CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Jessica handed Faith her latte, an oat milk honey brew that Jessica swore would be the best latte Faith would ever have. Faith sipped it. It tasted like bread dipped in pancake syrup. “It’s good,” she lied.
Jessica laughed. “I’m not that easy to fool. You hate it.”
“Hate is a strong word.”
Jessica laughed again and sipped her own latte.
“Well, I don’t regret ordering it for you.
You need to stave off the grumpiness. It’s growing thicker and thicker around you, and eventually you’re just going to be a bitter old SAC drinking motor oil and grumbling about how things ain’t like they used to be. ”
“A for effort on the humor,” Faith replied, “but you tell jokes like a cop.”
“What does that mean?”
Faith shrugged. “I don’t know.” She sipped the latte again, found it as distasteful but drinkable as before, and asked, “So did we confirm Thomas’s medical ailment?”
Jessica's smile faded into a heavy sigh. "Yeah, primary progressive MS. His doctor lectured me about patient confidentiality, then assured me that Thomas would have trouble picking up a gallon of milk, let alone strangling someone to death."
Faith nodded. “Okay, so there goes that lead. Here’s my next question. How the hell does our killer put dog tags on the victims that all match records searches Thomas did over the past few weeks, records searches that were all unrelated to each other?”
Jessic sighed again. “That’s a head scratcher.
Chief’s alibi is good, I verified it, and the girls really don’t strike me as the type to murder chaplains, inject their joints with expanding epoxy, then arrange them in a prayer position in public.
I’ll still look up their alibis, but I think we can assume that we’re back to square one. ”
Faith’s lips thinned. “Shit.” She sipped her coffee and stared moodily down at Turk, who cocked his head questioningly as he returned her gaze.
“What is it?” Jessica asked.
“We might need to get the media involved after all.”
Jessica sighed. "You think we need to follow this art lead?"
“It’s the only lead we have left.”
“What about the media circus you were afraid of?” Jessica said. “About law enforcement’s ability to obtain information and the general public’s right to withhold it?”
Faith crossed her arms. “Yeah, that’s gonna be a challenge. We’re going to have to risk it, though. We might be able to convince Channel Six to spin things in our favor.”
“Are you sure about that?”
“No.”
“So, what do you want to do?”
Faith sighed. “See if we can get a warrant.”
Jessica frowned and looked down at her cup.
She downed it and headed to the counter to order another latte.
This one with three extra shots of espresso.
On her way back to the table, she nearly collided with an attractive woman in her early thirties with long hair dyed a shockingly bright but attractive red and green eyes that complemented the look perfectly.
The woman bounced away from Jessica and giggled,
"Sorry about that!" before leaving the café.
Jessica continued to frown at the woman’s back as she returned to their booth. “Do people just not know to watch where they’re going anymore?”
Faith could have pointed out that Jessica also wasn’t watching where she was going, but she kept the thought to herself. “I’ll call about the—”
Her phone buzzed before she could finish that sentence. “It’s Dr. Paulson,” she told Jessica.
“I’ll call for the warrant,” Jessica said. “Answer that. Depending on what Dr. Paulson has to say, we might not need to worry about that art class after all.”
"Fingers crossed," Faith answered. "Yes, Dr. Paulson?"
“Hey, Special Agent,” the VA psychologist said, reluctance dripping from her voice. “Can I count on your discretion?”
That wasn’t the sort of thing Faith could offer a blanket guarantee to, but if complications came up, she could work it out later. “Yes. What do you have for me?”
“I’ve been going back and forth on this,” Paulson said, “And I’m still not sure if it’s the right thing to do, but… Well, I knew Robert. He was a good man. A kind man. I might not believe in God, but I respect the work he did and the comfort he provided our veterans.”
“So did I,” Faith replied. “What do you have for us, Doctor?”
"Well… None of the patients here have demonstrated the sort of violent tendencies you're describing, but there's a former colleague of mine who's known for having said some very provocative things."
“Do you have a name, Dr. Paulson?”
"Dr. Angela Pierce. She was barred from work with the Veterans Association last year after publishing and defending some controversial articles calling chaplains snake-oil salesmen and purveyors of false hope. The Chaplain Corps was all understandably upset and called for her removal, especially since she was calling for the abolition of chaplains and religion entirely in the military. She’s written a lot about the evils of religion in a modern society. ”
Faith tilted her head. “This is interesting stuff, Doctor, but it doesn’t quite scream murder to me.”
“I know. I… I had a personal experience with her. She and I were friends prior to her departure. When I learned she was being removed from VA work, I took her out for drinks. I felt sorry for her. I didn’t agree with her extreme views, but…
Anyway, we went out for drinks, and out of nowhere, she just started hissing—that’s the only word I can think to describe it—that chaplains were evil and religion was evil, and she hated all of them and wanted all of them to die.
She said the world would be a better place if she could just figure out a way to murder all of them. ”
Faith raised her eyebrows. “And this woman is a doctor?”
"I'm not sure if she suffered trauma as a youth, although I suspect it," Dr. Paulson replied.
"Either way, I was appalled. I took her home and then texted her the following day that, after hearing her rant the previous evening, I believed our friendship had run its course.
She replied with a curt message indicating that she understood and wouldn't be bothering me anymore. I haven't heard from her since."
Faith nodded. “And do you believe that she would follow through on her desires?”
Dr. Paulson hesitated for a moment, then admitted, “I’ve never interacted with a killer before.
Not that I would know of. I mean, warfighters, but that’s not the same as murderers.
I don’t believe the woman I know would ever harm anyone, but the woman I spoke to that night was not the woman I know. ”
Faith nodded again. “I appreciate you giving us a call. We’ll keep your name out of our conversation with Dr. Pierce. Do you happen to know where she works now?”
“I have no idea. I truly cut ties with her after last year. I can give you the phone number I last had for her.”
“We’ll take it,” Faith said. “Thank you again.”
She wrote down the number, hung up, and looked at Jessica. Her partner was just finishing her own call. “I put in the request for the warrant. The judge is out right now, but her secretary paged him, and he said he’d review it and give us a call ASAP. What did Dr. Paulson want?”
Faith gave her a rundown of her conversation with Paulson.
When she finished, Jessica shook her head.
“Why do people hate religion so much? I understand not believing, but to carry that to the point of despising people, of being willing to murder them for their beliefs… It just makes no sense to me.”
“Some people don’t know how to cope,” Faith replied. “Whether it’s with grief, disappointment, humiliation, or disrespect. They just don’t know how to react healthily, so they lash out. In this case, it’s religion.”
Jessica nodded. “Well, if this means we get something without needing to wait for the Honorable Judge so-and-so to figure out if he wants to give us a warrant or not, then I’m all for it.”
Faith chuckled, but her smile didn't last long.
As they exited the coffee shop, she noticed the sun nearing the western horizon.
This would be their last lead of the evening.
The art school would be closed before they got their warrant.
If their killer followed their pattern so far, there would be a new victim tomorrow morning.
Either Angela Pierce was their killer, or they would be left hoping that the safety net they'd cast over the region's chaplains would be enough to protect them from a killer consumed by hatred.
Faith knew all too well how easy it was for such killers to slip through the cracks.