Second & Third Suspect

Lauren was at her desk, sipping the morning drug, hot and dark and thick as she liked it, perhaps it made her feel more passionate than someone holding a clerical desk job, though any analysis of her detective work would reveal more paperwork than the more alluring chase scenes, which mostly never happened because Lauren was really a criminologist, studying carcasses, locations and relationships to divine why some unnatural event would curtail the possibility of a natural death.

In her wallet was a picture of her best friend, Antoinette, it was a photo taken quickly at one of those instant photo machines, Antoinette looked like the mug shot of a seductive killer, her hair uncombed, her face pale, her lips seeming disjointed, it was Lauren’s favorite photo of her lover.

The entire precinct knew that Lauren had a female lover, some had suspected that Lauren regardless of her blond daisy-spring-day beauty was not keen on men, specially because she never paid attention to the handsome and very manly detectives and officers that she was constantly in contact with. The fact is that Lauren did date men, that before Antoinette she had not considered herself sensitive to the sensibilities of the feminine, and more a fact it was that Lauren had no interest in marrying another cop, she didn’t like the mental construct of police neurons, she felt that there was nothing to share in that world, she herself did it because it was easy, Lauren had never fought with her self, she did what came natural to her, there was no thinking involved in her job.

Danny pops in, “Hello Detective Lauren!” She puts down her coffee cup so that she can use all of her physical proportions to greet Danny with raw warmth, the one face in this place that always cheers her up. “Hey buddy, give me a hug, how are you?” The words were filled with mutual emotive actions, the hug was long and soothing to both, and then they automatically took their seats and again robot like commenced to talk business as if the previous instant had existed in another dimension.

“Got you the final results on the Archbishop’s autopsy, guess you were right.” “Right about what Danny?” “He just died of natural causes, he just died in his sleep, that’s why the results from the autopsy took so long to finalize; see when someone gets poisoned or hit over the head with a hammer, that usually makes it easy for me to reach a conclusion, but when they die of natural causes I have to run more test, and more test, just to make sure that it isn’t one of the 101 ways you can kill someone without detection. We finally finished all the testing on the sleepy Archbishop and you were right, he died of nothing other that natural causes. It looks like he might have felt a little tired, probably wanted to sleep, felt comfortable in the house of the lord, and plopped himself to snore on top of the altar. At some point, an act of god perhaps, his body functions ceased, very much their own decision.”

“He was taking Paxil, we spoke to his psychiatrist,” Lauren perplexed pauses Danny, “He was seeing a psychiatrist?” “Yes, am afraid that the good father was suffering from a severe depression, unfortunately we are not privy to those medical records unless you subpoena them as part of a murder investigation, but anyone can suffer from depression, and Paxil is a commonly used mood normalizer, I wouldn’t think that there would be a reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary.” Of course Danny wasn’t a criminologist, he was a coroner, there was a slight difference there, sufficient enough to cause Lauren to ask, “What’s the name of the Archbishops Psychiatrist? “Doctor Rosen, Bill Rosen.” “Did you meet with him?” Danny replies moving his head off kilter as if trying to divine what Lauren was seeing here that he wasn’t, “No, we spoke on the phone, twice, once to confirm the medication and the other to ask about the Archbishop’s condition in general, he reported nothing extraordinary, and acted as if he were willing to cooperate with us if such need arose. However he did make it clear that his patients’ mental health records were sealed.” “Danny why would he offer to cooperate with us if further assistance was needed?” Danny pauses for a thought and responds, “Maybe he would just want us to know that he is not a suspect in his own eyes.” “That’s why I love you Danny boy, precisely that, he wants to assure us that he is not a suspect in his own eyes. I think we got our second suspect in the murder of Timothy Wellington.” “But Lauren I just told you he died in his sleep…” Danny pauses, he realizes now that something is or could be out of whack, then he continues, “…second suspect Lauren?” “Why yes, second suspect, my first suspect is Father Trosin.” Danny takes a look around the office, almost as if he is searching for an anchor of sorts, then ever helpful and understanding of Lauren, “Is there something that you need me to change in this report before I hand it to the Captain.” Lauren sits up straight and shifts some papers on her desk, letting Danny know she was moving on to other business, “Nope Danny, you say he wasn’t murdered, he died in his sleep, then he died in his sleep; just write it like that, works for me, I will worry about the murder wrap, after all there are 102 ways to kill a man without killing him.” Her smile blinking the trust me eye at the coroner. He placed his hand on his chin, paused there for a few seconds, then moved on, “You’re something else.”

