DARK VISIONS Read online

  Gently guiding Joe Mac’s left elbow, Jodi mounted the long-ranging steps of the museum and walked through the outer doors; there was another set of metal doors that were shut at night but were open during the day. Then they were inside the castle-like hall of the edifice, and Jodi recognized Marvin Mason, the young archeologist, as he approached with what seemed a genuine smile.

  Jodi shook his hand.

  “Thank you for coming,” Marvin said. “Why don’t we talk in my office?”

  “That’d be great,” Jodi nodded.

  It took a surprising fifteen minutes to negotiate the maze of overpacked closets, lockers, and hallways – Jodi understood quickly that the geniuses behind all this science cared very little for fancy offices – to finally sit down with Marvin in what Jodi would have otherwise guessed to be the basement.

  She gazed over the surroundings. “So this is your office, huh? I hate to say it, but it looks more like a warehouse for petrified dino bones.”

  Marvin laughed, “That’s actually what it is.” He shrugged, “I’m not far enough up the pyramid to merit a grown-up office. But, in a few years, who knows? I’ll probably get a real desk instead of a sheet of plywood and two sawhorses.”

  “I guess all the money is out front?”

  “Yeah.” Marvin leaned back in his chair. “The board is dedicated to putting out the best displays, research projects, books, and whatever else for the public. And that doesn’t leave much for desks or – to be honest – a decent salary. You’d probably be shocked at how much money I don’t make.”

  “Believe me, I’m a cop; I wouldn’t be shocked.”

  Jodi noticed that Joe Mac had somehow found a chair by himself and was sitting and listening with that now-familiar rapt expression – chin up, dark glasses aimed vaguely at the ceiling, both hands lightly clutching his walking stick in front of his barrel chest. She added, “This is Detective Joe Mac. He’s an advisor, so that makes him a lot like you, I guess.”

  Marvin said politely, “Hello, Detective Joe.”

  Joe Mac nodded.

  Jodi: “Marvin, you said that these murders are like the historical murders of various cults. Can you explain that to me with a little more detail?”

  “Sure,” Marvin answered. “First, executing someone by beating them and hanging them by the neck has been done by, well, practically every religion and cult that has ever existed. That’s why I can’t single out any one of them. It’s so thoroughly prevalent throughout history that it’s practically ubiquitous.”

  Jodi asked, “Well that doesn’t get us anywhere, does it?”

  It wasn’t really a question.

  “Nope,” said Marvin. “It doesn’t. I’m sorry.”

  “So what can you tell me that might be useful?”

  By Marvin’s expression he was taken off-guard by the question. His eyes wandered to the left, right, and back again before he said, “I don’t really know, Jodi. From all I’ve seen this could be the work of some Judaic sect or a form of execution used by the Druids or some other ancient Gaelic group. It might even be an old Irish punishment. I mean, I’m sorry, but to ask me to single out any particular group is like asking me to tell you who invented the wheel.” He stared. “I have no idea.”

  This was going even worse than Jodi had feared, and her hopes had been pitifully low to begin with. She glanced at Joe Mac just as he shifted, aiming his face fully toward Marvin. “Talk to me about the sunset,” said Joe Mac. “Why is it important for someone to be hung from a tree after sunset?”

  Marvin seemed happy to finally have an answer as he said, “Ah, yes. Practically every culture that has ever existed has believed that hanging someone in a tree past sunset would curse them in the next world. The Greeks, Romans, Gaelic tribes, Jews – they all believed that.” He seemed unable to stop himself from adding, “People think the Romans weren’t superstitious. But the truth is the Romans were ridiculously superstitious. Yeah, they would hang people from a tree to curse their immortal souls. They would bury human sacrifices alive in the Forum Boarium to appease their various deities. The Roman army even carried sacred chicken coops into battle, so that auguries could interpret victory or defeat from the grain that fell from the mouths of hens. You don’t call that superstitious?”

  “That’s very interesting, Marvin,” said Jodi, “but let’s try and stay on-point, shall we?”

