M Sellars - Never Burn A Witch

“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.

“Unfortunately, yes,” I agreed.

“You’re right, it would explain the change in his pattern and definitely the sudden escalation,” Agent Mandalay remarked from behind me. “If he feels that he’s losing control, another spree could be just around the corner.”

“Great,” Detective Deckert muttered sarcastically then appealed, “Just how long is this crackpot’s list?”

“Depends on how many names the previous victims gave him. And like I said, it just keeps growing,” I offered the detail in answer. “Your guess is as good as anyone’s. There is quite a large Pagan community in Saint Louis whether you know it or not. Just using myself as an example, while I certainly don’t know every Witch in Saint Louis, I could probably name twenty-five without even thinking hard. If pressed, I might be able to give you a hundred. I’m sure Brianna, Kendra and Sheryl could have done the same.

“On that note, however, I would like to mention something else. I have made my case for the fact that this guy is after Witches or anyone he perceives to be one. As you know, last night, he deviated from that pattern when he killed Robert Webster. Now based on the facts at hand, I think we can all agree that Mister Webster was NOT on the list, especially since the Kristine Webster he was supposed to have gone after is unmarried. That would mean his death was purely unplanned, at least as far as the pattern has been established. Now unless I grossly misinterpreted the scene, I believe the killer is feeling some pretty heavy remorse over this.”