As Lauren watched Danny walk away, his sexy ass covered by denim pants, she recalled last night, her coffee sipping begun again, Antoinette laying on the bed, with Lauren straddling her, was sucking her breastless nipple, Lauren holding her lovers hair, the night holding both; the coffee had all that memory in her lips.

Unfortunately her phone rings and cancels that, it is the voice of an elderly man his name is Otto, he wants to meet with her, at a grease pit called Sam’s Truck Stop. It is a truck driver’s heaven. His coarse voice has a quick and volatile charm, she assumes nothing from it and asks, “How will I recognize you?” He replies while thinking the question ridiculous. “Lady, you will be the only well dressed lesbian cop in the joint” Lauren hastily hung up the phone. Went to the bathroom, and self consciously attempted to search her self, to see if she could also see a well dressed cop and a lesbian, she couldn’t see either at all.

She sat down at Sam’s, the place a giant squared box of architecture, a fine example that you don’t have to design beauty into buildings nor do you have to care about the surroundings, the square box was only in touch with the restaurant and with truck drivers, it function well, as far as the outside world was concerned, that world did not exist. The truckers were surely from all over, this was one of their important pit stops, showers, restrooms, food, gas, they could buy stuffed animals, they could have a drink, they could gamble poker hands, and they could chat to their comrades from the big and long highway. Lauren didn’t look like she belong there, the sign on her table read, “breakfast all day long.” Another “coffee is always free.” She ordered a coffee. Her waitress was in between a reddish, brownish, yellowish hair die situation, she was surely forty something and divorced; “Hello Doll what will you be having?” nicely unpretentious, “I will have just coffee please.” “Well if you have just coffee then you have to pay for the coffee, its only free honey if you eat something with it.” Lauren moving her hands over her thighs so as to rub off any clingy energy. “yes, that’s fine, coffee please.” The fine maiden could have waited to get closer to the counter before yelling “Jose, coffee table 9” but then, she was just as efficient as the building.

A man in blue jeans, worn red shoes, a long charcoal colored coat, wearing a brown cloth hat and hardly shaven, “hello lady may I join you?” Lauren recognized the voice, “Please.” Jose a very alert bus boy arrives with two coffee cups; though he does ask if the second cup will be needed, to which the man replies, “Get me a bourbon will you.” The boy calls for help, “Madge quieren bourbon on 9.” Madge replies loudly without ever changing her current tone or activity, bending down to get some muffins from a warming drawer, “Jose, how long have you been with us now, you tell those people we don’t serve bourbon and we don’t serve any liquor before 8 PM, mothers against drunk drivers pain in the ass.” Jose turns to look at the customers in table 9, the man blinks both eyes, warm smile, “I’ll just have coffee.”

Lauren offers a greeting hand, “I am Lauren.” The man does not acknowledge the hand, instead he reaches in his blue jean pocket and pulls out a cigarette, offers one to Lauren, she declines, “suit yourself lady.” A red disposable lighter ignites the nicotine charm, while Lauren takes notice that his hands are trembling, that normal trembling of someone that has drank too much, seen too much, been too much. “Your name?” “My name, oh yeah you would be wanting one of those, don’t matter what you call me now lady, you can call me Otto, Otto is my name, just like that guy that invented car engines.” Lauren became compulsively more detective, “What do we want to talk about Otto?” “I think I can tell you about a man that you need to know more about. But first I want you to swear to me that I can walk out of here regardless of what I tell you, else I say nothing.” “You have my word.” “Good enough for me.”

“I used to be a priest with the diocese, you wouldn’t know it from looking at me today, that’s heavy work the lord’s, takes a man down fast if he is not ready to give his soul and blood. I could drink all the bourbon in the world back then, now I just ask for it, no where to get it.” He pauses as if to acknowledge that he misses the missionary work load, his cigarette lighting the way, he resumes, “then Mother Superior Adelaide happen to me, and the archbishop now and I know it is strange to tell it to you lady, but I think you sense something is very wrong with the whole thing.”