  Marvin’s mouth quirked. “Sorry.”

  “It’s all right. Let’s get back to this superstition about being hung from a tree after sunset. You say the purpose was to curse someone?”

  “Right.”

  “To curse his soul?” asked Joe Mac.

  “Or his spirit,” Marvin answered in an abruptly vague tone. “Or his chance of life in the next world. Actually, we’re not sure. The only reason we even know it was a curse is because the ancient Jews recorded that much in their letters. And there’s also evidence to believe that the Druids did it to curse someone’s soul. Or spirit. But the Druid evidence is a lot less definitive.” He paused. “A lot less.”

  Joe Mac suddenly frowned as if he’d found a clue. “Didn’t the Jews and the Druids live a pretty long way from each other?”

  “Oh, yeah. Two thousand miles. At least.”

  Joe Mac leaned slightly forward. “So why do you think they both thought hanging someone from a tree after sunset would curse them in the next world?”

  “Well, we don’t know exactly why,” Marvin stated with decidedly less conviction. “The Druids never wrote anything down, so we don’t know all that much about them. Their beliefs, their rituals, their social structure, their entire culture was passed down by oral tradition. It supposedly took someone years to memorize it. But since they wrote nothing, they left us with nothing to study so we’ve got a whole lot of questions and not a whole lot of answers.”

  “That’s not exactly correct, Mr. Mason,” announced a voice from the doorway. “Answers may be written with bone as eloquently as with a pen.”

  Jodi turned to see a man enter the office. He was well over six feet tall, maybe two hundred pounds. His jet-black hair was aristocrat-white at the temples and his face was aquiline and severe. His blue eyes scintillated in the half-light of Marvin’s basement, and he had the comport of a king. He nodded courteously at Jodi and waited, hands close to his sides; his effortlessly perfect poise indicated refined training at a very young age. In fact, everything about him hinted at a privileged upbringing and superior intelligence.

  “Oh, hello, Professor Graven,” Mason said as he stood. He extended a hand toward Jodi. “Let me introduce you to Detective Jodi Strong and Detective Joe Mac. They’ve been assigned to the task force.”

  Professor Graven beamed as Jodi rose and extended her hand. He held it gently but firmly for a moment; “I am pleased to meet you, Detective Strong, Detective Joe Mac. I am Augustus Graven, director.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Joe Mac nodded “I’m just tagging along with Detective Strong, there, in her investigation.”

  “Excellent,” said Professor Graven. “We are always available to assist the police.” His brow hardened. “But, unfortunately, I’m not certain at all that we’ve proven ourselves useful in this matter.”

  “You’re the head honcho?” asked Joe Mac.

  “In a manner of speaking,” Professor Graven smiled. “But in my current position I do far more bookkeeping than science. In fact, it’s been years since I’ve chaired a research project. Now I am mostly a glorified fundraiser.”

  “We were discussing a possible motive for this serial killer, professor,” said Marvin. “Would you like to contribute? The detectives think that if they can understand the killer’s motive they’ll be closer to catching him.”

  Professor Graven slowly nodded with a frown. “Perhaps. What motive are you considering?”

  Marvin: “I’ve been suggesting that the killer’s motive is almost certainly religious in nature because almost all the victims were hung from a tree after sunset. All their bones w
ere broken, and both these things are historically associated with religious execution.”

  “Were all the victims Jewish?”

  “Uh, no. About a third of them.”

  Professor Graven regarded Jodi with something akin to compassion as he said, “If that’s the direction you’re taking, Detective Strong, have you and Detective Joe Mac considered members of Jewish ethnicity?”

  “Actually,” Marvin muttered, “I was about to suggest the Druids.”

  “Oh,” Professor Graven gestured, “forgive me. Please, proceed.”

  Glancing over all of them, Marvin continued, “As I was saying; Ancient Israel hung people after sunset to curse them. But they didn’t always break all their bones, so it doesn’t completely fit. The Druids, however, did both on a much more consistent basis. They’d almost always break a victim’s bones and then hang them before they finished them off.”

