Never Burn A Witch: A Rowan Gant Investigation (28 page)

“She souped up her machine and had a new
piece of hardware installed in place of the original mass storage
device,” the detective answered. “I called the repair shop, and
they said the drive was toast, and it went into the trash. To put
it simply, as far as getting something off her system goes we’re
screwed. We aren’t going to get anything from it.”

“What about her... Whaddaya call it... You
know…” He rotated his hand in a circular gesture while furrowing
his brow.

“ISP,” I offered. “Her service provider.”

“Small local outfit in South County” came the
answer. “No weekend hours.”

“Great,” Ben sighed. “They got an alarm?”

“Probably, I dunno,” Chuck returned.

“Find out. Call the local muni and the alarm
company. Get the contact list and get someone to open the doors. If
that doesn’t work, go down there and throw a brick through the
window or somethin’. We wanna talk to ‘em today. Got it?”

“Got it.”

“All right then, there’s another angle I want
us to look into.” My friend huffed, paused for a moment then
pointed over at me. “Most of ya’ are familiar with Rowan here from
the last time he worked with us. As well, most of ya’ are aware
that we’ve asked for his help again with this case.” His hand went
up automatically as he spoke, smoothing back his hair and coming to
rest on his neck. After a short pause he let out a resigned sigh.
“Now, while I’ll be the first one ta’ admit that his methods seem
more than just a little weird to the rest of us, I think we all
know just how accurate he can be. At any rate, Row here has given
us reason ta’ think maybe our bad guy might possibly be a priest.
This isn’t a definite, but I’d like ta’ follow that avenue an’ see
where it goes.”

“You mean like a Catholic priest?” a voice
piped up.

“Yeah. Could be,” he answered. “Or Lutheran I
s’pose.”

“What makes you think it’s a priest?” the
detective queried again.

Ben slapped me on the arm with the sheaf of
papers he held in his hand. “You wanna go ahead and take that one,
Row.”

I had been expecting this when Ben asked me
to be at the meeting. Now, the feeling of déjà vu that had been
tittering up and down my spine forcibly seized me by the shoulders
and whispered in my ear, “Be afraid. Be very afraid.”

The last time I had addressed the Major Case
Squad had been a few scant months ago during the last frantic
investigation. At that time I had been severely heckled, almost to
the point of Ben losing his temper in an attempt to defend me. Now,
however, it seemed a small legend had arisen from the final success
of that case, and while there were certainly those who still
thought me a crackpot, as Ben had said, a number of the officers
present today were individuals I had worked with before.

I watched nervously as they shifted their
glances over to me and waited just as attentively as they had for
Ben.

“Quite honestly,” I began, choosing a direct
approach, “it was something I saw through Sheryl Keeven’s eyes when
I channeled her last moments.”

The room remained quiet, save for the
muted ringing of phones and normal background noises of the
offices. No laughs. No heckling. No comments of outright dismissal.
As unorthodox as they may have found me, I had been accepted. I had
gained their respect. In some small way, I had become one of
them
, and worthy of their
attention.

I continued, indicating to my neck as I
spoke, “What I caught a glimpse of was a black shirt with a white
collar insert. Like a priest’s collar.”

“So what about a seminary student then?”
Detective Baker spoke this time. “My cousin was in the seminary and
he wore one of those collars.”

“Good idea, Baker,” Ben interjected then
gestured to a nearby detective. “Morrow. You and Buchanan check
that out. Osthoff, you and Martin ask around the local Archdiocese.
Carefully.” He stressed the word. “Remember, it hasn’t been all
that long since the Pope graced our fair city with his presence.
There’re a lotta Catholics in this area, and they’re still ridin’
high on that. Last thing we need ta’ do is piss off over half of
Saint Louis.”

“Got it,” the officers replied almost in
unison.

“Okay. That’s about all I have.” Ben’s
shoulders dropped noticeably as he let out a tired sigh. “Anyone
got any questions?”

