C. Lawrence - Silent Screams

"Why did you do it?" Lee gasped.

"Why did I strangle nice Catholic girls who never did me any harm?"

Lee nodded weakly.

"You'd be surprised how easy it is. After a while, you develop a taste for killing-you actually get to like it. And the Biblical carving was a nice touch-my idea, of course, but Samuel took to it, and did a nice job of it, I thought, didn't you?"

Nelson's eyes were the eyes of a fanatic. He didn't so much look at Lee as right through him. It was like being looked at by a sleepwalker. His calm was more terrifying than an outpouring of raw fury might have been.

"But-you?"

"Oh, don't be so naive, for God's sake!"

"But why?"

Nelson's face darkened with rage.

"Because they didn't deserve to live and serve God after He took Karen away from me!"

"Oh my God," said Lee. "It was Karen's death-"

Nelson laughed-an ugly, grim sound, like a rock hitting water.

"Yes, that was my 'precipitating stressor'-classic textbook case, eh? Except who would have thought the pursuer would become the pursued? Now, if that's not irony, I don't know what is!"

The pursuer becomes the pursued… the phrase repeated itself in Lee's foggy brain as Nelson leaned over Kathy's motionless body, his red hair reflecting the single overhead altar light. There was a tiny bald spot on the top of his head, the scalp pink and bare, and Lee was reminded of the tiny pink feet of a litter of newborn mice he had seen as a boy. The color had struck him at the time as sickly, and now, as he tried to keep from passing out, the pink bald spot seemed to shift its shape and grow in size… Can this be it, then? he thought. This is really what death is? He felt an odd peacefulness settle over him, as if he were watching the entire scene from very far away, through a thick layer of gauze.

"I'm sorry about her, I really am," Nelson said. "Everyone will think that Samuel did it, of course. He did do some of them, you know-once I convinced him of the rightness of it."

"You used him," Lee said, pushing through the fog in his brain.

"I realized early on I needed a fall guy-a patsy, as they so colorfully call it in old movies. He was a good student, one of my best. Little did I know how good he'd turn out to be, actually," he added, pulling on a pair of surgical gloves. "That was the only real gamble I took-but it worked out in the end."

"Samuel's dead," Lee said. "You killed him."

"I knew you'd track him down sooner or later."

"Christ, you even smoked a cigarette while he died!"

"Ah, yes-the clove cigarettes. That is a rather distinctive odor, I suppose. But I couldn't very well let him live, could I? Any more than I could let you live-or her, for that matter."

Nelson leaned lower over Kathy. Lee saw the glint of metal, and saw the knife descend over her body.

With tremendous effort, Lee shook himself out of his stupor. He felt a roar well up in his throat, and gathered all his strength to rock his body forward. He felt a screw on the wall behind him give way, and he paused for breath, then gave one last desperate lunge forward. There was a crunching sound as the screws tore away from the masonry wall. The cross teetered for a moment, then thundered down over the altar. Nelson stood frozen, as if he didn't believe what was happening, then tried to dodge out of the way-but it was too late. The heavy wooden cross came crashing down on him.

The last thing Lee was aware of before he lost consciousness was Nelson's body folding underneath him like a puppet whose strings have suddenly been severed.

Darkness…more darkness…hands lifting him up…flashing lights…people scurrying about everywhere…then he opened his eyes to see Chuck Morton's face looking down at him. They were in the back of an ambulance. Lee was lying in a stretcher, his friend crouched over him.

"Kathy-" he began, but Chuck cut him off.

"She's going to be fine."

"Where is-?"

"She's already on her way to the hospital."

A paramedic fiddled with an IV bag next to him. The ambulance was sitting behind the church, its doors still open. The paramedic didn't look unduly alarmed, so Lee figured he'd be okay.

"What about Nelson? Is he…?"

Chuck shook his head. "Pronounced dead at the scene. You're lucky he broke your fall. You landed right on top of him. Broke his neck."

Instead of relief, Lee felt a deep sadness. That was no way for a life to end, not even such a twisted one.

"How did you know where to find me?"

"I just went where I figured you would go."

Behind Chuck, Lee heard a familiar voice speaking. "We headed for Dr. Azarian's house first."

"Is that…Diesel?" Lee said, and tried to raise his head up to look.

Diesel's enormous head appeared over him. His metal earring caught the light and reflected silver in the artificial light.

Lee stared at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I volunteered to help. Rhino came too, but there wasn't room for us both in the ambulance. He's over there helping the officers keep people away."

Lee looked across the street to the cadre of police lining the sidewalk and saw Rhino's powerful, compact form among them.

He looked up at Chuck. "How did-?"

"They said they knew you-that they were helping you on the case. At that point, I don't have to tell you, we were pretty desperate."

"Anyway," Diesel continued, "there was this old lady in the street."

"Blue hair and eye shadow to match?" Lee said.

"Yeah, right. We asked if she'd seen anyone matching your description, and she told us to go to St. Mary's."

"Sort of like an oracle," Lee said.

"Yes," said Diesel. "Instead of the Oracle of Delphi, she was the Oracle of Philly."

"Oh, something else I have to tell you," Chuck said. "You're off the case."

Lee looked up at his friend, who was smiling. "I don't get it."

"Internal Affairs requested that I take you off the case."

"Really? When?"

"Oh, about three days ago."

"What? Why didn't you say anything?"

Chuck shrugged. "Guess I forgot. I'm telling you now."

Lee laughed, and felt a stab of fire shoot through his ribs. He remembered the wound Nelson had slashed into his side.

"So-he's really dead?" he asked.

"Yeah," Chuck said, without looking at him.

"Dead at the scene, you said?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

Lee peered at him. "What do you mean, 'pretty much?'"

Chuck cleared his throat. "He was still alive when we arrived."

Lee looked back at Diesel, aware that they were both avoiding eye contact with him.

"Is there something you're not telling me?"

Chuck's jaw was clenched, and Lee could hear his teeth grinding. Diesel was looking down at his shoes.

"What? What is it?"

"I think you should get some rest," Chuck said, getting up and putting a hand on Lee's shoulder.

"For God's sake, what is it?"

"Look, we don't believe him," Chuck said. "We think he was lying."

"Lying about what?"

There was a pause, and Lee could hear the sound of car doors opening and closing. Scenes like this always drew far more patrol cars than necessary.

Chuck took a deep breath. "He claimed to know who killed your sister."

"We think he said it just to upset you," Diesel added quickly.

Lee's stomach took a quick dip, like a car lurching down a hilly road. "But if he was lying, why would he tell you?"

Chuck looked him straight in the eye. "Because he knew that sooner or later you'd find out what he said."

"Did he even know I was alive?"

"My guess is that he gambled on it. You were already being loaded onto a stretcher when he said it."

"And what did he have to lose, in any case?" added Diesel. "He probably knew he was dying."

"But people who are dying don't usually lie," Lee protested. "What if he was telling the truth?"