10

The four priests that came ranged between stoutly middle aged and wizened. They sat youngest to oldest without needing to talk, and I inwardly made cackles at that. It was so obvious. John must look like a humored child among them.

And so he did, standing against the door before one of the older priests snapped at him to see to the chapel. The second to the super old one. The super old one looked like half his flesh had sucked away, showing the lines of his skull and hands that peeked out from the sleeves of his robe. Yeah, get that, they came fully dressed. Maybe priestly robes were comfy. Like Jawa suits.

Naru started by asking if they had felt what John had referred to as a 'darkening.' This seemed to annoy the second to oldest, who was quickly becoming Mr. Grumpy in my book.

"Like we would allow him to call in the likes of you unless we had," he said.

I couldn't help myself. "What are you, Prof, a Jew?"

That made all four priests flinch and stare at me, flabbergasted and offended.

Yeah…I made a Jew joke.

"Mai,"

"Yes, Prof?"

"Keep your mouth shut until this meeting is over."

I saluted. "Yes, sir." But I did meet the eyes of Mr. Grumpy. Like I'd be quiet while he badmouthed Naru. I'd make as many Jew jokes as it took.

"You hardly look old enough to be a professor in anything, and fresh from a fight, no less," said the younger priest to the left of Mr. Grumpy, frowning through one of those faces that, no matter how many times you shaved, there was always the shadow of stubble. His salt and pepper hair was quiet well groomed though, and I suspected the old spice I smelled came from him.

"Then pretend I'm just student asking the questions for the professor," said Naru, nonplussed.

And he went on with his questions as though no slandering had occurred. Each of the priests nodded to feeling the darkening, and one even spoke of the catacombs becoming so cold once he could see his breath, though the heater had been on and it had been noon outside. As for the likelyhood of one of their parishioners, or even one of them, could be the suspect, they all clamped their mouths.

"That you would even suppose…" said the youngest, who still had brown hair, despite the streaks of gray.

"I just read an article last week about the Pope making apologies for the rash of sexual molestation among priests towards altar boys and nuns," said the Prof, conversationally. "But no, I do not think it is one of you. Otherwise we would have had a greater reaction when I had John walk you through the funeral room."

True. If Naru just looked like the guy and got strangled for it…

"It's not possible for there to be malevolent spirits here," said the second to oldest.

I bit my lip back from saying they had just mentioning allowing John to call Naru in. You know, Mr. Spirit Professor of Ra?

"And I wouldn't say they are malevolent," said Naru. "The spirits we have detected are all young boys who have been violently raped and murdered. They seek justice, not the suffering of others…yet."

"And just what are you implying by that?" asked the youngest.

"If spirits linger too long in one place, they begin to be affected by their surroundings, and with parishioners coming in to confess their sins, or better yet, to hold to their sins while hoping to repent on their own…"

"Then we'll just exorcise the lot of them," said the second to oldest, Mr. Grumpy.

"No."

It was the first time the eldest of the priests had spoken. Despite his skeletal appearance, his voice was strong and firm.

"Have you not been listening," he said, giving the other three a rebuking look. "The suspect that has done these horrible things is still on the loose. Those innocent boys don't deserve to be exorcised just because they are hoping for restitution."

That quieted the lot of them. Mr. Grumpy even looked to the floor.

The bony old man face Naru, giving him a gentle look. "Who are we looking for? What do you want from us?"

Naru told him about his hypothesis about the appearance of the perpetrator, as well as learning more when the autopsy's come back with the identity of the boys. So far, though, he only had one, and he handed and enlarged picture of the grinning boy I had identified to the eldest priest, whose eyes widened.

"Christopher," and for a brief second, his strong voice rasped. "But…he should be graduated from seminary, tending to his own flock, or maybe even married." He looked back up at Naru, eyes bright. "He's dead?"

"And missing for ten years, till now."

Mr. Grumpy took the picture.

"How could we not have heard of this?"

"I take it you know him well."

"Of course," said Mr. Grumpy, though the other two priests looked a little out of the loop. "Christopher was one of our most promising altar boys. We all gave high recommendations to the seminary of his choosing when he stepped down to become a priest."

"Is there an age limit to alter boys?"

The youngest sort of frowned. "Not usually, but we try to encourage the young men of the community to serve until they're getting ready for college. It keeps them out of trouble, and technically the positions are taken by adult acolytes."

The others nodded their agreement, muttering things like 'this neighborhood' and 'the temptations these days.'

"He he left at 14?" he asked.

"He was invited to a private Catholic high school in, what, Main? Or Virginia."

"Somewhere in the east," said Mr. Grumpy flippantly.

"Brother Brown came from somewhere similar," added the youngest.

