The Killing Room

FIFTY-NINE

He is much bigger than she imagined. Or maybe she just sees him that way. She thinks it must have been this way for the Apostles as well.

They are sitting in a circle surrounded by seven candles. Ruby, the boy, the detective. There is one empty chair.

‘What should I call you?’ the detective asks.

‘Ruby,’ she says. ‘I want you to call me Ruby. Will you do that?’

‘Yes.’

‘It’s been so long since anyone has called me that.’

‘Your father was Elijah Longstreet?’

‘Daddy.’

‘You are also Mara Reuben?’

‘Yes.’

‘And also Antonia.’

Ruby smiles. ‘Antonia Block.’

The detective nods. ‘From Antonius Block. In The Seventh Seal.’

‘My little conceit,’ she says. ‘I was afraid you would see through that when you came to Dr Goodwin’s office.’

‘The last name wasn’t on your nametag.’

‘Of course.’

When she had gotten the job as the medical assistant she didn’t know much about the computer system. It didn’t take long to learn. Forging the prescriptions from Dr Goodwin was much easier. Eventually Dr Goodwin allowed her to call the pharmacies using the office code. This night, when the detective needed the sleeping pills, it was effortless.

‘These people,’ the detective says. ‘The victims. You knew their psychiatric histories.’

‘Yes.’

‘Why did you select them?’

There were many answers to this. ‘We selected them because they all made a deal with the devil.’

The detective looks at his hands for a moment, then back at Ruby. His eyes are cold jade stones in the candlelight. ‘And you collected what the devil was owed.’

‘Yes. It was the only way to rid my son of the demons he has carried all these years.’

Night after night, after Ruby prayed, she had read the transcripts of Dr Goodwin’s consultations with her patients. She had been privy to all their thoughts, their desires, their shame, their guilt. She had seen inside their souls, all of them children of disobedience. The young girl had asked the devil to stop the abuse she was suffering at the hands of the building’s superintendent, the coupling that had produced the baby. Ruby had visited the building earlier in the day and granted Adria’s wish. Edward Turchek would no longer abuse anyone.

Ruby did not hurt Adria Rollins.

The young man who was a police officer, the one called Daniel, had told Dr Goodwin that he would do anything if his HIV did not become full-blown AIDS. It did not. He paid.

The old pedophile said he would do anything to not have to go back to prison. He got probation. He, too, paid.

‘Why DeRon Wilson?’ the detective asks.

‘Who?’

‘The man at St Simeon’s. The man who took Gabriel.’

‘A thief is a thief,’ Ruby says. ‘He made his deal the moment he held out his hand for golden coins. When you told Dr Goodwin about your relationship to the boy, and why you were trying to save him, we knew you would do anything for him.’

The detective glances at the young boy, and back to her. ‘So, this has all been about the preacher?’

‘Yes.’

‘All of this was designed to get him out of prison?’

‘Not all of it.’

The detective glances around the vast expanse of the basement room. ‘And there are just two churches left?’

‘Yes. Just two.’

‘Will we be going somewhere?’

‘No,’ Ruby says. ‘This church merged with another years ago. It must all end in this place, at this time.’

Ruby considers the detective for a few moments. She has seen his face over the years, in her mind, in her prayers. The face of St Michael the Archangel. There is no doubting his strength.

‘You are the last of your kind,’ she says. ‘You are the last saint.’

The man shakes his head. ‘No.’

Ruby stands, listens to the ancient stone walls. Something is happening. She feels a stirring within. ‘You have brought him here?’

‘Yes,’ the detective says. ‘He’s in the next room.’

‘My son is here, too. It is time they met as men. A boy should know his father, don’t you think?’

The detective says nothing.

Ruby smoothes her hair, then instantly berates herself for this small weakness. It has been so many years since she has seen the Preacher. The last time was when he was standing on that carrousel.

Frailty, thy name is woman.

‘Please bring him to me,’ she says.

The detective stands, crosses the room, opens the door, and steps into the darkness.