Part 16 (1/2)
”Why?”
”I need to know.”
”Does this prove your satanic ritual theory?”
”I never believed it was a satanic ritual,” Anthony said. Not in the way Rod did.
”Altar.” He closed his eyes as if mentally going through files, then opened them and said, ”Hatch, forty-seven, six foot even, one hundred eighty-six pounds.”
A sick feeling crept in.
”Does that mean something?”
”Yes.” Anthony frowned.
”What?”
”Do you have the time of death for all the men?”
”Time of death is an inexact science. We established they all died between four and five Monday morning.”
”Do you know in what order they died?”
”Three or four fatal fights broke out at once. I can tell based on blood spatter and foreign material in each body who was stabbed first, for example, but I don't know the exact time they died. Not until we finish the autopsies, and even then we're talking about minutes apart.”
”What about the man on the altar?”
”I can look it up at the office. Why? What do you think happened?”
”I need to know if he was the last to die. I need to know how he died.”
Rod stared at him for a long minute. ”Skye would have my job if she knew I was telling you this. The guy on the altar had been stabbed in the shoulder, but that's not what killed him. The wound was superficial. He died of a heart attack.”
”He was young.”
”Forty-seven isn't too young for a heart attack. I've had victims as young as thirty-five on the table. But-” He stopped.
”What?”
”He had a healthy heart. No sign of an attack. His heart just-stopped.”
Because the demon tried to possess him. And something happened.
Had Rafe interrupted the process? Did Hatch have a change of heart? Right now, Anthony believed Jeremiah Hatch was intimately involved in the ma.s.sacre. He had to have been one of the three. He sat on the altar watching the violence. Waiting. To willingly give up his soul. If Ianax has a willing human possession, he becomes twice as powerful than if he has to fight his way in. A willing human gained the immortality of the demon as long as they were united.
Walk with the willing dead.
A willing possession always ended in death once the demon was exorcized, but it was much more difficult to defeat the demon when the possessed soul wasn't fighting.
It was no coincidence Rafe had been on the floor next to the altar. He would have been dead or possessed had Anthony not come when he had. Rafe must have known what Hatch was doing. Stopped the ritual. But he'd been too late to save the others. He'd been held captive in his room-evidenced by the scratch marks and wounds on his hands-until the actual possession began and the demon couldn't hold Rafe off.
Why hadn't Rafe been poisoned? Was it as simple as the fact that he wasn't a priest? Or that he'd never seen evil incarnate? Or- ”Do you know how the poison was given to the priests?”
”I know how they consumed the last dose. In stew served late the night before.”
”Stew.”
”Everyone but Hatch and your friend Cooper. There's no evidence of heavy metal poisoning in Cooper's body.”
”Rafe is a vegetarian,” Anthony said.
”Since you and Skye are on the outs right now,” Rod said, ”you probably haven't heard. But it might be important. The psychiatrist treating the priests was shot today. All files related to the mission are missing.”
Anthony froze. ”Someone tried to kill Charles Wicker?”
”Yep, he's in surgery.” He drank half his rum. ”I heard through the grapevine that Skye put out an APB on you. She thinks you're the one who poisoned her coffee.”
”Why?”
”Your fingerprints, and hers, were the only ones found in the kitchen.”
Skye was looking at the facts, the evidence-and thought he'd planned to kill her. That she had such a low opinion of him ached, but he didn't have time to wallow in self-pity or indignation.
”If I'm supposed to be in prison, why did you talk to me to begin with?”
Rod drained his rum and said, ”Because I've been in this business a long time and something doesn't add up. h.e.l.l, a lot of things aren't making sense to me.” He stared at Anthony. ”I don't think you're a killer, and G.o.d help me if I'm wrong, but I think you're the only one who can stop whatever's happening.”
Anthony sat in Rod Fielding's personal car outside the sheriff's department watching Skye's police-issue Bronco. He'd talked Rod into swapping cars with him, though he wasn't confident Rod wouldn't let it slip if Skye called again that night. He could only hope the scientist pa.s.sed out before that happened.
It hurt and angered him that Skye thought he'd poisoned her. Her doubts-or guilt-told her he must be involved. He couldn't convince her with words; only seeing would lead her to believe him.
He called Father Philip. ”What do you have?”
”Not much, I'm afraid.”
”Give me everything.” He told Father Philip about the altar, Jeremiah Hatch, and his theory.
Silence.
”Father?”