Faye Kellerman - Prayers for the Dead

“Except that Bram admitted they were his,” Marge said.

“He’s lying,” Rina stated formally.

“Rina-”

“So Luke claims he saw wrappers with Bram’s name on them,” Rina said. “So what? That’s not conclusive. Someone could have made those wrappers, put Bram’s name on them, stuffed them with the magazines, and left them at the murder scene.”

Marge said softly, “Rina, if that was the case, why would Bram tell you they were his?”

Decker said, “Darling, what difference does it make whether the magazines were Bram’s or not. It’s the clothes that are incriminating. They tell us he was there.”

“Either he or Luke,” Marge added.

Rina said, “It’s just that Bram owning those kinds of magazines-”

“Especially that kind of magazine,” Oliver said.

“You mean the gay stuff?” Rina said.

“No, it’s not the gay stuff that makes me wince,” Oliver said. “It’s the sadomasochism and body piercing.”

“What?” Rina shrieked.

“Thank you, Scott,” Decker said.

Oliver turned red. “I figured she knew-”

“No, she didn’t know.”

“Body piercing?”

Oliver said, “Needles through everything imaginable.” He held his crotch. “Ouch!”

Rina threw up her hands. “Bram would never have anything to do with that kind of stuff!”

Decker said, “People have secret lives, Rina.”

“No way!” She shook her head vehemently. “No, I don’t believe it. He would never be into something so…”

“Kinky?” Oliver said with glowing eyes.

Decker said, “Rina, why are you obsessing on the magazines? They’re not the important issue here.”

“Because I know Bram. He’d never own things that glorify hurting people-gay or straight! He’s protecting someone. Either that or he’s being framed.”

“You’re turning this discussion into a screed for his innocence.”

“I’m trying to make sense out of the illogical!”

The room was quiet. Rina poured more coffee. “Okay. So I’m biased. What’s the harm in that?”

“Nothing,” Decker said. “But because you’re biased, you can’t help us. Doesn’t Jewish law state that judges may not be biased.”

“I’m not his judge, I’m his advocate.” She sat down. “I’m his friend. Friends need advocates.”

Decker said, “Can we drop the discussion?”

Rina was quiet. But a moment later, she started up. “Luke told you he saw Bram’s name on the magazine wrappers?”

Decker stared at her. “Yes, dear.”

“He said he saw Bram’s name.”

“Yes, dear. Luke said all the wrappers had Bram’s name on them.”

Rina said, “Luke told you, ‘I saw the magazine wrappers and they had the name BRAM SPARKS on them.’”

“Rina, for goodness sakes,” Decker said. “He said he saw magazine wrappers with his brother’s name on them.”

“Luke said the wrappers had his brother’s name on them, right?”

Marge said. “Do you have a point, Rina?”

“Luke didn’t say they had the words BRAM SPARKS on them.”

“Rina, you are beating a dead horse!”

“Can you just hear me out?”

“Go on,” Marge said.

Rina said, “Luke told you that in the back of his mind, he thought Bram was gay, right?”

Decker nodded.

“So what if the magazine labels just had SPARKS on them. Luke assumed they belonged to Bram. But maybe they belonged to another brother.”

Decker said, “Rina, you’re stretching-”

“Bram would protect his brothers.”

“Rina-”

Rina’s eyes got big. “Maybe, Peter, the labels said ‘A. M. Sparks.’ Or even ‘A. M. Sparks.’ You know there are more than one A. M. Sparks in Bram’s family.”

As soon as she said it, Decker knew she had hit pay dirt. “What’s Bram’s middle name?”

“Matthew.”

“Oh my God!” Marge slapped her forehead. “The father!”

“Azor Moses!” Oliver said. “They’re his magazines?”

Decker buried his head in his hands.

The father’s magazines.

And that was why a Fundamentalist like Azor Sparks hadn’t fired Decameron even after he had been convicted of picking up male hookers. Excusing Decameron because the old man had been wrestling with his own similar demons. Azor Sparks had either been latent or led a very secret life.

Had Bram known? Good chance of that. Because Azor had confided things to Bram. Perhaps he’d confessed his desires to his son. Especially after that fateful Sunday night dinner when Bram refused to equate evil thoughts with evil action.

Giving Sparks a license to fantasize.

Perhaps Sparks took it one step further and began with fantasy magazines. After all, Bram had relieved him of the guilt.

At Sparks’s memorial service, Bram had spoken to Decker about his father’s distinctions between the homosexual and the homosexual act. Decker thought about that brief interchange in the Sparkses’ kitchen. His discussion about Decameron’s moral charges, about Azor’s loyalty to his colleague despite church rumblings. And about the religious way one copes with homosexuality.

Either celibacy or sublimation in a legitimate heterosexual union.

The fifth commandment spoke of honoring one’s father and mother. By enlarging upon the precept-what honoring one’s parents might mean to a man of the cloth-Decker began to put the pieces together. Abram Matthew Sparks, the priest who put God before American law, took the magazines as his own to protect his father’s name. Just as important, he was protecting his mother from postmortem embarrassment.

Marge said, “Luke told us that Decameron had called him up, early in the morning, wanting to talk about the family. But not over the phone. Right?”

“Right,” Decker muttered.

“Maybe that’s what he wanted to tell Luke. That it may come out that his father was gay.”

“He’d bother calling Luke up just to tell him that?” Oliver said.

Marge said, “Maybe he wanted to spare the family some embarrassment and/or ridicule.”

“Then why would he call Luke?” Oliver said. “Why not Bram?”

Rina said, “Maybe Dr. Decameron felt Luke was more worldly about human foibles…being as Luke had been a user.”

“Or the answer could have been much more pedestrian,” Decker said. “Bram had been occupied that morning. Very busy. First with Mass, then with his mother. Decameron knew Dolly Sparks hated him. He wouldn’t have called up the house.”

“Aha,” Marge said. “Maybe that’s why she hated him. She found out that her husband and Decameron were having an affair.”

“Nah, I don’t buy that,” Oliver said.

“Why not?”

Oliver said, “Margie, why would Decameron call up Luke to tell him about their affair?”

“Blackmail,” Marge suggested.

“Nah, Reggie was a good guy,” Oliver said.

“You keep saying that,” Marge answered. “That don’t make it so.”

Rina said, “So how did Dr. Decameron come to have Dr. Sparks’s magazines?”

“Could be that after Azor died, Decameron went through Sparks’s office…to clean things up.” Oliver shrugged. “Maybe he found the magazines.”

“Christ!” Decker was disgusted with himself. “The Fisher/Tyne data you two had requested. At Sparks’s memorial service, Decameron told me he was going to look through Azor’s files to find the most updated numbers. Could be he came across the magazines by accident.”

Marge said, “Then Decameron took them home with him, intending to give them to Luke…to dispose of them as he saw fit.”

“The magazines which had A. M. Sparks on the wrappers,” Rina said pointedly. “Having found them in his boss’s file cabinets, Decameron knew that A. M. stood for Azor Moses. But Luke didn’t know. He just assumed they belonged to his unmarried priest brother Bram. So I’m not so stupid.”