Lauren replied slowly as she was still stuck with the mother superior part, how did Adelaide fit into all this. But she reassured Otto that she was being patient and was listening and that he could continue so indirectly through his story.

“There was a nun, sister Estela, she was the holiest of nuns, she was always in holy prayer, always helping the poor, always shining a path to the lord, she never had time for nothing else but the lord, then one day, I walked in on Mother Superior Adelaide and she had handcuffed Estela and Estela was on her knees. Fortunately she did not see me, neither did the other nuns that were apparently chanting, but they weren’t chanting for the lord,” he pauses, runs his trembling fingers through his forehead, “chanting for the devil spirits, chanting for the devil spirits, Detective, this is going to sound weird to you but where else are you likely to find daemons, more likely than the church no place ever, now I know that, I didn’t then, nor should I have known it.” Lauren was all ears. “When I was a child I used to see spirits, mostly bad spirits, mother used to punish me for seeing them. I came to be a priest to get away from the bad spirits, I became a man of the lord and faith to escape the spirits, till I saw Sister Estela cuffed and being drawn up into some kind of master devil ceremony, that day I realized that I had not escaped the daemons, that day I realized that there would be no escape for me, with the daemon lady present within the house of the lord, there was no place to escape. I watched as they chanted, as they poured oily liquids into her robes, as they chanted occult madness, they would bring flame close to Estela’s body, yet not lighting her robes. She was sweating but not scared, she didn’t seem scared or heavily troubled, I, I was scared, but I felt there was nothing to be done. The whole thing must a lasted over an hour, then they removed her cuffs, and allowed her to leave. Estela got up and moved out of the room as if she had been in cohorts with them, she moved to her room, I followed her there, her bedroom door closed, I came upon it and heard cries, cries, long cries, I whimpered but knocked at the door; her eyes opened it, she looked me in the eyes, “yes Father Otto?” “I saw what they did to you, what is going on here.” “Father please, please,” “She suddenly got brave and direct Detective, as if she were there to protect the evil happenings. Exclaiming with her hands, ” “...Not a word to anyone father, these things are strange, the lord does not explain himself to us, we are not here to judge why I am in this predicament, nor why your here too, where you have witnessed the evil spirits too, so have all.”

“But why do you let them do that, why don’t you go to the archbishop and tell him what is going on right underneath his nose!” “Listen to me father Otto, the archbishop is not naive, the world is the way it is, who are we to explain it or change it, the lord always prevails in the end but to fight evil one must only be good, one can not fight evil, to fight it is to be evil, I shall, and you shall remain silent about these happenings, we can not escape the lord’s will, nor can we overcome evil spirits that have capacitated themselves within our church.” “It is the will of the lord, that’s it, it is the will of the lord, I don’t think so Estela, we must rush to heal the world from this infamy, you must help me to expose this.” “Calm yourself father Otto, you are not so wise or so able, they are aware of you, they know your limitations, your only able to feel evil spirits, you have no divine power over them, the evil is among us and we must face it with patience and calm, rest your energies, pray to the lord as I do father, here sit, (she patting the bed with her angelic palm,) next to me, and lets give the lord prayer, where in us he will find the faith that we have and must posses.”

“I sat with her Lauren, sat with her till we both fell sleep on her bed, holding each other so that heaven might take pity on us and save us from this infamy.” “More coffee?” Madge arrived at the table all smiles, it took both Lauren and Otto some time to recognize her presence, they both refused the coffee offering, even as both of their throats were dry. Lauren finally accepted a cigarette from Otto, who kindly lit it for her, they felt each other under the same lung mess.

“We were rudely awakened by the nuns which promptly took us to Mother Superior Adelaide who was waiting for us in one of the classrooms; next to her was Father Trocin,” Lauren had to pause, her mouth agape, “Father Trosin the same one that works with Timothy Wellington the now dead archbishop?” “Yes Lauren the very same Trocin, a spiteful little man, a conceit of intellect, a man that through pure intelligence dominates within the diocese; he knows all the rules and esoteric trivia of church court protocol, he cancels people out by offering to take their actions and comments to the Holy See, and he can because he is empowered by knowledge of the church hierarchy and certainly not by faith.”