“Any theories on why he changes the way he
kills the victim each time?” A slightly greying officer queried.
“Seems a bit off for a serial killer. I thought they stuck to an
established pattern.”

“I’ll leave the floor to you on that one,
white man,” Ben told me.

I simply bobbed my head and began. “In this
particular case it actually makes perfect sense. We’ve already
established that the killer appears to be targeting members of
alternative religions. In point of fact, Witches.”

A ripple of nods coupled with the warbling
hum of murmured concurrence ran through the assemblage. I pushed
off from the edge of the desk I was leaning against and began to
pace as I ticked points off on my fingertips.

“So far, there has been one victim burned,
one hung, and one drowned,” I continued. “All of these are methods
of execution that were used during the time of the Inquisition. The
manner of death selected back then oftentimes depended on a wide
range of criteria. Anything from the pre-ordained level of the
heresy committed to the way the inquisitors happened to feel at the
time of passing sentence.”

“What about the first one?” another detective
questioned. “The Walker woman. She was thrown out a window. Was
that one of their methods?”

“Of execution, no. Of verification, yes.” I
answered then paused to allow my statement to take hold. “I would
postulate that the killer was applying a razor... A test if you
will... He threw Miz Walker off the balcony in order to see if she
would save herself by flying or levitating.”

The officer who had started us along this
line spoke again, “I seem to recall reading an article in the paper
recently where you yourself said you Witches don’t do that sort of
thing.”

“We don’t.” I nodded in agreement. “But
during the times of the Inquisition, ‘Witch Hysteria’ was rampant.
All manner of accusations were made, and it is where many of the
popular myths about us came from. People believed that Witches
could fly. They thought we were made of wood and therefore wouldn’t
sink in water. Supposedly, we didn’t need to breathe and could be
deprived of oxygen and still live. That’s just to name a few.”

“So why hasn’t he been testing the other
victims?” another voice asked.

“He has to an extent,” I replied. “Witches,
and those accused, were tortured for a variety of reasons, the
obvious one being to make them confess. Other tortures, such as the
stabbing seen on these victims, also known as ‘Witch Pricking,’
were used to prove out the accusation. You should understand, of
course, that the accusation was then and will always be proven out
for him, no matter what.”

“Okay, so what about this whole torture
thing?” A young detective waved his handout in my direction.
“According to this, the first two victims were rather severely
tortured, whereas numbers three and four weren’t nearly as bad.
What’s up with that?”

“That’s a good question,” I agreed with a
nod. “I have my own theories, and I think there are a combination
of answers. The most obvious is probably the constitution of the
victim combined with the amount of time he had to conduct the
tortures.”

“What are the not so obvious reasons?”
another voice asked. “Just out of curiosity.”

“Well, as we know, the first three victims
were all members of the same coven. For the sake of argument, let
us pretend that victim number four was as well, because even though
we know she wasn’t, I don’t believe the killer has realized that
yet. Victim five, we will leave entirely out of the equation
because as Detective Storm stated, he simply appears to have been a
spouse who got in the way.

“Now forgive me if this starts to sound like
a college lecture, but if you would, please bear with me for a
moment. What I need to do here is back up and give you some
background so you understand how I came to this conclusion. For
this to all make sense, what you absolutely must understand is the
mentality behind the concept of ‘Witch Hysteria.’ Those accused of
heresy were tortured for several reasons, not just for a confession
or just for proving out the accusation. In fact, sometimes it was
just because the particular inquisitor was a sadistic bastard who
enjoyed inflicting pain. But more importantly, by the prescription
of Church Doctrine it was specifically done in order to get an
accused heretic or Witch to incriminate others.

“The first deviation in our killer’s torture
pattern occurs with victim number three. While she was not put
through the same rigors as the first two, she was subjected to some
amount of torture. Judging from what I picked up at the crime
scene, I would say she folded rather easily and didn’t require an
excessive amount of torture to extract that which the killer
sought.

