Cody McFadyen - The Darker Side

"Stop there. Why do they tend to be so tight-knit?"

"Common experiences."

"Simpler than that," I say. "All they have in common is each other. No one else accepts them as they are, faults and all."

"Fair enough-which leads us back down the same road: people are watched closely when they come into a group like that, and noticed when they leave. No one remembers a guy leaving around the same time as the victim's disappearance."

Plain sight, plain sight, plain sight. .

The words roll through me like waves that never crest. It's maddening. I try to be the moon, pulling them toward me with my gravity. They come close, but vanish before they ever hit the shore.

"Go on," I say.

"He needed access, so he had to be there. But no one remembers him being there."

I bolt upright.

The waves hit the shore.

Plain sight. .

"Because he wasn't there, " I say, excited. "He understood the mechanics of a group like the ones he needed to infiltrate."

The intimacy created when you admit that you're a fuckup and the people you admit it to accept you anyway, because hey-they're fuckups too.

"Someone working with him, you mean," James says. "How is that any different? They'd still be missed if they left when the victims did."

"That's exactly right. But they didn't disappear when the victims did. They waited for a while, maybe a few weeks, maybe even a month, and then they slipped away. They'd never need an alibi because they were right there with the rest of the congregation while the victim was being kidnapped and killed."

James frowns. "A lot of supposition."

"Logical supposition, though, don't you think?"

"It makes sense," he allows. "We need to make the same calls again, but this time we need to broaden our questions. Ask about men that left not long after the victims went missing, but not immediately."

"And who had been close to the victims," I add. "It'd be a part of it for them. Gathering intel, getting familiar with the victim's life."

"You know," Alan says, "it'd make the most sense for them to be linear in their actions."

"I don't follow," I say.

"Their victim pool is going to be filled with people who tend to be transient or unstable. They'd need to plant the bug, find the victim, and make their move. They couldn't afford to leave and come back, they'd run the risk that their chosen victim had moved on. They'd need to stay focused and remain on-site until the deed was done."

"So?"

"So there should be a lot of time between murders, right? Pick a vic, grab her, film her, kill her, move on to the new locale. That's a lot of logistics. But we have three dead in less than two weeks. Lisa Reid, Rosemary Sonnenfeld, and Valerie Cavanaugh. Seems to me it's possible he would have had to pitch in directly on at least one of those in terms of gathering intel, don't you think?"

"It's a good point," Callie says, "but which one?"

"Lisa Reid." James says it as I think it. "Has to be. She's the one departure, the only victim who wasn't born a woman. She's also the one he used to get our attention."

I feel the excitement rising in me again. The waves are rolling, moving, cresting, and they all threaten to reach the shore together.

"We need to focus on those two, right now-Lisa and Rosemary. How did he choose Lisa, anyway? How'd she come on his radar? She wasn't in his usual stomping grounds, he went after her, she didn't come to him. So how'd he even know about her? Rosemary is one of our most recent victims and we have an in with Yates. He'll remember something, someone close to her who-"

I stop talking as a big wave, a huge wave, comes crashing into shore, roaring for what seems like forever.

Hiding right in plain sight. .

"He told me early on," I whisper.

"What is it?" Callie asks.

"Yates. We asked to talk to Rosemary's known associates. She only had one. Andrea." I swallow. I look at Alan. "Call Yates. Find out Andrea's last name and check into her background. I have a feeling we'll find it's bogus and that she's long, long gone."

"LISA REID WAS A BIT OF AN INTERNAL SCANDAL FOR THEchurch," Cardinal Ross tells me. "The priest running that particular church is a younger man, Father Strain. He's part of a small but growing group of priests who are young, smart, and willing to disagree-

albeit respectfully-with Rome on certain issues."

"I assume taking confession from a transsexual would fit the bill?"

"Yes and no."

I frown. "Sounds complicated."

"The church's stand on homosexuality remains as it has been. Homosexuality is regarded as a sin. Transgendered individuals are considered to be effeminate, i.e., homosexuals who have used the benefits of modern technology to change their outward appearance to match their inner desires. The fact of that change is not considered by the church to remove the truth that they were born as God created them."

"So a transgendered person is basically considered to be a homosexual."

"Yes."

"You said 'effeminate.' What about women changing to men?"

"Both are held to the same standard. Homosexuality is a sin."

"So what does a homosexual who wants to be a Roman Catholic do?"

"They can receive confession, and are urged to do so, until such time as they change their ways and become as God created them and the Bible demands. If they're unable to become completely 'straight'-

to marry a member of the opposite sex, for example-then they are expected to practice chastity. Until either of these things happen, they are not to take part in Holy Communion or various other sacraments."

"Then. . I don't understand. Where's the conflict with Strain?"

"Twofold. Strain was giving Communion to Dexter Reid, for one."

"And the other?"

"Parishioners complained. It can be a different experience depending on where you are, Agent Barrett. A homosexual walking into a church in Los Angeles might expect different treatment than one walking into a church in Texas, for example."

"Ah. I understand."

"Father Strain was cautioned, nothing more. He was told to stop giving Holy Communion to Dexter Reid and to be more circumspect about his dealings with Dexter. He refused."

"What happened to him?"

"Nothing."

There's a quality to that "nothing" that makes me think there are two words missing from it: for now.

"What will happen to him?"

"That's in God's hands."

I chuckle and shake my head. It's comforting, in a way, to see that a bureaucracy is a bureaucracy the world around. Something tells me that Father Strain can expect no further advancement. Maybe he doesn't care.

"Cardinal, I'm looking for a connection. How would Lisa Reid have attracted the Preacher's attention? Was it newsworthy?"

"It didn't appear in any major news outlet that I'm aware of. There were some mentions of it on Catholic blogs and in some newsletters. There is debate even within the church, at times, on homosexuality and how best to bring homosexuals into God's grace. A heated topic, as I'm sure you can imagine."

"That could be it," I murmur. "Maybe he was monitoring religious blogs."

"Agent Barrett, do you think Father Strain is in any danger? This man, would he go after the Father for allowing Dexter into the congregation?"

I notice that we continue the debate he mentioned in the here and now; I say Lisa, he says Dexter. Tomato tomahto, except that we're talking about a person. It seems like such a casual dismissal on his part of everything Lisa was trying to do and be and feel about herself.

"I don't think so. Lisa was a tool for him, a way to draw our attention to what he was doing. He wanted to come out of anonymity with a splash. Lisa fit the bill in spades; her family's political connections, her controversy. Virginia was way out of his normal stomping grounds. I think he did what he intended to do, and then left. I do need to speak with Father Strain, though."