“But let me continue before I coward, let me continue. Father Trocin, (Laura noted that there was still respect of some sort in Otto’s expression of Father Trocin.) told me that trying to rescue Estela from the clutches of a destiny which her Lord had divined for her was a sin, a sin Father Otto, a sin Father Otto!” he said this to me. “We shall not endeavor to control that which is beyond our grasp and reach, we shall endeavor to change what the Lord has deigned in us to change and not any more than such can we expect or impose upon our persons. As you are tempted Father Otto, so you shall tempt others, where your night of prayer can only be seeing by the Lord as a betrayal within our church, thou shall not lie in prayer, thou shall knell and stand and sit in prayer, but this night has witnessed the trespassings of a nun by her priest.” “I don’t know why I attempted to defend myself, I made argument, it was useless the only fool was I. Estela demanded of me to honor our Christ and quiet myself with devotion.”

“I was unable to do so from disgust and anger, till I saw her go up to Father Trocin and offer her wrists for the handcuffs. He had the nuns place them upon her, and then the ointment was poured on her, while nuns danced with candles fully lit all around her, motioning to torch her but just gesturing was enough; Father Trocin looked pleased with himself, and he spoke pointing at me, “Your silence is requested by Estela.” With only this words Estela pronounced upon me, “Father Otto, I beg you to remain silent, our Lord will vanquish all evil from the earth, what ever sacrifices he deigns from us now will advance his presence among us, our will is the lord’s, our will is the Lord’s.”

“At this point she was on the ground, her robes saturated with oils, incense was diluting visibility, I didn’t know what was going on, part of me said listen to Estela, it is lack of faith to be rational, but the other part of me was saying, I need to call the police, even as this meant that I had no faith in our Lord.”

“It was while I was thinking that, listening to my palpitating heart and to the chanting round about reducing Estela’s divine energy, that a sudden shrieking blatant and horrid noise escaped from outside the school barriers, it was enough to freeze us all, we rushed outside, and watched the garden in darkness pouring rancorous soul walling voices usurping from the fences and the trees, and rushing us from all sides accompanied by a wind, a furious wind; and suddenly we did see the crumbling earth succumb to heat, smoldering dirt lost its darkness, lava was scurrilously syndicated everywhere, no one had time to pray, we were all, even the evil ones amongst us, unaware of what was occurring; yet we were not running away, when from the darkness rushed these hideous gray huge flock of bird like figures, formless, and flying without wings gelling through the atmosphere, and another, and another as if it were the night of the gel-birds, only these things did not have any reasonable shape, swooping down upon us all we could see were large dark bulbous eyes, popping out so as to see the night, and then, they grabbed, snapped and disappeared Sister Elena. And then another Sister and another, and a severe choir screeching accompanied each disappearance; one by one and blood rained on us all, that hideous night, while the flightless swooping gel-birds of prey continued their sanguinary excursion into our still night.”

Otto severely stressed from the recounting, Lauren in capsized yet serene disbelief.

“The creatures did the night take; even father Trocin had in him the fears, and we must all have gone into shock, as the night kept on stealing one after another. The morning came, the Garden had been ravished, not a single flower had been left unraped, it looked as if a hurricane had destroyed our beautiful Eden, and only the four of us remained, Mother Superior, Father Trocin, Sister Estela and I, all soaked with our sisters blood.”

“Father Trocin was the first to abandon us, then Mother Superior Adelaide, neither saying a word. Sister Estela got up, came up to me, and putting a caressing back hand to my cheek, “We should all abandon this place.” I watched her procession away from the place, away, she didn’t stop to pick up clothes, to clean herself the bloodstains, to say good buy, to kneel and bless her leaving, she just walked away just as she was. I never saw her again.”

“I don’t know why, but I followed her instructions, by doing the same, I never went back. When I read in the paper about the Archbishop’s death, I felt it was time to say something to someone rational, and that’s why I called you.”

“I must go now.”

