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“No, I don’t,” Morgan said.
“Same,” Derik echoed.
“Nor do I,” the man said. “I am very aware of the murdersyou are investigating, but I am not this Samson you are looking for. We knowwhat he is doing…what he thinks the end result will be. And it disgusts us.”
“Can you prove you’re not Samson?” Morgan asked.
She watched him closely. When the look of confusion andthen sheer amusement crossed his face, she knew they had the wrong man. And itwas also in that moment that she realized she’d made a careless mistake. It wasa mistake she would not have made ten years ago. But her instincts were rusty,and she’d been attacking this case with far too much personal emotion to thinklogically.
She thought of the doorbell camera back at Leonard Seabry’shouse. All she needed to do was look at that footage. Even if the killer wassomehow covering his face, she could probably still tell if it was the mansitting in front of her.
Shit, she thought.
“Do you know anyone by that name?” Derik asked.Apparently, he’d also come to the same conclusion Morgan had. She could hearthe faint traces of disappointment in his voice.
“I can’t say that I do.” A thin smile crept onto his faceas he seemed to understand what was going on. “You think…you think I’m thekiller? You think I’m your Seven Signs Killer?”
Morgan nearly asked how he knew about the Seven SignsKiller, but she then reminded herself that it had been all over the news beforeshe’d gone to prison. She could only assume there had been countless newsarticles, conspiracy theories, and stories written about it during her timeaway.
“That was the speculation, yes,” Morgan said. “And whenwe heard you reference the Seven Signs, that was more than enough for us to askto speak with you….which you did not handle well.”
“I handled it perfectly well. I know my rights, AgentCross.”
“Are the Seven Signs you mentioned in reference to theSeven Signs of Christ?”
“They are. But not bound by the almost legalisticrestrictions of the Bible.”
“What does the Order of the Black Star do?”
He sighed here, that little smirk still on his face. “Well,we don’t kill people, I can tell you that right now. At most, we have killedsmall animals.”
“As a means of a sacrifice?” Derik asked.
“Yes. Wild animals. Not pets. Not anything illegal. Wealways make sure of that.”
Morgan knew a good deal about biblical teaching becauseof her father. She was quite sure there was nothing about killing small animalsin reverence of Christ. There was plenty of killing in the Old Testament,taking animals to the altar for God, but very little, if any, in the NewTestament after Christ came along.
“What are these sacrifices for?” Morgan asked.
“We seek to purify ourselves,” he replied. “To ridourselves of our fleshly desires and become more like Christ. The animals aresimply vessels through which we can symbolically offer ourselves as sacrificesto God. It is also our way of accepting death and opening our minds to the ideaof resurrection. That is the only real reverence we hold toward the SevenSigns. We do not seek to walk on water, for example. We only seek to find a wayto accept and perhaps even avoid a permanent spiritual death.”
Morgan could feel her frustration growing. This man wasclearly not their killer, and yet she couldn’t shake the feeling that he knewmore than he was letting on.
“Is there anything else you can tell us about the SevenSigns or the Order of the Black Star?” she asked.
He shook his head. “Nothing that I’m sure you don’talready know. I can see in your eyes that you know I am not the man you’relooking for. Now…I’ve said all I’m willing to say. Am I free to go?”
“One more thing,” Morgan said, starting to feel desperatenow. “We believe that our Seven Signs Killer began his so-called work becausehe either believes himself to be the messiah or he is attempting to, in hisskewed way, roll out the red carpet for the return of Christ. Does that soundlike anything at all the Order of the Black Star believes?”
The thin smile on his face finally disappeared and helooked rather grim. “Absolutely not. To think anything we do can influence thedecisions of an all-powerful God is close to blasphemy. Based on that alone, Ican assure you that our killer is in no way affiliated with the Order.”
“Thank you,” Morgan said. “Now, for the sake of making paperworkeasier on not only the bureau, but yourself as well, I need your name. We needyou to stay here anyway, while we check alibis and a few other things.” She onceagain thought about the doorbell footage and how that might further prove thisman’s innocence.
The leader looked angry for a moment but then seemed torelax a bit, resigning himself to his fate. “Fine. I’m Christopher Newman. I’vebeen the Chief Priest of the Dallas–Fort Worth branch of the Order of the BlackStar for three years now.”
“And if we asked you for alibis over the last severaldays, would you be able to provide them?”
“Yes. That won’t be a problem. I do intend to file severalcomplaints about what went down today.”
