“Yeah, but the witness could be lying.So could Cynthia.”
“They could be.And we’re going to do our due diligence since we’re here, but my first impression is that this is exactly what Cynthia said it was.A jealous wife came home, caught her husband with another woman, stabbed him, and then decided to pretend it was inspired by Cox to throw us off the scent.”
Kate pushed open the door to the bedroom.Her certainty that this wasn’t a commandment killing waned a little when she saw the large crucifix above the bed and the equally large Bible on the dresser.Ceramic statues of figures in prayer stood on both night tables, and a picture of a Bible study group adorned the vanity mirror.The woman in the middle had curly black hair, a bright, smile, and was indeed quite well-endowed in the chest area.
“Well, disciple of Cox’s or not, she was definitely a Bible-thumper.”
Kate shone her light over the furnishings, looking for any sign of inscriptions, carvings, notes, or sculptures that indicated a message left behind for her.All of Cox’s killers had left something behind for Kate to read, including Cox himself.It was one of the signatures that identified a case as one of the commandment killings.
She saw nothing, not even when she looked through each drawer to see if something was hidden underneath the chaste bloomers Mrs.Pierce preferred to panties.
“They skipped a commandment too,” she said, half to herself.
“What’s that?”
“They skipped a commandment.‘Thou shalt not commit adultery’ is the seventh commandment.The sixth one is ‘Thou shalt not kill.’”
“Well, I mean, come on.Clearly Cox doesn’t think that commandment is important considering he’s literally on a crusade to kill people who break the commandments.”
“He absolutely thinks it’s important,” Kate countered, leading him out of the bedroom and into the upstairs bathroom.“And he doesn’t view what he’s doing as killing.”
“Are you serious?He knows the difference between something living and something with its blood forcibly exsanguinated due to a knife wound, right?”
“Yes, but he sees it as justice and as purification.Divine justice administered by himself and his followers as the agents of God and purification of unclean souls.His actions aren’t breaking commandments, they’re enforcing them.”
“Okay, but is it really important for him to go in order?”
“He’s gone in order with every other commandment.Presumably Donald Pierce isn’t the only man to have cheated on his wife since Cox started these killings.There’s no reason to believe that he’s not going to complete this process the way he started it.”
“Sure, there is.We’re not going to let him complete it.”
Kate gave Marcus a half smile.“Right, but you know what I mean.”
“As long as you know whatImean.”
“What do you mean.”
“I mean… it’s not your fault.You understand that.None of it is your fault.”
Kate sighed.They’d been over this many times, seemingly every time anyone died as a part of Cox’s crusade against “lawbreakers.”She knew it wasn’t her fault, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t connected.
All of this was inspired by her, centered around her, devoted to the culmination of some plan of Cox’s based around her.It wasn’t obsession to believe that.It was verifiable fact.Cox had told her so himself.
But she didn’t want to go through another argument about it, so she just left the bedroom and led them downstairs again.
The rest of the house yielded nothing that suggested Cox or his disciples were involved in any way.It really did seem that this murder was unrelated to the commandment killings.
But a commandment was written on the wall in the victim’s blood.Cox might not have sanctioned this, but his fingerprints were plastered all over it just the same.
CHAPTER FIVE
That night, Kate had the dream again.This time, the apartment wasn’t hers, nor was it her mother’s home, nor her childhood home.It was Marcus’s apartment, the one he shared with Cheryl.Kate had never been in that apartment, and she didn’t know how she knew it was his, but she did.
The rest of the dream was the same.The knock.The muttered voice on the other side whispering promises and quoting scripture.The voice, as always, was too low to identify, but Kate knew who it was.It was always the same.Always Elijah Cox.
She never opened the door.She always woke before then.This time, however, another figure got out of bed next to her.His shadow covered her as he moved to answer the knock.
Fear rolled down her spine.“Marcus, no!”