  “Hmm,” mused Professor Graven, “that’s an intriguing theory, Dr. Mason. But it involves an inference that may not be correct. We do know without question that the Druids were a singularly savage lot who practiced shockingly barbaric forms of execution. But we don’t know whether they did it on a consistent basis.”

  Swiveling in his chair, Marvin reached over and removed a large book from a shelf as he said, “Of course you’re right, professor. I was only referencing the pictographs Crawford discovered in his dig at Boshov that showed Druids breaking a victim’s bones and then hanging them from a tree. They’re unlike anything I’ve ever –”

  “Yes, you’re correct,” Professor Graven nodded. “I’m familiar with Crawford’s discovery. It is quite fascinating. But I’m not certain about his inferences. A single pictograph is not enough to denote a consistent practice. Or even a consistent belief. I would be a bit more recalcitrant about making conclusions until more evidence is unearthed.”

  Marvin half-tilted his head to the side, then focused on Jodi. “Well, to be more accurate, detective, everything I’m telling you is just ‘a best guess.’ But if the Druids did regularly break someone’s bones and then hung them from a tree until the sun went down, it would be consistent with other ancient civilizations who did the same things for the same reasons.” He glanced at the professor. “The only civilization that consistently wrote down the full-blown rules of their history and culture were the Israelites. And even they were a bit vague about certain things of major importance. For instance, we don’t know when Israel immigrated from Egypt into Palestine. They wrote about it, but they didn’t write down the name of the Pharaoh at the time of the Exodus. And nobody has ever definitively nailed it down.” He shrugged, lifting both hands. “Ancient history is as much guesswork as provable fact.”

  “To expatiate on that critical point,” Professor Graven began, “history is often nothing more than interpreting the meaning of material that has accidentally survived a great deal of rain and dirt, so archeologists are very wary about drawing conclusions.”

  Jodi asked, “So if what you do is mostly guesswork, why is the FBI even using you to draw a psychological profile?”

  “I honestly don’t know,” Marvin responded instantly and – Jodi had to admit – humbly. He added, “All I know is that the FBI came to me for advice and who’s gonna say ‘no’ to the FBI?”

  Joe Mac asked impatiently, “What significance is there in beating someone or breaking someone’s bones? Historically speaking, that is.”

  Professor Graven: “Various scraps of historical Roman literature claim that breaking someone’s bones would cripple them in the next world just as hanging them from a tree until sunset would curse their immortal souls to eternal darkness. And, yes, breaking the bones of the condemned and hanging them from a tree was a belief of the Romans, the Israelites, the Gaelic Empire. All three nations appear to have held identical superstitions.”

  No one seemed eager to speak.

  The professor frowned, “My friends, let me offer you a word of warning. Before you – as investigators – attempt to apply your considerable intelligence to the interpretation of these ancient rituals you must remember that our modern modes of regarding punishment or death or sacrifice or right or wrong cannot be applied to the primitive mind.”

  “Why is that?” asked Jodi.

  Professor Graven replied without hesitation: “Because the primitive mind was self-possessed within the metaphysical environment of its time and, hence, does not easily lend itself to modern interpretation.”

  Joe Mac: “Could you give me that in English?”

  Professor Graven continued, “Think of it thusly: We are the product of our metaphysical environment and the science in which we live. Likewise, primitive man was also the product of his metaphysical environment and the science in which he lived. But our science would be regarded by primitive man as the forbidden witchcraft of alien beings just as we would regard their science as the barbaric Voodoo of base savages. And just as our science varies greatly from their science, so do our diametrically opposite ideas for what probably constitutes metaphysical truth. Primitive man would have never understood the impotent foolishness of wearing a rosary or worshipping god within a temple or church. And modern man will never understand primitive man’s singular devotion to worshipping the moon atop a pyramid of human skulls. In the same way, no modern mind can definitively deduce why primitive man practiced human sacrifice. The true motive is quite simply beyond us. It was part of the science of the world in which primitive man lived, and we do not. All we can do is take our best guess as to why he practiced such a thing and hope that further archeological evidence will be discovered to verify our most strenuous attempts at objective analysis. And so, if you are searching ancient man’s ‘motive’ for breaking someone’s bones and hanging them from a tree to discover a modern man’s ‘motive’ for breaking bones and hanging someone from a tree, you have to remember that the motive of the primitive mind and the motive of the modern mind can be diametrically opposite despite the fact that their actions are exactly the same.”

