"So, like I said, we had no idea Carol Stayner was Brother Samuel's - wait, sorry, I want to use his real name. He's an honest-to-God preacher about as much as I'm a Russian ballerina… Benjamin Sykes. So we had no idea she was Sykes' sister, and here I am giving Neil a hand putting the kids desks together and I'm looking for nails. And what do I find but a baseball bat in a closet up in the office… Yeah, that baseball bat, it turns out. But I wasn't sure, it was too dark to see 'cause the place had no electricity, right? So there was no light.

"So I decided to put the bat back until I could get a warrant and look at it legally, in case it was one of our murder weapons, and I take a step back and - wham! She hit me. Carol. Turns out it was with one of the desk legs - which is kind of ironic… or creepy… whatever. I woke up when my partner and our undercovers found me. She'd locked me in the closet, can you believe that? Turns out the damn cast from my broken wrist saved me, can you believe that? Talk about irony.

"So, anyway, that's why I'm on 'sick leave' - they want to make sure my head is… ha, I was gonna say screwed on straight but… that my concussion is healed before they let me back on the streets. Steve on sick leave too, for different reasons, of course… He, ah, wow, he went above and beyond trying to find me, let me tell you. He was still recovering from what happened to him at the warehouse. I swear to god he was bruised from his head to his feet after that, he was pretty beat up… but that didn't stop him from climbing in a second-storey window then getting into a fight with Sykes when he and his sister… showed up unexpectedly…

"They, ah, they were coming to kill me, to finish me off and dump my body somewhere… but my, ah, my partner stopped them…. He paid a price… He, ah… he broke some ribs and his lung collapsed… He, ah… he was in the hospital for a few days and he's still recovering but he's doing a lot better. As a matter of fact, he took his girlfriend up to Sonoma for a few days. They left this morning. They're doing one of those wine tours, you know?

"And that's another story…. That girlfriend of his…. Jennifer's her name. She's a real beauty. I've only met her a couple of times and she seems nice… but, well, just between you and me, I don't think it's gonna last. I think she's a little too… well, a little too superficial for him. Of course, he hasn't figured that out yet, I think he's still a little too… bedazzled by her looks, if you know what I mean. I think this week they're gonna spend together out of town will be a real test for them. I have a feeling we'll find out when they get back at the end of the week. I just hope he remembers to pick up the case of wine I asked him to get for me…

"Anyway, ah, so we did solve those homeless murders… unintentionally… but hey, I'll take a win anyway I can get it. The case is out of our hands now, of course, with Steve and me on the sidelines for another couple of weeks, and that's frustrating as hell. But we'll be involved again if and when it goes to trial.

"We're still trying to find out why the murders happened. So far nobody in Brother Samuel's… congregation, coven, I don't know what you want to call it… anyway, none of them are talking, including the good Brother himself. But our psychiatrist has a theory. I don't know how right he is, but, well, I've been giving it a lot of thought.

"You see, the weird thing about it all - well, maybe it's not weird but… well, all of Brother Samuel's… flock were women, middle-aged women. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but, well, you know, after Manson and his… cult, I guess we all look at this kinda thing through that lens now…. But, unlike Manson, Samuel didn't do anything to his women that we're aware of yet. Well, nothing physical that we know of - nothing sexual, nothing violent… they just… followed him, like supplicants.

"And our psychiatrist thinks that maybe this was exactly what Sykes wanted, people to follow him, people to look up to him as their leader, as their god. And there's the possibility he had very good… radar, I guess you could call it, for finding women who were vulnerable, who were easily persuaded or brain-washed into believing he was the one person - in the world possibly - who really cared about them and made them feel important and wanted… and needed…

"A couple of the women in his flock, we've since found out, were with a couple of the men who were murdered. Almost common law spouses, I guess you could call them… Anyway, our shrink thinks that the act of killing the men in front of the women made the women even more dependent on Brother Samuel, that he probably told them he had 'saved' them from their abusers and, you know, if you repeat something over and over enough, especially to people who are vulnerable or mentally unstable to begin with, that they'll eventually believe it… and, well, they think this is maybe what's happened here…

"I guess it kinda makes sense to me… I'm not sure. I'm gonna have to give it a lot more thought before I make my mind up one way or the other. This one is a real… head-scratcher, I guess you could call it. On the one hand, Benjamin Sykes and his sister were murderous monsters… but on the other hand, he looked after the women in his flock with genuine concern, almost love, and he was a paragon of virtue in his neighborhood, a benevolent helping hand… and Carol, she set up that school and taught all those kids…. What's that old saying about every cloud having a silver lining…?

"Steve thinks I see the bright side of things a little too much sometimes… I don't know. I've always been an optimist, I guess. I've always tried to find the… the good in people, I guess you could call it. And I'm too old to change now, that's for sure.

"I wish you could've met him… Steve. You two had a lot in common, I think you could've been friends. You just took different paths, that's all.

"And you know, I've been thinking about that… and the earthquake. It, ah… well, if it hadn't happened, you'd still be here.., but if it hadn't happened, I never would've met you either. I've been thinking a lot about that, believe me…. And, you know, I could've lived with that, not meting you, if it meant you were still… you know…

"Hey, listen to me, hunh? I haven't stopped talking since I sat down. Sorry… guess I've got a lot on my mind…"

Taking a deep unsteady breath, Mike leaned back, unwrapping his arms from around his knees and leaning back on his hands. He looked around.

"It's really kinda flat here, isn't it? Flat and stark… but I guess that's appropriate in a way. I've never been down here before…"

He pushed himself to a sitting position and crossed his legs, smiling slightly to himself with the knowledge he was still able to do that comfortably at his age. He smiled. "Oh, ah, I, ah, I brought you a little something," he chuckled warmly as he reached into his jacket pocket and took out Jeannie's small tape recorder. He set it on the grass in front of him and opened the lid then looked at the flat, light grey granite headstone. He took a small cassette case out of his pocket, opened it and slipped the cassette into the recorder. "I hope you didn't think I forgot…"

With a warm smile, he pressed the Play button and the play head clicked into position. After couple of silent seconds, the opening bars of 'Nessun Dorma' softly began and he uncrossed his legs, raising his knees and resting his forearms atop them as he looked out over the military graveyard with the precisely even rows of recessed headstones. When Luciano Pavarotti's unmistakable tenor voice filled the air around him and wafted across the desolate landscape, he dropped his head onto his arms and wept.