Stenographers typed using a twenty-two key steno machine with chorded keys that could mean entire syllables, words, or phrases depending on the order and context.Using THO*U SHAULT TPHOT KEUL as the key, Kate was able to identify the specific shorthand the killer was using and translate the rest of the message.
And it was indeed a long one.Several Bible verses featured prominently.Besides the obligatory commandment, there was Genesis 9:6.“He who sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed.”This appeared near the top of the message, after a brief, passionate rant about how that commandment was the clearest and most obvious of God’s instructions.
A little further down, Kate saw Deuteronomy 27: 19.“Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the fatherless and the widow.” This was followed by another rant where the killer asked the reader why humanity so often allowed murderers to escape the consequences of their actions.
The rant ended with another passage of scripture, this one from Leviticus 16.
“AndAaronshallcastlotsoverthetwogoats,onelotfortheLordandtheotherlotforAzazel.And Aaron shallpresentthegoatonwhichthelotfellfortheLordanduseitasasinoffering,butthegoatonwhichthelotfellforAzazelshallbepresentedalivebeforetheLordtomakeatonementoverit,thatitmaybe sentawayintothewildernesstoAzazel.”
Kate read the verses several times over.A pit formed in her stomach.While investigating the Sabbath portion of the commandment killings, Kate had talked to Gabe about Cox’s obsession with her, struggling to understand why Cox cared so much about her specifically.The concept of a scapegoat had come up in that conversation.Historians believed the Levitical rite was adapted from ancient Mediterranean and North African traditions where a criminal would be chosen as a stand-in for all of the sins committed by a community.That criminal would be paraded through the community, spit on, ridiculed, sometimes stoned.At the end of the rite, the criminal would be dunked into the water, and when he was pulled out, all would be forgiven.For him and for the entire community.
The Levitical right eschewed the use of a human being, but the scapegoat wasn’t “forgiven.”It was cast out of the community, sent into the wilderness, or in this translation, Azazel.It carried the weight of those sins for the remainder of its likely shortened life.
Gabe believed it was possible that Cox was using Kate as a scapegoat, that his torment of her was part of some ritual whereby she would suffer for the sins of the entire nation or maybe the entire world, and when she was finally sacrificed, the world would be cleansed of its transgressions.
It was a bit of a stretch, but so much with Cox had started out seeming like a stretch only to prove very real upon closer examination.
Was that the message?Was Cox confirming Gabe’s suspicion and saying that he intended Kate to act as scapegoat for the world?
She got to her feet and stepped onto the balcony of their hotel room.The city was in full tilt below, and a cacophony of honks and shouts reached her ears.A few miles away, the towering skyline shimmered in the midday sun, blue and black spikes piercing the sky.Cox would probably see those buildings as an affront to God, a symbol of man’s arrogance, modern towers of Babel.To Kate, these weren’t symbols of pride but of fear.
The world was full of untouched wilderness.In the middle of a city like this, it was easy to believe that Earth was too crowded, but drive for an hour outside of any city on Earth, and one would find themselves in thin, spread-out rural towns if they found any human habitation at all.Yet people preferred to live here, stacked on top of each other like a school of fish.
Sardines did that hoping that their numbers would increase their chances of survival by presenting too large a target for predators to pick out individuals among them.Humans were smart enough to know that murders happened everywhere, city or not, but they still lived as close together as possible.In numbers, there was safety.Alone, one was vulnerable.Logical or not, that’s how people’s minds worked.
The door to the room opened, and Kate spun around, eyes widening.Marcus grimaced and lifted his hands in apology.“Sorry.I should’ve knocked.”
“Or texted or called.Something.”
“I did text.”
Kate blinked and checked her phone.Sure enough, he had texted her twenty minutes ago that he was on his way back.How had she missed that?How long had she been outside staring at the city?
She came back into the room and shut the door to the balcony.“Got it.Well, welcome back.Glad I didn’t have my gun in my hand, or I might be texting Cheryl that her new man has a new hole in him.”
Marcus’s face darkened, and Kate winced and smacked her forehead with her palm.“Shit.Sorry.”
“Don’t be.”He forced a smile.“I can’t expect you to keep up with the crests and troughs of my marriage.”
He looked around the room.“I like it.Comfy, quiet, and a nice view of traffic.”
Kate couldn’t tell if he was joking or if he really appreciated the view.He was a New Yorker, so maybe he found traffic nostalgic.“How did the interviews go?”
“Well, the maid was no help.If she’s the killer, then she does the best impression of shocked and traumatized for life by the body of her dead boss that I’ve ever seen.My vote is she’s not the killer, and she also knows nothing.She was listening to music when she was cleaning.The noise she heard was probably the killer opening the window so they could escape.Considering how fast Derek Hammond died, it’s unlikely he cried out.”
“Fair enough.And the ex-wife?”
“Hasn’t gotten back to me yet, but she lives in Los Angeles now.According to her Facebook profile, she’s dating an investment banker who’s also rich and hasn’t been accused of offing any of his partners.They have no kids, so I don’t think there’s any reason for her to fly all the way back to Chicago to kill her ex-husband.”
Kate nodded.“And the detectives have an alibi.”
“Yep.”
“So, no one’s jumping out as a suspect, and we’ve learned that Hammond probably killed his partner and got away with it, which pissed a lot of people off, but no one who had opportunity to kill him.”
“Someone had opportunity,” Marcus said.“Someone made good use of that opportunity.We just need to find out who.”
“Said every detective ever.”