"It's the best route for the youth to get their basic education as well as preliminary training to becoming part of the clergy."

"But they're highly selective," said the oldest.

"And our church has had many find young men accepted," said the second to youngest, swelling with pride.

I saw a flash and narrowing of Naru's eyes.

"Who else has access to the chapel's keys, more specifically, to the catacombs and funeral room?"

"Just us," said Mr. Grumpy. "We have, what, two sets that we share around?"

"But their use to be three," said the eldest, so quietly the other priests almost went on without noticing.

But Naru jumped on that. "What happened to the third set?"

The elderly man wagged his head, seemingly suddenly tired and worn by woes. "It was so many years ago I paid it no heed."

"How long would you say?"

He shrugged his narrow shoulders. "I can't say. Decades."

"And have the acceptance or invitations from these Catholic schools increased in the past few decades? Let's say 20 years."

Mr. Grumpy snorted. "You're expecting us to remember what application levels were like twenty years ago or more?"

"Do you at least have them written down somewhere?" Naru asked, barely containing his exasperation.

"That would encourage pride and vanity," said the older priest. "It is better for God's servants to remain nameless to the world and not be showered with praise for their faithfulness. God rewards their efforts in his own ways."

The second to youngest, however, was squirming.

"I…I kept track," he said, face down.

All the priests looked at him, shocked.

"I thought if I just wrote it down in my personal journal, it wouldn't be a temptation of pride for them," he said quickly.

"But a temptation for you," said the youngest, shaking his head.

"That was unwise," said Mr. Grumpy.

"Or just what we need," the Professor leaned forward, scarlet eyes to the second youngest, hands folded tight enough I heard a knuckle pop. "Could you give me a list of these boys? Or at least the number of them."

"If it will make up for what I've done, certainly. There should be about 12 or 13, all in the last ten years or so."

Naru and I exchanged glances. That couldn't be a coincidence.

"I'll be depending on you for that list at your earliest convenience," said Naru. "In the meantime, I have just two more questions left."

"Thank the Lord," muttered Mr. Grumpy under his breath. That got him a scolding glare from the eldest priest next to him.

"First, your original hair colors. Then," and his eyes narrowed at this. "Have you had any dissenters? Priest or other such clergymen who left the service?"

The eldest of the priests, who was bald, chuckled a bit. "I started balding when I was twenty-four. I can barely remember, but I think it was kind of a brown."

"Ginger," said Mr. Grumpy.

"Blond," said the one who had the list.

"You can still see mine," said the youngest, even presenting his head and parting his hair for them to view.

"And dissenters…." The eldest tapped his chin. "There were some in my lifetime, but they were few and far inbetween. In the last twenty years? It's actually been rather quiet. If a priest is going to apostasies, he has plenty of opportunity to do so while he is in Seminary. Heaven knows what those boys get into."

"There was Jared," said Mr. Grumpy.

"He didn't apostasies," said once-blond-journal-guy. "He got acquitted for marriage before coming here. He's one of our most devoted acolytes, and you, young man, better not start suspecting him for doing those terrible things to those boys. His wife recently left him to join the Mormons." He made an ugly snort, grunt noise. "Blasphemers."

"So you're saying he's been through enough?"

"And is kind as they come," said Mr. Grumpy.

The eldest and youngest priests, however, said nothing. Their attention was elsewhere.

"May we return to our lives now?" asked Mr. Grumpy.

"Yes, I believe that is enough." Naru close the black notebook he had been making notes in. "This has been…very enlightening."

The way they looked at him and stood up gave me the feeling they were called 'enlightening' on a daily basis, being priests and all.

Just as they all left, the once-blond, second youngest priest return, expression troubled.

"Professor," he said, with a nod of his head. "There…there is something."

Naru put his notebook on his desk. "Yes?"

"One of our boys was accepted recently. Fourteen. It's only been a week, I can get you in touch with his mother."

"That would be most appreciated, but why are you so concerned?"

The priest scowled. "I'm not stupid. You're linking our altar boys to these heinous killings. There were eleven filled statues. I've recorded 12 or 13, but I'm starting to lean towards 12, of them being transferred over the last ten or so years. If the evil man is using the transfers as his chance to get to the boys…" he went quiet, not needing to finish.

Naru met his gaze steadily. But, he then closed his eyes and shook his head.

"If he is still alive, that will be for the police to find, not me. I simply work with the supernatural."

The priest didn't seem to buy that. "You don't have to be the police to do the right thing."

Naru raised an eyebrow and folded his arms. "But you have to be police to pry into people's privacy without getting a restraining order. I know my job, Father."

The priest nodded, not looking satisfied at all, and turned to leave with a promise to bring the list by later.

The moment the door was closed, I let out a heave of breath.