  There was a pause.

  Joe Mac said, “That’s English, huh?”

  “You did mean to say ‘human sacrifice?’” Jodi asked. “Breaking someone’s bones and hanging them from a tree was a form of human sacrifice?”

  “Yes,” Professor Graven answered, “ancient man did practice human sacrifice in such a manner. Archeology can answer that question with a comfortable degree of reliability. But why ancient man practiced human sacrifice in such a manner is a question we cannot answer. And that is the answer you seek, is it not? The motive for doing this?”

  “Yeah,” said Jodi. “What was the motive?”

  “It is logical to infer that the motive was to appease a god,” said the professor “But gods vary from culture to culture. Nor do we know ‘why’ it would appease such singular gods. We don’t even know for certain that appeasing a god had anything to do with it. All we know for certain is that they did these things. The ‘motive’ is another question entirely, and we don’t have a clue what his motive was so if you’re searching out the motive of an ancient man to understand the motive of a modern man for doing the very same thing you might want to seriously rethink your investigative technique. There is simply nothing in psychology or anthropology that would support your approach.”

  He bowed formally to Jodi, nodded to Marvin. “And now, good friends, if you’ll forgive me, I must return to my duties. Dr. Mason, I’m confident you will extend to the detectives every courtesy. And if either of you wish to meet with me at another time please do not hesitate to call. I remain at your service.”

  Marvin nodded and Graven disappeared into the museum. When he was gone, Marvin said, “Professor Graven is actually the last word on the Druids. And a lot of other things as far as that goes. He’s really the one you should be talking to.”

  “You’re doing great, Marvin,” Jodi smiled tightly. “So, did the Druids use altars or temples for human sacrifices, or did they just hang everybody from a tree?”

 
Marvin hesitated. “Why are you so focused on the Druids?”

  “Because the Israelites didn’t break someone’s bones and hang them from a tree with the notion of human sacrifice,” Joe Mac stated.

  Marvin raised his arm. “But didn’t you just listen to what the professor told you about motives? He said –”

  “We heard what he said,” stated Jodi. “But we gotta work with what we got, ya know? We need a motive whether it’s right or wrong because right now we have nothing.”

  Joe Mac enhanced on that; “Listen, Marvin, while the Jews might have beaten people to death or stoned them to death, it was always because they broke some kind of law. It wasn’t for the sake of ‘murder.’ But ‘murder’ is what this psychopath is doing. He’s not ‘punishing’ people. He’s just murdering them.”

  “How do you know that?” asked Marvin.

  “Because these people had nothing in common,” answered Joe Mac. “These people had completely different life styles. There is no similarity, no connection, so this is cold-blooded murder. And that’s what these Druids did for whatever ungodly motive, so what do you know about the Druids?”

  Marvin assumed a dejected aura; “Well, again, we don’t know hardly anything about the Druids. And I’m not trying to insult you by being smug or anything.” He paused for a breath. “We know that the Druids had what we refer to as ‘gathering places.’ We don’t know what else to call them. But they didn’t use altars, so we don’t know anything about their ceremonies. We do know they worshipped deep inside forests – something that, incidentally, scared the crap out of the Romans. Anyway, we think the Druids worshipped Nature, so they obviously thought that Nature should be the place where they worshipped. Or so we presume.” He paused. “Then they were wiped off the face of the earth around forty-two BC by Julius Caesar in a military campaign that stretched from Spain to Great Britain.”