“Wait I have something’s to ask.”

“Remember your promise.”

Lauren sat there with her arms crossed, watching Otto walk away, managed by a strong sense of commitment and responsibility, she let the estranged man distance himself. She nurtured a few thoughts, but really to few, she was emotionally distraught, she was trying to cope with something, she did not know what to do. Finally she too walked away from the truck stop, got in her car and made it back in the office. Instinctively she looked for Danny, where she was sure to find comforting realities.

When Lauren told her tale to Danny he was familiar with the name Otto.

“There was a Chinese Fortune cookie note in the archbishops mouth it read, “Have you seen Otto? Have you seen Otto?” Lauren replies hands slamming into her sides, “but you told me that he died of natural causes!” Danny not motioning any regret, “I told you he died of natural causes, he did, the fortune note did not kill him, it was just stuck in his mouth, as if he had started to chew on it.” “But why didn’t you tell me about the note?” “It was there in the autopsy report Lauren, common lets not make a big deal about this, you didn’t read the report, you should have read it, specially sense you think there is a murder wrap here somewhere to paste on someone!” With that, Lauren puffs some air from her lungs, and the whole incident is forgotten; only now Lauren is really troubled, she drives somewhere, “Have you seen Otto?” She is sitting at her desk, “Have you seen Otto?” “Who is Otto?” “Where is Otto?” “Fuck I had Otto and I let him walk away!” She would practice telling Captain Ogle this charming fact, “Capt, I had Otto and I let him go because I can’t break a promise!”

The next morning bright and early Lauren, attempting to correct the error of her ways, proposes a hearty breakfast at Sam’s Truck Stop. Antoinette grudgingly accepts the offer. Madge is there, Madge is probably always there. Lauren, who had never been there for breakfast nor for that matter ever before her meeting with Otto, orders for both, “two breakfast skillets, over easy on the eggs, and English Muffins instead of toast.” Antoinette approvingly disavows herself from making decisions in Sam’s truck stop. Lauren holds Madge’s arm to prevent her from leaving, “Do you know Otto the man that I was with yesterday?” Madge replies with recognition, “You’re the lady cop that was here the other night with Otto. Otto, no I don’t know him and I don’t like that guy he seems weird, but he is friends of Achfad’s” “Achfad?” “He’s my boss, the restaurant manager big bad tempered guy, I better git.” And with that Madge leaves. Lauren seemingly offended leans towards Antoinette, “Do I look like a cop?” Antoinette kisses her, “No darling you don’t look nothing like a cop.” Kiss.

A tall skinny man, with a thick moustache, dark complexion, a Syrian with bulging veins all over his bony body, comes up to the table. He is habitually trembling, smoking straight into his audience. He sits next to Lauren without urging permission, she slides to the side. “Your asking for Otto he isn’t here.” Lauren introduces herself so as to establish much needed authority. “I am detective Lauren this is my friend Antoinette.” Achfad looks at Antoinette with predisposed desires and doubts about Lauren’s concept of friendship, “Your friend, yes, your friend, nice to meet you I am Achfad, from Syria.” He gets lost in himself and continues with what could be a glaring and obtuse misuse of pickup lines, “I was a member of the Syrian Air Force, I flew jets, we had the most powerful secret jet in the whole world, it would riddle the sky with bullets.” The two women were not very much moved by the holed up sky images, he relentlessly puffed his cigarette, “Otto, what do you want with him.” “I just want to ask him something, we met here the other night, do you know where I may find him?” “Otto comes an’ goes, we have coffee together at least once a month, he is very lonely, I got tired of watching him all alone with his coffee, his brain talks to him too much, I think I have helped him a lot, we have long discussions, we are both expatriates, I can’t fly jets any more and he can’t be with his lord. Messed up worlds.” “Do you have his phone number?” “No he just comes when he wants to. But if you want next time I see him I will tell him your looking for him.” Lauren hands Achfad her contact information and thanks him. The egg skillets arrive with Madge, they are placed on the table, hogged washed with grease, bacon, lard mushy potatoes, both Lauren and Antoinette look at each other with greased awareness, Lauren apologized to Madge, “sorry Madge, just got an emergency call, we have to dash.”