"Gal, my mouth, my teeth. Do you have any idea how painful it was to keep all those Jew jokes back?"

"Don't even mention that," Naru all but snapped. "That was highly inappropriate. I was ashamed to be in the same room as you."

I frowned, stung. "But they started it, talking down to you and—"

"And I'm use to it." His sharp blue eyes narrowed on me. "You were protecting no one."

I did wilt at that. My blanket cave was calling to me again.

"I'm sorry." I bowed my head.

"At least you're that." He turned back to his laptop, his notebook open and his smartphone in his hand. "Shouldn't you be waiting for your boyfriend at the door?"

"He's not my boyfriend."

Naru didn't answer, as he already had the phone to his ear.

Embarrassed, hurt, angry, I stuck my tongue at him and stomped out of the room.

I had only just reached the kitchen area when the door at the end of the hall opened and Takigawa shuffled through with a flurry of snow.

"Whew, weather's turned gnarly." He caught the look on my face. "You alright?"

"The Prof's a jerk," I said.

"Yes, what else is new?"

"Nothing. He just…I don't want to talk about it."

"Alright. Then how about this?" And from inside his coat he pulled out a package of chocolate Twizzlers.

I instantly perked up. "You found them?"

"Yeah, and it wasn't easy."

"Have you tried one?"

"Not sure I want to."

From there, I proceeded to tear open the package and force Twizzlers against his teeth. Rape by chocolate. Of course Takigawa thought the stuff was nasty, but that just meant more for me, and when John came by to check up on us he tried one and actually liked it, so there!

"They're not even chocolate," Takigawa protested. "They're just flavored."

"And it's good." I took a bite out of three at a time. "Thanks a bunch!"

He gave me a broad, toothy smile. "Hey, anything for my Mai."

I kinda giggled at that. "My my." My Mai.

Eventually John ducked out for evening mass and Takigawa and I headed back to base.

But when we got there, it was to find half our equipment was already down and packed.

"We got our list," said the Prof. "I found all the boys on the missing children's list. There were twelve."

"What are you doing?" I asked as he pulled out the cables from yet another monitor and slipped it into its protected box.

"We've done our part," he said. "This is in the police's jurisdiction now."

"But what about that twelfth boy?"

"His parents filed a missing persons report on him two days ago," some more squeak of Styrofoam as another monitor came down. "It's most likely he is dead and the killer was waiting for us to clear out to put his remains in the last angel. Serial killers are psychotic like that. Have to have all the pieces in place, the patterns just right."

He was mumbling by that point. Takigawa and I exchanged glances. Takigawa's eyebrows rose high at the look on mine.

"Uh, whatever you're thinking, it's probably not a good idea. The Prof is right."

I strode to Naru's computer and notebook. "What's Jared's picture? Where does he live?"

"Like I'd have that information," said Naru. "And shouldn't you be gathering cameras? Takigawa, you take the basement. I'd rather not have Mai possessed again."

Takigawa flinched. "Wait, she was possessed while I was gone?"

"I know him."

All of us turned to the open door, where John stood, supposedly suppose to be doing evening mass, pale and mouth thin.

"I know the acolyte Jared and where he lives," he said.

"Whoa, what's making you all gun ho?" asked Takigawa.

"Yeah, you weren't even here for the interview," I said.

"I heard from Father Benedict," said John. "A visit shouldn't hurt. Not if we hurry. It's still only seven o' clock."

Takigawa and I looked at each other. Then we looked at Naru, who had only paused for a moment in his collapsing of base at this info.

Biting my lip, I approached him, clutching my hands.

"Hey, um, Boss? How long would it take for the police to get a search warrant on him? Have they even come to the same conclusion as you?"

He dropped a microphone rather hard. "There's no solid evidence connecting him. It's all circumstantial."

"Then it wouldn't hurt to say hi," said John.

Naru heaved a sigh, hands on his knees. He scratched the back of his head hard, something I noticed he did when frustrated.

"Why do I feel like this will be more than a visit?" He turned around, expression the same cold glare he gave all us poor students. "Fine. We'll say hi. But then what do you think you'll do? Start yelling for the boy? Slip past him? What do you plan on saying to him?"

"Hey, do you like to rape and murder little boys?" I said.

Another heavy sigh, the quick ones, reserved for my specific kind of stupid.

"Fine," he looked up. "I hope you're done with your tasks, Father, because I have little patience and a lot of clean up to do."

"To the rape van!" I crowed.

That got Naru starting. "What the hell—"

Takigawa whooped. "Yay! Rape van!"

And before Naru or John could say anything to that, both of us were out of there and running to the blackety black black van, with few windows and the potential to kidnap 26 people, especially since all the tech gear was still inside the Church.