotic activities instead of killing.’
‘And got his kicks that way?’
‘Apparently, yes.’
‘So, if Cordell had an accomplice, then you’re figuring that whoever it was, once you killed him, this accomplice started shitting bricks like dandruff, and began to get their jollies doing something else.’
‘That could be a theory, yes. Until something prompts them to start over.’
Quinn took a chair, sat down and turned it round to face Leroy. ‘You realise what that means, don’t you? If that’s what happened, then you didn’t kill the wrong man. You killed the right man. But you never knew there were two right men.’
Leroy replied, ‘So I only did half the job? Is that supposed to make me feel any better?’
CHAPTER TEN
‘What do you want me to say?’ asked Quinn. ‘When you went through the house, was there any sign of a second person?’
‘No.’
‘And do serial killers work in pairs?’
‘No, not normally.’
‘So, you’d never have known he might have had a partner? A partner who coincidentally stopped killing once Cordell was out of the picture?’
Just as Leroy was about to answer a voice came from the corridor outside.
‘Leroy, Quinn, you guys got a minute?’
The voice had come from one of the other detectives outside. Leroy pushed himself up from the desk and wearily walked into the corridor. He looked around. One end of the corridor was quiet; but in the other direction, where the lockers and restrooms were situated, a small group was gathered around the vending machines. Quinn followed.