“Then you have Christine Webster, who
we are pretty sure was the
wrong
Kristine Webster. Throw into that mix the fact that she had a
husband who lost his own life trying to protect her. Basically the
husband being there knocked the killer’s entire plan off kilter. It
probably forced him to rush the ritual of applying proof and
confession to the judgment for the simple fear of being
caught.”

I paused for a moment and took a quick sip of
the bittersweet coffee I had set aside earlier. It had grown
lukewarm and tasted even worse than it had before, but I
desperately needed something for my rapidly drying throat.

“This is where the not so obvious comes
into play. Something that I have witnessed through the various
visions I have experienced while working this case is the fact that
the killer passes judgment on the victims much as an inquisitor
would have. He is even going so far as to actually quote a ‘Witch
Hunting’ manual known as the
Malleus
Maleficarum
.

“His last two quotations have been the same
and are as follows—‘In accordance with the thirty-third question,
in as much as you stand accused of the heresy of WitchCraft by
another of your kind...’—This is what leads me to believe that he
has been actively seeking to add heretics to his list.”

“What does he mean ‘thirty-third’ question?”
a female detective with close-cropped blonde hair queried.

“The
Malleus
Maleficarum
is laid out as a series of questions with
applied criteria,” I explained. “An accused Witch or heretic would
be put to these questions and convicted on the basis of the one
that matched the closest. The thirty-third question for example is
relative to the passing of sentence upon someone accused by another
Witch who either has been, or is to be, burned at the stake. In
this case, I would venture to guess that both Sheryl Keeven’s and
Kristine Webster’s names were given to the murderer by Kendra
Miller under the pain of torture. As you will note, her manner of
execution was burning.”

“So how is it that you know about
these
questions
?” another
detective asked as he poured over his handouts. “I don’t see
anything about that in the chain of evidence.”

“That’s part of why it’s not so obvious,” I
answered him head on. “I saw it when I channeled the last moments
of the victims lives.”

“Oh,” he returned. The look on his face told
me that he wasn’t sure if he should challenge me or keep quiet. I
still don’t know for sure why he elected to do the latter, but at
that moment I could feel a large presence over my shoulder and knew
that Ben was no longer leaning against his desk.

“So that explains the list,” a voice
interjected into the quiet. “Do you think he’s just going right
down the page, line by line?”

“That’s the theory,” I acknowledged. “He
probably started by picking Brianna Walker because of her street
moniker ‘Wicked Witch of the West End.’ She in turn gave him Kendra
Miller’s name and probably several others for that matter. Kendra
Miller gave him even more... Let me just add that he undoubtedly
has the names of every Witch in their coven because when asked who
else they know that’s a Witch, the obvious answer would be those
they worship with. Of course, it is probably a safe bet that they
gave him other names as well. I can’t say for a fact at this time
how he might be picking each successive victim from his list... It
obviously doesn’t appear to be alphabetical... But starting at the
beginning and working forward seems as logical as any. Be that as
it may, I’m willing to bet he has plenty of names to work from
because of the tortures he put the first two young women
through.

“I’d also like to add a personal theory, and
this one is just based on a feeling. I think that he’s probably
very overwhelmed by what he perceives as the sheer magnitude of an
infestation of heretics. Every time he executes one, most likely
two or more are added to his list. He’s probably just trying to get
rid of them as quickly as possible. Therefore, he may no longer be
as interested in extracting names from them as he was in the
beginning. This might also account for the lessened amount of
torture, and it would certainly explain the little spree last
night.

“Still, because of the nature of what he is
doing, he will continue to demand names, and the list will just
keep getting longer.”

“So, whether he wants it to or not, the rolls
keep growing, and in a sense the victims perpetuate the crimes by
continuing to add names to the list,” the blonde detective stated
matter-of-factly.