Chapter 10: Father Serge
Father Casmir's father was a retired priest who had served the same parish until his son had taken over twenty years ago. He appeared to be in his nineties and despite retirement, still lived with his son, in the residence on the church grounds.
Casmir led Reid there calmly and then simply left the two of them alone without another word.
The house was small, with thick, clay walls, and high, vaulted ceilings with the same oak that the church doors were made of. They sat facing one another at the small, round, wooden kitchen table.
"What would you like to know…?" Serge asked.
"Question those who keep the secret history, does the phrase 'secret history' mean anything to you, in regards to my grandmother, Penelope McGee? You did know her, correct? Reid asked.
"Of course I knew her, I was the priest serving this parish when she first moved to this town after her own grandfather died. As for the secret history…that's referring to a specific event…she never told anybody the truth about it except me, not the whole truth anyway…granted she even learned that things aren't always what they appear to be…and it was terrible either way…."
"Um sir… I don't understand…"
"Thirty-two years ago, your grandmother climbed up to her attic to find your grandfather dead…"
"I know that much, I was only a few days old but I've heard the story… Nana said he had a stroke…"
"He didn't suffer a stroke…he hung himself…" The retired priest replied with a serious sincerity that told Reid he was telling the truth.
"My grandfather…committed suicide…?" Reid asked in shock.
"Yes…and no… he did hang himself and he did leave a note… but if you keep digging, you'll soon find that it was by no means that simple…"
"What do you mean?" Reid asked.
"Look, I'm not even sure that I have all the answers but I do know this, what is written in that note is a lie, an excuse, what he wrote has nothing to do his death, he was given very little choice but to hang himself. He did so to protect his family, if anything about that note is the truth, it is this… he did it for all of you. Your Grandmother came to see me after she found him, she was terrified, but underneath the shock, she made it clear that she didn't believe that he had killed himself, and his autopsy, which, since he was a member of my congregation I was required to be present for, it was determined that although he did hang himself, the hanging wasn't what killed him, Dr. Mallworth ran a toxicology-screen after that, and though I wasn't privy to the results that came back, I do know that he was poisoned before the rope he used was thrown over the beam."
"But if he was poisoned, then that means he didn't commit suicide, he was murdered. He wouldn't poison and then hang himself, it's redundant. But it's also a redundancy in the MO, and assuming it's the same offender, it also means there's been a shift in victimology…" Reid said, thinking aloud.
"Not as much of a shift as you think, your grandfather hung himself by his own choice, that wasn't his killer's doing. He was backed into a corner, he knew he was dying so he made it look as though he killed himself…"
"But why would he do that?" Reid asked.
"To keep your grandmother from questioning how and why he died, to keep her, and all of you safe from the reason he was killed in the first place. Obviously it didn't work, Dr. Mallworth discovered his true cause of death, told Penny, and she found out the rest… I wish I knew what got him killed, but I don't, other than he knew secrets, that if made public, were more than worth killing over."
"If they were killed by the same person, then the Unsub is tying up loose ends…"
"It's possible…"
"I need to know what kind of secrets my grandfather had access to, do you at least know where that information might be found?" Reid asked.
"He didn't share that information with me, but he did say that he liked to hoard important paperwork in the attic, which as you probably already know, is where his lab used to be." The old man replied.
"Thank you…" Reid replied.
"You are welcome… and, we of course, can help you when the time comes to make the funeral arrangements… if you have questions, if you just want to talk, well… you know where to find me…" The old man told him. "But…after you catch the person who I doing this…"
"I haven't even called the rest of our family yet, Dr. Mallworth told me…"
"Perhaps, ask him to make the rest of the calls too…"